A Traveller's Diary - Coimbatore

In December 2015, we had a chance of staying in Coimbatore for one day. So, we wanted to see a few temples in and around Coimbatore during that visit.

Perur

We started at 7:30 AM and went to Perur, which is 11 kms away from Coimbatore, by bus. There is a famous temple for Lord Shiva in Perur. It was a 30 minute journey and we got down exactly in front of the temple at 8:00 AM. 

The temple was built by Karikala Chola in the 9th century. The Lord is said to be Swayambhu and is worshiped as Patteeswaran. There were around 500 devotees in the temple at that time. 

There is a Vinayagar shrine on the left side at the entrance of the main gopuram. We went inside and noticed that the walls and the pillars of the temple were beautifully carved. We had to walk a long way to see the main Lingam as the temple is very big in size. 

The special attraction of the temple is the foot print of Kamadhenu (the holy cow from the heaven) on the top of the Shiva Lingam. However, we were not permitted to go close enough to see the mark. There is a Golden Nataraja statue in this temple. This temple is considered to be as important as Chidambaram and is called Melai Chidambaram which means Chidambaram of the West. 

The Goddess is worshiped as Pachainayaki. There is a shrine for Lord Varadaraja Perumal outside the shrine of the Goddess. There is also a shrine for Murugan which is in between Shiva and Parvathi. There is also a shrine for Bhairav, however, he is seen without his dog here. He is worshiped as Gnana Bhairav and not Kala Bhairav.

It took almost one hour for us to come out as we saw each and everything in detail. The river Noyyal is close to the temple and the bones of the dead are cremated there. 

There is one restaurant on the other side of the road which looked in Tamil style. We went in and had our breakfast. Our plan was to see both Dhyanalinga and Murudamalai on that day. 

Dhyanalinga is located in the ashram (known as Isha Yoga Centre) of Jaggi Vasudevan, 30 kms away from Coimbatore (around 20 kms from Perur). However, the local people told us that, by the time we reach there, the temples in the ashram would be closed. On the other hand, temple in Murudamalai is open throughout the day. So, we wanted to go to Murudamalai first. We boarded a mini bus that started from that temple and reached a junction called Vadavalli which is around 10 kms from there. From there, Murudamalai is around 6 kms away. We hired an auto and reached the place in 15 minutes.

Murudumalai

Murudamalai (which is also known as Murudachalam) is one of the famous temples in Tamil Nadu dedicated to Murugan. There are six famous Murugan temples in Tamil Nadu which are called Arupadaiveedu (Palani, Tiruttani, Tiruchendur, Tirupparakunram, Pazhamudircholai and Swamy Malai). The temple at Murudamalai is considered as the seventh one in Arupadaiveedu (though there are just six temples in the list).

The temple is located up on a hillock (like most of the Murugan temples) and has to be reached only in temple buses. There were hundreds of devotees waiting in the queue to buy bus tickets. We also stood in the queue and bought the tickets. There are buses for every 10 minutes and the temple staff were helping devotees boarding the bus. We boarded the bus and reached the temple in 15 minutes. There were around 100 steps to reach the temple. It took around 10 minutes for us to reach the hilltop 

There are many small temples on the way to the main temple. We saw all these temples and reached the main temple. There was a queue in the main temple and there were hundreds of devotees waiting for darshan. We stood in the queue and it took more than half an hour for us to have our darshan. The idol was very beautifully carved and looked bigger than some of the idols in the Arupadaiveedu temples.

We had our lunch in a restaurant out there and boarded the temple bus to come down. We came back to the junction Vadavalli by auto and boarded another bus to to go Dhyanalinga. It took almost 45 minutes for us to reach that place. 

Dhyanalinga

Dhyanalinga is located in the ashram of Jaggi Vasudevan and the ashram is known as Isha Yogi Centre. This place is located at the Velliangiri foothills and is away from the city traffic. This place is surrounded by thousands of trees. 

We surrendered our shoes and handbags to the staff of the ashram and moved ahead after collecting the tokens. There is a big statue of Lord Shiva and almost all the visitors were taking photos in front of that statue.

We crossed that statue and went in. There was a small pond which was created by an artificial waterfall on the right side and some visitors were taking their bath in the pond. We didn`t do that as we left our luggage in Coimbatore and didn`t have another dress to wear. We moved further ahead and there was a big statue of Nandi (the vehicle of Shiva). Upon crossing the statue, we reached the entrance of the temple. 

