The Wishing Tree watercolor and pen by Meera Rao
After a morning spent at the Sri Rangam temple, we took an autoriksha to see the Rock Fort Temple in nearby Tiruchirapalli. This temple is visible for miles and is a landmark in the area. As the name suggests the temple and the fort are on an 273' high ancient monolithic rock formation (according to my research about 3.8 billion years old!) A fort, three beautiful cave temples at different levels are cut away in the rock. Temple at the foot is for Ganesha, the Ucchi Pillayar Temple is at the top, and the Thayumanavar Temple between them. The Thayumanavar temple, the largest of the three, is for Goddess Amman as well as Shiva. There are around 350-400 steep steps to climb to visit all the temples and reach the top most Ganesha Temple. A marvel in construction, the temple complex was originally built more than 1000 years ago by the Pallavas. It was later reconstructed by the Madurai Nayaks and Vijayanagara rulers. The major complex in the temple are believed to be built during the 8th century by the Pandyan Empire.
I was amazed to find this huge tree on top of the huge barren rock! A few feet below the entrance to the top most Ganesha Puliyar Temple, this tree is a wonder in itself. The tree has many colorful cradles in wood or cloth hanging from it. There were many towers of bricks too. The story goes that an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva could not have her mother come to help her during pregnancy and delivery due to heavy rains and flood. Lord Shiva took pity on her, came down disguised as her mother and she of course, had a safe and painless delivery. So the devotees now come, tie the cradles and pray for an easy, safe pregnancy and delivery. I was impressed by the many pregnant and new mothers who were climbing all the way up either to pray or thank and show gratitude to the Lord.
Needless to say the view from the top is breathtaking.
