I am newly joined this group and I like to know what kind of trip it is.. I may be or may not be participate this tour but i can consider some trips in future.
its a day trip - start off around 7.30 ish and return by late evening. we would tend to cover off beat sites - pallava and early chola.
Our current focus this time is to visit Panamalai - which has some fantastic wall murals and club it with some early pallava caves. We will try to visit Bahur. final agenda wil float later today, as we are still working on the logistics and best routes.
For those of us who are unable to go on this tour, I wonder if you could consider posting pictures of the murals. Those pictures are not easy to take due to light conditions and contrast difficulties. But, make a go of it, for the rest of us. Regards, Raj Mutharasan
I wish I could participate too; anyways, hope to make it next time! Wishing you all a very happy & safe journey! Pls do let us know your experiences!! RgdsVardhini
Mandagappattu - the only known ancient temple in TN in which Brahma is given equal importance when compared to Shiva and Vishnu. Very first dwarapalakas of TN. Very first temple of Mahendra-I
Dalavanur - Very first place featuring Makarathoranas in the entrance. "Satrumalleswaralayam' - name warrants analysis
Panaimalai - Earliest temple featuring multiple sub-temples (instead of devakoshtas) attached to main shrine. VERY FIRST STRUCTURAL TEMPLE OF TN. A revolution. BUILT BY RAJASIMHA. VERY FIRST Sandstone temple.
Singavaram - One of the early anantasayi temples. Deity of Uttamottama class
> > ========= > > We have the following members who have confirmed their participation in the tour. > > 1. Sashwath T.R :: MYLAPORE 2. Saurab Saxena :: MYLAPORE 3. Satheeshkumar :: LE ROYAL MERIDIAN 4. Vijay :: LE ROYAL MERIDIAN 5. Arvind :: LE ROYAL MERIDIAN 6. Satish arun :: LE ROYAL MERIDIAN 7. Sri Sri :: LE ROYAL MERIDIAN 8. Raman . P :: LE ROYAL MERIDIAN 9. Soumya Mohan :: LE ROYAL MERIDIAN 10. Shriram Rajaram :: Tambaram ==================
Above members boarded the Tempo Traveller as stated.
Venkat could not participate due to earlier hectic schedules. Last minute hickup prompted me to follow them in another Vehicle slightly later.
Venkateswaran could not confirm.
Sivaram Kannan as mentioned was present to wish good luck to the team. NDTV Vaidhyanathan called from Delhi and wished good luck. Conveyed to Team.
Vizag Dhivakar called from Vizag and wished good luck.
June 19th Sunday Will be a sunny day for the grand 11! A memerable day for the PS core team. This will stumulate your search and research in History, A golden time to reminisce our glorious past, TRAVEL,TRACE,FIND,TRAIN,GAIN WISHING YOU ALL A SUCESSFUL TOUR! N.S
- Yesterday's trip to Singapuram, Panamalai, Mandagapattu, Dalavanur was very nice and enjoyable - First let me thank SPS for all the co-ordination/ food and communication for the trip - Vijay acted as the guide and gave us insights to the places/ and educated us on the history and the chronology of the Mahendra Varma's attempts and the evolution of the caves - Arvind / Satheesh - ably joined in explaining the artefacts and the nuances of the sculputures and I could see their passion on the photography - Thanks to Arvind for the schedule and by gods grace we were able to see the planned visits.
- also would like to thank the entire team of friends and PSS team who joined and shared their experience and it was nice getting to know each other
In summary I feel blessed to be part of the PS group and was very fortunate to join the trip during my vacation to India.
Nandri Nandri
Sri ( Will post pictured shortly)
Sri It's different - News, Views and Music - weekly Radio show Every Wed 6 - 9 am PST KZSU Stanford 90.1 FM www.itsdiff.com
Hi Sri, It wasindeed a great trip, in means of coverage, time, expertise and enthusiasm. Being researching in historical places from quite some time, I was never aware that there are so many cave temples of Mahendra period. This information have really changed my impressionin architectural course of Pallavas. It looks that I need to revisit some facts again :) and update myself. I would extend mythanks to SPS/Arvind/Sathish and Vijay for their efforts in organizing such a trip, and all the members of the group who participated in all the discussions. For me the next task is to study Pallavas from their architecture once again inlight of the new sites which I visited and will visit in future.
Though I wanted to write a travelogue on the trip, due to paucity of time I will summarise the trip's highlight like notes.
The trip started from Mylaopre, most of us boarding at Guindy at about 8.15am.
SPS gave us a warm send off at this point (with lot of norukku theni and lunch)
Once inside the van we had a round of formal introduction, with Vijay being the anchor.
Each member briefly mentioned their background, how they joined the group etc.
Since Sriram was delayed, we decide to have breakfast at Tambaram for him to join.
Vijay briefly summarised the significance of the places.
Once out of Tambaram serious discussion about cave temples, architecture etc started.
Vijay showed the draft of his proposed talk in Semmozhi maanadu
Sri-Sri showed the photograph of ponniyin selvan drama by Indian community in SanFransico. He acted as Sundarapandian.
At about 11.30hrs we landed in Singapuram - only to see the temple closed. Contacts were made with temple officials for opening the temple - with liberal dose of Semmozhi maanadu as purpose.
