Coimbatore: Temple Hills, the Adiyogi and the Road to the Ghats

Coimbatore — Kovai to almost everyone who lives there — sits in a wide plain below the Western Ghats, on the modest Noyyal river, where a gap in the mountains funnels cool air down onto the city. That breeze, and the cotton it once helped spin, made Coimbatore the “Manchester of South India”, a nickname earned by its cotton textile mills and the engineering and pump-manufacturing firms that grew up beside them. It is a working, entrepreneurial city rather than a museum-piece one, prized locally for its easy climate and its food. For the traveller it is best understood as a threshold: temple-crowned hills rise on its western edge, and beyond them the roads climb to the Nilgiris, to Valparai and into some of the finest forest in the south.

Temples on the hills and in the city

The best-loved landmark is the Marudhamalai Murugan Temple, a hill shrine to Murugan on the city’s western fringe. A flight of steps — and now a road and rope-car — climbs the rocky slope to a temple whose origins tradition places many centuries back; from the terrace the whole plain spreads out towards the Ghats. South-west of the centre, on the banks of the Noyyal, the Perur Pateeswarar Temple is an ancient Shiva temple traditionally linked to the early Cholas, celebrated for its carved pillared halls and the golden Kanaka Sabha where the deity is said to dance. On the Pollachi highway a little out of town, the Eachanari Vinayagar Temple shelters a colossal Ganesha idol, roughly six feet tall and over five hundred years old; by legend the image was being hauled towards Perur when the cart broke down here, and the elephant-headed god was taken to have chosen the spot.

Isha and the Adiyogi

On the Velliangiri foothills, about thirty kilometres west of the city, the Isha Yoga Center draws visitors of every persuasion. Its centrepiece is the Adiyogi Shiva statue, a 112-foot steel bust of Shiva as the “first yogi”, cast in some 500 tonnes of steel and unveiled on Mahashivaratri in February 2017. Guinness World Records has certified it as the largest bust sculpture in the world; the height of 112 feet is said to stand for the 112 ways to attain liberation described in yogic lore. Behind it the Dhyanalinga, a domed, dolmen-like meditation shrine consecrated in 1999, is kept deliberately free of ritual so that people of any faith or none may simply sit in silence. The whole complex is run by the Isha Foundation, founded by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.

The centre stands at the foot of the Velliangiri Hills, the range known as the “Kailash of the South”. Its seven successive summits carry the Velliangiri Andavar temple, dedicated to a self-manifested (swayambhu) form of Shiva, near the top. Reaching it is a genuine pilgrimage: a steep trek of roughly six to seven kilometres each way through forest, opened only in season and demanding real fitness rather than a casual stroll. Those who make it are rewarded with cool air, cloud and a view that repays the climb.

Parks, waterfalls and the western hills

In the heart of the city, VOC Park and Zoo — named for the freedom fighter V. O. Chidambaranar — offers a small zoo, a boating lake and a miniature toy train, and remains a favourite family outing. For water and forest you head west. The Siruvani Waterfalls and Dam, some 35 kilometres out towards the Kerala border, lie inside reserved forest; Siruvani water is locally famed for its sweetness, and the falls and reservoir make a cool half-day escape, though access is regulated and best after the rains. Nearby, the seasonal Kovai Kutralam Falls tumble down the same forested slopes when the monsoon has been kind.

Beyond these day-trips the mountains take over. South of the city the road to Valparai leaves the Aliyar plains and screws up the Anaimalai range through a famous sequence of some forty hairpin bends into a high country of tea estates, mist and quiet. Valparai sits within the wider landscape of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (the Anaimalai hills), home to tigers, elephants, gaur and the endangered lion-tailed macaque — a place to slow down, watch for wildlife on the estate roads and let the Ghats do the talking.

When to visit and getting around

Coimbatore is comfortable for much of the year, but the sweet spot runs from October to March, when days are mild and the hills are at their greenest after the monsoon; April and May can turn hot on the plain. If you can, time a visit to coincide with Mahashivaratri, when Isha and the city temples come alive through the night. Coimbatore International Airport (code CJB), at Peelamedu on the eastern side, connects the city to the major Indian metros and a few international routes, while Coimbatore Junction is a principal railway hub on the southern network. Within the city, app cabs and autorickshaws are the simplest way around; for the hills, a hired car with a driver comfortable on the Valparai and Nilgiri ghat roads is well worth the cost.

Coimbatore pairs naturally with the high country above it: read on for our guide to the state’s hill retreats at /india/tamil-nadu/guides/tamil-nadu-hill-stations, and for the tale of the toy train that climbs to Ooty at /india/tamil-nadu/guides/nilgiri-mountain-railway-story.