Chennai to Trichy - Part 1 of an Epic road trip with a 1.5 year old toddler!!

It was the year 2022, We were a couple who had time but not much money and we had a car we could borrow from my dad, This was a brief period when I was still a new entrepreneur and Ananth was also out of job, we knew the situation would soon change and we would again have a job which we need to prioretize and a kid who is growing up too fast to our liking, so we decided to take a 10 day road trip across Tamil Nadu and Kerala and this id the part 1 of it.

Traditionally I have come from a family who needs to start early and end the day early when it comes to road trips or long distance travel and that's what we did here!! and guess what we found out that with a infant/ toddler this is a bad idea!! when you are on a long drive this is not the best thing to do, you either need your kid to sleep through most of the drive or be happy and Dhriti did neither, we also decided to have a breakfast at a random hotel on the way which also did not work well with her!!

Tip: Get your child completely ready at home, let them complete their sleep and breakfast comfortably at home by which time you also could get fully ready and then start!! its better to reach happy and late than have a cranky journey all the way!!

Our first stop on this 10 day long journey was at Trichy which is about 350 km from chennai. Roads during the first 100 km of the journey is so packed and it dosent even feel like you are on a highway. We managed to check into our hotel for a lunch with a bad headache and a cranky Dhriti!! Post lunch and some chilling in the room. In the evening post a nap we went around for a walk and discovered this hidden Gem, one of the Ghats of the Cauvery River!! though I dont really remember its name, The place is in Trichy pretty close to the Uchi Pilliyar temple!! Back to the hotel for Dinner, we then called it a day!!

After a good night's sleep we started the day fresh, on our agenda today was to visit a temple which is very special for our family and culture and something that holds a lot of historical and religious significance in Hinduism!! The Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam which is a town neighbouring Trichy just a few Kilometers away,

Now for some facts about this temple, This is said to be the largest functioning place of worship in the world, second only to Angkor Wat in Cambodia which is not fully functional, Some homes, shops and businesses are running and present inside the premises of this temple and in terms of area this is supposed to be larger than the Vatican city which is supposed to be the smalled country in this world. Lord Vishu is worshiped in his reclining form here in the name of Sri Ranganathaswamy and the idol is said to be several thousands of years old with no record of who sculpted it and thus is believed to have appeared on its own. There is also popular belief that Lord Ram used to have this Idol in his Palace in Ayodhya and gifted the same to Vibishana as a token of appreciation for his support in the war. Vibishana while flying back from Ayodhya halted in this spot on the banks of River cauvery for performing certain rituals and placed the idol where it is today, When Vibishana was ready to go home, the idol refused to budge even after several trails and Vibishana had to leave the idol here and go back to Srilanka thereby the then Chola rulers made this temple which has then been renovated and rebuilt several times. The temple standing here currently is also several centuries old with some amazing architecture and sculptures and has been subject to many attacks, attempts of demolition.

A temple which has seen so much of history would obviously have a lot of stories, yet another story is the story of the white gopuram. This tower which is at the eastern entrance of the temple is locally known as Vellayi gopuram, said to be named after a Devadasi of the same name after her supreme sacrifice for the temple. It was the year 1323 when invaders from the Delhi sultanate attacked the temple, looted it of several of its precious gems and jwellery and also wanted to destroy the main Idol (Utsava murthy) of the temple and loot all the wealth associated with it. During this incedent atleast 12000 people who tried to protect the temple lost their lives and one of them was tis Devadasi named Vellayi. She took up the task of distrcting the Sultan who wanted to take away the Utsava Murthy while the idol was taken away to a safe place in the mean time, She kept Dancing for as long as possible and even lured the Sultan on top of this tower and then pushed him down to his death. Overcome with the gulit of killing someone she too jumped down from there and ended her life, Its belived that this temple still exists here due to her efforts and sacrifice and from then this tower has always been painted white and named after her.

Temple and kids:

Now that we are in the second half of the year, temples are a cost effective place for kids and also a beautiful way to get them introduced to spirituality if you want to. What we discovered on this trip with Dhriti was that she loved running around, the open spaces with sculpted pillars and stuff hear and there that she did not want to leave. Temples make a great place to pique the cuiriosity of your kids and its also pure joy to see your kids happily run around these open spaces without any restrictions and have a great time during your holiday!!

We came back to the hotel with a fulfiled heart but a bad headache and called it a day. Thats it we are slow travellers and with this we were ready for the next leg of our journey to Kerala. While we are all for slow traveling and did not visit any other temples in our 3 days stay here there are a host of other temples in and around Trichy which are not to be missed like the Uchi Pillayar temple, Jambukeshwara temple, samayapuram temple and many more which are of a lot of significance to people across various sects of Hinduism.

Keep an eye on this blog for blogs about the next leg of our journey on to Kerala!!