While waiting for the temple to be opened, we discussed a lot under a banyan tree, with a village boy entertaining us with his wit and intelligence.
At about 12.30hrs the temple was opened. It is atop a beautiful hill - albeit not very tall, but steep. This temple though a rock-cut, many additions robbed it of its charm of being a cave temple. The kottravai being hidden behind thayar sannidhi, requiring you to peep through a hole. The main deity Shri Ranganatha is the largest - larger than Srirangam and Thirumayyam. The deity is really very imposing.
We left singapuram at about 14.00hrs and reached Dalavanur at about 14.30hrs. The cavetemple is in a beautiful place surrounded by green fields. We have to walk on 'varappu' to reach it. This is a nice one with speciality of deity not facing the enterence. You have to turn left to look at the murthi. Once inside a cave it looks more like regular temple.
We had lunch in front of the cave - delicious poori and thayir sadham - special thanks to SPS. There is a 'samanar padukai' atop this cave temple. We have to climb little steep and slippery rocks to reach it. Though before lunch we decided to skip it for want of time, curiosity took over us and we ic view of the surroundings. All of us were wonderstruck by the beauty of the place and equally angry and/or sorrow about the vandalism commited by people who have written names in paints or etched, threw bottles, water packets etc. I don't know when our people will 'thirundhuvargal'.
In another half-an-hour we were at Mandagapattu - the first cave temple by Mahendra. This again is in a beautiful surroundings. Here the pillars were very thick, not ornamented. The Dwarpalakas were not done very well, but considering first experiment - is commendable one , especially the one on right side (of the viewer), who seems to have perpetual smile and stands as though giving 'pose' . We could see the unfinished feet on both dwarpalakas.
asimha built Thalagirisverar temple stands on a beautiful hill. The hill has good regular-steps/rock-cut steps to reach the top. The hill is surrounded by paddy fields. Atop the original temple has lot of later day addition making garbhagraha too-dark. Adding to our woes was power-cut. First we had a look at the murals which are in a very bad condition. Murals are on a smaller shrine attached to main one on the eastern side. We could decipher few countours on the main wall. However on the eastern side eyes of a female figure( most likely Parvathi) is very clear and captivating ('Vel vizhi ?? or 'maan vizhi'?? pattimandrame nadathalam). There after we had look at the main deity which is surrounded by three panels - bramma, somaskanda and vishu. The three panels are in a better condition than others probably because they are inside garbhagraha. In this temple also we were lamenting on the vandals who write their names every where. It was around 6pm and we decided to abandan plans of visiting other places. We relaxed for some time taking lot of photos and continued our journey back home with heart full.
Highlights of the discussions and events (Sorry they are not in chronological order):
Excellent arrangement by SPS and others
Good driver, who didn't play any music. This helped us a lot to discuss. Normally most of the drivers insist on loud noisy music. Special thanks to him.
The reason for Mahendra to select places so discreet from Tiruchi to mallai - most of them were places of jain padukai. May be once he converted he found them best place for experimenting with new form of temple building.
We disucssed a lot about how Tamil is no longer spoken at home. How people look at you lowly in public places if your were to read any tamil magazine/books. The mummy-daddy culture etc.
Some discussion about French hatred for English.
Somaskanda panel is trade mark of Pallava temples
A boy at Singavaram was very chatty and entertained us. One of his reply attracted us all for the beauty of Tamil he spoke. Here it is when asked about how distance its to the top of hill where he takes his goats 'Pesikiite pona kitta, pesama pona yetta'. (It is near when go chatting, far when going alone)
Uniformly all of us felt bad for the vandalism committed without realising the heritage.
Most of the villages were neat, especially one before Ananathapuram with beautiful houses.
We need better sign and information boards at the sites.
Most of us felt photographing should be allowed freely
The execellent work done by Sri-Sri, especially the drama photographs of which he showed.
Having visited early cave temples, Vijay suggested us to visit Mallai now, to understand the evolution of the architecture.
My personal impression
Being the first trip in this wonderful group, I enjoyed every moment. It was highly informative. I am proud to be a part of this group.
There was some discussion about ponniyinselvan drama and who is suitable for what role sometime back. Assuming this trip as screentest, here is my opinion
Vijay - Arulmozhivarman for the leadership, imposing intellectual(and physical) personality. He made the trip witty and still very informative.
Arvind - Aniruddhar for the kind of knowledge he has about temples, architecture etc. He always provided the experts opinion.
Sri-Sri- Alwarkadiyan - Though physically not like original character, his voice especially few lines he sang makes me think about Alwarkadiyan singing.
Sowmya -Umairani. She showed courage in climbing the rock, helping at the right time by having torch which was the most useful thing in Panamalai and also beacause her voice so soft and low probably less than 1 decibel
Hi, One request to you, may you please give the directions of the routes which we take to reach these places. My knowledge of Tamilnadu is very limited hence I would not be able to perform this activity. As you know that all these places which we visited were in quite remote locations and not easy for a outsider to reach such places. I would like to publish the detailed map/direction so that people who are interested in such places will have a proper directions to reach there. This will help lots of people who are heritage enthusiasts but dnt have proper directions/descriptions to reach such places. Do you think that such amap/directions can be done?