South West Temples trip

South West Temples trip.
A Trip led by Krishnakumar TK
This time, am ending with credits. Lets jump in.
Krishnakumar, after our last trip to Tirumalai, Thiruvalam and Melpadi offered to take us to Madambakkam and surrounding temples for a temples trip.
So on the 30th of July, 12 of us assembled at the Saidapet bus stop, waiting for the van. For the first time since I joined heritage in 2015, I was not the youngest on a trip!
The van was a little delayed in coming, but once it did, we went to Velachery to pick up the rest of the group, and stopped at Medavakkam for breakfast. We met Nivedita there, who was following us in her car as she had recently broken her leg.
After breakfast we went to the first stop.

Stop 1: MS gallery.
A school, run by the Kanchi Mutt, in Medavakkam houses lots of photos of the singer Madurai Shanmugavadivu Subblakshmi.
This gallery houses pictures of her with many famous personalities, ranging from the king of Bhutan to Rajaji to Queen Elizabeth.
In the middle of the room is a (very badly made) model of her with veena.
On the walls are (apparently) 4-5 photos of her, but all of them look the same, with the sari tinted a different colour.
MS's achievements(displayed there ) are:
Padma Bushan, Sangeetha Kalainidhi, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Ramon Magsaysay, Padma Vibhushan, Kaldas Samman, Indira Gandhi award for national integration.

The photos, with herself, and husband Sadasivam in a majority, followed by an addition of Rajaji, dominate the walls.
This gallery houses all this to the left, 1 lakh rudraksha malais forming a lingam to the right, and straight on and upstairs, relics, models and photos of the Kanchi Mutt Swamigal(1897-1997). This was the major part of the building. We looked around this area for quite a while, clicking away.
This man was the Kanchi Mutt Seer, and believed to be like a God. He was very humble and down-to-Earth(or so I've been told), and had very few personal belongings. He would give talks, and seems to have been visited by a lot of famous personalities.

Nivedita Louis 's car was not allowed to enter the premises, and they made her hobble all the way in and out, through a long curved driveway. She muttered curses at them all the way as she limped back on one leg and her walker back to the car.
As we got into our vehicles, we realised 4 people had still not come back! I found them still inside the compound, oblivious to the fact that everyone else had got into the van.

We drove to Dheenapureeswarar kovil after this.
There, 2 people on their own vehicles joined us for the next stop.

Stop 2:

Dheenapureeswarar Kovil, Madambakkam.

After our school visit, we came straight to the temple. The temple is hidden away amongst some more popular, modern ones, but its simple grandeur grabs the attention as soon as we turned onto the small lane on which it was located.

We entered the temple, and instantly everyone started clicking. A priest automatically came up and said "no pictures". Luckily, this time, we were prepared, and this being an ASI monument, we had the documents allowing photography. I ran back to the van and got it.

First off, Krishnakumar TK gave us a quiz on the mythological characters to be found on the pillars of the outermost mandapam of the temple, as my mama, Suresh An joined the group. Built by the ever-prosperous Vijaynagaras. the sculptures and pillars of this mandapam are beautifully carved. There were a few kalvettu on the rear wall, by the doorway, but too faint to read. To the side was an enclosed space, reached by steps. Nivedita Louis sat on these steps when we went inside.

Inside, the first area is Pandya. Circular pillars, with rare carvings, the serious austerity of the stern, vengeful Pandyas is brought out.

The innermost mandapam is Chola, with kalvettu all along the walls of the gaja prashta. In these inscriptions, we could see Chola mandalam, Puliyur kottam, Madambakkam, an occasional 'konda' and even a few Kulothungas. Sundara Cholan, AKA Paranthaka II's Prime Minister, Aniruddha Bramharayar, is set to have donated to this temple.

The Chola mandapam pillars are full of fun interesting pillars with different carvings.

We then exited, and said around talking and taking pictures outside. As Nivedita Louis, Venkatesh Ramakrishnan, Kannan Palani, Rajini Babu and I sat talking and preparing to leave, we noticed that a lot of people were not yet ready to yet. In fact, the trip leader, Krishnakumar TK himself, was still not out! I went to fetch him, and found him along with a few others listening to a priest tell them about the mythology of the temple. I left them alone and came back out. They too were soon out, and luckily for this interaction, we got to see the covered portion behind the screen in the Vijaynagar mandapam. There were some interesting carvings there, as well as some temple artefacts.

After this, we decided to leave.

We then got back into our vehicles, me getting into Nivedita's car for now, and we went to the next stop:

South West temples trip: Stop 3: Ottiambakkam Otteeswarar: 
There was actually not much of a heritage reason for going to this place, except to see the largest Shiva lingam of Chennai, at about 7 and a half feet tall.
The temple is very simple, with a concrete structure, and only one deity. The shivalingam is Chola, but completely covered by cloth. We went to see it in two rows, and then decided we would go to the next stop. But the priest, hearing that we were here to see heritage, sent us to see the Jain idols in the next plot. Nivedita Louis and Sri Ragh got into the car and came, the rest of us walked.
There was another temples virza going on at that time, and two bulls had been tied up to a mattu vandi near the idols. These Jain idols definitely had antiquity, but approaching them would definitely be a problem with the bulls around. We cautiously sidestepped these bulls, already agitated by the noise of the crackers, shouting people and drums, and took our pics.
Correction: only one bull was tied down. I noticed that its rope just hung loose, as it turned its head this way and that. I quickly headed back to the car( which i had come to the temple in, and would go to the next place in). The others were not too fazed, except when the bull looked in their direction. They were in the van/car(s)/on bike soon enough.
Our next stop was to be a Pandya era temple.

