Kanchipuram and nearby Temples

KANCHIPURAM AND NEARBY TEMPLES

Kanchipuram is at a distance of 72 kms from Chennai and South-West of Chennai, on the Chennai-Bangalore route.  It can be reached from Chengalpattu too and is at a distance of 35 kms from Chengalpattu.  Suburban train services are available from Chennai and train services are also available from Chengalpattu.  It is on the banks of the River Vegavati, a tributory of Palar river.  In early Tamil literature it was named as Kachi or Kachipedu and formed part of the Thondai Mandalam.    Pallavas, Chozhas, Vijayanagar Samrajaya, Mughals and later British had control of this place.  Buses connect Maduranthakam via Uttiramerur.  Uttiramerur is 26 kms from Kanchipuram.
The Matam of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam established by Adi Sankara is at 1.5 kms from the Bus stand.  The Manimandapam of the Mahaperiyava, his holiness Sree Chandrasekara Saraswathi is in Orikkai which is at a distance of 4 Kms in the Kanchipuram-Uttiramerur route.     The temple city of Kanchipuram is also famous for the Silk Sarees made from handlooms.  The sarees are famous , made out of pure mulberry silk and Zari for the sarees come from Gujarat.  Being a city of temples, lot of shops are available selling pooja items.  

The famous Kamakshi Amman temple is at about 1 km from Bus Stand and on the way is Ulakalantha perumal temple in Vamana Agraharam.  Just beside the Kamakshi amman temple, is the Kumarakottam of Lord Baladhandayuthapani on the west Raja street and this area is also called as Periya Kanchipuram.   The Ekambaranathar temple is in Siva Kanchi area and is at 4 kms from the Bus Stand.   Kachchabeswarar temple is very near to the Bus Stand within half a km.   Kamakshi is the main deity of kanchipuram and all other Siva temples do not have the Ambal Sannidhis.  

Importance of Kanchipuram can be seen from the saying:
Pushpeshu Jhati : Purusheshu Vishnu: Naarishu Ramba: Nagareshu Kanchi: oksh

Also it is one of the seven Mokshapuris.“Ayodhya Madhura Maya Kasi Kanchi Avantika!
Puri Dwarakavathi Saiva Sapthaithate Mokshadaiyeka!”

Devaraja Perumal temple is at a distance of 3.5 kms from the Bus Stand.  Presently, it has the importance of the Aththi Varadhar giving darshan here, the deity being taken out of the temple tank, once in 40 Years.

                                                    Ekambareswarar temple

Kamakshi Amman temple

                                                    Kachabareswarar temple

                                                      Kumarakottam

                                                 Ulagalantha Perumal temple

                                            Devaraja Perumal temple

Aththivaradhar of Devaraja Perumal temple gives darshan once in 40 years. Presently from 1st of July 2019, for 48 days - darshan can be had of him.

Kanchipuram is flooded with various handloom weaver societies selling the Silk Sarees in smaller outlets apart from big multi-storied shops.  The speciality of the Kanchipuram Silk Sarees is - the body and the pallu join together with a zigzag pattern known as pitni and sometimes the border also is made separately and the three joined together.  The joining of the three is known as "Korvai" and is done with such a precision, that even if the saree wears out and tears, the border wont detach.   Zari is made up of three silk threads twisted with a silver wire and thus it also contributes for the weight of the saree, some going upto 2 Kilos.

