TRAVELOGUE

Where: Tamil nadu, India

In December 2022, I undertook a 8-day journey backpacking across Tamil Nadu in south of India. I describe my travels in a 6-part series of blog posts. I will be blending my travelogue with local folklore, stories, cultural themes and my own personal experience to establish context. I traveled mostly in public transport, ate at local eateries. In this travelogue, I will be sprinkling some of the folklores associated with the particular place I visit so that you can try to visualize the land the way ancient travellers saw them.

I describe my travels in a 6-part series of blog posts. I will be blending my travelogue with local folklore, stories, cultural themes and my own personal experience to establish context.

The seed of my journey was sown when I accidentally stumbled upon a rather intriguing story from medieval Tamil Nadu. It was based on the author of Tiruppugazh, a collection of poems glorifying God Murugan (Tiru- Divine Pugazh- Praise). As the son of Shiva, he is worshipped as the God of love and war. He has tremendous following today in Tamil Nadu and all the places where a significant number of Tamils live. In fact, the most auspicious festival associated with him — Thaipusam is a national holiday in countries such as Mauritius and Malaysia. The author of this collection of poems was Arunagirinathar, and this was his story:

A medieval traveller-philosopher-poet

Arunagirinathar was born in a pious family in the temple town of Tiruvannamalai in the 14th century. He was destined for a life of intellect, exhibiting a sharp mind in his childhood vociferously devouring all that was available to read and composing poetry. But the loss of father and the yearnings of youth had other plans for him

Gradually, he descended into a life of debauchery with a knack for alcohol and womanising. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the boy once who had such a hold over the classical literature of the day barely could hold a pen anymore. All this happened right before the eyes of his mother and sister who had to keep financing his escapades while praying to mend his ways. It reached a point where this disease-ridden man (wonder why?) had squandered off his family wealth.

He realized his selfishness and his bygone youth, and wondered how irredeemable he had become.

The yearning however continued to kick in and one fine day he is furious at his sister for not being able to pay for his trips anymore. In an absolute act of desperation and helplessness, she offers to sell herself so that her brother could get the money to go satiate himself. At this moment something snapped inside him. He realized his selfishness and his bygone youth, and wondered how irredeemable he had become. “Who am I and what have I become?”, he cried while banging his head on the stairs and pillars of the ancient temple situated in the middle of the city. The irredeemable man climbed atop the tall temple gate and decided to end his life.

When he was about to jump to his death, he was saved by God Murugan who cured him of his diseases and convinced him to give life a second chance and write poems and songs which he excelled at. Arunagirinathar spent his remaining life composing rich literature spreading the praises of the lord across the Tamil country and lived up to the ripe old age of 80. His songs reflected contemporary Tamil society and emphasized a devout life of values, which can be heard to this date.

Landscapes and their significance in literature

Poets of the lore documented their extensive travels and also incorporated the Tamil landscape as devices in his poetry. Just like we read about different types of terrains in our geography text books, tamil literature from the sangam times (3rd century BCE) too had their own classification. The backdrop associated with each terrain was an instrument in the prevailing era's romantic poetry, with each conveying a different emotion. Each type of landscape had a unique character, and a corresponding deity. For instance, kurinji or the mountainous landscape was associated with union between lovers while palai or the desert landscape was associated with separation. Accordingly they are listed below along with the corresponding God from the Vedic pantheon they sought to represent.

• Kurinji (Mountainous) — Seyyon (Murugan)
• Mullai (Pastoral )— Mayon (Vishnu)
• Marudam (Plains) — Vendan (Indra)
• Neithal (Coasts )— Kadalon (Varuna)
• Palai (Deserts) — Kotravai (Kaali)

Each type of landscape had a unique character, and a corresponding deity.

Seyyon literally translates to the 'the red one' in tamil and him being the lord of mountains meant that all major shrines dedicated to him were on the top of a hill. This meant a lot of climbing if you were a pilgrim. There is one major exception though as I found out in Tiruchendur.

Arunagirinathar's travels

Arunagirinathar travelled extensively and the places he visited are listed in the map below, marked by small blue dots. You will find the entire list and descriptions here. Six of the places are however held with high regard as highlighted in this map. These are the six barracks of Lord Murugan or Aarupadaiveedu. They are spread across present day Tamil nadu and each shrine is associated with a significant event in the deity's life as I would discover later. They are marked with the bigger red circles on the map below.

each shrine is associated with a significant event in the deity's life

My travel route

With my inspiration to explore explained in the previous sections, I got down to chart my route. I had seven days in early December since I cannot possibly visit all the places he did, I decided to stitch together a route that combined the six shrines of Aarupadaiveedu and combine it with the poet’s birth place at Tiruvannamalai (larger blue circle in the map above) leaving me with 7 destinations. The six shrines are described in the following order in the literature (see map below)

#1. Tirupparankundram #2. Tiruchendur #3. Palani #4. Swamimalai #5. Tiruttani #6. Pazhamudhir sholai

It wouldnt really make sense to visit in this particular order as you can surmise by looking at the map. There was also the birthplace of the poet I was intending to visit in Tiruvannamalai. I nevertheless covered them all in order #2, #1, #6, #4, Birthplace, #5 and #3. All the places I get to pass by would then be bonuses. I would directly get to the southernmost destination (#2) and slowly make my way around the state to reach my home. It looked something like this:

Preparation

I wanted to travel light, be frugal and keep the trip simple. I just had the map listed above with the seven destinations I needed to cover and a rough idea on how to cover them across the following seven days. I planned to stay in local lodges (without pre-booking), take public transportation, walk as much as possible and eat in wayside restaurants — just how I like to travel. Here are the things I packed for the trip:

• Enough clothes to last a week ( 6x shirts, 4x veshtis, 1 jeans)
• A blanket in case I need to travel during the night
• A personal hygiene kit
• A total of 5000 Rs cash in person and a secret pouch in my bag
• Aadhar card (Identification document)
• My phone (+charger) and wallet with some cash for snacks and tea in between
• I had installed Agoda, OYO and Makemytrip apps in my phone in case I wanted to book rooms online

With the preparation for the trip covered, I slept for a early morning train from Palakkad junction the next day.

And it begins..

My journey started from my hometown — Palakkad. For the first leg of my journey, I took a train directly to the southernmost checkpoint — Tiruchendur. Luckily for me, there was a passenger train that departed early morning that reached the destination late afternoon. December mornings in the Palakkad pass are beautiful. The morning mist fills the skies and you can almost see the water droplets suspended in the air. The train just arrived at the station and I grabbed my seat.

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