Cauvery Basin: Temple towns of Chidambaram and Pichavaram

When I arrived in the traditional temple town of Chidambaram the streets were full of hundreds of pilgrims who had come for the festival at the ninth century Nataraja temple. Shops selling flower garlands, coconuts, and multicoloured kum-kum lined their path, and hand turned mini Ferris wheels echoed with the screams from the children inside.

Inside the enormous ninth century Chola temple compound, with its four towering gopuras, thousands of pilgrims headed for the sanctum with its gold plated roof past the intricate sculptures detailing the one hundred and eight movements of Bharat Natyan. Dikshitar Brahmins, whose hereditary role is to run the temple, wandered amongst them in the thousand pillar hall, where Chola kings had once been crowned. In the Golden Hall Shiva is said to have performed his cosmic dance of creation and destruction and at the Shivaganga tank I watched as an old man gently eased his nervous wife into the water for a ceremonial cleansing.   Outside a group of musicians stood near the huge temple cart, puffed up with their own importance, waiting for the procession to begin. At the top of the cart, hidden beneath a waterfall of flowers, was the statue of Nataraja. After much shouting and delay, two queues of pilgrims formed along the ropes at the front and began to inch it forward, the cart lurching precariously with each heave.

For some quiet relief from the busy festival,I drove out to Pichavaram and its mangrove swamps at the northernmost point of the Cauvery delta. Four thousand channels, like tunnels of enmeshed roots too thick to see through with entwined leaves overhead, crisscross the swamps creating thousands of islands. In the shallow waters fishermen waded through the clear waters, their catches of shrimp hanging in plastic bags at their waists. Women's giggles and cries continually pierced the air as their more heavily tourist laden boats got stuck in the shallower waters but it was almost quiet when I rounded a corner and met two coracles coming hurtling towards me, the small boys manning them shrieking,
"Cooool drinks!"