Kanchipuram

"Kanchi"
"Nagaraeshu Kanchi" is the line of Bhana bhatta, the famous poet of the past.
He says, among all the cities, the most beautiful is Kanchi. I have many reasons to love this city.
I am an ardent fan of Amarar Kalki. His novel "Sivagamiyin sabadam" describes the city as a heaven. kanchi was ruled by the great kings, my heros, Mahendra pallavan and Narasimma pallavan popularly known as " Maamallan".
It is the city where by heros of the novels lived. Either, it be true, or an imagination, I had a great passion to visit the city someday. Kanchi, also being a temple town, we planned for a trip on a weekend. My mom was excited for her the darshan of her mom "Kanchi Kamakshi".

We started early in the morning from home reached Tambaram. From there, we boarded a bus to Kanchipuram. We reached Kanchi by 8 AM. Had our breakfast and then started our trip to all the temples as there are many. We initally went to see Kamakshi and Ekambaranathar as that was our primary aim. The temple was beautiful and had a story of how Kamakshi did tapas and married the Lord Himself. There is still the tree(Mango tree) under which the Goddess did her tapas. People stated that the tree will give three kinds of fruits. Ekambaranathar sannadhi was a large rectangular one and the lord himself was like a Mud linga as the Lord here is the God of the Lands. (Prithvi sthalam). We also had the darshan of ambal- Kamakshi who was seated in a tapas posture with a sugarcane in her hand.

We also went to chinna kanchipuram, had the darshan of Varadharaja perumal and thayar. The pond before the temple has the lord in the form of wood and the lord is always in there and once in several years He will be taken out and pujas performed. We also worshipped the golden lizards there. Just walked through the agraharam for a while .

I enjoyed a short travel in the old style covered cart with horse from the temple till the Kanchi Kamakoti mutt.

Had the blessings of the Guru and we then went looking for the famous Kanchi silk sarees. Then, started home back earlier as there was a Political meeting organised the next day in Kanchipuram on the eve of Aringyar Anna's birthday. We missed many other temples like kailasanathar temple. Will plan someother day soon to visit all these temples. We got a local bus back to tambaram and was back home by 5 pm in the evening. That was a great day!!