Musings at Chitharal

Chitharal, a reminder of how the world was a smaller place in a time long long ago. History says that during 7th century this place was under the influence of Jainisim, thanks to King Mahendra Verman I(610-640) who followed the Jain tradition. This temple have rockcut sculptures dating back to 9th century, and one can find that all of them are still in excellent condition today.

the view of temple from rock top

 It is not surprising why Jains chose this particular spot as their homage in the south. It's a beautiful secluded spot, rising above the surrounding terrain. We spent a lot of time at the rock tops, listening to the sound of wind blowing and making long whooshing sounds. We closed our eyes and imagined the time long ago, when people came here from all places to find answers to questions they were chasing all their life. Atleast some of them would have find their answers from the wise monks here and returned satisfied.

 Even now, there are seekers who try to walk the foot steps of the ancient ones, when they realise that google doesn't have answers for everything. Something doesn't just change across centuries.

 After sometime, we began to hear the song "Kangal Irandaaal" from the nearby junction, which brought our minds back to the civilization. When in Tamil Nadu, there is no escaping of loud speakers, even in the rock tops it seems.

Meditating in peace

 After spending some more time at the top, we climbed down and began to take some more pictures of Mahaveera's rock sculpture. Then the most interesting thing happened.

 I was standing near the sculpture, while Renjith was taking the picture. Then suddenly he looked up from the camera and shouted, " Look out! A snake.." I jumped from where I was standing and looked to left to see a nine feet tall King Cobra slithering near the pillars. It raised its dark head and hissed at me......

Hisssss

                                                                                 
Ok, I was kidding. There was a snake near the pillars and it was only three feet tall and it didn't even mind me. Come to think of it, it was more of a baby snake. I am leaving the picture here, you be the judge.

 Anyway, after sometime the snake got bored and slithered away to a hole in the rock, once more leaving us alone in the scenic place. We too, returned to our own homes taking some beautiful memories with us. Thus ended a memorable trip to Chitharal.

Chitharal, getting there...

Chitharal, a thousand year old Jain temple standing alone in a myriad of churches and temples of Southern Tamil Nadu. Better yet, this ancient monument have been carved inside a rock, and thus making it a beautiful,err... rock temple.

 For a longtime I've been hearing about this place from different people, who have never seen the place, but have seen the people who've seen the place. How odd is that? I think the problem was that, this rock temple is near Kanyakumari, one of the famous tourist attractions of India, being the southernmost tip of the country and all, has stolen the thunder of this place. So all the tourists go to Kanyakumari, making this place less known to all. And the result, no firsthand information about the place, known to locals as malaikovil.

White stones, all the way...

So me and Renjith, a fellow adventurer and a close friend, set out to find this place, aided only by the information from wikipedia, googlemaps, and tidbits from some blogs, here and there. We took the public transport and took the ticket to Marthandam, a place 7km from the temple. But we ended up in a place 3km from Marthandam bus station and had to board another bus again. But it was a cool, cloudy morning and we were just getting started.


Finally, after one more bus ride and a 15 minute walk we finally reached the place. Or atleast, the base of the temple. From there it was a steep walk of 900 meters or so, to the top of the hillock, where the temple lie. The journey thus far was very interesting, as we would get from one place to another by doing it in the old fashioned way- by asking people for directions. To the bystanders, the fruit vendors or the passing commuters ,we would ask in our broken tamil, the way, and most of the time, their answer would be- "Malayalathil paranjal mathi." Seems like that there are malayalis everywhere. We mallus rock...

A view from the top

Now, as I said earlier, it was a cool and cloudy day. That was the best thing about that day. Even though the path towards the temple was paved with white stones, there was no trees casting their shadows to the path, the place being rocky and all. So in the case of a sunny day, one would be scorched dry and tired, as I would learn in a second trip to Chitharal with my college friends.

Anyway, we made it to the top in our own time, soaking in all the scenery and the relaxing beauty of nature. The most interesting thing about this place is that, it is almost deserted. We've seen only ten to twenty people during our total time spent there. So we got the place entirely to ourselves, and we wasted no time in clicking pictures and capturing the moment. And thus begun my day at Chitharal.

How to get to Chitharal: My journey to Chitharal was by bus. I boarded the Nagercoil bus from Trivandrum and took the ticket to Marthandam. You can ask anybody there, where the bus stop for going to Chitharal is. From that bus stop I took the bus to Arumana and got off at Chitharal, which is the next stop from Nesamani Palam. From the junction there was a 1.5 km walk to the base of the hillock. Then, a 900m trek to the top of the Chitharal hills. And then I was there, and the place I saw was Chitharal. And one tip: take some food supplies with you, as there are only a few stores around Chitharal.

Walking the tracks...

I am an engineering student, walking the beaten tracks like millions of others. Not that I have anything to complain about it, but I know at least some of you have felt this feeling. A feeling that you have no sense of what you are doing, and a question of whether this is the thing you want to do for the rest of your life.

To me, the two most favorite things are writing and travelling. Then what the hell am I doing, studying engineering? Honestly, I can't answer that and could only say that I ended up here and now I am here. And I don't regret the decision, that much. This decision has provided me a series of joys and heart aches, any decision would bring. That being said, I would like to say a thing or two, for my love of travelling.

To me travelling is freedom, a way to reconnect with the past, so that I could make sense of present, and look into the future. I know it sounds cheesy, but for me travelling is liberating too. If there is anything I want to do, for the rest of my life, that would be travelling. And by blogging, I would be realizing my second love, that is, writing. So I want this blog to be an active one, and I want to write at least one blog a week for now. I want to write mostly about places I've visited and the places I want to visit. The places I've visited, that's not very much.

I've visited only a few places, all of them around South India. But hey, I am living in one of the most exotic countries in the world. So for good locations to visit, I think all I have to do is look around. And believe me, I would be looking around. Due to the enormous workload and the hefty schedule of engineering syllabus, I would have little time to pursue my passion. But I expect to do some more serious travelling after my course is finished. Enough about that.

I also have a very good interest in photography. So i would also be posting pictures I've taken during the trips. I have a Kodak m532 digital camera, which honestly, works like shit. But for now, it will do.

So, let the blogging begins...