Visit to Kanchipuram:. Review on Kanchipuram

It was my long dream to visit this holy place. I had visited this holy place in the month of December 2011. I booked my ticket from hyderabad for chennai egmore-rameswaram express. I started from Hyderabad by chennai express and reached Chennai central by 6:00am next day morning. I kept my luggage in clock room and got refreshed in the passenger amenities place. I was having nearly 15 hrs time to catch my train to Rameswaram from Chennai egmore. So, I decided to visit Kanchipuram which is located at a distance of 72kms from chennai. I reached koyambedu bus terminus by 8:45am and got in to Kanchi bus by 10:00am. Because of the huge traffic jam at exit it took for the driver to take the bus to main road one hour time. It was the worst part in the journey. It is wise to go to poonamalle directly and board the bus there to avoid time delay in koyambedu as the bus to Kanchi goes via poonamalle route only. Somehow the bus reached Kanchi by 12:30pm.

Kanchi is called silk city as it is famous for silk fabrics. It is also one of the mukthi kheshtra and famous for massive temples like Sri Varadaraj Perumal temple, Ekambareswar temple which is one of the pancha bootha lingas(Kanchi-Pruthivi lingam, Chidambaram-Akasa lingam, Jumbukeswaram-Jala lingam, Arunachalam-Agni lingam, Srikalahasthi-Vaayu lingam) and Kamakshi temple which is one of the shakthi peethas.

I took a sharing auto to visit Varudaraja Perumal temple. The auto fellow dropped me near the temple entrance. But the temple was already closed as the morning session was over and I had to wait till 3:00 pm to have the darshan of God and holy lizards. Meanwhile I had finished my lunch in a hotel near by the temple and was back to temple by 2:00pm. In the temple complex I met one gentle man from Karnataka state and his name was Mr.Bandu Kulkarni. We had been talking about the various tourist places we had visited. We had purchased tulasi malas for offering to God outside the temple.

Sharply at 3:00pm the temple authorities opened the temple and we had the darshan of lord Vardaraja perumal and did some puja there and on the way out had the darshan of golden & silver lizards. We touched them after climbing a stepped ladder. By 3:30pm we were outside the temple and engaged an auto to Ekambareswar temple.

As Kanchi is a small city it took less than 10mins for us to reach the shiva temple by auto. As soon as we entered the temple complex one man came to us and started telling us that he can arrange for a special darshan and puja if he is paid some money. We agreed to that and simply followed him. He directly took us to the temple priests and told them something. Then priest made us to sit infront of the holy linga and did archana in our names. After the brief puja he demanded to pay not less than Rs.500.00 saying that the amount would be utilised for anna dana. We hesitated initially but paid him Rs.500.00 for annadana and took the blessings of lord shiva. We paid Rs.100.00 to the person who arranged us puja. There is one mango tree in the temple premises which is existing from the past 3000years. We covered that also and rushed to Kamakshi temple as we were running time shortage.

Kamakshi temple is said to be one of the 18 shakti peethas. We engaged an auto and rushed to Kamakshi temple. Directly we entered the que line and in less than 10min time we had the darshan of the Goddess. There was a separate line for puja but we had no time for that. As soon as we came out the temple we hired an auto and rushed to bus stand. Here, I and Mr.Bandu Kulkarni had some formal wishes for each other and headed towards our destinations.

I took a bus to Koyambedu and got down outside the terminus and hired an auto to central for Rs.150.00 as it was already 7:15pm. The auto fellow dropped at central by 7:45pm and I immediately ran to cloak room and picked up my luggage and took bus to egmore station. I reached egmore by 9:00pm. My train to Rameswaram was at 9:45pm, so I had gone outside for dinner. I found Anand bhavan opposite to the station. I entered in to it and finished my dinner quickly and ran to platform to board the train. The train started as per the schedule to Rameswaram. The food was tasty in Anad bhavan hotel.