Valluvar Kottam, Chennai

Chennai is considered as the gateway to South India. The capital city of Tamil Nadu state of India has hundreds of tourist sites, which include museums, British period monuments, temples, beaches, etc.

Let me write about one of the most famous landmarks of Chennai - Valluvar Kottam. Valluvar Kottam is the memorial monument to the great Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar.

Thiruvalluvar was one of the well-revered Tamil poets. One set of people believes that he lived in the 2nd century BCE, and there is another set that considers his period was after Christ. There are many stories and myths about the life of this great poet, which are not relevant to this post.

Thirukkural was the best work by Thiruvalluvar. It consists of 133 chapters, and each chapter consists of 10 couplets (kural), thus making a total of 1330 couplets.

Valluvar Kottam was constructed in 1976 CE. All 1330 couplets (kurals) are inscribed on the granite pillars in the front hall corridors. The memorial structure resembles a temple chariot, and a life-size statue of Thiruvalluvar stands atop the chariot.

The auditorium at Valluvar Kottam can accommodate about 4,000 people. An unknown fact is that this auditorium is one of the largest halls in Asia. Unfortunately, except for some Government functions and some handloom trade fairs, no major event is happening in this auditorium.

More to come about Chennai. Till then...

Happy travelling.

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