Gangaikonda Cholapuram was a city founded by Rajendra Chola to commemorate his victorious march to the Ganges and this was capital of Chola empire during the 11th Century CE for almost 250 years from then. Emperor Rajendra adorned the name of Gangaikonda Cholan after his army captured the Ganges Plains and the capital of his empire was thus named Gangaikonda Cholapuram. It’s from this place Chola empire expanded and reached its lofty heights controlling entire South India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia & Indonesia. It’s believed that Rajendra Chola’s army brought water from Ganges and emptied it in tanks of Gangikonda Cholapuram. But today Gangikonda Cholapuram is no more a city and is just reduced to a small rustic village and what remains for the last 1000 odd years is this great structure of Siva Temple celebrating the most superior engineering, artistic and craftsmanship of the Chola Period of Indian History.

The most striking aspect of the temple is its Vimana, which is octagonal in shape and is 183 feet in height. This is in contrast to Thanjavur Temple, where the Vimana takes a pyramidal shape rather than an octagonal shape but the height of Thanjavur Vimana is more than this. Unlike most temples in South India where the main entrance adores a majestic Gopuram, Gangaikonda Cholapuram like Thanjavur has the majestic Vimana above the sanctum sanctorum. The Main Mandapa is two storied structure and dotted with pillars with exquisite carvings.

Inside the Temple

Lord Siva – Housed in the main Hall (Mahamandapa) under the grandeur Vimana, is the most graceful and beautiful Lingam of Lord Siva. The Siva idol is 13 feet in height and 60 feet in diameter. From one end of the long hall it gives a very soothing view. Here the Lord is carved to sitting on top of a giant Lotus flower.

Nandi (or Siva’s Bull) – Right in the entrance of the Mahamandapa is the giant Nandi, unlike a single stone carvings this Nandi seems to be made of brick stones and mortar as evident by the cracks.

Ganesha – South West corner of the temple is the shrine of Ganesha. Everything in this temple is of large proportions compared to most of the other temples and not breaking this rule is the Ganesha idol a large and beautiful image.

Brhannayaki– Lord Siva’s consort referred as Brhannayaki and has her own small shrine in the North side.

Chandikesvara – Again on the North side is a shrine dedicated to Chandikesvara

Mahishamardini – In the North you can also find a shrine dedicated to Mahishamardini or Durga

Simha Kinaru – To the north of Mahamandapa is a circular well with steps provided to access the well. The entrance of the steps is adorned with a lion figure which has given the name to the well. According to tradition Rajendra poured a part of the Ganges water, brought from his famous expedition, into the well, to sanctify it.

Dwarapalakas – Huge structures guarding the doors of the Mandapa, these structures are easily 10feet tall and can be seen both in South and North side entrances of the Mandapa

Dakshina Moorthy (Guru) – As in Thanjavur Dakshina Moorthy is placed at an elevated position in the South Side of the Mahamandapa in it’s exteriors. One has to use ladders to have a darshan of this.

Sthala Vriksham – This is one of the traits of many temple in Tamil Nadu, each temple has its dedicated tree and tree for Gangaikonda Cholapuram is Vanni Tree located in the Northern side of temple.

Outer walls & Gopuram – The Gopuram in the main entrance of the temple along the outer walls have caved in. Now what remains is the broken outer walls. British Engineers who were constructing dams across Indian rivers have exploded the walls of this temple for granite for constructing dams.

In Picutres

How to reach

Gangaikonda Cholapuram comes in NH227 which connects Trichy to Chidamabaram

Gangaikonda Cholapuram is around 30km from Kumbakonam. Best way would be to hire a taxi from Kumbakonam. The route from Kumbakonam, goes via Anakarai. Anakarai has a dam over River Kollidam and as of this writing, buses can’t ply over the the dam, so one has to change buses near the dam or take a car straight from Kumbakonam.

From Chidambaram, Gangaikonda Cholapuram is around 48km. Again best mode would be a taxi or self-driven car.

