Kallakurichi & the Kalvarayan Hills: A Travel Guide

Kallakurichi is one of Tamil Nadu’s youngest districts, carved from Villupuram in 2019 and spread across the fertile plains of the northern-central state. It rarely features on standard tourist trails, yet it packs an unusual range into a small area: a tribal hill range of the Eastern Ghats, forest waterfalls and irrigation reservoirs, and — at Thirukovilur — one of the oldest and most sacred temple towns in the Tamil country. This guide walks through the district’s highlights, from the cool ridges of the Kalvarayan Hills to the banks of the Pennaiyar river.

Getting there and the district

Kallakurichi town lies roughly midway on the road between Salem and Villupuram, well served by state highways and buses, and the district shares the busy Chennai–Trichy–Salem corridor to its edges. The nearest large railway junction is Villupuram, from where branch lines and buses fan out; Thirukovilur has its own station on the Villupuram–Katpadi route. The district was announced as Tamil Nadu’s 33rd district in January 2019 and formally inaugurated as its 34th in November 2019, taking in the taluks around Kallakurichi, Sankarapuram, Ulundurpet, Kalvarayan Hills and Thirukovilur. It is chiefly agrarian — paddy, sugarcane, maize and pulses — with the hills forming its scenic and tribal heart.

The Kalvarayan Hills

The Kalvarayan (also spelt Kalrayan) Hills are a block of the Eastern Ghats straddling Kallakurichi and Salem districts, rising in stages from around 300 m at the foot to about 1,190 m at the highest ridges. A winding ghat road of tight hairpin bends climbs from the plains into a cooler, greener world of coffee patches, jackfruit and terraced fields. The range is home to the Malayali community, a hill tribe whose scattered villages, weekly shandies (markets) and small shrines give the hills their distinct character. Traditionally divided into a lower and an upper range, the Kalvarayans stay noticeably milder than the plains through much of the year, which is exactly why they draw weekenders escaping the heat.

Waterfalls and dams

Water is the hills’ headline attraction. Megam Falls, reached a few kilometres from Vellimalai, streams down a forested rock face and is busiest just after the rains. Nearby, Periyar Falls at Vellimalai is the other signature cascade, tucked into the upper reaches of the range. Down on the plains the district’s two reservoirs are gentler outings: the Gomukhi Dam, fed by the Gomukhi river below the eastern slopes with a viewpoint looking back over the hills, and the Manimuktha Dam near Sankarapuram, an irrigation tank on the Manimuktha river that is a favourite for a quiet evening by the water. As with all seasonal falls, check flow before making the drive — they can slow to a trickle in the dry months.

Thirukovilur — temple town on the Pennaiyar

On the southern bank of the Then Pennaiyar (South Pennaiyar) river stands Thirukovilur, one of the great pilgrimage towns of the Tamil country. Its centrepiece is the Ulagalantha Perumal (Trivikrama) temple, a Divya Desam sung by the Azhwar poet-saints, where Vishnu is worshipped in the towering Trivikrama form that measured the universe in three strides. By tradition it is here that the first three Azhwars — Poigai, Bhoothath and Pey — are said to have had their vision of the deity and composed the earliest verses of the Sri Vaishnava canon. A short walk away, the Veeratteswarar temple is one of the eight Ashta Veerattanam shrines of Shiva, marking — in legend — the spot where he slew the demon Andhakasura. In the river itself rises the Kabilar hillock (Kabilar Kundru), tied in tradition to the Sangam-era poet Kabilar.

Two more heritage stops lie within easy reach of Thirukovilur. At nearby Arakandanallur, the Atulya Nadheswarar temple is built into a low hillock and preserves rock-cut caves attributed to the Pallavas, later extended in masonry under the Cholas and Vijayanagara rulers; local legend links its caves to the Pandavas of the Mahabharata. Further towards Ulundurpet, the Thirunarungondai Jain caves crown a hillock with a Jaina cave and shrines to Parsvanatha and Chandraprabha — one of the oldest Tamil Jain centres, remembered as a monastery of the Virasangha order in the 8th–9th centuries.

When to visit

The most comfortable stretch is the cool season from about November to February, when the plains are pleasant for temple visits and the hills are crisp. The waterfalls are at their fullest during and just after the northeast monsoon (roughly October to December), though the ghat roads can be slippery then, so drive carefully. Summers from March to June are hot on the plains but still bearable in the higher Kalvarayan villages. For a broader picture of the state’s cooler retreats and cascades, see the Roampedia hub guides at /india/tamil-nadu/guides/tamil-nadu-hill-stations and /india/tamil-nadu/guides/tamil-nadu-waterfalls.