Tri Ranga Darshana – Mass appeal amongst the Hindu believers!

Tri Ranga Darshana, also known as Brahmanda Darshanam, refers to the sacred Vaishnavite pilgrimage of Tri Ranga Darshana, visiting the three significant Lord Ranganatha temples (Adi Ranga, Madhya Ranga, Anthya Ranga) situated on islands along the Kaveri River, all within a single day from dawn to dusk, symbolising birth, life, and liberation.

It is believed to bring immense blessings, relieve the malefic effects of planets, and is typically performed during the Dhanur Masa month (between mid-December to mid-January), just before the Sun changes its course on Makara Sankranti.

The journey begins at the Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple in Srirangapatna (Adi Ranga), continues through the Jaganmohana Swamy Temple in Shivanasamudra (Madhya Ranga), and concludes at the famous Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple in Srirangam (Anthya Ranga), travelling across the two neighbouring States of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. 

The Three Rangas:

·        Adi Ranga (First Ranga): Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangapatna, Karnataka.

·        Madhya Ranga (Middle Ranga): Sri Jaganmohana Swamy Temple, Shivanasamudra, Karnataka.

·        Anthya Ranga (Final Ranga): Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple, Srirangam, Tamil Nadu. 

Significance:

·        Timing: While possible anytime, it is considered most auspicious during the Dhanur Masa (mid-December to mid-January), as the temples open early (around 4:30 AM), allowing enough time to complete the circuit, between sunrise and sunset on the same day.

·        Symbolism: Represents the journey of life (birth, balance, liberation).

·        Belief: It is believed that completing the darshan of all three temples on the same day is equivalent to witnessing the entire universe (𝐵𝑟𝑎ℎ𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎) and provides immense spiritual merit. Hence, it is called Brahmanda Darshanam. Completing the Darshana thus is believed to relieve the effects of malefic planets.

·        Route: A spiritual journey along the Kaveri River, it involves covering close to 450 km (one-way trip from Srirangapatna), starting early in the morning, traversing through two states (Karnataka and Tamil Nadu), and finishing at Srirangam.  

Route Map of Tri Ranga Darshana

With the above prelude, we planned to embark on this trip when we met on the 20^th of last month. Initially, around 7 members from our group were interested in this tour and as the days progressed towards the D-day, it got filtered to just 4 (Suresh Babu (KV), Prabhakar (Prabhi), Jagadish (HN) and yours truly) and KV decided to bring his pride – Mercedes GLA, for the journey and prepped by getting the vehicle serviced, filling up the fuel, etc. KV had brought some bakery items like buns with jam and butter for our day journey that was our lunch. He had pre-loaded the vehicle with handy 200ml water bottles to keep our throats wet during the journey. The vehicle was ideal for the 4 of us and offered excellent creature comforts for a comfortable trip of close to 1000 kms.

Picking up all members of the travel group, we started off pretty early on the morning of 8^th January from Bengaluru, reaching the first point (Srirangapatna) around 5:00am. While standing in the queue for the ticketed darshana, we were (mis)guided by a kind(?) policeman to stand in another queue, that was presumably empty. Once reaching inside the precincts of the temple we found to our dismay, this was the line for free darshana and it took us the best part of close to two hours to complete our first stage. 

Four Musketeers at Srirangapattana post our Darshana

Forcibly convincing ourselves that this was what the Almighty decided for us, we headed towards our next destination of Sri Jaganmohana Swamy Temple, Shivanasamudra, a distance of around 100 kms. The darshana here was a breeze as I pulled a trick from my hat, and the time we lost in the first stage was compensated for by a quick turnaround here.

Wasting no time further, we took off towards the last of the destinations (Srirangam). However, as the journey transited through Kollegal, KV’s mother’s maternal town and needless to add, we had a royal welcome from his cousins even before we reached his aunt’s house. One of whom hosted our breakfast of hot bondas, vadas, masala vadas and masala dosas, and the other escorted us to his house, where we met KV’s aunt (a multitalented lady in her 80s), who still teaches music free to children, and we were informed by KV’s cousin that most houses in the town had at least one of her students. She is a linguist too and is proficient in at least 6 different languages.

What an achievement!

She insisted that we taste her breakfast of Paddu with excellent chutney. Washing this down with piping hot coffee, we got on to the vehicle without much ado, but not before she packed a dozen paddus with parpu pindi (dry chutney powder, a delicacy amongst the Setty community), for our journey.

Our journey took us through Dimbam Ghat, Satyamangalam, Erode & Namakkal. We had a pitstop after Namakkal at a roadside tea shop when KV opened his prized possession, Cowpeas (Avarekai) with Cashewnuts lightly fried in ghee and seasoned with the right mix of masala and salt. The taste was exquisite! Avarekai is the flavour of the season, and it is supposed to be a winter crop, but these days it is available throughout.

