Thirumukoodal - Sri Appan Venkatesa Perumal Temple.

Lets take you back a 1000 years!! the king is known as Raja Thondaiman from the Chila region, who was iconic in including the regions of Kanchipuram and surrounding areas to the Chola empire, one time he was about to visit the Tirupathi temple to seek the blessings of lord Venkateswara, but the previous night he has a dream, where the lord appears and tells him that his kingdom is under threat and he needs to prioritize his people now, So the plan is dropped and as he heads to the war its believed that the lord appears in this very spot and blesses the king with his conch and chakra. After his victory the king is overwhelmed in devotion and is said to have built this temple for the god here who looks absolutely just like lord Venkateswara in Tirumala.

There is a lot more to the history of this temple which I am not very clear off and dont want to give out wrong information here. Located approximately 60 to 65 kms from Chennai this not so hidden gem is a must add to your weekend plans.

This temple is also said to have doubled up as a hospital for the students of the vedic school and the staffs of this temple back then, this claim is backed by the inscriptions found in this temple. The inscriptions also mention about the number of beds, the number of medicants (doctors) and the different kind of Medicines used for treating various injuries and illnesses about a 1000 years ago, which goes on to prove what kind of an advanced and civilised society this was. The hospital here had drugs for something as basic as fever, cold and cough all the way upto tumors and mental ailments of various degrees.

I would really suggest you hier a local tourist guide, we found just one who was already busy with a bunch of tourists and we were with Dhriti who is at the peak of her toddler phase now and would not and all sit down in a place for more than 2 mins and neither would she let us.

Even though this is a tiny village temple its being run and maintained by the archeological survey of India, so it looks very beautiful its well preserved and maintained and is also instagram friendly!! the place also has a pretty neat pay and use toilet which is opened only when you ask for it, The temple was pretty hidden until recently but thanks to Instagram and youtubers its starting to get quite a bit of visitors lately and could be fairly crowded during weekends but nothing unmanagable.

We also visited the Pazhayaseevaram temple which is on the other bank of the river at the edge of a tiny hillock, These to temples happen to hold a special significance in my husband's family as it is associated with his ancestoral village. This is a temple decicated to Lord Narasimha, the Lion god also the 4th Avatar of lord Vishnu. We can also hike up the hill further to get a panoramic view of the region which is breathtaking if ever the rivers run on full spate.

Best time to visit:

The temple is ofcourse open throughout the year and the timings are between 8.30 am to 12 noon and 4 pm to 6 pm on weekdays and 7 pm on weekends. The best season to visit would be post monsoon or even during monsoon when the river beds have some water and the climate is beautiful, summers can get pretty scorching here and may tire you out if you are sensitive to heat. The winters, though we do not have such a season are also good.

How to get there:

Both the temples are pretty close to each other on the either banks of the river and now connected by a bridge, they are approximately 60 to 65 kms from Chennai and is pretty well connected by road. If you wish to go by trains the nearest railway station would be Chengalpat and from there you would manage to find Autos (Tuk Tuks).

We visited the day after Diwali which was yesterday and Diwali being a long weekend, we chennai people felt we had the city for ourselves with a whole lot of our population gone to thier natives, this 65 kms which would have ideally taken close to 3 hers per way, took us less than 2 hours per way and the temples themselves had much less crowd too.