Thanjavur Kumbakonam Trichy temple trip
When you are parents of two kids, one of the biggest challenges
(apart from understanding their homework) is planning a VACATION.
With their varied interests — and of course their dream places — identifying a single destination that works for everyone takes time. We juggle multiple options, weighing factors like food, travel time, arrival schedules, and nearby attractions. Over the years, we’ve visited several picturesque and adventurous places, both in India and abroad. Surprisingly, though, religious destinations have been few and far between.
That changed last December.
What began as planning for a purely religious trip (met initially with groans and sighs) turned into a fun and educational seven-day journey — for the kids and for us. Planned entirely at the last minute, all our bookings were done in full tatkal mode.
Through this series, I’ll walk you through our journey across the Thanjavur–Kumbakonam–Trichy belt. I know many of you may have visited these places before, but I hope you’ll still discover a few new nuggets of insight — and perhaps relive a memory or two — through our experience.
Let’s start!
Day 1 – 28 Dec 2025: Chennai to Trichy to Thanjavur
We took the Vande Bharat Express (20665) from Chennai to Trichy at 3:10 PM. After a good lunch at home, we packed dubbas of curd rice and a few sandwiches for later. The kids had brought books to read and pencils to draw, but Mr and I insisted they look out of the window — because that is the pure joy of train travel.
We had two window seats to ourselves.
And two kids who had absolutely no interest in them.
I was genuinely taken aback by how this generation doesn’t seem to enjoy the simple pleasure of watching the world go by from a fast-moving train. I remember having bloody wars with cousins and friends to grab those seats, especially in second-class compartments. The wind on our faces, the rhythm of the tracks, the sway of the train, and bonding with strangers in no time at all — it was a different world altogether.
With today’s AC trains, that charm is largely missing. People rarely looked up from their phones — and when they did, it was only to collect their food trays. That said, we do get cleaner coaches and bathrooms, as my EO very practically pointed out.
After a few failed attempts at persuasion, we gave up and left the kids to their own devices.
We reached Srirangam around 6:10 PM. Mr then decided to book tickets on a passenger train to Thanjavur, scheduled to depart at 6:55 PM from platform 6. The Vande Bharat was supposed to arrive at platform 1 by 6:25 PM, giving us what we thought was enough buffer.
Except that at 6:25 PM, we were still ten minutes away from Trichy Junction — and that’s when the panic began.
We finally rolled into platform 1 at exactly 6:40 PM. Our connecting train was from platform 6. We hauled our four pieces of luggage through the subway (which was flooded), reached platform 6 by 6:45 PM — and found no train in sight.
Relieved, we assumed it hadn’t arrived yet.
That relief lasted all of ten seconds, until we saw people sprinting towards a train nearly 200 metres away. With the clock ticking at 6:52 PM, we ran too.
Just before climbing in, I suggested — very calmly — that we confirm if this was actually our train. I was met with full-blown resistance, layered with irritation, and we boarded anyway.
Once inside, we navigated the crowd, found seats, and finally settled down for the one-and-a-half-hour journey. The weather was pleasantly cool, and the kids enjoyed their first-ever passenger train ride to Thanjavur.
We reached Thanjavur around 8:30 PM and checked into Hotel Gnanam, near the old bus stand. Back in 2005, when I was studying at SASTRA, this was one of the town’s few three-star hotels. I had always dreamed of staying here once I started earning. Checking in that evening brought with it a quiet sense of pride and satisfaction.
Dinner was at Arya Bhavan, where the YO had his first triangular dosa. With an eventful day behind us, we called it a night around 10 PM — wrapping up an exciting start to our trip.
Day 2 – 29 Dec 2025: Thanjavur Maratha Palace and Brihadeeshwara Temple
The next morning, the four of us had a pretty heavy breakfast and headed out to the Thanjavur Maratha Palace. In all the four years I studied in Thanjavur, I had never visited this place. Mr was quite shocked when he heard this. Apparently, I wasn’t very interested in history back then — thanks to the many confusing subjects already on my plate. That said, this place is a must-visit, especially for kids who want to know more about Maratha history.
During our recent trip to Mahabaleshwar, my YO had developed an obsession with the Maratha king, Shivaji Maharaj. Ahem… not just him — even I had joined the bandwagon. But that trip is a story for another time. Thanks to that influence, we were very eager to see what the palace had to offer.