The How to reach map is here

Enjoy

Plan for at least 2 hours inside this temple

Relish the rich carvings, architecture and frescoes of this temple.

Watch out for the following

North & South Entrance of the Mahamandapa, the flight of steps and Dwarakapalakas

Carvings of Narthana Ganapathi, Nataraja, Harihara, Ardhanareswara, Brahma and various other relics from Hindu mythology

Panels of artistic works running all around the Vimana and Mahamandapa walls

Ask the Pujari to show you the Lotus beneath the Siva Lingam

Feel the vibrations of the great history of this place & Cholas inside the temple, the most awesome part of this temple visit

This temple was built by erstwhile rulers of Travancore and to till this day it’s under the administration of the Royal family of Travancore. The architecture of the temple is fully inspired by the Dravdian architecture like the temples of Tamil Nadu, as characterized by tall Gopuram, long corridors and exquisite stone carvings.

Shrines Inside

1. Lord Padmanabha – in Shyana posture, lying on the serpent Anantha. This main deity is 18 foot long and one has to take darshan through 3 doors, through the first door you can see Lord’s face, and his hands. Below his right hand you can see a Shiva Lingam. Perhaps this is the only Vishnava temple where you can see Lord Vishnu and Shiva together. Also you can see the five hoods of the snake through the first door. Through the second door, one can see the mid portion of his body, look out for the lotus emanating from the navel and Lord Brahma sitting on the Lotus. Through the third door, one can see the feet of the Lord. The idol is made of Saligramas (precisely 120008 saligrams and mixed with some special kind of jaggery paste). Abhishekas are not performed in the main idol, and its only done on utsava idols (moorthies), which you can see through the middle door. The Utsava idols comprise of Sri Devi, Lord Padmanabha, Bhoo Devi (in that order). Also you can see two Maharishis Koundinya Maharishi and Diwakara Maharishi through the middle door.

2. Lord Narasimha – Just before entering the main sanctum in the threshold of South Side Gate, is the shrine of Lord Narasimha. One curious feature of this idol is that its right hand fingers are chopped off. Local Folklore says that this Narasimha (also called Ugra Narasimha) so powerful that the priests where afraid to do pooja seeing the ferocious face of the Lord so they have cut the fingers to reduce its power. Also just outside the Narasimha temple, Ramayana Parayana happens always this is believed to be to pacify the angry Narasimha.

3. Shree Krishna – This is a separate temple, outside the main temple complex which houses Lord Padmanabha and Lord Narasimha. The Shree Krishna temple is called Thrivambadi.

4. Hanuman & Garuda – Near the eastern entrance, while you walk towards the main Sanctum, are the huge and beautifully sculpted shrines of Hanuman & Garuda. Hanuman mostly has butter decoration and it’s made of a peculiar stone that butter never melts inspite of how much long its kept there or how hot the day is.

5. Other Shrines

Temple Highlights

• Long corridor paths with exquisite carvings on the pillars
• 100ft Gopuram or Vimana comprising of 6 floors. From the top floor through the west side you can see the Arabian Sea and from east side you can get a bird’s eye view of the city.
• Kulasekhara Mandapam, near Lord Hanuman temple. The pillars are very intricately carved and there are musical pillars. Keep your ears on the pillar and tap them and listen to the music.
• Mural paintings inside the main Sanctum and also inside Shri Krishna temple. These paintings are made from natural paints produced from leaves and plants. Also watchout for the painting of Sudarsha Chakram inside Shri Krishna Shrine.
• There a total of 365 pillars in the temple and there is also an 1/4th of a pillar near the Hanuman shrine, which makes 365 & ¼ pillars which is equivalent to number of days in an year.
• Padma Theertham, the temple pond outside the east gate of the temple. If you are a birdie go inside sit for a 20mts if you are lucky you might see cormorants hunting fishes.
• Kuthiramalika Palace opposite to Padma Theertham, has a very rare and exquisite collection of artifacts from Travancore Kingdom like Travancore army’s artillery, art collections of the palace, furniture of the palace etc. worth a visit.
• Clock tower opposite to Padma Theertham, (its called Metha Mani locally) it has two goats and a butcher’s face embedded on it on the top. When ever the clock is going the strike (once in every 30mts) the goats go and hit the butcher’s face and he opens his mouth. The number of times this happens is according to what time you are seeing it. So if you are around noon time in that place, you will never miss it. Just run to the clock when the first strike of 12 ‘o’ clock happens and witness this.

