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Chandragiri Fort

 Chandragiri Fort, Museum and Mahal






Yet another Sunday, not wanting to while away we decided to make a drive all the way to Chandragiri near Tirupati. It took us little less than 4 hours including a breakfast stop to reach there. We started around 6 AM, had breakfast at Sholavaram and headed straight to Chandragiri. It is in the Tirupati district. This was the fort and mahal of the Vijayanagar empire. Currently under the Archaeological Survey of India, we allowed only to some part of the fort and mahal while other areas remain locked. They take an entrance fee of Rs. 30 per head.





First is the fort, now converted to a museum housing the latest excavation artifacts. The fort inside looks like a British time structure. The Gopuram is of the  Vijayanagar period. Few kilometers before the fort we get a path that is narrowed by huge walls on both sides, making us feel like entering into a maze. We can see some temples on the way, just bearing marks of existence. Archaeological Survey of India provides name of these 7-8 temples but there is nothing much to see. In the fort museum we see many artifacts and are allowed only up to the first floor. Lighting works has been done to many other  historical monuments. To witness it one has to be there beyond sunset. Adjacent to this is a small pond.





Beyond this is the Rani Mahal, this is locked so one can just see the pillar structures in the ground. The greeneries are beautiful, the fort and its surrounding remains are being maintained to best possible. The grass is thick and surrounding huge trees give you shade and breeze. Its worth sitting there to enjoy the wind. Its easily a less than an hour place of visit.






ISKCON Temple, Tirupati

From Chandragiri we decided to visit few place in Tirupati before we head-out. So with the help of google we navigated to the ISKCON Temple. Upon paying Rs.50 for parking our vehicle we entered the temple. Its a huge structure with some great architectural works. The main deity here is Lord Govinda swamy along with Radha and Gopis. Each of the Gopika's name placard is kept there. Belonging to the Hare Krishna institution, the temple is maintained very well. We were given ghee pongal as prasadam. Various prasadams and other food items are being sold here.


Govindasamy Temple, Tirupati


Our next temple of visit was Govindasamy Temple. Being the popular pilgrimage in India, Tirupati is always full of devotees. So it was a nightmare to park our vehicle before we could enter the temple. Temple has a huge pond which was almost dry. It is an old temple and lively with devotees. No electronic items like mobile phones are allowed. We had to deposit the mobiles at the counter and footwears in another counter before getting into the temple. First was the Sri Ramanujar sannadhi then we could see the Gousala were the cows were seen resting with the help of ceiling fans. Inside is the Ammavari sannadhi first followed by the main deity - Lord Govindaswamy sannadhi. He is in sleeping posture along with Sridevi and Boodevi. Next is the Lord Parthasarathy sannadhi, he gives a glorious darshan in a standing posture. All devotees were given curd rice prasadam. We had a satisfied darshan and came out blessed. It took us almost an hour here.


We had our lunch in a hotel very close to the temple pond. Meals for Rs.90 and Veg Biryani for Rs.65. Surprised to get charged less but we had it in the Pilgrim city of Tirupati. With the overflowing crowd, scorching heat and difficulty in finding a parking lot we decided it is not possible to visit the other temple we planned to visit so had to cut short the plan and start to move out.



Venkateswara Swamy Temple, Appalayagunta


On the way to Chennai we got recommendation to visit Venkateswara Swamy Temple in Appalayagunta which is said to have been build similar to the Tirumala Temple. Google played a spoil sport and took us through narrow, scarily path to the temple. We had a peaceful darshan of Lord Venkateswara and Goddess Padmavathy Ammavari. All devotees were given tamarind rice prasadam here. Within 20 mins we were out of the temple. After covering few more kilometers we were finally relived to reach the highway. From there we had to drive for another 2 hours to reach back Chennai.


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Location: Chandragiri, Andhra Pradesh 517101, India

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