Places to Visit in Chengam

Kuppanatham Dam, built in 1987 on the Solai River near Paramanandal in Chengam taluk, is the second-largest dam in Tiruvannamalai district after Sathanur, storing about 700 Mcft. Set amid mountains, the surrounding village and its seasonal waterfalls are a popular local picnic spot. The scenic valley has featured in Tamil films including Marumalarchi and Samudhiram.

The Kovilur Shiva temple, built during the Chola period, is an ancient hill shrine in the Jawadhu (Javvadhu) Hills and one of the range's important pilgrimage spots. Visitors touring the hills often combine it with Beema Falls and Komutteri Lake. It is a rare Chola-era stone shrine set in the tribal Malayali heartland of the Eastern Ghats.

A steep, sometimes frightening ascent by iron rungs and ropes leads to the Mallikarjuna temple near the top of Parvathamalai — a hill Tamil tradition still calls a living home of the siddhars.

Pavalakunru is a small rocky hillock on the eastern spur of Arunachala with an ancient Shiva temple traditionally hallowed by the sage Gautama Rishi. In late 1898 the young Ramana Maharshi lived in this temple, where his mother found him seated motionless and pleaded with him to return home. It is a revered stop for pilgrims and devotees of Ramana Maharshi near the Girivalam path.

Two days linking one of India’s largest temples and its holiest hill with the sprawling granite fortress the British called the Troy of the East.

Arni Fort stands at the heart of Arni town and dates to the 17th century, when the Arni Jagir was granted in 1640 to the Maratha Brahmin general Vedaji Bhaskar Pant, whose descendants ruled until 1948. Within the precincts is a roughly 45-foot obelisk raised in memory of British officer Robert Kelly. The surrounding town became famous for its economical Arni silk sarees.

The Valeeswarar (Vallisvarar) Temple at Kuranganilmuttam is a Shiva shrine revered in the 7th-century Tevaram hymns, making it one of the 276 Paadal Petra Sthalams. It is associated with a legend of a squirrel and a crow, figures depicted in its sculptures. An adjoining Pallava-period rock-cut cave shrine adds early-medieval archaeological importance.