Kalugumalai, South India

 Kalugumalai is a village or rather a small town in southern Tamil Nadu. It is a lesser known tourist destination in Tamil Nadu and I am sure only few people outside South Tamil Nadu know about this place.

   There is a small hill here which is the Kalugumalai and I guess the town gets its name from this hill. Kalugumalai means Hill of Vultures though I didn't see any vulture there. There is a temple at the foothills but we didn't see that. We didn't have a lot of time and I was interested in only seeing the cave temples on the hill. 

  It was a hot summer afternoon and though the hill was a fairly small one I was puffing and panting. Apart from a small family of father and sons we were the only visitors. 

  We first saw the Vettuvan Kovil which is an incomplete monolithic temple.  It was built in the 8th or 9th century.

    Then we saw the Jain cave temple.

The cave temple is usually kept locked and only opened upon visitor's request. We were advised not to go into the caves for fear of snakes and bats but my husband managed to click a few photos. 

  

 Can you spot the bats?

It was a nice trip and I hope next time I will be able to visit the Kalugasalamoorthi temple at the foothills of Kalugumalai.

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