Manimandapam, Orikkai
Apart from the Kanchi Mutt at Kanchipuram, the Manimandapam of Mahaperiyva of kanchi Mutt H H Sree Chandrasekara Saraswathi is in Orikkai, which is 4 kms from Kanchipuram Bus Stand.   Kumbhabhishekam of the Paduka Mantapam was celebrated grandly on January 28 2011, performed in the presence of His Holiness Sri Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swamigal and His Holiness Sri Sri Vijayendra Saraswati Swamigal.  The Vimanam housing the Sanctum Sactorum is 100 feet tall.  A beautiful granite Vigraha of the Sage is blessing the devotees from this Moolastanam.  A hundred pillared Mahamantapam has come up in front of the above mentioned Vimanam.  A Rudrakshamantapam adorns the Sanctum Sactorum.  On both sides of this Mantapam have been carved the imposing Kalachakras, with the figures of all the twelve Rasis.  The ball in the mouth of the Yali sculptured on the pillar can not be taken out,  though it is not fixed there-it can be rolled within. The Chain, Siva's Pradosha Tandavam, Dakshinamurti, AdiSankaracharya, Guru Parampara, images of Kanchi Mahaswami, the elephant on the side and the Nandi are so beautiful.  The main Nandhi is of a single stone weighing around 50 Tonnes.  The stem of DEEPASTAMBAM is a single stone of 42 feet in length. On top of it a small 3’x3’x5’ mandapam is arranged in pieces with 4 legs.  The stem was erected on 22.4.2016.
                                           Mahaperiyava Manimandapam Orikkai

 Mahaperiyava vigraha in Manimandapam

Separate blogs have been posted on each of the temples.


Uttiramerur

Uttiramerur is at 26 kms in the Kanchipuram-Madhuranthakam route and in this route only at a dsitance of 4kms from Kanchipuram Bus stand, is Orikkai, where Mahaperiyava's Manimandapam has been constructed.  Uttiramerur is a small place and within a radius of 3 kms all the temples here can be seen.
The temples at this place are: 1. Sundaravaradharaja Perumal 2. Balasubramaniam 3. Kailasanathar 4. Vaikunda Perumal and 5. Irattai Easwarar temple.  Separate blogs for the temple have been posted except for Irattai Easwarar temple.

Links for the individual temple posting will be added here shortly.
1. Sree Kamakshi Amman Temple, Kanchipuram
https://sarayutoayodhya.blogspot.com/2019/07/sree-kamakshi-amman-temple-kanchipuram.html 

2. Sree Ekambareswarar Temple, Kanchipuram
https://sarayutoayodhya.blogspot.com/2019/07/ekambareswarar-temple-kanchipuram.html

3. Sree Devaraja Perumal Temple, Kanchipuram
https://sarayutoayodhya.blogspot.com/2019/07/devaraja-perumal-temple-kanchipuram.html

4. Ulagalantha Perumal Temple, Kanchipuram
https://sarayutoayodhya.blogspot.com/2019/07/ulagalandha-perumal-kanchipuram.html

5. Kumarakottam Subramanyar Temple, Kanchipuram
https://sarayutoayodhya.blogspot.com/2019/07/kumarakottam-kanchipuram.html

6. Kachabeswarar temple, Kanchipuram
https://sarayutoayodhya.blogspot.com/2019/07/kachabeswarar-temple-kanchipuram.html

7. Sundaravaradharaja Perumal Temple, Uttiramerur
https://sarayutoayodhya.blogspot.com/2019/07/sundara-varadha-raja-perumal.html 

8. Balasubramaniyar Temple, Uttiramerur
htmlhttps://sarayutoayodhya.blogspot.com/2019/07/balasubramaniam-temple-uttiramerur.html 

9. 

KAILASA VAIKUNDA MAHAKSHETRA, RAJAJINAGAR, BANGALORE

KAILASA VAIKUNDA MAHAKSHETRA, RAJAJINAGAR, BANGALORE

Kailasa Vaikunda Mahakshetra is the temple in Rajajinagar 5th Block, Bangalore and this temple is behind the Baladhandayuthapani temple.   This temple has come up recently and 40 years old and has the sannidhis of Lord Vinayaga, Subramanya Swamy and Panchamuga Anjaneya on the entryside and Lord Siva, Sree Ranganthar is of 28 ft grand vigraha with Sridevi and Boodevi by the side of his feet, Urchavar, Srinivasa Perumal, Lakshmi and urchavar of Chakarathazhvar and Navagraha are all on the far side.  Hence Vinayagar, Subramanya and Anjaneya face the east and all other deities face the West

The entrance looks like this:

                                       
                                           Inside Mandapam of the temple

Had darshan in this temple on Sunday, the 26th May 2019.

