Ponniyin Selvan Varalaatru Peravai

Dear All,

You all know how the Thanjai Mupperum Vizha went on from the Press
release and www.varalaaru.com, mails from our team members etc. I
wanted to write about my experience about the Two day trip to the
group all these days, but was held up with my work so much that I
could not find time. Initially I thought, anyway Varalaaru team will
write a payanakkatturai and so didnt think about it seriously. But
Gokul was encouraging me to write a first hand report which might be
followed by a Payanakkatturai by the varalaaru team. So thought I
will force myself to find time today to finish this task.

After waving Good bye to the Varalaaru team on 25th(I think I wrote
about this earlier) for the trip, Shankaran and I were in constant
touch with them as to know about their whereabouts. We both were
fuming(literally) when we heard that they visited Gangai Konda
Cholapuram. It is one of the few places which I was dreaming for
long, to visit.

On Firday, the most awaited 28th evening, at 9.30 Shankarn, Sriram
(Ram and Lavanyas friend) and I met at the Tambaram station and
waited for the Train. The train started late by around 45 mins and we
all reached Kumbakkonam around 8.00 in the morning. Kamal,Gokul and
his brother were waiting for us. They picked us and dropped at a
house, which they said belongs to SPS's son. We should be thankful to
SPS for making arrangements to make available the key to the locked
house where we could freshen up and start for the tour. Dropping us
there Gokul and Kamal went to their hotel to get ready. The entire
team,Kamal, Gokul,his brother,Lavanya, Kriupa,Sasi,Ram came back in
the van to pick us up. We all went to 'Mami's mess' for Breakfast.
Excellent tiffin which we all relished, at unbelievable rates..After
finishing the Breakfast, Krupa's punch dialogue came,by which we all
were spell bound-"naan rendu moonu mani neram kooda saapdama
eruppene"...-:)

Balaji picked up Dr.Kudavoil Balu from Thanjai and joined us at
Kumbakkonam. It was fornuate for our entire team, especially the
first timers, that Dr.KV came as a guide for us. We were thrilled.
First he took us to Sarangapani temple and explained about
the 'karanas' in the raja gopuram. We spent nearly an hour there
listening to his lecture. Then he took us Ramaswamy temple where he
narrated the beautiful sotry of how and who constructed that temple.
A movie can be made out of that fascinating history of the
Vijayanagara emperors.

Leaving Kumbakkonam, he took us to Patteeswaram and explained about
the art and architecture there. He was very much upset when he told
us that some beautiful nayak period paintings in the ceiling of the
goupram were erased by Sandblasting in the name of renovation. He
said those beautiful pictures are in his photos alone and even a
trace of them has not been left there. After touring Patteswaram
temple, he took us to 'Aaraivadathali', another padal petra
sthalam, and said the lingam there is one the most beautiful one, he
has ever seen. When we entered the temple we were shell shocked see
it dilapated condition. Dr.Kv said this is 100 times better than how
it was 5 years back, when he found it. He said the sourrounding
peopel were using that temple as toilet and the numerous lingams in
the temple premisis were being used to tie buffalows and cows. On his
request, on noble soul(I forgot that persons name) came forward to
build a compound wall around so that encroachments can be avoided. it
was a beautiful temple and the lingam was very beautiful.

Then we all went to Panchavanmadevi Pallipadai. Again, that temple
also was in a very worst condition. Dr.KV said, he brought some
students and history lovers to repair the entrance mandapam of that
temple. Dr.KV said there are two shool of thought - one is that this
pallipadaid is RR's wife Panchavanmadevi's pallipadai and another is
that this is RJ's wife Panchavanmadevi pallipadai. Dr.KV
substantiated with his own proofs that it was RR's wife
Panchavanmadevi's pallipadai and not RJ's wife as told by others. He
shows architectural proofs for this as well as quoted other
kalvettu's substantiating this point. He also showed the long
kalvettu, where the word 'Pallipadia' has been intentionally damaged
but still the word could be read with the impression. We all left
that place without a desire to do so.

In the mean time, Mr.Seetharaman, SPS's subordinate joined us who was
very much helpful through the rest of the trip. We all went to a
hotel for lunch and relaxed a bit. After Lunch Dr.KV said he has some
work in his office and after finishing it will join us again at
Kandiyur. We also went back to our nest's to pack up and headed
towards Kandiyur and roamed around the temple there. Around 5.30
Dr.KV joined us again and took us to a place which was a thennan
thoppu. We travelled taking twists and turns as if going through a
maze. He showed us hundreds of siva lingams in two three temples
there on the way all of same size and shape. Then we all sat in the
tennan thoppu to listen to Dr.Kv's lecture. He narrated a historical
story about a place called Nandipuram which was of great importance
during Pallavas, Cholas and then Pandiyas, which had a 'Aaayiran
thali' which was destroyed by Malik Kafoor. After narrating the great
story, he said, he is convinced that the place where we were sitting
should be Nandipuram and if excavations are done we can get lots of
proofs in terms of sculptures, palaces etc. Dr.KV said that whereever
they dig the earth, they can find lingams and even they found a very
big lingam which could not be taken out by ASI and hence was
reburried. He said this place should have had the aayiram thali,
which was very much exciting for us to hear.On the way back SPS
joined us and volunteered to drop Lavanya, Sriram and Ram at the
Thiruvaiyaru aaradhanai vizha.

By then it was very dark and we all headed to Thanjai, thanking Dr.Kv
for his time and effort. Such a great person, spending his whole day
for some amatures like us, was something great. We all had dinner
with Dr.KV and bid good bye to him thanking for his time. We all were
tired that after some discussion we went to bed. Later the next
morning only heard that Kamal,Gokul,Krupa were working on the web
pages to launch varalaaru sirappidhaz online, till 4 in the morning.

The next morning all got ready for the mupperum vizha. Sasi and I
went in search of a DTP center to take print outs of the varalaaru CD
which was to be released that day. Being Sunday no shop was open and
at last we found one where we started taking print outs. Half
way through the shop person said he is short of A4 size papers, and
Sasi and I were very much tensed by then. It was already 10 and the
function started near the big temple. One han