As we entered, we were greeted by a huge, colourful mural of Hanuman and a smaller one of Krishna at the entrance. It was the perfect welcome.
We then walked towards the durbar that housed the bust of Shivaji Maharaj and a massive cannon — only to find it locked. When we asked around, we were told it was under renovation. This was a huge disappointment, especially for the boys. Still, we continued our exploration and moved on to a private museum displaying objects used by King Serfoji.
YO was particularly taken aback by the size of a gangalam. When I told him it was used for heating water, he promptly asked if he could use it as his bathtub. It made complete sense — it matched his height and weight perfectly!
EO and I were fascinated by a betel nut cracker that also doubled up as a weapon used by women in that era. It was quite large, and I could easily imagine the kind of damage it could cause. Swiss knife makers could definitely take a leaf out of this design.
We then moved to another adjacent museum that showcased gifts received by the King from other nations, heavy cannon balls used in wars, idols meant for worship, and many other artefacts. Each room felt like stepping into a different timeline.
Next was the bell tower. Though we weren’t allowed to go up, we explored the lower levels instead, which turned out to be a great spot for photographs. After a mini photo shoot session, we moved on to the idols museum.
It is said that the King initially had no plans to build this museum. But after acquiring an idol of Lord Brahma, a flurry of idols followed. He believed these should be publicly displayed — to showcase our rich heritage and the legacy of our skilled ancestors.
One noteworthy aspect of this museum is that every idol or artefact displayed had three details clearly tagged:
- Name of the artefact
- Time period it belonged to
- Place of origin
This helped us understand the vastness and greatness of our country across centuries.
I’m not going to describe what we saw here —
I’m going to show it to you instead.
We also visited the Saraswathi Mahal, which hosted very ancient scriptures from across the world in different languages. We saw a poster showing the evolution of the Tamil language, and the kids enjoyed tracing how the letters had originally been written.
After all the walking and absorbing, we headed back to our room post lunch for a well-deserved rest.
Brihadeeshwara Temple
In the evening, we went to one of the oldest temples in India — an architectural marvel — the Brihadeeshwara Temple.
As we entered the first gates and moved towards the main premises, the Nandhi and the Gopuram slowly started growing in front of our eyes, and the feeling was enormous for us to contain.
My kids were filled with wonder looking at the tall gopuram, and my EO was busy asking how they managed to construct such a structure with such precision in an era with no AI or tools to help them. Valid question, honestly.
I had visited this temple plenty of times when I studied here. But every time I came, it always took me by surprise — a feeling I honestly cannot describe.
We visited Peruvudaiyar and His consort, Periyanayaki. The kids tried spotting the mysterious Chinese merchant and succeeded as well. My YO was eager to spot the golden lizard in the tree above Bhogar’s sannidhi, but was disappointed not to find it.
By then, the wind had picked up and it was getting very cold. So we completed one last slow walk through the courtyard, took a final look at the breathtaking temple, and headed back — hearts full, feet tired, and memories happily piling up.
Day 3 – 30 Dec 2025: Thyagabrahmam Samadhi, Aiyarappar Temple, Thiruvaiyaru
The next day, we reached Thiruvaiyaru — the land of the five tributaries of the Cauvery: Kudamurutti, Vennaru, Vettaru, and Vadavaru. We saw all five rivers on our town bus ride across the tiny green villages.
We first went to the Samadhi of the foremost of the Trinity — Thyagaraja. Preparations were in full swing for his Aradhanai, which was to happen in January. Sharada sang his krithi “Manavyalakinchara” set to Nalinakanthi raagam and received his blessings. The river was flowing, and our hearts were also at peace there.
The temple had an elephant, and the kids were excited to receive its blessings. There were a few calves as well, and my YO was proud that he was able to put one of them to sleep.
We tried to visit Thyagaraja’s house, but it was locked due to some renovation. We had the world-famous Andavara Kadai Ashoka Halwa, packed some for home as well, and came back to the room.
While the kids and Mr were taking a rest, I took a ride on the local bus to LIC Colony, Medical College Road, to visit the place where I had stayed while doing my engineering. Everything had changed, and it did not look like the quiet place it was 25 years ago.
