My last major trek was to Rupin pass in the Himalayas in October 2021, and in early 2022, Hari and I did Kurinjal and Tapteshwar betta treks in smaller groups and Merthi gudda with the larger team. You can read those experiences in my earlier posts (https://balutreks-balachandra.blogspot.com/). Velliangiri was in our bucket list for a long time. Yatish and Pratap had done it earlier, but Pratap volunteered to come again. We decided to go there on the last weekend of April 2022, just before the peaks are closed for public.
Velliangiri mountains are a part
of the Nilgiri biosphere reserve, in the western ghats of Coimbatore district
of Tamil Nādu. They are highly revered seven hills and are referred to as “Southern
Kailash”. Swayambhu (self-created) Shiva on top of the mountain is believed to
be blessing his devotees. The seven hills signify seven chakras in the body. They have altitudes ranging from 520 -
1840 meters.
There are several legends about
Velliangiri. I wish to share a few prominent ones here:
1. There
was a woman who wanted to marry only Lord Shiva. She had setup a timeline for Lord
Shiva to come to her, and if not, she would kill herself. On knowing this, the
Lord Shiva came in search of her, but he couldn’t reach in time due to a
conspiracy. The woman killed herself and is believed to be standing as Kanyakumari,
at a distance from here. Depressed at this, the Lord Shiva needed a place to
dissolve his grief. He climbed the Velliangiri hills and spent some
considerable time there.
2. Lord
Vishnu worshipped lord Shiva here and requested to show the cosmic dance, “Ananda
Tandava”. Shiva, just like he had done for the w sages Patanjali and
Vyaghrapada, danced for Vishnu on the Velliangiri peaks.
3. Vayu
Bhaghvan (Wind God) and Adiseshan (the giant serpent) had a dispute about who
is superior. To prove his superiority adiseshan encircled the Kailasam and Vayu
tried to remove this embrace by creating a twister (santamarutham). Because of
the twister, 8 kodumudigal (parts) fell from Kailasam into 8 different places
which are Thirugonamalai (Trincomalee), Thirukalahasti, Thiruchiramalai,
Thiruenkoimalai, Velliangiri, Neerthagiri, Ratnagiri, and Swethagiri or
Thirupangeeli in different parts of India.
Though Hari was clear about five
people going for the trek in his car, I wanted to see if the bigger group was
interested and posted in the WhatsApp group. As there were no more takers, five
of us, Hari, Pratap, Renu, Vishal, and I, went by my car. We formed a separate WhatsApp
group, where Pratap shared things to carry, and Hari shared the schedule. I
started from my home in my Ford Fusion (16 year old horse!) at 15:00 on Friday,
29th April 2022 and picked up Pratap and Renu near the NICE road
toll start, Vishal on the NICE road and Hari at electronic city shortly after
the end of the NICE road. It was around 16:00 by the time we were all together
and proceeded further. The road was good, and we stopped around 21:00 for some
food in a hotel on the way. I took idly (a bit sour, possibly due to the season
and the time of the day) and pudi dosa (roast). These things created a havoc in
my stomach later! We reached the base of Velliangiri at 11:30 pm, and immediately
proceeded towards theo temple, the start of the trek (ideally, we should have
rested for some time). The temple is in a place called Poondi, and hosts shrines
of Ganesha, Shiva nd Parvathi, known and Manonmani.
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| At Poondi temple |
Hari, Vishal, and Renu went to
collect the cane poles that were sold there, while Pratap and I waited, and it was
12 in the midnight when we started climbing. The trail is mostly steps (more
than thousand), some easy and some very steep. The havoc in the stomach made me
to throw up a couple of times initially, after which though I felt light, I
felt quite weak and was slowed down. Pratap was very fast, and Vishal went to catch
him, not to be seen till we reached the top. Hari, Renu and I were together, visited
the shrines in the earlier peaks and maintained a slow pace. A description of
the seven hills oh Velliangiri mountains and their specialty can be browsed in the
following link: https://www.aanmeegam.in/en/velliangiri-hills-andavar-temple/.
There were thousands of pilgrims around as it was the last day before the shrines were closed for public. Most were barefoot, and some looking at us strangely as we were wearing hiking shoes. Couple of them even said in Tamil that it is not good to step on the holy hills with shoes!
There were shops all along, selling glucose, cucumber, pineapple, watermelon, and lemon juice/soda. We tried some, refreshing ourselves. I had clearly dehydrated due to vomiting. It was around 6:00 in the morning by the time we reached the top. The view all around was breathtaking! After spending some time around clicking pictures, we removed our shoes and got in the queue for the darshan of the holy lord. It took more than an hour to finish the darshan. There is ~ 6 feet wide cave with five lingas that fare swyambhu c( self formed). After finishing the darshan we met Pratap and Vishal around 8:00, and after that they sped down and vanished again! We came down slowly enjoying the view around. Later it became very sunny and hot. Feet were sour in the shoes and each step downwards was painful. Close to the base, I was fully dehydrated, and an old lady selling buttermilk came as a savior!
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| Lord shiva at the top as Swayambhu Panchalingas |
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| Full team: With Hari, Pratap, Vishal and Renu |
It was about 12 by the time we reached Poondi. Some devotees were distributing food, and we enjoyed delicious puliogare and curd rice. With this the energy was regained, though the feet were sour. My shoe sole had come off in the rough, rocky terrain. From here we went straight to Isha foundation at Coimbatore and clicked some pictures in front of the Adiyogi bust. That evening, after lot of searching, we found hotel Vijai Paradise in Saibaba colony at Coimbatore. We stayed in two rooms here. After a good rest, we started early in the morning for Bangalore, eating delicious breakfast near Dharmapuri on the way. After dropping Hari, Vishal, Renu and Pratap at their respective places, I reached home at 12:40.
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| Adiyogi |
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| Garmin output |
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| "Mini Tiffin" |
I had done earlier three Shabarimalai
pilgrimages barefoot, and it was a bit odd going trekking on a holy hill with
shoes on. Nevertheless, I feel that if your conscience is clear, there is no sin.
Velliangiri remains fresh in the memory for the beautiful, divine nature, and
for the problems I had 😊. Thanks to Hari and my teammates for the support.
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