26March 011126March 009126March 007126March 012126March 0131
26March 010126March 014126March 019126March 020126March 0211
26March 022126March 024126March 025126March 027126March 0301
26March 031126March 032126March 034126March 035126March 0361
26March 004126March 018126March 049126March 001126March 0021
26March 044126March 045126March 003126March 037226March 039126March 0401

Yesterday, myself and Ravages set out on a mini trip towards some old temples(Whats new in this? :-)).

Bheemeswarar temple, Serapanancheri:
This place is some 5 kms from padappai, on the mudichur kancheepuram road. 5 kms after padappai when you proceed towards kancheepuram. After you cross padappai, keep looking towards the right. There will be a small board mentioning ‘Bheemeswarar temple’. Ask the villager around there, if you cannot locate it. Its pretty popular there. Anyone you ask says that the temple is 3000 years old(Oh yes, 3000 years old). The temple does look extremely extremely old, and the architecture is nothing like what I have seen before.
It is in a pretty bad shape, and looks like some renovation work is happening slowly. In the left wall of the temple, the inscriptions are in a different font. And in the right wall, even older inscriptions. Definitely signs of this temple being built and renovated in 2 different centuries.
Pooja happens once a day in the morning. And do lookout for a stone containing some inscriptions, to the left of the piLLayar temple.
If any of the archaelogy experts are reading this, request you to visit this place. It will be really nice to protect this temple. And please do find the age of the temple and let me know :)

Arunachaleswarar Temple, Walajabad

This is on the Chengelpet-Kancheepuram road. If you are coming from padappai, then take a left turn at walajabad cross road towards chenglepet. Some 1/2 km after the junction you will find this extremely old temple towards the right. This temple is around 4oo to 500 years old. In a highly depleted stage. It seems this temple was built by a villager, when many people in the village died to due some mysterious disease. After building a temple, everyone got cured it seems. Thats what the old man in the temple mentioned to us. It seems there is a court case on who is the owner of the temple :-(
In case you visit walajabad, drop into this temple for some 10 to 15 minutes. The durgai silai is very artistically done. And dont forget to visit dakshinamurthy :) There is a murugan temple opposite this too, on the other side of the road. It seems the kumbabishekam was bound to happen any time. Check it out, if you visit this place.

Lakshmi Narasimhar Temple, Pazhaya Seevaram
8 kms from Walajabad, on the way towards chengelpet is a small town called as Pazhaya Seevaram. There is a small hillock, and atop it a beautiful Lakhsmi Narasimhar temple. It seems the Varadarajar silai was installed here first and later on moved to Kancheepuram. Every year on the day of maatu pongal, Varadar comes here in an oorvalam. He stays here for 2 days and poojas happen here. This temple is maintained by My college trust(DG Vaishnav college). The lakshmi narasimhar statue is pretty huge when compared to other temples.

Venkatesa PerumaL temple, Thirumukkodal
Thirumukkoodal. The place where 3 rivers(seyyaaRu,paalaRu and vedavathi) converge. Near that, there is a PerumaL kovil. This temple is maintained ASI. A very huge temple, which is very differently built. Like the perumaL sannidhi entrance is from the side. And it comes very close to the outer compound. Not much gap actually. Since this is very close to the river, there are chances of floods coming inside the temple. If you carefully observe at the mandapam’s behind the main sannidhi, you will find a decent drainage system for the water to flow. This temple must be easily around 1200-1500 years old according to the priest!

On the whole it was a very satisfying trip. We started at 6 in the morning and returned by 1 PM. Covered around 140 kms on a 2 wheeler :D Do visit these temples if you get time.

P.S. Click on thumbnails for bigger version. There are some notes. Do read them. And mail me, if you want a better resolution pictures