Rural rides in Tamil Nadu, land of elephants and temples

By Aliki Nassoufis Feb 1, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Madurai, India - Babu is in a hurry. The driver honks his horn at buses and cars as he threads his way with aplomb through the heavy traffic.

Elephants, horses and cows all move aside when they hear Babu's strident signal and although his driving style is hair-raising, Babu manages to weave his way in and out of the tightest gaps. He can be relied upon to bring visitors to the Indian federal state of Tamil Nadu safely to their destinations.

Tamil Nadu, which lies in the south-east corner of the Indian subcontinent, offers visitors plenty of variety: It boasts a lengthy coastline with plenty of sandy beaches along the Gulf of Bengal along with temple complexes, a historical French enclave and countless, lush-green rice fields.

The journey starts with a ceremony which is likely to remain in most of the guests' minds for a long time to come. It takes place at Sri-Minakshi Temple in Madurai. Babu bounds ahead before halting at the entrance to the temple. 'It's about to start,' he tells us.

The sound of rhythmic music can already be heard. Priests and worshippers are celebrating the entrance of the god Shiva. The figure is carried into the building on a litter and placed next to a figure representing the god's wife Minakshi.

The pair spend the night together symbolically every evening after a carefully choreographed ritual of music, flowers, incense and sacrificial offerings.

The gigantic scale of the temple can only be appreciated in the daytime. The most striking features of the huge, six-hectare complex are 12 lofty pointed towers decorated from the ground up with a riot of figures designed to represent gods, demons, animals and temple guardians. Around 10,000 visitors pass through here daily.

Starting in Madurai a northbound trip takes visitors to the Sri Ranganatha Swami Temple, the largest Vishnu shrine in southern India. The main temple is surrounded by seven concentric walls enclosed by 21 gate-towers or gopurams.

The inside of the temple is a hive of activity. Traders proffer colourful devotional objects and the queues for sticks of lurid candy are long. At midday impoverished local citizens gather to receive a free meal.

Tourists will find plenty of other historical holy abodes in Tamil Nadu such as rock-hewn Rock Fort Temple near Srirangam or Brihadeshvara Temple in Thanjavur built more than 1,000 years ago. For a small donation the resident temple elephant dispenses blessings.

Rural rides are one of the main attractions in Tamil Nadu and around Thanjavur the rice paddies stretch as far as the eye can see. Men and women stand up their knees in water at the start of the season, planting shoots with their bare hands. In another nearby village men drive livestock across the street, women hang up their washing, and children duck and play between the shacks.

The next place of interest is Pondicherry. The French colonial era has left an indelible stamp on this town in the Gulf of Bengal. With their balconies and terraces the houses along the beach promenade Goubert Avenue are reminiscent of southern European holiday homes. The restaurants serve crepes and coq au vin and the aroma of fresh baguettes wafts from the boulangeries.

The streets in the centre of Pondicherry carry names such as Rue de la Marine or Rue Francois Martin, while the police wear spotlessly white uniforms topped with a traditional French military-style cap, the kepi.

Typical Indian life can be found in the Quarter of the same name on the other side of the canal. At the Grand Bazaar merchants sell pepper, chili, cardamon and masala mixtures against a backdrop of stacked-up spice sacks. At the flower stalls men and women sort piles of colourful, fluffy blooms or thread them onto lengths of twine.

Just a two-hour car trip to the north lies Mamallapuram. This town of 15,000 souls used to be an important port on the indian East Coast and still attracts many tourists.

Mamallapuram is renowned for its stone-masons and some parts of the town have been placed under UNESCO world cultural heritage protection. The unusual temples hereabouts are famous along with a relief sculpture on a massive scale which depicts scenes from a Hindu epic.

The figures on the huge bas relief include a family of elephants and despite their antiquity the outlines of the carvings can still be seen clearly today.

For many Tamil Nadu travellers Mamallapuram is preferable to Chennai which lies another two hours away by road. The former Madras boasts one of the longest beaches in Asia but this stretch of sand is not very clean and the city has few landmarks of note to offer.

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