We had to walk in clockwise direction and we first reached the temple of Goddess Parvathi who is worshiped as Linga Bhairavi there. The temple was closed as it was just 4:10 PM then and it would be opened at 4:30 PM. A queue had already been formed as around 150 people were standing at the main door. We also waited there in the queue along with them. 

The temple was opened exactly on time by a group people who looked like saints. To our utmost surprise, there was also a foreign lady, who was wearing Red saree, in that group of saints. We started to move in when we were allowed to and the queue moved so smoothly. 

The shrine of the Goddess is different from the normal Parvathi shres we see in other temples. It is a big Shiva Linga, which has 10 hands. It was decorated like Goddess Parvathi. Probably, it is to convey the message that Shiva and Parvathi are not different. The same foreign lady was standing in front of the Goddess and chanting slokas. There was complete silence inside the temple as none of the visitors was talking (not even whispering). 

We came out after being in front of the Goddess for about 10 minutes. There was a milk vending machine out there and we bought two cups of milk for ourselves which had badam powder and dry fruits mixed in it. 

From there, we started walking in the clockwise direction again to reach the main entrance of Dhyanalinga. However, when we were half way through, the staff of Isha Yoga Center advised to enter the hall, where Dhyanalinga was located, from the left side which is the entrance for senior citizens. I was also allowed to go in along with my mother. 

It's a very big hall constructed in round shape and, in the middle of the hall, existed the Dhyanalinga. There were devotees sitting all around the Dhyanalinga and were meditating. It was too dark out there and it took some time for our eyes to get used to that darkness. The staff guided us to a corner and signed us to sit there and meditate. There was a small stool over there and my mother sat on that. I sat on the floor and started to meditate.

In Sanskrit, Dhyana means meditation and Linga is the form of Shiva. The Dhynalinga is very big in size with more than 20 feet in height. Unlike in other Shiva temples, where puja and abhishekam are performed, here devotees were sitting around and meditating. The devotees were sent inside in batches with a gap of around 30 minutes. Some devotees were sitting in corners and continuing their meditation irrespective of batches. We also meditated for around half an hour and then a bell rang in low volume. The staff requested the devotees to leave so that next batch could come in. We walked around the Dyanalinga silently and left the hall. 

While we were going out of the premises, we noticed some devotees doing yoga throughout the path and most of them were foreigners. We continued to walk and came to the same Nandi statue we saw when we were going in. There were a few people taking photographs in front of that statue. We were not sure if we could take photographs as we were still inside the temple. But, the ashram staff permitted us to take the photograph on the condition that the other visitors shouldn`t be captured in the background. 

We came out and collected our belongings from the counters. We boarded our bus after a 15 minutes wait and reached Coimbatore at 7:00 PM. We also knew that there was a temple in Coimbatore, dedicated to Vinayagar which is considered as the biggest Vinayagar idol in Asia. When we inquired, a lady told that the temple was just 5 kms away from the railway station and asked us to hire an auto from there. We hired an auto and reached the temple in 10 minutes.

Periya Pillayar Temple

This temple is located in a place called Puliakulam. The temple is called Periya Pillayar Koil in the local language. The temple is in the middle of two roads and it is not so attractive. It is closed at 8:00 PM and were there at around 7:30 PM. 

At the entrance was a big idol of Mushika (rat) which is the vehicle of Ganesha. Once we crossed it and entered the main hall, we could see the big Ganesha. 

The idol is very big in size and looked so attractive. I doubted whether it was really the biggest Vinayagar in Asia as I saw other Vinayagar idols which were equally as big as this. However, the priest told me it's the biggest Vinayagar shrine in Asia among the idols worshiped as Moolvirat in a temple. But, I saw another big Vinayagar in Kurudumalai, near Kolar in Karnataka. That idol is also worshiped as Moolvirat in that temple and was made of Salagram stone. I was unable to decide which was bigger among these two.    

We were in the temple for half an hour and came out when it was about to be closed. We again hired an auto and reached the railway station. We had our dinner in a decent restaurant and went to our hotel room. We took rest for some time as it was not even 9:00 PM then and our train to Chennai (Cheran Express) was scheduled to depart at 10:40 PM. We vacated our room exactly at 10:00 PM and boarded our train at around 10:20 PM.