Kanchipuram Divya Desams

Of the 108 divya desams 15 of them can be covered using Kanchipuram as your base .
The temples are very beautiful, not at all crowded except for couple of them and you can have your moment with god at your own pace .

Kanchipuram is around 2hrs by car from chennai .
We left on Saturday 21st Apr around 8.30 reached kanchipuram by 10.30 , there are couple of motels on way where u can stop for breakfast and use the rest rooms but since we had packed hot idlis and mulagapodi from home we directly went to kanchipuram .

Kanchipuram is world famous for its silk sarees what is less known is that it is also a major religious center with the kanchi mutt based here and numerous temples which are many hundred years old .
Kanchipuram is logically split as chinna kanchi and periya kanchi .

we visited 2 temples on satruday morning
1. Sonnavanna seida perumal - tiruvegaa yatootakari perumal
2.Varadaraja perumal

then we had lunch at saravana bavan and checked into the hotel above saravana bhavan -"JayaBala" its pretty decent no frills clean hotel .

A point to be noted is that most of the vishnu temples are open only from 8Am to 11.30AM and in the evening from 4.30 to 7.30 PM , the Two shivan temples where 2 divya desams are situated are open longer morning 6.30 to 12.30PM and evening 4.30 to 8.30PM - one needs to plan accordingly

we covered most of the temples in the evening
3.Ulagalanda perumal - in this temple premises itself there are 4 divya desams so u go this temple u can cover all the four easily - the perumal here is very beautiful and gigantic with one leg in the air and other on mahaballi's head .
4.tiruneeragam - inside ulagalanda perumal kovil
5.Tirukkaarakam - inside ulagalanda perumal kovil
6.kaarvannan -inside ulagalanda perumal kovil

7.Parameswara vinnagaram
8.pavalavannar
9.ashtabhuyakaram
10.tiruvellukai - Narashimhar sannidi
11.tirupaadakam - pandava dhootar

we covered the baleance 4 on sunday morning started the journey at 7 and completed all the temples by 11AM
12.tiruppukuzhi - this is about 30 mins from kanchipuram it is situated on the chennai bangalore high road .
13.tirutanka - deepa prakashar / desikar sannidi this is the place where desikar was born . This place has lakshmi hayegrevar known for his educational powers.
14.Tirunilaatingal tundam : this divya desam is present inside the ekambreswarar temple . The aspect I liked about this place is that the vishnu sannidi has an battar who does archana and gives theertam and sadari and u are not forced to visit the ekambreswarar sannidi .the same cannot be said for kamatchi amman temple
15. Tirukkalvanoor : this divya desam is right inside the kamatchi amman's prakaram .it is not easy to locate at first , no officials/security people there have any clue about this sannidi after some 15 min search we found out about this sannidi and was disappointed - no battar to do archana - no theertam no sadari u just have to pray and leave and thats not it all there is only one entrance to the temple and u are forced to see kamatchi amman to see our perumal . Now there is nothing wrong in seeing kamatchi amman and getting her blessings but it should be your choice - u shldnt be forced to do it .

In all it was a very plesant trip and we came back with lot of joy and satisfaction .