An Account of the Exploration of faith at Sathuragiri hills and Srivilliputhur

One fateful day(26th March 2013) Karthik Balu(me) woke up late as usual. It was around 9.30 am to be precise. And I began my day with fb browsing I saw some messages from Siva Subramanyam asking me to get to Egmore at 6.30pm. The plan was to go to Srivilliputhur and Sathuragiri hills. After getting ready for the trip, I made it from home at 4.30pm after charging phone, taking water bottles etc., etc., I reached the Egmore station at 5.30pm. I was standing at the ticket booth taking the tickets when a guy in dark blue shirt tapped me and said hi. Duh, That was Siva. It was nice seeing him after a long time and after getting the tickets we chatted and planned and were charging his phone at one of the charging booths. While standing there, incidents of highlight include seeing a fat rat going into the sewers and a young woman’s fall on the slippery ground. After 15 mins or so, our third companion Arunachalam arrived! We got off well and after some enquiry, reached the platform to find the stupid train already standing with the people stationed inside the unreserved compartment already. We went to the two unreserved compartment locations at the beginning and the end of the train coach to no avail. There, we met two groups offering us seats. One was a group of bad-boys and the other was a group of seat brokers offering us seats for 50rs each even after us paying for the seats already. A little mention of the fat broker regarding the seats got Siva and Arunachalam to a place near the seats. There, we got up into three vacant upper berth seats where we tossed and turned until we were comfortable! We had a fourth guy from Sivakasi, who would later treat us to samosas, for company. After an uneasy sleep and comfortable chatting about colleges and movies and sitcoms, we made it to the fair town – Srivilliputhur! It was about 7am when we made it there. Srivilliputhur was scenic and inviting! We got into a share auto to the main town and went first to the famous Andal Temple after some refreshment.

The time was 8.20 am when we entered the temple and after going round, seeing the deities and enjoying the awe-inspiring architecture, we made it to the Vishnu temple, whose Gopuram forms the official symbol of Tamil Nadu government! After seeing the deities there and the garden inside the temple premises and meeting the late-due-to-coffee acharaya, we took some pictures and left to have our breakfast. After eating we left to a temple in which Lord Siva was the presiding deity, in a share auto. After a quick look into the temple (there was no power at that time!) we left to the Srivilliputhur bus-stand and boarded a bus to Watrap. We went to Watrap and got into a share-auto for Thaanipaarai, which was the base of Sathuragiri hills. We commenced our climb at 10.20am, after a refreshing lemon sherbet and a mango spiked with masala powder! Our path upwards was marked with a visit to a little water fall, where we refreshed ourselves and numerous calls for breaks from Arunachalam and myself. How Siva endured us, I don’t know! We also stopped for suku-coffee in between and saw a water spring with supposed medical qualities also. I also recall a sadhu anointing my forehead with ash. We proceeded upwards also stopping at two or three temples. All the people coming down told us that the destination was “only” 45 minutes away! We finally reached the temple top at 2.00 pm.(five hours of trekking!) There were two temples there, I think. One of the temples has Lord Siva’s lingam in a crossed posture.

We immediately enquired for the Dhaavasi Paarai which was said to have a sadhu meditating inside. It was supposed to be a cave where one can only crawl in and was located few feet below the summit of the hill. We set out on a thorny, stony (not rocky!) path. Stones hurt your feet more than the flat surfaces of rocks! After reaching the top after an hour or so, we crawled inside the rock after some persuasion from an old man nearby.

A little bit of cave-crawling

We saw a sadhu in deep meditation. We wished not to disturb anyone and so, after some quick snaps, we crawled back outside. We made our way to a rock where temperatures were way below the current temperature. The rock was called AC rock, and offered a bird’s eye view of the town below! After some time there, we made our way to the temples below in an alternate route. We were anxious because the mountains were notorious for wild animals except lions and we made our way quickly and silently. We saw bear marks on our way. We finally reached a place where a huge Siva lingam had been crafted out of a single rock.

AC temperatures at this Rock on the Cliff-face. Dubbed as "AC Paarai" by locals

We met some wayward youth there, who asked us for food and offered us drugs. After a polite but firm “no”, we proceeded to the place where the temples were there. I was anxious to proceed to the bottom now, because of the encounter with the youth. The journey was marked with a single stop which was at a spring where water dripped from a rock drop by drop. We reached our destination and proceeded straight to the Anna Dhanaam area. It was about 5.10pm. We had made it nearly to the summit and seen everything that can possibly be seen and were back in almost 3 hours! I ate to my heart’s content and after 30 minutes of rest and some shopping, we set out to the bottom at 6.10pm. It grew dark very soon, in nearly 30 minutes. After careful running wherever possible, tireless walking, wading through an overflowing stream in total darkness, and stopping for suku-coffee in between, we made it to the bottom-to Thaanipaarai at around 8pm, in an hour and 40 minutes!! We got an auto to Watrap where we stretched our legs and gazed at the receding silhouette of the hills in wonder of all that had happened so fast, but etched equally fast in our minds. We got a bus at Watrap to Srivilliputhur, during which I was super-dazed and was in a semi-sleepy state. It was around 9.15pm when we then got into a bus from Srivilliputhur to Madurai. We made it to Madurai at 11.15pm and went to a hotel and had parotas for dinner and jiggirthanda for refreshment! Mind you, I was still in a dazed state! We boarded a bus from Madurai to Chennai at nearly midnight. I had an easy time falling asleep and was woken up by Siva near vandaloor. He asked me to get down at Perungalathur which was nearer to my place at Tambaram, than the bus’ last stop at Koyambedu(CMBT). I waved my goodbye to Siva and Arunachalam and made my way home in two buses. The End of the epic journey forever etched in my memory.