As we are entering the temple, on the right is the ticket counter for archana etc., and the on the extreme right is the sannidhi of Lord Ganapathy and next is the Valli Deivanai sametha Subramanyar Sannidhi.    On the extreme left is the Panchamuki Anjaneyar Sannidhi.   Directly opposite to the Anjaneya is the 28ft ananthsayana Ranganathar enclosure.   Next to the right of us, is the Urchavar and then the Venkatachalapathy and Mahalakshmi Sannidhi.   Further right is Lord Siva and than Tripursundari sannadhis.  Centre of the mandapa and on the right is the Navagrah sannidhi.  This is a temple hence which has all sannidhis and can be seen as a Siva Vishnu Temple.

                  Vinayagar (Valampuri)

      Valli Devayanai sametha Subramanyar

                                    Tirupurasundari

                                                   Panchamuki Anjaneya

                                                    Navaragraha

Address of the temple: 
#2, 10th A Main, 5th Block, Rajaji Nagar, Bangalore - 560010
PH: 080-23117692
Temple timings
7.00 AM - 1.00 PM
5.00 PM - 9.00 PM

Just outside this temple and adjacent to this, are temples for Saneeswaran with an approximate height of 7ft and a Nrusimha swamy temple which has a sannidhi for Chakrathazhwar.  The Baladhandayuthapani is in the road before this temple.

SREE PRASANNA VEERANJANEYA TEMPLE, MAHALAKSHMI LAYOUT, BANGALORE

SREE PRASANNA VEERANJANEYA TEMPLE, MAHALAKSHMI LAYOUT, BANGALORE

Fortunate to have darshan at this temple on 26th May 2019.

The entrance to the Sree Prasanna Veeranjaneya temple is from a city park in Mahalakshmi Layout and nearby is the Sree Srinivasa Perumal temple.   The anjaneya vigraha is sculpted and of 22 ft height and 16 ft width.  The sthapathis were:  Sri Shanumgananda and his two sons Mohanraj and Ganapathi.  Sri P V Narasimha Rao, former PM was the chief guest when initiation of the temple was done in the Year 1976.

During the rule of Maharaja of Mysore, Mahalakshipura was a place for shooting practice and here on a smalll hillock there was a majestic stone and local people had drawn the anjaneya figure on it.    Later Bangalore Development Authority while forming new layouts, named this place as Mahalakshmi Layout and also the majestic stone was carved into a nice vigraha.

Mahalakshmi Layout is just half an hours drive the Bangalore City Centre and has a Metro Railway Station named Mahalakshmi, but the temple is at a distance of a km from the Metro station.   From Navrang circle it is 1.7 kms.   The gigantic anjaneya is in standing posture and having a mace on the left hand and sanjeeva parvath in right hand.

The vimana of the anjaneya is resembling a pagoda of the buddhists.  It is open on all sides and having a square enclosure and circumbulation is done here.  Thulasi is available at the entrance to the temple.

While entering first there is a huge vigraha of Mahalakshmi and before entering the main anjaneya area, on the left in separte sannidhis are marble vighrahas of Lord Ganapathy, Rama,sita lakshmana anjaneya and Lakshmi.  Mahalakshmi Vighraha is 12 ft in height and seated on a lotus of 5ft height 

                                                         Vinayagar (Marble)

                                                          Mahalakshmi

                                                      Mahalakshmi (Marble)

Every Saturday the temple does the Benne Alankara which requires around 600 kgs of Butter and offered by the devotees.
                                                             Benne Alankara

The entry to the temple can be made from the main road through the park or from the side road too, where people park their vehicles.