But one thing had not changed — the people. They were still the helpful and innocent folks they had always been.
Day 4 – 31 Dec 2025: Karkadeshwarar Temple, Sivayoganadhar Temple, Govindhapuram, Adi Kumbeshwarar Temple, Dasavathara Perumal Temple, Ramaswamy Temple, Someshwarar Temple
Amidst the luscious green fields, with cool air blowing on our faces, we were travelling in an auto from Kumbakonam town to the small village of Tiruveesanallur. In the middle of these green fields was the temple of Swami Karkadeshwarar. His consort Parvathi has two shrines to her — Apoorva Nayaki and Arumarundhu Nayaki (her prasadam is known to cure incurable diseases).
The story in this shrine is that a Gandharva, cursed by Sage Dhurvasar, prays to Shiva (who is a Suyambu here) to be reborn as a human. But Indra becomes jealous of the crab’s devotion and tries to kill it. The lingam cracks open to hide the crab, thus saving the Gandharva. You can see a small line on the lingam where the hole appeared. There are carvings of Sage Agastya giving a divine herb to a physician, which are from this place.
The temple complex itself was very beautiful. But what was more appealing were the green fields. The kids had never seen such a sight before. We showed them the paddy, which was growing in such close quarters — a very quiet and peaceful place.
On the way to Govindhapuram, we stopped at another old temple, the Sivayoganadhar Temple. It is said that if you pray to Him, you will lose the fear of death. True to those words, the Sivalingam there was so poignant, and you felt at solace. His wife was Soundaranayagi — a very beautiful lady!
Our next stop was the Pandarpur of the South — Govindhapuram. Pandurangan and Raghumayi were resplendent, and we sang the bhajans we knew.
We then visited the most happening place there — the Goshala. The kids went berserk when they saw the sheer number of cows and calves. EO started playing with a two-day-old calf, and the YO found a fourteen-day-old one. They did not want to come out of the place at all. Neither did we!
There were around 1,000 cows. There were bulls from different places, and one that caught our eye had been transported from Lahore. This was an indigenous bull and looked like Nandhi himself was here.
With a heavy heart, we bid goodbye and headed back to our room.
In the evening, we took a walk around the local streets of Kumbakonam. We visited the Adi Kumbeshwarar Temple and had a very peaceful darshan of Him, as we went early and there was not much crowd.
We then visited a small temple called the Dasavathara Perumal Temple. This temple is blink-and-miss as it is nestled in the market. But you can see Him from outside itself in all His grandeur.
We reached the Ramaswamy Temple to get a darshan of Rama and His family. Just before we entered, we saw a single monkey sitting atop the gopuram. We thought there might be many others inside — but this one was the only one there. We felt that Hanuman Himself had come to worship His favourite God on New Year’s Eve.
When we went inside the temple, we were taken aback by the sitting Rama and Sita, surrounded by Lakshmanan, Bharathan, and Chatrugnan. Hanuman was sitting at the feet of Rama. It was a sight to behold!
Near the Sarangapani Temple tank is another Sivan temple, Someshwarar. He is also called Ezha Someshwarar, as a very funny story says that when Sarangapani descended from Vaikuntam in His chariot, He slightly nudged Someshwaran behind and took His place in the front.
For a “poor” person, He had a very big place, and we were able to see the Sarangapani Temple gopuram clearly from here.
The kids were tired and our hearts were full.
We had a very good New Year’s Eve and were waiting for 2026 to arrive!
Day 5 – 1 Jan 2026: Satchinadhar Temple, Ezhutharinaadhar Temple, Palaivananadhar Temple, Gajendra Varadhar temple, Sarangapani Temple
We first visited the Saatchinaadhar Temple, which is in a small village called Thirupurambiyam. He and His wife, true to Her name, Kuraivilla Azhagi, are the reigning deities.
This temple had a very special Lord Ganesha, made of sea foam, shells, and conches. He is believed to have been sculpted by Lord Varuna at the time of the pralayam. He has abhishekam only on one day — Vinayaga Chaturthi — and that too with only honey. He looked rough on the edges, but was still a very handsome God.