Darshan & Pooja
• Temple has very strict timings; safest time to visit would be between 8.30AM-11.30AM or 5.30PM-7.30PM. In the morning’s daily 7AM-8.30AM is reserved for the Royal family to have an exclusive darshan. If you are an early riser you can try for Nirmalyam at 4.30AM.
• Dress code is another deterrent which prevents many people from entering this temple. For male only dhoti’s are allowed, you cannot even carry your shirt/pant inside. No one is permitted to wear dress that displays both legs separately. This means no pants for men or churidhar/jeans for women.
• The only Pooja you can do is archana, for which you can get tickets inside the main sanctum. Do not fall trap to the sale of pooja tickets/flowers/coconut etc. near the main entrance, those are just commercial ventures operating for profit. Similarly the only Prasad one can get is the Sandal Paste. Other Prasad sales like Appam, Aravana, Pancha Mritham etc are just ventures for extracting money. The genuine Prasads like Pal Payasam, Meni Payasam need an advance booking at least one day ahead for you to get them. Do taste the yummy pal payasam if you are around for 2 or more days in Trivandrum through advanced booking.

Legends & Folklores
• There are many legends regarding the origin of the temple. One such legend says that the Sage Divakara prayed to Krishna for his darshan. Krishna came in disguise as a small, mischievous boy. The boy swallowed the Saligrama which was kept in Puja. The Sage became enraged at this and chased the boy until the boy hid himself behind a tree. The tree fell down and became Vishnu in Anantha Shayanam (reclining posture on Anantha the serpent)–but when he did so, he was of an extraordinarily large size. The Sage, recognizing that the tree was Vishnu, pleaded that because of the huge form the lord had manifested before him he could not either have a mind fulfilling darshan or circumbulate him. He then asked the Lord to shrink to a smaller proportion – thrice the length of his staff. Immediately, the Lord Vishnu shrunk himself, and told the sage that he should be worshipped through three doors. These doors are now the doors in the temple through which the idol may be viewed. Through the first door, the worship is offered to Shiva; through the second entrance to Brahma on the Lord’s lotus navel, and through the third is Vishnu’s feet, which are said to lead to salvation
• There are two other Vishnu temples in Trivandrum – one at Thiruvallam (near Kovalam) and other at Thripadapuram (near Technopark). When Lord manifested as a big form to Sage Divakara, his head was to be believed at Thiruvallam his mid portion was passing through the present temple and his feet reached Thripadapuram. So one can visit Thripadapuram to see the Lord’s feet and Thiruvallam for the Head.
• The whole area which encompasses this temple is called Ananthankadu (kadu means forest). This temple (or rather the idol of Lord Padmanabha) was accidentally discovered by a tribal woman cutting grass in the forests. Being a poor tribal she was offering steamed rice and raw mango to the Lord daily. And this practice continues to this day and this rice and raw mango forms the main Naivedyam (Bhog) for the deity.

How to reach
• The temple is just 15mts walking distance from main bus stand/railway station. One can hire autos from bus stand/railway station to reach there. Pay as per the meter and you can reach there in minimum fare.
• Watchout for the dress code and timings before embarking on the visit.

Enjoy
• The best time to visit the temple is between 7pm-8pm. The main sanctum is fully lighted with oil lamps, there is no electricity connections inside the main temple. Its really mesmerizing to have darshan in that ambience
• Walk around the temple, sit and relax in the sprawling sand banks all around the temple. Especially the evening times are very pleasant for this.
• Witness the Shiveli or procession which happens daily at 8pm around the temple. Lord Padmanabha, Narasimha and Krishna are taken around the temple complex for Shiveli.