Srimushnam and nearby

Timeline - June 2019

We visited Chidambaram for a known person's marriage and en route back to Chennai, planned to visit a couple of temples.

Narthana Vallabeswarar Temple (NNT003)

Deity: Lord Shiva is worshipped as Narthana Vallabeswarar or Nerikkaattunathar.

About: This is one of the 276 Paadal Petra Sthalams. This is 14th Shiva Sthalam in Thondai Nadu.

Temple Timing : 6:00 AM to 11:30 AM, 5 PM to 7 PM.

Parking: Available for a few vehicles

Route: This is located 10 kms before Sri Mushnam and 10 kms after Sethiathope from Chidambaram. The roads are quite good. Can be located easily on Google maps (NNT003).

History: The temple is famous for the legend that Brahma saw Lord Shiva perform dance here. Chitragupta had visited and prayed to Lord Shiva here.

Sri Neelakandeswarar Temple / Swedarkkavaneshwarar Temple - Erukkathampuliyur (NNT004)

Deity: Lord Shiva is worshipped as Neelakandeswarar or Swedarkkavaneshwarar. The temple is also called Sri Kumaraswamy Shiva Temple.

About: This is one of the 276 Paadal Petra Sthalams. This is 4th Shiva Sthalam in Thondai Nadu located in Rajenderapattinam.

Temple Timing : 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM, 6 PM to 8 PM.

Parking: Available for a few vehicles in front of the temple, by the tank.

Route: This is located 12 kms before Sri Mushnam on the road from Virudhachalam towards Srimushnam. The temple can be located easily on Google maps (NNT004).

History: The deity is Swayambumurthi. Lord Muruga worshipped Lord Shiva to cleanse the sins of throwing the Vedas into the sea. Also, Chola King Raja Rajan visited this temple, and his son was born - Rajendra Cholan. Hence, the name of the place is Rajendrapattinam.

Lord Bhuvaraha Swami Temple

This is an important Temple for Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu is in Varaha avatar in this temple. The main sanctum hosts Lord Vishnu in the form of boar, a Swayambu form made of Saligrama. This a Divya Desam.

The temple is very special also in the means that one gets to see the Abhishek of Lord Vishnu and Mahalakshmi - Thirumanjanam directly, which is not the case in most of the temples. The temple is one of the Ashtakshara kshetras - Lord Vishnu in swayambu form. The demon Hiranyaksha stole Earth and took it to the planet to his kingdom in the netherworld. The goddess of earth Bhudevi prayed to Lord Vishnu for rescue. Lord Vishnu took a new avatar here in the form of Varaha, a boar, killed the demon, and saved Earth.

The temple has beautiful sculptures in the mandapa.

Trip to Vrindhavan, Mathura, Gokul

About the destination

Always wanted to cover the religious destinations of Vrindavan, Mathura, and Gokul. Then, built the trip accordingly including Agra.

Trip Plan

Trip members: Karthik, Nandha
Trip date:  23 June 2019
Trip Plan: New Delhi - Vrindavan - Mathura - Gokul - Agra - New Delhi

Start from Gurgaon

I went to Gurgoan on an official trip, there was a day on the weekend available and planned to visit Vrindavan, Mathura, Gokul, and Agra. With scorching heat all around in New Delhi and surrounding states, we tried to give the best effort of things to see and move on rather than the regular type of cover all possible things in the area!

We started the day by 4 AM from Gurgaon and reached Vrindhavan around 07:15.

Vrindavan

Vrindavan is 12 km ahead of Mathura, one of the oldest cities and known for Lord Krishna spending his childhood days. The town hosts thousands to temples dedicated to Lord Krishna and Radha. Very popular old temples include Banke Bihari Temple, Madan Mohan temple, Radha Govinda temple, Rangji Temple, and some more. It is advised to take a local auto to cover all popular temples.

At 7:15, it was highly humid and hot. We first visited the Banke Bihari Temple. The temple was established by Swami Haridas. The temple was very crowded and queue management was poor by the temple authorities as well as police. Lots of elders and newborns were part of the crowd and suffered. There are 4 small doors, which are used for both entry and exit and no regulation. We squeezed in through one and came out through the other!

Beware of Monkey Menace!

Also, be aware of monkeys, they pick up glasses/specs that are being worked by people and throw it back when some food is offered. It also looks like a trained practice! So, horrible for tourists!

We came out of Banke Bihari temple and it was already hot. We planned to go to Mathura next, maybe, we should have visited Rangji temple. There are several websites claiming Krishna Janmabhoomi as Divya Desam and so as this temple.

Mathura

We drove next to Mathura - Krishna Janmabhoomi. We got dropped at a parking space and took the western entrance. There was no crowd here. Mobiles and cameras are not allowed. Cloakrooms are available for Rs.2 per device. Krishna Janmabhoomi has 2 major things to see - one, the place where Lord Krishna was born and the other, the main temple. The temple had been destroyed and rebuilt several times - every time it was pulled down by Mughal emperors. There is a Muslim prayer area created by Aurangazeb. The small room where Lord Krishna was born to Devaki and Vasudeva in a prison cell is a worship place. This is next to the main temple. The timings are 5 AM - 12 PM and 4 PM to 9:30 PM.

We had hot kachori, puri, and sabji - street food is quite popular in Mathura. It was a good simple breakfast!

Gokul

Next, we reached Gokul. Gokul is around 10 km from Mathura. Sri Navamohana Krishna Perumal Temple (Thiruvaaipaadi) is a Divya Desam temple located in Gokul (known as Ayarpadi). Sri Krishna born in Mathura was brought up by Nandagopal and Yasodha in Aayarpadi (Gokulam). This is the place where Sri Krishna spent all of his childhood days. It was difficult to locate this temple as per the maps as the streets and walkways are narrow and going around and around. Nand Mahal is the name mostly being referred locally. Temple timing is 6.00 AM to 8.00 PM.

One can visit the Gokul barrage, Yamuna river, and then visit the temple. Govind Ghat is the Yamuna river ghat near the temple. There are tourist boat rides offered here. Car parking is difficult, needs to be stopped by the ghat and not within the town of Gokul as what Google maps show. It was sweltering heat here and we had some lemon-pudina juice.

We reached the Delhi airport around 11:30 PM after visiting Agra as well and came back to Chennai by 2 AM flight.