The absence of ancient Hindu structures in Kashi is something I have always lamented about. The shrines are certainly ancient, and that is something that has always attracted me to the city. However, I miss the beauty of the ancient structures that we see at other sites. This feeling is intensified when I see marble and concrete and tiles in temples that once would have been beautifully adorned with evocative sculptures, and worn by the passage of time, touched by the hands of seekers who came before. This time , this desire to see some remnants of an ancient Hindu structure in Kashi came true when I managed to visit the Kardameshwar Temple. The Kardameshwar temple is not one of the main temples in the city. It is part of the temples on the Pancha Kroshi yatra, a pilgrimage which takes one on a circumambulatory tour of the whole city. The temple is located on the outskirts of the city, on the western bank of a tank called the Kardama Kund. The Kardameshwar temple is one of the...
The Sripuram Golden temple at Vellore was one temple I had been hearing a lot about, but had no plans of visiting on my Tirupati trip. For one thing, it wasn’t an ancient temple which draw me much more than anything else, and secondly, I felt it would be a better idea to make a visit from Chennai rather than Tirupati. However, as it happened, we found ourselves taking the APSRTC package tour to Kanipakkam and Sripuram, thanking our stars for the decision, since it poured constantly all day long, and we saw flooded roads all along the route. We would surely have been stalled had we taken any other mode of transport!
The Sripuram Golden temple has been built on 100 acres of land in Vellore by the Narayani Peetham headed by Shakti Amma. It’s a beautifully constructed temple situated in the centre of exquisitely laid out gardens and a pathway in the shape of a star. Cameras were not allowed inside, so I could not take any pics, but a google search yielded too many, so here are a few, as well as youtube video taking us through the temple.
For more information, go to the temple website which has all the details you could possibly want to know - http://www.sripuram.org/
To incite you to want to know more, here are a few photographs. I reiterate that all these images are from the internet!
Information:
The Sripuram Golden Temple is about 120 Km from Tirupati and about 150 Km from Chennai.
The nearest railway station is Katpadi, 18 Km away, and the nearest bus station is at Vellore, 10 Km away.
There are plenty of buses from Chennai, Bangalore and Tirupati to Vellore.
APSRTC conducts a package tour to Kanipakkam and Sripuram Golden temple, by non-AC bus. The bus starts fromTirumala a 8:00 AM and reaches Srinivasam Complex, Tirupati at 9:30 AM. The bus returns to Tirupati by 7:30 PM. The bus only runs if there are a minimum of 10 passengers, so please check in advance at the APSRTC counters at Tirumala / Tirupati before making any plans. Also, they allow enough time for darshan, so it is quite a comfortable experience.


I also never felt that I should visit this temple as I am also interested in visiting ancient ones. But who knows, like you I may also land up there. I heard that no camera, no mobile is allowed inside the temple grounds.
ReplyDeleteLooks a very opulent temple... Magnificent!!
ReplyDeletenice temple ...
ReplyDelete@Chitra: I would love to hear what u think of the temple after u visit it!! and u are right.... u can go in just with the purse and nothing more... security is really tight!! and u cant even get a decent pic from outside!
ReplyDelete@Arti: Opulent is just the word!!
@Team G Square: it is!!
yes siripuram temple is so good and see this ramalayam its also very good
ReplyDeleteThanks Krishna!
ReplyDelete