Sholinghur, Tiruvalangadu & Tiruvenpakkam

We visited Sholinghur, Tiruvalangadu and Tiruvenpakkam on 6 Dec 2008.


We started at 6 in the morning, took the Bangalore highway (NH4), had breakfast at Sri Motel (there aren't too many places to eat after this till Sholinghur) , took a right turn at Kaveripakkam (SH128) and reached Sholinghur by 915 (29km from Kaveripakkam) . SH128 wasn't too good for the first few kms and got better as we went along.


Sholinghur is a Divya Desam, sund by Alwars. Narasimhar is atop a 1300 step hill (Periya malai) and Anjaneyar, atop 400 step hill (Chinna Malai). The place is called Thiru Kadigai. There are 4 pasurams. Periya malai is a 45 minute climb and the Chinna malai, 15min. There are dolis available for faint hearted and feeble bodied.

Here is yet another proof for Ramar Sethu. This is not a Ramar Petrol story. Rama, along with vanara sena, was returning to Ayodhi from Lanka. He came to rest at Sholinghur. Vanara Senai got excited, as was their wont, and started jumping from tree to tree, eating fruits, plucking flowers, throwing stones in a general mayhem. It was time to leave. As Rama left, some of the vanaras could not join him as they had gone to the other side of the hill. Descendants of vanara sena still exist in Sholinghur. I think archeologits, looking for proof of Ramar Sethu, are climbing up the wrong tree.


Big business here is 'Stick business'. The hill is full of monkeys, which take away your eatables, snatch your mobile phones etc. Many shops here sell 5feet long sticks to protect you against the simians.


Krishna Bhaktas are establishing Gosalas to protect "descendants of cows grazed by Lord Sri Krishna Himself." So far, noone has taken steps to protect monkeys which are descendants of vanara sena. They snatched our waterbottle!





The world is abound with people with sense of humour. Some of them could also be Nayanmars. When the Lord asked her what was that she wanted, Karaikal Ammayar said she wanted to be a Ghost! She resides these days at Tiruvalangadu. We were curious. More about it later