Temple Timings:  

06.00 AM to 08.30 PM

Address

Sri Prasanna Veeranjaneya Swamy Temple
(Sri Prasanna Veeranjaneya Swamy Trust)
12th Cross Road, Mahalakshmi Layout
Mahalakshmi Puram
Bangalore 560086
080 2349 1727 

SREE BOOVARAHASWAMY KALLAHALLI NEAR MYSORE

SREE BOOVARAHASWAMY KALLAHALLI, KRISHNARAJAPETE TALUK NEAR MYSORE

Kallahalli is about 45 kms from Mysore towards the KRS Dam and reaching there becomes easy, when you have your own vehicle.  Otherwise, the KSRTC buses start from both Mysore City and Rural Bus Stand, but the timings are not frequent and the Bus also takes about an hour and 10 minutes to reach Ballenahalli and from there share autos are available.  These autos take for one way Rs.20/- per invidividual.  This place can be reached from Pandavapura and the distance from there is 32 kms. However on all ways, the bus stop is 2 kms from the temple and share autos only means of transport from the bus stop.

It is a small temple on the West Bank of the River Hemavathi and construction work is going on with expansion of the temple.  I had darshan on 11 05 2019.  Shops in front of the temple sell Thulasi and other flowers and also necessary items for archanai.  Adequate parking space is available in front of the temple.

The Vigraha is made of a grey stone and is of 14 ft height and Boodevi is 3 1/2 ft in height.  The upper hand of deity is holding the discuss and conch, while the Sudarshana Chakra is carved at the back of the idol.  He holds the Goddess Boodevi by his lower left hand and shows Abhaya Mudra with his lower right hand.  He is seated in Sukasana with the right leg touching the ground and left leg folded.  This is a temple which is 2500 years old and it is believed that Sage Gauthama was in penance here.  There is a story behind the temple connecting the King Veera Bhallala.   The King came to the forest nearby for hunting and lost the way.  When he was resting under a tree, he saw a dog chasing a rabbit upto a point and then the rabbit started chasing the dog.  He felt it odd. He got the place dug up and found a statue of Boovarahaswamy and he installed the same here.

Some interesting tings on the way to Ballenahalli from Mysore.  The route is through KRS Dam and on the rear side of it.  One can see the back waters from the bus thought it is at a distance.  People normally go nearer to this place to get the panoramic view of the dam and areas around.  

                                      View of Rear of KRS Dam from the bus

All the buses in this route also stop on every trip to stop at the Sree Subramnya temple and priest of this temple does pooja for the bus and also blesses the crew of the bus.  This temple is just 3 kms ahead of Ballenahalli.

Subramanya temple on the way

Priest performs pooja to bus and bless crew

This was a very satisfying trip as reaching there was difficult and had darshan was easier and the temple provided each one of us having darshan there with the picture of the deity.

Temple Timings:
09.30 AM - 01.30 PM

03.30 PM - 07.30 PM

Mail: bhovaraaha@gmail.com 

Phone: 9448011535 / 9449009711

 The temple address also is given:

• Sree Bhoovarahanatha Swamy Temple 
• Varahanatha kallahall 
• Ganjigere post 
• Bookanakere Hobal 
• K R Pet Taluk 
• Mandya District, Karnataka 571426

Addre

SREE SRIKANTEESWARA (NANJUNDESHWARA), NANJANGUD

SREE  SRIKANTEESWARA (NANJUNDESHWARA), NANJANGUD

Nanjangud is at about 23 kms from Mysore and lot of buses ply to Nanjangud from Mysore, it takes about 45 minutes.   Nanjangud is along the Kabila river bank and main highway separates the river and the temple.   The river snana here is considered very auspicious and the temple authorities have made enough arrangements for taking bath here.  One had to be careful about the steps leading to the river as they are of steeper and are uneven.  In fact the temple is about 300 metres from the main road and has enough shops who sell flowers, vilva leaves, garlands etc.,  and also has enough parking place in front of the temple.  On the day, when I had darshan at this temple on 10 05 2019, thazhamphoo(?) also was being sold.  If it is for deities other than Lord Siva, it is OK.  Someone who knew more on this temple can explain. Normally thazhamboo is not offered in Siva temples. Or it is for the Ambal?  I was in the temple late in the evening and could not verify too on the matter.

