So, on Day 5, we had two major places of interest, both of which are central to both history and the plot of Ponniyin Selvan. In the novel, Senthan Amuthan is introduced as a young man who tends to the flower garden attached to the Thirumazappadi temple. I was determined to see this one and…
Category: History
On the Vanthiyathevan trail – IV
Day 4 was fairly laid-back. There wasn’t much on our agenda except the Thanjavur Brihadeeshwara temple and then off to Trichy. However, a minor development made our day a bit more exciting than we anticipated. My mother called in the morning to let us know that Tamil news channels were talking of the floodwaters rising…
On the Vanthiyathevan trail – III
The best part of going on a trail of places we’ve only ever heard of is that we can never be too sure if we actually end up where we’re supposed to. Day 3 was perhaps the most interesting of our five-day trip. While we all know that Kumbakonam is a town filled with temples,…
On the Vanthiyathevan trail – II
Day 2 was far more interesting than we expected it to be. The beautiful Vadavaaru accompanied us much farther than we thought it would. The first stop on Day 2 was the Thillai Nataraja Temple. Day 2 – Stop 1 – Thillai Nataraja-Sivakama Sundari Temple – Chidambaram Not that this temple requires much introduction. Purported…
On the Vanthiyathevan trail – I
There are vacations. And there are vacations. The first kind are those you plan, you book yourself into a nice resort or hotel, you take a train or a flight and you go. The destination is clear. And so is the plan. And then there are other vacations. You have no idea where you want…
Of democracy and democratic traditions…
There has been a raging debate on the origins of Indian democracy on Twitter ever since I tweeted about Christophe Jaffrelot’s latest Foreign Policy Review Essay, comparing democracy in India and in Pakistan. I strongly recommend that you read Jaffrelot’s article and Nitin Pai’s superb fisking of the essay at The Acorn, before moving on…
Tanjavur
I leave for Tanjavur by car from Srirangam on Thursday morning. A long night on train, a freezing cold air-conditioned coach ensuring I get hardly any sleep and the fact that the train arrives in Trichy at an unearthly 4 AM result in me falling asleep barely fifteen minutes after leaving Srirangam. About 50 minutes…
It’s our heritage dammit!
I had a conversation with someone yesterday that went something like this. Me: I really want to go back and see Sadras. There is so much more to see in that fort. X: Sadras? Where is that? Me: Behind the Kalpakkam Atomic Power station. X: Oh! That old building? Yeah! I know of it. I…
Therukoothu – spontaneous street performance?
The September 21 issue of Outlook carries an article by Shruti Ravindran titled Life’s A Proscenium. If you can read this article, and not take offense, then it means one of two things. Either you have an inordinate amount of tolerance for bullshit, or you have no clue what Therukoothu is all about. In the…
Azhagana Thenmadurai…
The Meenakshi Temple, fragrant strands of jasmine, the three Tamil Sangams…these are what you generally associate with the city of Madurai. And of course, the beautiful and lyrical way in which people there speak the Tamil language we, here in Chennai, are so accustomed to massacring. But, actually arriving in Madurai in August 2009 is…