Not aware about the mega Tiruvannamalai mahadeepam festival? Read this blog post on my solo yatra at this event where 10 – 20 lakh devotees drop in. Naturally, due to the high number of devotees coming in, entry into town is a tough matter especially on the evening itself. Here is my account of how I managed (as a solo woman), and tips from my learnings 🙂

I left Chikkaballapur Adiyogi (where I am volunteering) at about 11.15AM. Straight away took the NH 44 highway, and drove right across Bangalore. Reached Hosur within 2 hours. Thankfully, not much difficulty at Silk board at that time, and once I took the electronic city flyover then smooth driving. The main delays happened at toll booths.

I reached 10,000 kms on my car at Uthangarai, which was one of the highlights of this trip 😊  

After this I took a bathroom halt at some roadside petrol pump, no better options presented themselves. The bathroom was quite crappy, but I was on a general travel high, so it was fine.

Till 5.30 pm, the ride was very smooth. I was about 7 kms from Tiruvannamalai and looking for Government allotted parking lots. But unfortunately, none of them were visible. Moreover, even if I parked by the roadside, there were no rickshaws and such available to take me further onwards.  

At about 5.40pm, the road completely jammed up. Couldn’t even move an inch for about an hour. Things opened up a little, after much efforts by good samaritans and little bit help from the police. The police had allotted some parking spaces about 2 kms from town – obviously, those were full, the jam extended at least 4 to 5 km before that.

They only ensured that vehicles trying to leave town – their lane remained open. Theoretically, if enough left then those entering would get space. That was only theory 😀  

Finally, at 8.40pm, when we had started moving inch by inch, I parked at some roadside ditch place. Some guy warned me that the car will get scratched from the side. I decided to take the chance, because the option was to sit in the car for the entire festival night.  

After parking, I had to walk the 4 – 5 kms to the girivalam route. No other option was available, as all vehicles were completely jammed.  

I was really happy to have been able to manage all this on my own without much effort. The environment overall was very safe. Nothing much to worry. Arunachala Shiva.  

Tips to Enter Tiruvannamalai on Mahadeepam Evening

• Try to go earlier 😀 If that is not possible, then park in some field or wide side lane, about 6-7 km from town. Don’t bother going closer. Then hitch a bus. Go by bus for however long possible, if traffic jams up, then get off and walk.
• Book a hotel about 8 to 10 kms from Tiruvannamalai, some good places exist. Then from there take an auto rickshaw who will take back routes and drop us in town. 
• Behind roads of the city are better navigable. So, it might be possible to NOT enter via the highway, but rather take some back route from about 12-15 kms earlier on, and then drive down narrower roads. I haven’t tried this, but I suspect it might work.

Have you driven this route? What was your experience?

I found this route overall pretty good. Chikkaballapur to Krishnagiri is the usual Bangalore – Coimbatore route I have taken multiple times earlier. The left cut from Krishnagiri towards Chennai, is where the route for Tiruvannamalai deviates. Was happy with the route, and happy to see new highway roads are being made. It is a matter of time before that entire route becomes really good to drive into. Of course, the enticing prospect of entering Arunachala kshetra is there.

Arunachala Shiva