Kalady - Birth Place of Adi Shankara

Photo Depicting Crocodile catch hold of Adi Shankara

Poorna River

Krishna Temple

Kalady is the birth place of Adi Sankara ,located on the banks of the river Poorna (Periyar) in Ernakulam districts,Kerala.


Crocodile Ghat : This is the place where Adi Shankara's life turned to sanyasam.His mother Aryadevi didn't agree the desire of Sankara to become a Sanyasi.One accompanied by mother Shankara went to take bath in the river Poorna.A crocodile caught hold of his leg ,while taking bath.Drowning Shankara told his mother that ,Crocodile will leave him if she agrees his desire of becoming Sanyasin.Finally she agreed & Crocodile leaves him.

Adi Shankara is an advocate of Advita Vedanta.He travelled across Indian Subcontinent & established four Maths.One in South ( Sringeri) one in East (Puri),one in West (Dwaraka) and one in North (Jyotirmath in Uttarakhand )

Road : Kalady is about 44 KM from Kochi & 243 KM from Trivandrum.

Rail : Nearest Railway Station is Angamaly at a distance of 5 KM.

Air : Nearest Airport is Kochi International Airport

Annamalaiyar Temple / Arunachala Shiva Temple Tiruvannamalai - Tamilnadu

Annamalaiyar Temple  /Shiva Temple is dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva .It is located at the foothills of the Annamalai Hill in Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu.Here Lord Eswara is worshipped as Annamalaiyar or Arunachaleswarar represented . The temple is regarded as one of the Pancha Bhoota Stalas & is associated with the element fire (Agni).
The area of the temple complex is around 25 acers.It has 4 gopuras.The Rajagopura, one on East,is the tallest one with 11 storeys.It is one of the tallest in India.The East Rajagopura was built by king Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara and completed by Sevappa Nayaka of Thanjavur.

The Karthika Deepam festival celebrated during the full moon day(pournami) in Kartheeka month is one of the most important festival.

How to Reach :

Air : The nearest major airport is Chennai International airport ,located at a distance of about 185 km from Tiruvannamalai.

Road :From Madurai, Tirupathi and Chennai regular buses are available to Tiruvannamalai.From Chennai it take 5hrs by road.

Train : The Thiruvannamalai is located in the rail route between Madurai and Tirupathi rail route . Regular train services are available from Madurai to Tiruvannamalai .

Ekambareswarar Temple - Kanchipuram

Kanchipuram, popularly known as the 'City of Temples', is one of the India's seven sacred  cities and is famous the world over for its exquisite temples.

Once it was the historic capital of the Pallavas.

The Ekambareswarar Temple in Kanchipuram is one of the famous Hindu temples dedicated to Lord Shiva.It was build around 600 AD and it was mentioned in 2nd century AD Tamil poetry. It was rebuilt in its present form by the Pallava Kings in 7th or 8th century AD. The Chola dynasty also made several contributions to the temple.

The temple covers an area of over 40 acres. The temple's Raja gopuram is third tallest in South India was built by the Vijayanagar King, Krishnadevaraya in 1509.

How To reach Kanchipuram :

Train : Kanchipuram has a railway station & is well connectted with Chennai & other parts .

Air : Nearest Airport is Chennai International Air port at a distance of 70 Km.

Road :  Distance between Kanchipuram and chennai is 70Km.From Tirupathi it is around 100 KM.Frequent buses are available from Chennai (CMBT or T.Nagar) to Kanchipuram.Journey will take 2 hrs.