Stop 4: Surprise visit:
 Vijaynagar roadside shrine: We were just driving down the road, the group in the van, Nivedita Louis Sri Ragh and I in the car, when we suddenly came to a halt. There to the right was a small temple, no mandapams, nothing, the stones themselves not sitting properly. We got out of the vehicles and went closer to investigate. It was a ruined Vijyanagar temple, identifiable by the architecture , and the Garuda embossed above the entrance. Some people in the group suggested I climb in, out of fun, and I took their challenge. The Mandapams entrance was actually five odd feet off the ground, so to get in, I had to find hand and footholds all over the base. But in a few minutes I was in. Inside there were two rooms. The outer room where I was standing had one wall leaning outward, and the rest was stable. The inner room was intact completely. The inner room would have held the idol at some point. It now just has a photograph, and an abandoned ant hill. Venkateswaran Radhaswamy's daughter Nivedita also joined me in the mandapam, and after looking around for a while, and taking photos, and having photos taken, we came down. I then decided to look around the outside of it. The base at the entrance has the figure of a man carved into it, but the rest of the base is plain. But as I walked around, I realised the ground under my feet felt funny. I took a step, and realised it was at a level, and semisolid. The whole thing was not mud, but cowdung. Left leg forward. Only a couple of steps left till I got off it. The dung held, and I put my right leg forward. Down it sank. I scrambled off, kicking off the dung. Everybody laughed, and Venkataraman Prabhakar came with me, to a nearby house, where they got some water for me to wash my feet. Then I got into the van, and we were off to the next stop, a Pandya era temple. Luckily, it was so far not a hot day, and even looked overcast at certain places


Stop 5: Mambakkam Muruganadeeswarar: 
This is a Pandya era temple, enclosed by short white brick walls, with a tank, and small buildings. Picturesque, and relaxing, if not for the high rises behind. 
One of the shrines is supposed to have kalvettu, but over the years, its been erased, so its completely unintelligible now. 
We spent some time here looking around taking pictures, before deciding it was time for lunch.

Two Muneeswarans: 
Stop 6: The field muneeswaran
after lunch, we headed out to the fields. There, through a small footpath through the paddy we reached a Muneeswaran. This muneeswaran is not old, nor anything spectacular, but the reason Krishnakumar TK chose to include it in our trip was because of the experience of getting to it through the fields. 
Again, the Adi Virza was going on, and loud music and singing was going on via microphone. There was a point where a woman became 'possessed', and started dancing, and had to be exorcised. 
This Muneeswaran is by an Amman kovil.
Nivedita Louis was unable to come walking all the way, so sat in her car. But managed to see it from her car. 
Stop 7: The tall man:
Our next stop was at the tallest Muneeswaran in Chennai's environs. This guy stands at 51 feet, and is surrounded by a host of other gods. Behind him is the huge temple tank. Luckily for us, it started drizzling while we were here, and we enjoyed the rain as it lasted. 
After a few group photos, we headed to our last stop of the day; Pallavaram dargah.

South West temples trip: Stop 8: Hazrat Sayeed Badrudeen Shaheed dargah: 
Santhome was always a pavam city. The Portugese there had their own moments of destructive action, but were attacked, twice by Golconda, and once by the Dutch from Santhome. 
It was during the first invasion of Santhome, under Mir Jumla, that a man named Sayeed Badrudeen flew the flag of Golconda from the mast of the Santhome fort. But in putting it up, someone cut off his head. In this state, hes supposed to have ridden to Pallavaram, where his head fell off, and the Dargah built where his head fell. Now there is a Dargah there, maintained quite well, with a small graveyard around it. 
We got there at about 4, and the first thing I noticed were all the houses lining the cemetery. There was also a group of boys there, playing cricket. 
We looked around, and because we had actually not intended to come here(our intention was to go to the Moula Ali dargah on top of the hill), we were out quickly.

Kombai S Anwar's article was read out here, from which I have taken the above synopsis on Hazrat Sayeed Badrudin.

South West Temples trip: Final stop: Moula Ali dargah: The dargah of Moula Ali was built sometime in the earlier part of the 20th century, by the Muslims who live in the area. Its more a mosque than a dargah, and has a long staircase to reach the shrine. The mosque is divided into chambers. The front most is spacious, and connected to a small one at the back with no door between them. There, in the main area of the mosque, some women were singing qawwalis. Women in a mosque in the main shrine is very rare. Singing qawwalis...must be a speciality of this mosque. 
The mosque has two passage ways on either side of the shrine that lead to two smaller rooms. 
Outside is a large open area, with a view of the Pallavaram town, and the city beyond. To the side of the mosque is a staircase leading to a flagstaff room. 
We looked around, and then split off, said our goodbyes, and were dropped off at our various points, and went home.

But before we go, I want to mention something. This dargah was actually an old Pallava cave. Five caves, with inscriptions, which were taken over as a mosque.With changing population, buildings change too. We have 19th century sketches, and 20th century descriptions and photos. But now, its gone, behind tiles and cement.