                                                     Nanjundeshwarar

Entrance Gopuram, Nanjangud

                                                                Kapila River

This is one of the biggest temples in Karnataka spead over 50000 Sq feet (385ftx160ft).   The temple has an imposing 120 ft main Gopuram with 7 tiers and also having 7 golden Kalasas.   The main deity faces northeast and it is said that  Parashurama who came to the place after he killed his mother as per his father's orders, wanted to clear his sin here.  When he was clearing a bush, there was a sound and a linga was found here and it was bleeding.  Parashurama installed the linga here.  The speciality of this temple is that there is daily annabhishekam unlike other temples which do on the tamil month Aipasi Pournami day.  It is also believed that Sage Gauthama does the pooja here in the noons of the day.

There is a story of a demon named Kesiyan who gave trouble to devas and they complained to Lord Siva about that.  Siva informed the Devas to do a Yaga in the Sagam of the rivers Kabila, Koundini and Manikarnigai and when the asura comes, to push him the agni of the yagna.  When Devas carried as told by Lord, he appeared in the yagna fire and destroyed the demon.   As requested by the Devas, he stayed there and thus the temple.

In the Dakshaprathaban incidence, Lord Siva carried the half burnt body of Parvathi and Sree Prasuthadevi requested the Lord to bring back to life Parvathi and also her husband Dakshan.  The Lord along with Dakshayani gave darshan to Dakshan and Prasuthadevi here.

Deities in the outside Prakaras:
Lord Ganapthy here is known as Prasanna Ganapathy,  Lord Muruga has the serpantine Umbrella and known as Nagasubramanyar.   Goddess Sharadambal (Saraswathi) is on the northwest corner.  Ambal Parvathi has a separate sannidhi and is after the sannidhis of Lord Vishnu with Bhoodevi and Sridevi and a small anjaneya.  Tippu Sultan prayed for one of his elephants here, as the elephant lost the vision and when t he elephant, got back the vision he donated a maragada (Emeralad) lingam to this temple.  The navagrahas are with weapons in this temple.
                                                             Saradamabal

Nagasubramanyar

Vishnu with Sridevi and Bhoodevi

Veerabahdarar

Board at the entrance to temple:

Rathostava here is famous with the no. of chariots meant for the purpose. (from temple website)

1	Maha Shivarathri	These are the main festivals celebrated along with other festivals dedicated to lord Sri Srikanteshwara. Exact dates depend on respective Nakshatra & thithi. Doddajathre (Big fest) in which 5 Chariots are pulled by the devaotees in the main street of the old town, is celebrated in the month of march / april & on this day thousands of devotees come to Nanjangud for the festival. Devotees pull 5 chariots during this day & some of the devotees also do Jagarana on this night as on the night of Mahashivrathri. The 5 chariots are dedicated to Ganesh, Sri Srikanteshwara, Parvathi,Subramanya & Chandikeshwara. They carry their respective idols. Chikkajathre (Small fest) is celebrated usually in November / December month during this day 3 chariots are pulled by the devotees. A procession of 11 small chariots will take place on Sri Srikanteshwara jayanthi. Chariot with idol of Lord subramanya is pulled by the devotees on the day of Skandha (Subramanya) Shashti. Girija kalyana will be celebrated during Ashadamasa. Lakshadeepotsava will be celebrated during Kartheekamasa.
2	Sri girija kalyana
3	Chikkajathre
4	Doddajathre
5	Thepotsava
6	Varadhanti
7	Lakshadeepotsava

E- Mail Address : sstnanjangud@gmail.com

Executive Officer :
Sri Srikanteshwaraswamy Temple,
Nanjangud – 571 301.
Mysore District.

Code : 08221
Executive Officer : 223320
Office : 226245
Dormitory : 226542