India Tourism » Travel to South India

For Any Inquiry Please Mail Us at: spectrumtour@gmail.com

SOUTH INDIA
South India’s boundaries vary according to whom you’re talking to: while some regard the River Krishna, the upper limit of India’s last Hindu empire, as the real north–south divide, others place the subcontinent’s main cultural fault line at the River Godavari, or further north still, at the Vindhya Hills, the barrier of arid table-topped mountains bounding the Ganges Basin. In this guide we’ve started with Mumbai, a hot, congested city that is the arrival point for most international flights. Mumbai gets a pretty bad press, and most people pass straight through. But those who stay find themselves witness to the reality of modern-day India, from the deprivations of the city’s slum-dwellings to the glitz and glamour of Bollywood movies.

The other principal gateway is Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu, in the deep south, which is a slightly less stressful point of entry. Although it’s another major metropolis bursting at the seams, hidden under its surface are artful gems such as regular public performances of classical music and dance.With regular flights and ship departures to Port Blair, Chennai is also the major springboard for the Andaman Islands, a remote archipelago ringed by coral reefs and crystal-clear seas, 1000km east of the mainland in the Bay of Bengal.

The majority of visitors’ first stop after Chennai is Mamallapuram, an ancient port littered with weatherworn sculpture sites, including the famous Shore temple. To get right off the beaten track you only have to head inland to Kanchipuram, whose innumerable Hindu shrines span the golden age of the illustrious Chola kingdom, or to Tiruvannamalai, where one of the region’s massive temple complexes rises dramatically from the base of a sacred mountain, site of countless ashrams and meditation caves. Back on the coast, the former French colony of Pondicherry retains a distinctly Gallic feel, particularly in its restaurants, where you can order coq au vin and a bottle of Burgundy before a stroll along the promenade. The Kaveri (Cauvery) Delta, further south, harbours astonishing crops of monuments, some of the most impressive of which are around Thanjavur (Tanjore), the Cholas’ former capital, dominated by the awesome Brihadishwara temple. You could profitably spend days exploring the town’s watery hinterland, hunting out bronze-casting villages, crumbling ruins and other forgotten sacred sites among the web of rivers and irrigation on canals. Most travellers press on south to Madurai, the region’s most atmospherically charged city, where the mighty Meenakshi-Sundareshwar temple presides over a quintessentially Tamil swirl of life.

The two other most compelling destinations in Tamil Nadu are the island Rameshwaram, whose main temple features a vast enclosure of the red corridors, and Kanniyakumari, the auspicious southernmost tip of India, where the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea flow. The dark shadows visible on the horizon from here mark the start of the southern and western Ghats, which stretch for more than 1000 km in a virtually unbroken chain all way to Mumbai, forming a sheer barrier between Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Kerala. Covered in immense forests and windswept grasslands, the mountains rise to the highest peaks in peninsular India, with sides sculpted by tea terraces, coffee plantations and cardamom groves. The hill stations of Udhagamandalam (or Ooty, as it’s still better known) and Kodaikanal, established by India’s former colonial rulers as retreats from the summer heat of the plains, attract hordes of Indian visitors in the run-up to the rains, but see plenty of foreign tourist traffic during the winter, too.

Neighbouring Kerala’s appeal lies less in its religious monuments, many of which remain off-limits to non-Hindus, than its infectiously easy-going, tropical ambience. Covering a long thin coastal strip backed by a steep wall of hills, this is the wettest and most densely populated state in the South. It is also the most distinctive, with a culture that sets it squarely apart. Its ritualized theatre (Kathakali), faintly Southeast Asian architecture and ubiquitous communist graffiti (Kerala was the first place in the world to gain a democratically elected communist government) are perhaps the most visual expressions of this difference. But spend a couple of days exploring the spicy backstreets of old Kochi (Cochin), the jungles of the Cardamom Hills around the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary or the hidden aquatic world of the coastal backwaters, and you’ll see why many travellers end up staying here a lot longer than they originally intended. If you’re not pushed for time and find yourself crossing northern Kerala during the winter, set aside a few days to search for Teyyattam, a spectacular masked dance form unique to the villages around Kannur.