We finally reached Srirangam around 4:45pm and struggled a bit in finding a parking place for our vehicle near the South Gate. Rushing towards the temple, wading our way through the crowd, we reached the temple’s office. Shivu, our friend, had managed to get us a letter from one of the local MPs and armed with it, we enquired for assistance to hasten our darshana of the Lord, only to be told to contact the supervisors at the temple premises (this proved to be the proverbial ‘Searching for a Needle in a Hay Stack’). As we were ushered to join a queue for the darshan, we waited patiently for over 30 min while flagging to those people who appeared as volunteers of the temple for help, but to no avail.

After what seemed to us as an eternity, the line started coming to life, and as we were closing in on our proximity towards the sanctum sanctorum, we were diverted to another line in the mix-up. We hastened through this movement only to find ourselves out of the temple as we had been diverted to the exit line. Travesty!

Distraught and at our wits' end, we were helped by a kid in finding out a middleman who helped us (exchange of our money for his karma or dharma (?) of making money) in finally getting our darshana of the Lord around 6:45pm. I don’t want to describe the modus operandi of this process. 

The Vaikunta Dwara of the temple has been kept open since Vaikunta Ekadashi, and we were fortunate to pass through this dwara (gate), unbeknownst, two times (once when we mistakenly rushed out of the temple - see above para, and a second time - post darshana of the Lord Ranganatha). 

Greatly relieved that we had accomplished our mission, we gobbled at the prasada of puliogare while buying laddus and vada to take back home. Once this was done, we proceeded towards the vehicle and moved towards Trichy for our night halt, as we didn’t want to drive through the night for our return journey.

        

        

Different views of the Temple Precincts

Got two rooms at a hotel close to the Bus Stand at Trichy, we gobbled up the Paddus given by KV’s aunt along with usli brought by KV, for our dinner. A short stroll post dinner, we hit the bed and in no time, were fast asleep. KV had warned of his snoring, and I, too, mentioned that I would be sleeping soundly (pun intended), which may cancel his disturbance. Nevertheless, we dozed off quickly.

Waking up early the next day, KV and I had a quiet walk to the Railway station after a cuppa. Leisurely, we returned and had our bath while the other two (Prabhi and HN) were almost ready for the day.

The sumptuous breakfast of Idlis, Pongal, Vadas and Dosas was gobbled up by us in no time, and we washed it down with excellent filter coffee. 

Breakfast at the Hotel where we stayed for the night

Checking out, we proceeded towards Thanjavur (Tanjore, as the British had named it), a distance of around 60 kms east of Trichy, for a visit to the famous Brihadeshwara Temple, built during the Cholas rule over a millennium ago, and is currently under the care and control of the Archaeological Society of India. The imposing statue of Nandi overlooks the massive Shiva Linga (one of the largest in the country). The whole place has a moat around it and covers close to 8 acres. Unfortunately, due to a paucity of time, we couldn’t spend more time appreciating the architecture and the carvings of the temple.

     

      

Views of the mighty Brihadeshwara Temple, Tanjavur

Coming out of this Temple, we proceeded to meet a couple of KV’s old friends who welcomed us, and while we had coffee at one of the places, the other offered us hot vadas and coffee. Already full from the heavy king’s breakfast, we endured consuming this too, out of courtesy to KV.   

Thereafter, it was non-stop to Namakkal to see the massive idol of Lord Hanuman, which we reached around 3:00 pm. Just before this, we bought some bananas at the roadside (this place is full of banana plantations) for a fraction of the cost back in Bengaluru. The temple was closed for the afternoon break, and we couldn’t afford the luxury of waiting for the temple to open due to time constraints.

Proceeding towards home, we had a pitstop at one of the A2B (Adyar Anand Bhavan) for a quick bite, coffee and freshening up we resumed our homeward journey only to be promised of excellent idlis at Murugan Idli Centre near Krishnagiri, which we had as our last meal for the trip. This done, we headed towards our abode and reached KV’s place just before 10:00pm, and we dispersed from there. 

Our Ride, KV's Pride!

I reached my place around 10:15 pm just in time to catch up with the inaugural match of the Women’s Premier League between my team, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), and the Mumbai Indians (MI). Despite the odds, RCB could pull through, beating MI, scoring the winning runs on the last ball.

KV’s father and better-half kept him occupied during the trip, enquiring about our whereabouts on the route, both during the onward and our return journeys. Prabhi, too, had been reporting to his controlling office (?) while HN and I kept texting back our statuses. 

Looking back, this was perhaps one of my best trips with friends, albeit a short one. KV drove the vehicle throughout the journey as I navigated. Prabhi and HN basked in the luxury of being chauffeured around, and they only had to labour by passing the eatables to us in the front. Fortunately, none of us was troubled by ill health during the entire trip, and we kept ourselves hydrated throughout.

This trip was perhaps a perfect opportunity for cleansing our Souls with divine intervention from Lord Ranganatha, who blessed us with his Darshana in three different places, on a single day!

A note to the devotees:

There is no hard and fast rule that the visit to all three temples must be made on a single day, and that too between Sunrise and Sunset.

Take it easy, follow the sequence of Adi, Madhya and Anthya Ranga temple visit. Enjoy the lovely structures and the temples' architectural beauty. 

Relish the local food and don't forget to visit the nearby places of interest.