Chidambaram & Pichavaram

WHERE LORD SHIVA IS WORSHIPPED AS SPACE ITSELF, AND MANGROVES MURMUR STORIES IN SALT AND SILENCE-TAMIL NADU'S TWIN SANCTUARIES UNFOLD

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The scent of the temple town reached me before I arrived. A heady mix of incense, temple camphor, jasmine, and roadside idlis steaming on banana leaves. The markets were a pleasant assault on the senses, with stalls jostling for space, selling everything from fragrant flowers to bronze lamps, as mounds of vermilion and turmeric added splashes of colour. But as we drove towards the ancient Thillai Nataraja Temple, I felt a divine calm take over-a slow surrender to something eternal.

Dedicated to Lord Shiva as Nataraja, the cosmic dancer, the temple was built mainly by the Cholas in the 10th century and stands as an ode to the Natya Shastra, with its walls carved with the 108 Karanas that form the foundation of Bharatanatyam.