A short ride across the n whose opulent maharaja’s California-like climate hay tourist destinations. Bangal highlights of the state, which of rolling, granite-boulder-4 Hoysala temples of Belur a at Sravanabelgola, are relig sights are the mausolea. In Karnataka, often dubbed th however, is the awesome sca at Hampi, on the River Tui eracy of Muslim sultanates South India’s last Hindu emj Only one day’s journey beaches of Goa offer a cha Deccan. Succumbing to r constant sunshine and chea] themselves away from the dynastic capitals punctuate plateau to Hyderabad, tapir marks are the Charminar ant Contrast, lie much further off visitors ever reach them. bL famous living saint, Sai Baba pilgrims than anywhere else,

A short ride across the mountains takes you to Mysore in Karnataka, opulent maharaja’s palace, colourful markets and comfortable Cailfornia-like climate have made it among South India’s most popular destinations. Bangalore, the hectic modern capital, is not one of the highlights of the state, which are for the main part scattered over a vast area rolling, granite-boulder-strewn uplands. Most, such as the richly carved Hoyasala temples of Belur and Halebid, or the extraordinary Jain colossus it Sravanabelgola, are religious monuments. Amongst other extraordinary sants are the mausolea, mosques and Persian-style palaces of Bijapur, Karnataka, often dubbed the “Agra of the South”. Almost unsurpassable, mowever, is the awesome scale and faded splendour of the Vijayanagar ruins Hampi, on the River Tungabhadra. Until it was ransacked by a confed of Muslim sultanates in 1565, this was the magnificent capital of South India’s last Hindu empire, encompassing most of the peninsula.

Only one day’s journey to the west, the palm-fringed, white-sand caches of Goa offer a change of scenery from the rocky terrain of the Deccan. Succumbing to the hedonistic pleasures of warm seawater tans sunshine and cheap drinks, many travellers find it hard to tear away from the coast. Further east, a string of smaller former mastic capitals punctuate the journey across the heart of the Deccan -tareau to Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh, whose principal landmarks are the Charminar and Golconda fort. Andhra’s other attractions, by on rast, lie much further off the beaten track. Comparatively few Western ever reach them, but Puttaparthy, the ashram of India’s most sous living saint, Sai Baba, and Tirupati, whose temple receives more rims than anywhere else on earth, are essential stops for South Indians.

WHEN TO GO
The relentless tropical sun aside, the source of South India’s irrepressible fecundity lies in its high rainfall. Unlike the north of the country, which sees only a single deluge in the summer, most of peninsular India receives two annual monsoons — one sucked in from the Arabian Sea in the southwest, and the other on stormy north-westerly winds off the Bay of Bengal. The heaviest rains are reserved for the Western Ghats, a chain of mountains running parallel with the southwest coast. Cloaked for the most part in dense forest, these form a curtain that impedes the path of the first summer monsoon, which breaks in June and lasts through October. In a nutshell, you should, when planning a trip to South India, avoid the rainy seasons. The novelty of torrential downpours and the general mayhem that attend the annual deluges wears off very quickly. Road blockages, landslides and burst riverbanks can interrupt the best-laid travel plans, not to mention the discomfort of being wet through for days on end; the widespread flooding is also none too healthy, emptying the sewers and polluting reservoirs. Broadly speaking, rule out the period between April and September, when the southwest monsoon is in full swing across the whole peninsula. From late October until April, the weather is perfect in Karnataka and Goa, but less reliable in Kerala, where, by November, the “retreating”, or northwest monsoon means constant grey skies and showers. Being on the eastern side of the mountains, Tamil Nadu gets even heavier rains at this time. To enjoy the far south and the Andaman Islands at their best, come between January and March, before the heat starts to build up again. Late April and May are simply insufferable for anyone not accustomed to intense tropical heat.