Hi All!
This
time I want to talk about my travel experience of south India. I went to
Chennai to meet my colleagues so you can say it was somewhat an official trip. On
the first day went to office and had a wonderful team engagement party in one
of the wonderful restaurant where the star attraction was barbeque dishes. We
all were enjoying lunch, talks and some of guys were cracking jokes, that’s
where I heard guys were planning for Chennai to Pondicherry one day trip
and asked to extend 1 more day of my Chennai trip which I liked and
agreed.
Chennai as we all know is one of the metro cities of India formally called as Madras and the capital of Tamil Nadu State. Chennai is one of the largest cultural, economic and educational centers of south-India. Did you know for year 2015 it was ranked 43rd most visited place in the world, Also it is among the most visited Indian cities by foreign tourist. It is third largest emigrant population in India which includes professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country.
It is
interesting to know that both Madras and Chennai is derived from the towns of
Madrasapattinam and Chennapatnam. There are various version related to the
origin of Madras. One theory says the name was giving by Portuguese whereas
historian believe that it is named after the prominent Madeiros family who
declared Madre de Deus as a sacred church in San Thome in 1575. Similarly
there are various version related to the origin of name Chennai. The most
prominent is that the name Chennai is of Telugu origin and derived from the
Telugu ruler Chennappa Nayakudu who was the ruler and served as general under
Venkata 3 of Vijaynagar from whom British acquired the town in 1639. The
meaning of Chenni is face in Telugu and Chenna Kesava Perumal Temple was
thought of to be the face of city. Thus People believed that Chennapatnam is
named after Chenna Kesava Perumal Temple.
At Marina Beach |
On first day after
team engagement and completing office work went to visit the famous Marina
Beach which I had heard of lot and it didn’t disappointed me though it was dark
when I reached after the sunset. The beach is 6 KMs in distance which makes it
the longest natural urban beach in the country. It’s not only longest but also
the average width of the beach is 300 meters and on some places more than 400
meters. At Marina beach bathing and swimming is prohibited as the undercurrent
of water is very turbulent which makes it very dangers. Neighboring to beach
there are Annadurai’s and MGR Memorials are found which has many visitors.
Chidambaram temple |
On the second
day we started our journey to Pondicherry but it was decided instead of going
directly we went to Chidambaram temple. It is located in the state of Tamil and
the Temple is dedicated to Nataraja Shiva as a lord of dance. The temple having
the carvings which displays 108 karanas from the Natya Shastra which are the
foundation of a classical dance form Bharatanatyam. It was built in the 10
century when Chidambaram was the capital of Chola dynasty. Also the temple is
having 4 huge gateway towers having the stories. Each tower is colorful and
unique which narrates stories from various Hindu texts, showing religious acts
from Hindu traditions. It also has a big rectangular water pull called as
Shivaganga Holy Pool.
Shivaganga Holy Pool |
Its awesome experience as it was my first time ever to visit any south Indian temple and that too this such an old temple with such a high significance. After temple we started towards our destination Pondicherry and it was late afternoon we reached our destination.
Sea View at Night, Pondicherry |
The official
name of Pondicherry know as Puducherry and is the capital of Union
Territory of Pondicherry which is surrounded by the state of Tamil Nadu
on the Eastern Cost of Indian peninsula. The place came into popularity after
the arrival and colonized by French East
India Company over a period of time and later became Indian Union Territory.
The area was part of Pallava Kingdom in 4th Century and Poduke or Poduca
(a marketplace) was Roman trading destination in those times. Thus its common
to see the influence of French architecture in the home and building
constructed in Pondicherry.
Building with French style |
Next day it’s time to returns back to Chennai but while returning we had a visit Mahabalipuram also known as Mamallapuram. Mahabalipuram is located in Chengalpattu district and is 56 KMs away from Chennai. The main attraction are the collection Hindu religion sculpture and monuments from the 7th-8th century made by carving the single big rock and is declared to be UNSCO World Heritage site.
Rathas, Elephant |
Five Rathas |
Five Rathas |
It was one of the two major ports cities in the Pallava Kingdom and it was named after the Pallava King Narasimhavarman who was also known as Mahabali. The city was having economic prosperity and also famous for the group of royal monuments from Hindu religion which includes Five Rathas (temples in the form of chariots), Descent of Ganges, Elephant, Ganesh temple, Shore temple and Krishna Butterball etc. This temples and sculpture portraying events which are described in Mahabharata were largely built during the rules of king Narasimhavarman (Mahabali) and his successor.
Descent of Ganges |
The city was found by the king Pallava king
Mahabali in 7th Century AD. The place also witnessed the summit of
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping. The informal meet at
Mahabalipuram grab lots of eyes and in conversation as PM Modi was in Tamil
tradition wear.
It was really
amazing experience to see all this monuments and this will make you think the
greatness of the architecture of ancient people, you can’t stop yourself by
saying how did they built all this. You will also amazed to see Krishna
Butterball which gigantic granite boulder is resting on the short incline. How
does its not sliding/falling on the incline ground and standing still from so
many centuries. I think many researches were made on this and considered to be
the wonders of world. It was evening to say good bye to Mahabalipuram as we
have to reach Chennai to catch our fight back to home.
It was my first
experience to visit South India. Really there are many wonderful places along
the length and breadth of India. India is the country has blessed with everything
like if you are looking for mountains, hill stations, waterfall, desert, snow,
white sand desert, jungle, Sea backwater, Islands, lakes etc. you name it and
we have it kind of thing. By all this it will make big and strong desire in your
hearts to once in lifetime to visit/admire the beautiful peninsular land full
of diverse culture, nature resources and surprising architectures.
Nice blog
ReplyDeletethanks for reading and appreciating
DeleteIt was like bringing back the old memories, nice
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. it was awesome experience.
Delete