From there, we moved on to the next temple in Innambur — Ezhutharinaadhar Temple. His wife has a very delightful name — Sugandha Kundalambal, to whom single women pray to stay SINGLE! His other wife is Nithya Kalyani, who grants the boon of marriage to women praying to Her.
He is a giver of knowledge. But what took us aback was the big Aavodai He had. It is believed that Indra’s celestial elephant, Airavatam, wanted to receive Shiva’s blessings here. So the Lord expanded Himself to let it come and take His blessings.
We bought notebooks and pens and placed them at His feet. The kids wrote “Om Namashivaya” in Tamil in the nel kept nearby. It is believed that writing on the tongues of children with stammering using the flowers adorned by the Lord cures it.
Our next stop was the Palaivananaadhar Temple in Papanasam. This temple hosts the oldest and largest rice granary built by the Vijayanagara Empire, which is now taken care of by the archaeological department.
The lady here is Thavalavennagaiyal. She is very pleasing to the eyes and calms us down with her butter-like smile. One of the unique idols we saw here was Lord Nataraja in the Oorthuthandavam pose.
We next visited the Gajendra Varadar Temple, where it is believed that Lord Vishnu granted moksham to the elephant Gajendra and the crocodile that had bitten it. The Perumal here is very similar to Sriranganaadhar. This place is also called Kapisthalam, as it is believed that Hanuman prayed to this Perumal for 300 years.
We were not able to see the Pushkarani where Gajendra was rescued.
After our quick afternoon nap, we visited the Sarangapani Temple, where the Pagal Pathu–Ra Pathu festival was being celebrated.
By then, my YO had been dragged to so many Shiva temples over the past few days that Shiva bhakti had clearly become his default setting.
So when the Lord came out in His pallaku, my son folded his hands dramatically and shouted at the top of his voice,
“Om Namashivaya!”
Every head around us turned.
Realising something was off, he quickly course-corrected and shouted,
“Om Vishnu!” — as though changing gods mid-slogan was perfectly normal.
An elderly lady standing next to us smiled and said,
“Paathiya… Hariyum Sivanum onnu nu ivan nirubichitaan.”
At that moment, we felt a huge wave of relief wash over us.
Crisis averted, philosophy established, and theology neatly tied up by a five-year-old.
While waiting in the queue for darshan, we noticed that this temple had four different forms of Narasimhar:
- Avatara Narasimhar (breaking out of the pillar)
- Yudha Narasimhar (fighting Hiranyakashipu)
- Ugra Narasimhar (killing Hiranyakashipu)
- Yoga Narasimhar (calmed down by Prahlad)
We then had darshan of the main deity and came out with our hearts in bliss, thankful for a good start to the year.
We were getting ready to go to Trichy — our last destination — the next morning.
We were getting ready to go to Trichy — our last destination — the next morning.
Day 6 – 2 Jan 2026: Srinivasa Ramanujan House, Kumbakonam → Trichy
On the last day of our trip, before we started for Trichy, we visited The Man Who Knew Infinity’s house.
India has produced so many geniuses, but we have never held on to them strongly. One such gem was Srinivasa Ramanujan. His house hosted some of his findings and also rare photographs of him and his family.
The kids learnt about the magic square that Ramanujan had created using his birth date.
We then left for Trichy on the Cholan Express. The kids experienced a sleeper-class train ride for the first time and were very excited. The YO kept jumping from the upper berth to the middle berth, and since the train was almost empty, we didn’t stop him.
We reached Trichy around 3:30 PM and checked into the hotel. The EO and I went to the Ayyappan Temple — a very peaceful place. From there, we went to the Main Guard Gate.
We then visited one of the oldest ice cream parlours, Michael’s. The EO was excited to see the pricing of the ice creams and demanded at least ten of them. I had to pry her out of the place before she devoured even more.
The next morning, with heavy hearts, we left for Chennai in the Vande Bharat.
A very different kind of journey had come to an end.
This trip gave us much more than temple visits or ticking destinations off a list. It gave us time — time together, time to slow down, time to listen, observe, and reflect. It changed a few perspectives, planted a few questions in young minds, and quietly reminded us of how deeply rooted our stories, faith, and history truly are.
As we returned home, tired but content, we knew one thing for sure — this would not be our last such journey.
Like I said in the beginning, we hope we do many more trips like this in the future —
not just to travel, but to experience.
