7 June - Trichy and Tanjavur
Got up early again! (All these trains are too early in
the morning). Took the 5:45 am Shataabdi
to Trichy. Sat next to a nice couple with a daughter – chatted there for a
while. Went to my seat when the TT came and tried to sleep a bit. Kept the
luggage in the cloak room once there at 9:30 am. Went to the Rock Fort temple
(Ganesh temple). This temple is made on
a huge boulder. Papa did not go all the
way up, so it was just Bhaiya and I. the entrance was pretty and then we
started going up…and up … and up. It was a long climb up the mountain! In the
middle was a Shiva temple. After darshan, we went even more up. There came an
open space and then there were more stairs on the rock. Simple – no… the steps
were hot and we had no slippers! By the time we reached the temple, my feet
were burning. 
It was a small temple and not many people were there –
very peaceful. Started our descent after a while. Total number of steps (minus
the last hot ones) were about 235. Very pretty temple and it was a nice visit.
Had lunch and then went to the bus station to catch the
2:55 pm train to Thanjavur. It’s about 1 hr. from Trichy. It was very hot!!
Tanajavur
I felt I was stepping back in time when I got off the
train. It was all so simple living. We took the auto to Suchinandram temple
(also called Raja Raja temple). The first sight is just striking. What an
amazing building. We had seen a documentary on this temple and its construction
and knew that the gopurum was one of kind in the world. There were three
gopurum to enter the temple. In front of the Shiva temple was a huge Nandi
statue. The temple was closed until later so we walked around the compound.
The entire compound has galleries in it. The walls had
paintings in color, most were fading, but I could see they must have been
beautiful one day. All galleries had shivlings in them in a line. The
dedication of the king to Shiva is evident in this temple. There were a total
of 108 shivlings in the entire compound. The temple walls were covered with
writing – it is not Tamil or Telgu or Sanskrit – it is some other script. Very
intricate and a lot of writing.
Went back to Trichy – luckily we got AC train bogey this
time! Took a little nap. Got on the train to go Chennai. It was 9 pm and
promptly went to sleep!
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