Places to Visit in Karunguzhi

One of Tamil Nadu's most visited Shakti shrines, the Arulmigu Adhiparasakthi Siddhar Peetam rose to prominence after the deity was enshrined in 1977 by Bangaru Adigalar. Devotees of any caste or gender may enter the sanctum and touch the deity, and all wear red. Tradition holds that 21 Siddhars, several of them women, attained Jeeva Samadhi at the site.

A Rama temple beside the vast Madurantakam tank, famed for the legend of 'Eri Katha Ramar', the Rama who saved the lake. British collector Colonel Lionel Place recorded that during a threatening flood in the early 1800s, two figures in bright attire were seen guarding the bund, which held. He credited the miracle to Rama and endowed the temple.

A small, elegant structural Shiva temple in the Mamallapuram group, built in the early 8th century during the reign of Rajasimha Pallava. It stands apart on the northern edge of the town. The shrine shows the transition from rock-cut to structural architecture that later produced the Shore Temple.

Two or three unhurried days on the ECR — seafront Chennai, artist villages and a crocodile bank, Pallava monuments at Mahabalipuram, then the boulevards of Pondicherry.

Three well-paced days in the Tamil Nadu capital: British-era Fort St George and the Government Museum, Mylapore’s temple quarter and the beaches, then a drive down the ECR to the Pallava stone temples of Mahabalipuram.

One unhurried week from Chennai to Kanyakumari, taking in Pallava rock temples, the Chola heartland, Madurai and India’s southern tip.