01 THE TEMPLE GUIDES
Twenty-five great temples.
Each one a world.
Every guide carries the temple's story, its rituals, its festivals and the practical truth of visiting. Where a temple fits your route, the planner will show you.
Tamil Nadu
The great gopuram country: living temple cities from Madurai to the land's end.
Meenakshi Amman Temple
Fourteen gopurams, a hall of a thousand pillars, and a goddess worshipped as the queen of Madurai herself.
ThanjavurBrihadeeswarar Temple
Raja Raja Chola's thousand-year-old granite mountain: a 66-metre vimana, a giant Nandi, and the high watermark of South Indian temple building.
RameswaramRamanathaswamy Temple
One of the twelve Jyotirlingas and one of the four Char Dhams, on an island of coral and legend, with the longest temple corridors in the world.
Srirangam, TiruchirappalliSri Ranganathaswamy Temple
An island city that is itself a temple: seven walled courts, twenty-one towers, and Vishnu reclining at the heart of the largest functioning temple complex in the world.
ChidambaramThillai Nataraja Temple
Shiva as Nataraja, dancing the universe into being, in the temple of the sky element, home of the Chidambara Rahasyam.
KanchipuramKamakshi Amman and the temples of Kanchipuram
One of India's seven sacred cities, where the goddess Kamakshi rules, Shiva's earth temple spreads under a 3,500-year-old mango tree, and Vishnu stands on the elephant hill.
ThiruvannamalaiAnnamalaiyar Temple and Arunachala
Shiva's fire temple at the foot of Arunachala, the hill that is itself worshipped as the lord, with the great flame of Karthigai Deepam and the full-moon walk of Girivalam.
KanyakumariKanyakumari Bhagavathy Amman Temple
The virgin goddess at the land's end, where the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea meet, and the sun rises and sets over water.
PalaniDhandayuthapani Swamy Temple
Murugan as the young ascetic on his hill, third of the six sacred abodes, famous for the panchamirtham and the kavadi pilgrims who climb to him.
TiruchendurSubramaniya Swamy Temple
The only one of Murugan's six abodes that stands on the seashore, where the god of war landed to battle the demon Surapadman.
Karnataka
Coastal shrines and Malnad seats, from Udupi's Krishna to the goddess of the hills.
Sri Krishna Matha
The boy Krishna of Madhvacharya, worshipped through a nine-holed silver window, in the temple that feeds everyone who comes.
DharmasthalaManjunatha Temple
A Shiva temple served by Jain trustees and Madhwa priests, where the day's first worship is the feeding of thousands.
SubramanyaKukke Subramanya Temple
Murugan with Vasuki the serpent king, under the Kumaradhara river and the Kumara Parvatha peak, the great shrine for serpent rites.
MurudeshwarMurudeshwar Temple
A 123-foot Shiva seated over the Arabian Sea, a twenty-storey gopura you can ride up, and the legend of the Atma Linga.
GokarnaMahabaleshwar Temple
The Atma Linga rooted forever where Ganesha set it down, in a small coastal town that is both a great Shiva kshetra and a beloved beach escape.
SringeriSringeri Sharada Peetham
The first matha founded by Adi Shankaracharya, where the goddess of learning sits on the bank of the Tunga in the greenest valley of the Malnad.
MysuruChamundeshwari Temple, Chamundi Hills
The tutelary goddess of Mysuru on her hill, slayer of Mahishasura, with the great Nandi halfway up and the city of the Wodeyars spread below.
KollurKollur Mookambika Temple
Devi as the power that silenced the demon, worshipped in a valley of the western ghats where Adi Shankara had his vision of her.
Kerala
Ritual, discipline and green quiet: Krishna at Guruvayur, Ayyappa's forest hill, and the reclining lord.
Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple
The four-armed Vishnu worshipped as the child Krishna, in the temple town that lives for him: weddings, elephants, Narayaneeyam, and queues before dawn.
Sabarimala, PathanamthittaSabarimala Ayyappa Temple
The forest shrine of the celibate god, reached by a 41-day vow, a black dhoti, a bundle on the head, and the climb through the hills to the eighteen holy steps.
ThiruvananthapuramSree Padmanabhaswamy Temple
Vishnu reclining in the sleep of creation, seen through three doors, in the royal temple of Travancore, one of the 108 Divya Desams and the richest shrine in the world.
ThrissurVadakkumnathan Temple
Kerala-style temple architecture at its purest, on the round hill at Thrissur's heart, home of the greatest temple festival on earth.
Andhra Pradesh
The lord of the seven hills and the Jyotirlinga in the Nallamala forest.
Sri Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala
The most visited temple on earth, where the richest and poorest stand in the same queue for a two-second darshan of the lord of the seven hills.
SrisailamMallikarjuna Temple
One of the twelve Jyotirlingas and one of the eighteen great Shakti Peethas in a single temple, deep in the Nallamala forest over the Krishna river.
Telangana
Rama's own court on the bank of the Godavari.