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Temples of Kashi - The Tilbhandeshwar Temple

The city of Kashi is filled with temples, big and small, old and new. There are temples at every corner, and you never know where you will stumble upon a small shrine. There are idols beneath what remains of trees (there are hardly any trees any more within the core area of the city), there are saffron covered forms resembling deities which seem attached to walls, an especially incongruous sight when the idol itself appears to be old, while the wall is evidently new…. And there are surprisingly large temples rising from what appear to be a bunch of houses. The city is sometimes colloquially said to be as old as time, and some of the shrines and temples are said to date back to times unknown, at least the deity itself, if not the structure. Not much remains of the ancient structures anyway. The city has seen more than its fair share of good and bad times. It has seen the heights of grandeur, and the lows brought about by destruction. The city that exists today has grown so haphaza...
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Some Memorable Sights during my trip - And No temples this time.....

I have been writing pages and pages about my trip to Thanjavur and surrounding places, mostly temples. Here is something different. To finish off my series of blogs about my Diwali trip, let me invite you to join me in a different kind of tour – a tour through the eyes, or rather the lens of my camera. These are photographs taken over a period of 15 days, at various places. Let me assure you that there is not a single temple among them. These are purely of the sights I saw during my trip, something I will remember all my life, and would like to share with all of you.

From Diwali 08 - Thanjvur Trip
the sun set during our return trip from Rameswaram

From Diwali 08 - Thanjvur Trip
A lotus in a pond near Thirukkarugavur

From Diwali 08 - Thanjvur Trip
The road covered with husks near Nagapattinam

From Diwali 08 - Thanjvur Trip
A hermit crab leaving its shell at Kodikkarai

From Diwali 08 - Thanjvur Trip

From Diwali 08 - Thanjvur Trip
scenes near Vedaranyam

From Diwali 08 - Thanjvur Trip
A canal covered with flowers


From Diwali 08 - Thanjvur Trip

Butterflies perch on flowers at the Hotel Sadabhishekam nea Vaitheeswaran Kovil

From Diwali 08 - Thanjvur Trip


From Diwali 08 - Thanjvur Trip
A sparrow


From Diwali 08 - Thanjvur Trip
A Kngfisher at Chaayavanam

With this, I come to an end to my blogs about the temples around Thanjavur. Hope to start another such series soon......
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Location: Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, India

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