Tiruchendur Temple

Unlike my other blog posts, I am going to start this one as a trip report of my journey from Calicut, Kerala and later provide you with general details about Tiruchendur.

Tiruchendur temple is one of the 6 padai veedu - Six abodes of Lord Muruga (others being Thiruthani, Swamimalai, Palani, Pazhamudhircholai, Thirupparankunram. So for someone from a family that chooses temples over beaches for a vacation, I had been to all the 5 padai veedu and a frequent visitor to Palani temple. 

Tiruchendur is connected by train to Chennai daily. We decided to travel to Coimbatore to take the Nagercoil express till Tirunelveli and the Tiruchendur express from there. This is a fairly good travel plan for those from Kovai, Erode etc. We reached Tirunelveli early morning, there was a lot of autos- taxi people trying to get us to travel to Tiruchendur by taxi, the rates quoted were really high and will certainly recommend the train or the bus ( my return journey). The train arrived on time and we were at Tiruchendur by 8:30. We took an auto from the railway station and checked into a hotel near the temple. The hotels are fairly cheap with less than Rs 1000 for well maintained double rooms.

We were at the temple by 10am and it wasn't rush hour, so we had a fairly quick darshan.There will be people ( priests ) approaching you and something like Rs 500 they take you really close to the diety and give you special prasad too (not recommending since I am not sure if the temple actually endorses it but you can surely give this a try).

The temple is pretty special as it's close to the beach unlike Lord Muruga temples on top of hill. There is a cave of Goddess Valli which you can visit nearby.

Guruvayur Temple

Next up in my blog about South Indian temples is the Guruvayur Sri Vishnu Temple located in Kerala . This is one of the most visited temples in Kerala and is often referred to as Bhuloka Vaikunta ( Holy Abode of Vishnu on Earth ).

The presiding deity of the Guruvayur Temple is Vishnu, worshipped in the form of Guruvayurappan. The central icon is a four-armed standing Krishna carrying the conch Panchajanya, the discus Sudarshana Chakra, the mace Kaumodaki and a lotus with a Holy basil garland. This image represents the majestic form of Vishnu as revealed to Krishna's parents Vasudeva and Devaki around the time of Krishna's birth; hence Guruvayur is also known as "Dwarka of South India". He is currently worshipped according to routines laid down by Adi Shankara and later written formally in the Tantric way, the inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, by Cennas Narayanan Nambudiri (born in 1427). The Cennas Nambudiris are the hereditary tantris (high priest) of the Guruvayur Temple.

Thulabharam is a famous offering at this temple where devotees offer items like plantain, cocunut , sugar or even gold . Also a lot of children have their first meal (choroonu ) at this temple .

The history of this temple is well known (can find it at a lot of websites) , I will focus more on making your pilgrimage smooth.

How to Reach

Guruvayur is located in Thrissur district of Kerala and about an hour's drive from Thrissur - major railhead .

Guruvayur is well connected by road to various places like Thrissur , Kochi ,Palakkad , Calicut,Trivandrum with frequent bus services by both KSRTC and Private buses. 

Guruvayur also has a railway station which is connected to Trivandrum ,Thrissur , Kochi ,Madurai , Chennai Egmore via train. Thrissur is the major station on the Kochi - Shoranur Mainline with connectivity to all major cities in India.

The nearest airport is the Cochin International Airport (2 hours drive) which is connected well to Indian metros , Middle East and South East Asia. 

Accommodation

Accommodation facilities have improved a lot along with dining in recent years. You can easily find good hotels using makemytrip or goibibo in Guruvayur with rooms for all budgets. There are also Devaswom guest houses though they can't be booked online.

Note : 

Devotees should enter the temple in Dhoti ( Pants are not allowed).

The queues at this temple can be pretty large on weekends and special occasions( especially the Sabarimala season).