India - South Indian temples

I am in the initial planning stages of a trip to South India, I plan to spend a week in the south. Madurai would be a must. I am looking for other suggestions in the vicinity, I plan to travel by train and bus.


TIA

Kumbakonam - amazing temples
Thanjavur - must see the Big Temple
(few hours by train from Madurai)

Trichy / Sri Rangam (four hours by Road from Madurai)

Rameswaram ...few hours train from Madurai.

Kanchipuram (near MAA...1.5 hours by road)

Kutralam
Kodaikanal - Hill station near Madurai
Thirunallar Saneeshwaran temple
Trivandrum and Kovalam beach

These are some places worth a visit if your schedule permits

Chidambaram-unique temple and unique hairstyle of "Chozhian" priests.
Gunaseelam-Suchindram near Madurai-Great ancient Anjaneya temple
'Of course the Great Tanjore temple-under UNESCO-clean and majestic
Thiruvannamalai-The great Ramana Maharishi lived there-great temple.
In Chennai itself-the kapaleeswara and the Parthasarathy temples. Even earlier dated-the Keshava perumal temple. Mylapore has great temples.
For great Murukku and Thenkuzhal, the Thiruchendur temple.
Many many, countless in south India. Of course, the unique navagraha temple near kadalur.

Not in the immediate vicinity, but Hampi in northern Karnataka is another nice location. Some very nice ruins there.

Not in the immediate vicinity, but Hampi in northern Karnataka is another nice location. Some very nice ruins there.

Fresh weed too :p

Trivandrum and Kovalam beach

^^

even though i didn't visit the temples here, i passed by some really nice ones on my recent trip....

I suggest Madurai, Thanjavur, Rameswaram, Mahabalipuram and Kanchipuram. Hampi is also nice, but it's kind of in the middle of nowhere.

Any more than this and they will all appear to be the same and you will get bored.

See - there's

1. Madurai

2. Thanjavur and the surrounding temples (the navagraha temples, etc - besides the thanjavur "big temple" / periya kovil)

3. Tirunelveli - nellaiappar temple, followed by the "nava tirupati" on the road to tiruchendur, and tiruchendur itself .. [of course, if you say tiruchendur, all the "aaru padai veedu" 6 murugan temples)

etc etc .. depends on which god you want to pray to, and what your interest is - architecture? prayers? special puja etc rituals at specific places?

Fresh weed too :p

:eek: ;)

You know a better question would be what interests you in a temple?
History, particular god, etc.

When I did my temple tour the first time, It was a week tour, starting from Guruvayoor, sabarimala, kanyakumari, rameswaram, madurai, tanjavur, vaideeswaran kovil (for the nadi josyam), chidambaram.

Palani is near there, but visited it on the 2nd trip.

TN is full of (more like too many) temples. If you are interested in a particular subject, you can construct your trip accordingly.

Best of Luck.

I am in the initial planning stages of a trip to South India, I plan to spend a week in the south. Madurai would be a must. I am looking for other suggestions in the vicinity, I plan to travel by train and bus.
TIA

Actually if you plan on traveling by train, have a proper plan of where you want to visit and you are a foreigner/NRI, I would suggest going the route of getting an Indrail Pass.

You can look up more on the Indian Railways website
http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/railwayboard/view_section.jsp?lang=0&id=0,2,320,380

http://www.indiarail.co.uk/indrail.htm
http://www.indiarail.co.uk/irprules.htm

I used to buy the 2nd AC, 60 day pass. You need to purchase it with foreign currency and show your passport saying you are a foreigner/NRI.

As soon as I buy, I also used to plan out my trip and make the reservations accordingly.

All reservations are free and you can get into any train you want. :)

And..if you are traveling a lot, it is way cheaper.

My journey's started from HYD and HYD-DEL itself in AC 2 Tier used to cost 7-9k. So, $200 (USD) for 60 days was worth it.

Thanks everyone for their suggestions. It seems I might not have enough time to do the temple tour.

I haven't got enough time for Indrail PAss to be economical. I have used Indrail pass once in the past. It was a good buy for 15 days. Now it's not.

Someone asked what interests me if I was interested in some specific god. The answer is no. My interest is architectural, historical and cultural, not religious.

For architectural reasons, nothing beats the Thanjavur Brihadishwara Temple also popularly known as the 'Big Temple'.

or Rameswaram.

FYI, I like this more than Madurai (even though most others here would prefer Madurai over any other).