After visiting the temples in Chennai and Kanchipuram we stayed one night in Pondicherry. The next day we did a group of temples . We started our day early – leaving by 5 am .

We had a hired car for the entire day and the driver waited for us while we prayed inside . Highly recommend this if you have not travelled extensively in India .

Chidambaram Nataraja Temple

Chidambaram temple was the first temple on our stop . This is an ancient Shiva temple built in the 10 th century by the Chola kings . The temple was beautiful and again incredible engineering for its time . We prayed and walked around the temple . It is a massive structure in a large compound . At the end of it I bought myself a Thamari poo ( Lotus flowers ) . As a kid in Sri Lanka I used to love these flowers .

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Thirumanancheri Temple

Another temple we visited was Thirmanancheri Temple known for its powers to remove obstruction in the path of delayed marriage and also reunite separated couples .

It is a 1000 year old temple . Famous for praying if you needed someone to get married .

We visited this temple and I prayed for my friends who weren’t married at that time and was looking for a good life partners . Happy to say – as I write this both of my friends are happily married .

Swamimalai Temple

We also visited a famous temple called Swamimalai Temple – a Murugan temple . There are six famous Murugan temples in South India and this was one of them . My husband wanted to visit all six so we made a stop here .

This temple is near Kumbakonam on the bank of Kaveri river . It is a very old temple, believed to be in existence from 2nd century BC .

Conclusion

There are so many temples in the Kumbakonam and Thanjavur area and these three held special meaning for us .