My Musings

KOILS in Tamilnadu Thousands of temples, small and large, abound in Tamilnadu. Times of India has highlighted some of these in today's (19 Jan 2012) issue. We will start with the 1000-year old temple of Thanjavur (Periya Koil). The Chola king Raja Raja Cholan built this Brihadeeswara temple in 1010. It is big in all respects - a gigantic stone Shiva lingam fills the Garbha Gruham, its tower (vimanam) is 216 feet tall.The temple's magnificence coupled with engineering marvel takes your breath. The structure has been built without using mortar.The Gopuram is unparalled for its geometric perfection, and masterly craftsmanship. The monolithic Nandi, the gigantic Dwarapalakas take your breath away. The inscriptions and the sculpture speak about the various karanams of Natya Shastra. You can read more about this temple, Raja Raja Cholan (Arul Mozhi Varman), his queen Lokamahadevi, and his sister Kundavai in Kalki's novels. Kanchipuram is one of the seven sacred cities ...

Dear Vasu, I wouldn't say "thanks" to your wonderful comment on my recent blogpost. I know that you, Suresh, Jayaraman, (and many others like Sudhakar, Magesh, et al) of our family have wonderful writing / expressing ability and skill. It is ingrained you see. Only people don't find time to sit and write / express their thoughts. I am sure you and all others would spare a few minutes daily / weekly and continue posting. I consider it my greatest fortune and Sri Rama & Sri Krishna_blessed opportunity that we shifted from Kilpauk to this present house three years ago. It is so near to Mylapore, the Cultural Capital of Chennai and Tamilnadu. Do you know that, if you draw a circle of just 1 1/2 or 2 km radius with the Sri Kapaleeswarar Koil Kulam as its centre, you have - (a) more than 8 Easwaran (Shiva) koils, all ancient and grand. (b) three Perumal koils, again very ancient, and grand (c) a great Saibaba temple (d) two Aiyappa temples, (e) four large Sri Anchaneya...

Koils in Madras. This (16th July 2006) evening 5 PM, we (myself and Vijaya) embarked on a minor tour of "Koils-in-Mylapore." We went to (1) Shri Veera Anjaneyar Koil, (2) Shri Adi Kesava Perumal Koil, (3) Shri Vedhantha Desikar Koil (both near the Chitrakulam, Mylapore. The (2) and (3) are very ancient koils. On our walk back home, we went to Shri Karpaka Vinayakar Koil, near our house. We walked non-stop for over 2 hours but the experience was most satisfying. An evening well spent, in stead of couch-potatoing in front of the dumb TV. The place, streets and lanes, the houses around these Koils must be over 200 years' ancient and is a sight to behold. Remember my earlier mail two years ago on an ancient house in Mylapore, transporting us back in the Time machine? Today, we re-visited that place, but not that house. I like to visit such places of heritage, which mirror our culture. Day before yesterday (14th) we went to Shri Ramakrishna Mutt, and Shri Saibaba Koil ...