Primarily because we visited some of these temples in the evening when it was dark and the photo did not come well.
We did not click the photos of all 71 Divya Desams we visited but managed to get for few of them.
Also after showing aarti in Tamilnadu, either kumkum or manjal is given to devotees whereas in Kerala Chandanam is given to devotees.
The alankaram is usually of Chandanam in Kerala which is not the case in Tamilnadu.
The other difference noticed between Divya Desams in Tamilnadu & Kerala is that the Bhattarachari narrate the story or the sthala puranams and show aarti in Tamilnadu whereas the melshanti or Kerala priest follow a silent ritual.
This is different in Kerala wherein the moolavars are in smaller size and mostly in standing posture, more like the size of Guruvayur Krishna. The moolavars in Tamilnadu are huge in structure and in various tirukolams or forms - standing, sleeping or sitting postures.
The construction of Perumal idol in Divya Desams in Tamilnadu is totally different than compared to Kerala.
Most of the toll charges we paid during this trip are on the NH7 highways of Tamilnadu and one at Palghat.
Total toll paid during this trip – Rs 1,520 to & fro from Bangalore.
In the toll roads in Tamilnadu, we can drive fast but we didn’t find toll roads in Kerala.
We also need adequate time when we plan for the travel, need to add buffer time to the time taken in the route as the road were found to pretty narrow in Kerala and really need to wade through the traffic and we can’t drive fast on the roads in Kerala.
In Tamilnadu we have paid parking at most of the temples ranging from Rs20 to Rs35 including some of the remote village temples also charge parking.
At Chotanikara, the parking is maintained by the devaswom board and charge Rs10 for car parking.
Padmanabha Swamy temple at Trivandrum has a huge parking 300 mts near the temple also maintained by devaswom board and they charge Rs 40 for car parking.
However some of the temples in remote villages may not exactly follow these timings. One point to note is that effectively we have less time in Kerala to visit temples.
Most of the temples in Tamilnadu opens early in the morning during the month of Margazhi (by 4:00 – 5:00 am) and most of them are closed between 12 noon to 4:00 pm.
So effectively we have lots of time in the afternoon and the planning has to be in such a way that we travel long distances during the afternoon.
Kerala temples opens quite early in the morning and closes by 11:00 am.
It will be wonderful if more devotees are able to travel to these temples and help preserve our rich culture and heritage.
Some of the temples in remote villages in Tamilnadu are not maintained adequately and some of them are in real bad shape which could be due to less people visiting these temples.
We would like to share some more information based on our experience during this trip Scenic beauty on the way – am sure we are going to miss this back in the city.Įlephant ride – An elephant being transported on a truck We had quick snacks alongwith Tea (a good one after few days during this travel) and my wife bought lots of snacks (Murukku, mixture, salted kaju, kodbele etc) from A2B for our family. Subsequently we took another break at A2B between Thoppur and Dharmapuri and filled XUV tankful at BP Ghar CoCo pump. As we started early from Palghat, it would take another 1:30 hrs to reach Salem so we decided to have our breakfast early by 8am as we were habituated to get up early and have early breakfast. We had seen few good restaurant at the asai dosi junction in Salem while coming from Bangalore a week ago – which includes The Saravana Bhavan, A2B, Vasanth Bhavan etc. This was not The Saravana Bhavan restaurant and we can find lots of restaurants on the highway with a similar name. We had breakfast at some Saravana Bhavan on the highway after couple of hours of leaving Palghat.
Route taken – Palghat, Coimbatore, Avinashi, Salem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Hosur, Bangalore (via NH47 and then to NH7)ĭay 11 - Route Map from Palaghat to Bangalore.
Distance travelled during the day – 403Km (Palghat to Bangalore).