GKC- The journey not the destination - 3

At 6 in the morning we left Neyveli  township after a days rest on Christmas We drove out of the township to enter a village lane leading to Thanjavur which was our destination. From Neyveli, MIL too joined us on the road trip  filling us( especially the children) with lots of anecdotes from yore since this territory is familiar to her. This made the journey more interesting.  

 Throughout the journey we were blessed with the best driving weather. We had our windows downed and the car was on medium pace so that we could stop at many places and soak the  beauty of the countryside and  breathe in the fresh air.  Either side of the road opened up to scenes which were refreshing and novel for urban souls   like lotus/lily laden, duck wading ponds, the carpetted luminscent green fields, flock of white birds in the sky, the meandering rivulets of Cauvery and its tributary coleroon( kollidam) , the dung plastered thatched huts, traditional pucca house, the simple life of the villagers enjoying rural bliss, walking to their fields,  chatting under tree canopies, driving their flock of sheep, and herding their cattle, some enjoying doing nothing and  watching people on the move.  All scenes moved past  in time to an older, slower world till we reached the sign board of a village Jayamkondan( the victor in tamil)

At Jayamkondan,  we took a detour of 3 kms  to the left which led us to the once thriving chola capital-  Gangai konda Chola puram(GKC) which is now a UNESCO declared World Heritage site. In tamil, it means the chola who conqured ( held) the Ganga.They  made it their capital after they conqured till the Ganges in the north and hence the name. Their stamp of architecture is evident in  The  replica of Brihadeeswarar temple modeled on the The big temple in Thanjavur. More than a temple of worship, the gigantic and grand Chola temples were home to art, architecture,culture and social work. The temples and palace were destroyed during British aggression but still a major part of the temple remains making this a great living temple of Chola while  the ruins of the palace are buried. Excavated remains of the palace remain though some 10kms away.  But that is 10 century old  History and very far away back  and may be a  topic for me to make a post on GKC. This is now a sleepy village except the area marked  and maintained by ASI, this place has not much  visitors and is not very famous like its parent temple in Thanjavur unless a few curious foreigners and Indians visit.We spent our time clicking photos where there were no visitors except us  apart from The ASI employed malis who were tending the gardens.

From there  we were back on the road to cross a narrow but long metallic and concrete bridge, we were stopped by a policeman with a walkie talkie.

He stopped us and the dialogue between him and the H flowed thus.

Policeman: You can't cross the bridge now.  This is oneway.

The H: oh! sorry, i will take the alternate but which way to Thanjavur

Policeman: This is British one way. wait here for some time.

As, we were waiting we clicked some pics from the beautiful bridge under which River Kollidam, a tributary of Cauvery was pretty much in glory. This place is called Anaikarai (dam in tamil) the primary occupation is fishing and agriculture here.

By then, the policeman who stood there explained that this is a very narrow and weak bridge which can allow traffic only one side. The bridge is nearly 1km long and at the other end another policman with walkie talkie mans the bridge. Between them they talk on the walkie talkie to regulate the traffic and ensure the traffic is flowing on one side only alternatively. After the oncoming vehicles were off the bridge. The vehicles from our side were allowed to move on the bridge.  Every 5 minutes they coordinate, job requires alertness. For pedestrains though there is a small pathway on either side enough to allow one person.  This he said was British one way and the bridge was built during 1940. This was an interesting and a new experience.

And finally after all these, we reached our destination  at Thanjavur - The Saraswati Mahal Library  One of the oldest library in the world set up in 1700AD

Check some pics here, click on them to feel the place.

            Neyveli lignite mines as seen from the road. It is deep and for me it looked like a mini Grand canyon.

                                                  beautiful young green  paddy fields              

These lenghty grass by the river beds are called korai grass and are used for making grass mats

             The lifeline of the Granary of South India,  Thanjavur - the river Cauvery. Without this the whole area would have been a barren land. I love and have grown drinking this water. Water they say is tasteless but she (cauvery) is an exception.

                                        The Brihadeeswarar temple in GKC is beautifully maintained. It is now undergoing a facelift.(hence the scaffolding on the tower(vimana)

                               This is a well called Simhakeni. Meaning the lion faced well

                                   

                                                One of the side walls of the main tower

One of the entrance leading to the main temple.

One of the small temples within the temple premises . there are 4 such temples on either sides.

                                             

                                                       The lotus and lily laden ponds enroute

Specifications of the bridge-  clicked while we were waiting for the clearance to cross the bridge.

Clicked the Coleroon river from the bridge while whiling our time. the pic from my mobile does not have good lighting but i loved the way the trees bowed towards the river.

P.s: I find some of the general words in my post linked to google sites, i don't know how. Only on publishing it gets linked, it is not there in the draft. Especially in this post, the word "employed' and in the previous post words like "work". I also receive lot of anonymous comments. Can anybody help fix this problem?