­7-3-2012

Trichy - Day 2 - Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple

Another day, another temple and this one is reputed to be the largest in India.

It is located about 3 kilometres further north than the Rock Fort Temple visited yesterday so back we went on local bus number one.

We're both starting to like travelling on these local buses as you just can't avoid rubbing shoulders with the locals and the vast majority respond immediately to a smile and will chat away or practice their english on you at the drop of a hat.

When we arrived at our stop (with prompting from one of the two conductors / ticket sellers) we suspended common sense and followed the signs to the temple, ignoring the 73 metre high gopuram about 100 metres from the bus-stop. This lead us on a fairly long walk around a large block that ended back at the gopuram! Oh well.

From here you proceed through four different gopurams before you reach a spot where you need to pay a small fee to enter, a bigger fee if you have a camera and a bigger fee still in you have a video camera - we have both. Even when inside the complex you have another three gopurams to pass through before you exit on the other side.

In between are a number of different temples, halls, shops, beggars, wood carvings, stone carvings, lots of people & an elephant - it's a busy place and quite fascinating.

The principal Deity here is Vishnu, in this instance worshipped as Shehashayana who sleeps on a bed made of the King of nagas (snakes). A similar arrangement to the Sleeping Vishnu in Buddhanilkantha, Nepal. As usual non-Hindu's are not allowed into the inner sanctum so we had to rely on the many photos and posters for sale to gain a view of the Deity.

After a very long morning we caught the bus back to Femina Junction and the much anticipated air-conditioning. It was 37 degrees again today (and probably every day we are here).

Bye,

Ken & Desley