When to Travel – The best time for this trip is from March to October. The weather remains cool and apt for sightseeing in between these months.
Destinations
The Temple trail – Southern India Splendors
You may be a leisure seeker, culture buff or an avid art enthusiast. Every world traveller who wishes to touch upon an era of the past will find his soul seeking to rest in this unique journey. Opportunities to sample traditional music, dance, local customs or cuisines and learn about the culture abound for those so inclined.
Right from when you begin, you get to enjoy a slice of the Southern Indian life - be it how you are greeted with jasmine flowers, the mouth watering traditional Indian cuisine, the appealing elements of Indian architecture where the language of stone surpasses the language of man or the carefully designed experiences.
Trip Highlights
Fly into Madurai, a 2500 plus years old city. Visit the Meenakshi Sundareswarar twin Temple, the pivot around which the city has evolved. This complex is literally a city - one of the largest of its kind in India and undoubtedly one of the oldest too
Get a glimpse of the Chettiar era. Step into Chettinad home and find inspirations from their travels to Sri Lanka, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia
Pay a visit to the artisans’ workshops like the traditional tile-making and pottery units in Athangudi on a bullock cart. The brightly patterned Athangudi tiles were commissioned by the Chettiars for their mansions and are even today are entirely handmade
Tour the scenic surroundings and lush paddy fields that haven’t changed much throughout the last century
Relish the spicy and aromatic Chettinad cuisine in a traditional Chettinad residence that has now been converted by the family into a heritage hotel
Learn the traditional Bronze casting of the famous cire Perdue or lost wax technique by master craftsmen. Also learn age old Tanjavur painting technique with gemstones inlay
Join in the vedic chant and understand the inherent meanings explained by the priests
Enjoy chamber concert by vocalists, percussionists, flautists in carnatic tradition or Bharatanatyam by proficient local dancers
Visit a UNESCO World heritage site, The Brihadeeshwar temple - the grandest of all temples. With the help of an academic expert on restoration, architecture and iconography delve deeper in understanding the history behind it. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, this temple built during the Chola Dynasty has turned 1005 years in 2015
In Dindigul, stay in a Kottayam style (Kerala) wooden palace on a 40-acre coffee and pepper plantation and indulge in simple home made food...most of which sourced from their own farm
Learn about the tribal way of life, their cultural beliefs, a hands-on experience in honey collection and traditional coffee seed roasting methods
Interesting Tidbits
There are an estimated 33,000 sculptures in the Meenakshi temple
Mahatma Gandhi, when he first visited Madurai, saw group of shepherds walking in the street without wearing any shirt due to poverty, seeing them, he also decided to wear a 2 piece cloth - dhoti and a towel
The Temple Has 15,000 Visitors A Day And Receives More Than 60 Million Rupees In Donations
‘Chettinad’ also means a social caste that specialises in food preparation
The Raja family of Chettinad had more 1 lakh acre of Paddy fields in Burma and over 100 banks and properties in Malaysia , Vietnam and Srilanka
The main Brihadeeshwar temple is entirely built of granite. More than 130,000 tons of granite is said to have been used to build it
Inscriptions in the temple point towards Kunjara Mallan Raja Raja Perunthachan as the chief architect of the temple. His successors survive to this day and practice the art of Vastu or Vastu Shastra
VISA INFO
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