Prelude to Tour of Tamilnadu 2012 Heritage -Day 2

Kanchipuram- Gingee-Thiruvanamalai Part-2 Thiruvanamalai

After "a date with Gingee Fort" and a soothing shower,hit the road again but by walk to have a glimpse of this historic temple town known to have been the sanctuary for Siddhars since the days of yore,Ramana Maharishi being the most remembered, catching up with the history of this place we come across the Annamalaiyar Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva the present masonry structure and towers date back to the 9th century A.D.This has been determined from an inscription in the structure made during the reign of Chola kings who ruled during the 9th A.D it was also under the Pallava Kings who ruled from Kanchipuram before the 9th A.D,the 7th century nayanar saints Sambandar and Appar, have mentioned the deity in the poetic work Tevaram.Many dynasties have contributed to this temple but notable being the Vijaya Nagar Empire.The temple is famous for its Massive Gopurams,the 11 tiered East Rajagopuram towers to a height of 217 feet, while the fortified walls pierced with 4 gopura entrances offer a formidable look to this vast temple complex.The 1000 pillared hall and the temple tank were built by Krishna Deva Rayarar of Vijayanagar. Each of the prakarams(outer courtyard) has a huge Nandi and several towers such as the Vallala Maharaja Gopuram and Kili Gopuram. Karthigai Deepam is great grand fest of Thiruvanamalai this great grand fest reaches its high spirituality by lighting Mahadeepam at Arunachala Hill which is 2900 feet high and this festival is celebrated for 10 days. Every full moon night, tens of thousands of pilgrims worship Shiva by circumambulating the Annamalai hill barefoot. The circumambulation covers a distance of about 14 km is called "Girivalam".Thus after a quick walk around this place return to the hotel to enjoy the dinner and later view the captures of the day from few co-riders camera's before getting to bed and begin to ponder about the Day-3 Ride which promises to be fascinating ...

References : Wikipedia on Tiruvanamalai and Tiruvanamalai Temple.

Tiruvanamallai Temple (Pic: mapmytemple.com)