When the Gods came down to earth an invitation to a celestial wedding

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Divine promises, dancing Gods and devout princesses …all come together in one celestial nuptial at The Meenakshi Temple, Madurai.(This ones not a fairy tale.)

In the Athens of the East, as the city is called, life is built around myth and legend …literally. Located at the core of Madurai, the origin of The Meenakshi Temple goes as far back as 1600BC which is also, the time around which this temple factory of a city flourished

Walking through the streets of this blessed city among lazy traffic blocking cows, furiously honking drivers only obeying the ‘horn ok please’ in front of them, tobacco chewing balloon sellers, and old women sitting under umbrellas selling lemons for 25 paisa, procrastination can be a very attractive deal.

And so as we keep walking, taking in the details, ahead of us we see soaring temple towers or gopurams of the Meenakshi temple, each of these filled with myriad stucco images reflecting legends from the puranas exploring a wide range of human emotions.… Our feet finally lead us to the most … ‘Impossible-to-describe-in-a-few-words’ structure, built by the legendary Pandya King Kulasekara, that majestically towers over the city in an imposing, protective, awesome stance. These towers seen over and over again as the cosmic personae enclose this temple dedicated to the wife of lord Shiva. The Meenakshi Kalyanam , the coronation of Meenakshi and Sundareswarar as the Queen and King of Madurai, still form part of the grand festival traditions. (the Chitrai festival celebrated every April/May)

We step into the temple complex and we are greeted with a queer mélange of smells (of kumkum, flowers, incense, coconuts, muddy floors, elephants, and even French perfume off that tourist). Our hearts dance as we take in the feel of the cool floor under our feet, after the sweaty experience outside.

Among the many versions of the story, the tour guide gives you his favorite, most fascinating one. He also gives you the statistics at a remarkable speed. The number of pillars, the date of birth of this saint, and the number of words in that poem and why the Vagai River is called so, and did you know the city was planned in the shape of a lotus? That the concentric rectangular streets around the temple symbolize the structure of the cosmos? We are impressed already…

Looking up at this incredible, massive structure and the and high ceilings, one could feel small, humbled, and our sleeping spirituality awakens as we are transported to a different realm of existence, a dream world in which maybe one can catch glimpses of what heaven might be like. Spirituality seems to reverberate through the atmosphere The walls and the ceilings come alive with unbelievable carving, painted with a rainbow of a palette, the stories of gods, humans, curses, promises, marriages, the universe, creation, existence and perhaps why the world is what it is today. The shiny lotuses, among other things, on the ceiling, pink and pink white, green and red prove geometry is definitely not a piece of cake especially when done on the ceiling!

The sculptures are the most breathtaking, each Yali, each god, animal so real, complete with natural expressions, each with a different carefully thought design and detail. This only showing each was created with a huge amount of zeal, love, devotion and each expression comes from the heart of painter and sculptor, recording each moment in the history of the city. The most amazing feature of this temple is the fact that it is a living legend, absorbing traditions for over two millennia. Everything here seems like a larger than life exposition of the grandeur of Indian art.

We are shaken out of this reverie only by the flower sellers, hawkers, bargainers, beggars, tourist guides, a child who is scared of the temple elephants ‘blessings’, a priest looking (rather vocally) for his lost puja plate, the ticket seller, the crowd getting tired of the non existent queue ….

On the other hand, when we step into the southern gateway, after visiting the other shrines, including the much talked about sanctum of Shiva, and the rest of this heaven, we buy some equivalent of an ‘express ticket’ and are ushered into the shrine of Meenakshi ‘the fish eyed’ Goddess, where she waits, in all her glory, her diamond nose-pin gleaming in the dark. Devotees stand on both sides …some of whom traveled half the world for this one awesome, totally-worth-the-travel sighting of the Goddess, each brimming with piety.

Apart from the spiritual attraction, the temple is a house of many other exciting attractions. Even after my six hundred and fifty third …(well approximately..!) visit, I find myself looking forward to throw tiny balls of butter on the two colossal, angry, statues of Shiva and Meenkshi after a tiff ‘to calm the gods down’. Also, the point at which one can stand and see the golden pillar of the temple through the hole in the roof is not to be missed.

Other excitement includes the musical pillars, which produce the sapta-swaras, or seven sounds, when tapped with a wooden or iron rod, the art of which only the watchman of the hall seems to have mastered. Then of course, there is the famous thousand pillared hall, with some pillars not existing now, and the most exciting underground passage, from the temple to the Thirumalai Nayakar palace, which unfortunately remains closed!

The temple visit does not end with the buying of the prasad of adhirasam, muruku and puliyoddhrai alone; it is all completed in style. The grand finale includes resting at the golden lotus tank, so called since it was supposedly filled with lotuses and gold leaves at one point of time, but now it houses a single large gold lotus complete with a signboard announcing the contributor’s name, and a metal arch way (with the signboard as well). Devotees dip their feet in here to cleanse them before the prayers (and incidentally perhaps to wash away their sins too…)

As we leave the temple, we always want to ‘take a peek’ at the Pudumandapam market. If you think you’ve seen ‘the colors of India’ … you haven’t seen anything yet. The place where tourists get ripped off mercilessly, temptation gets the better of you and you think you are seeing the most beautiful colors come together and the most interesting things of whose existence, you did not even know about, or you see certain objects from good old days you thought you’d never see again, you are most likely to find yourself in Pudumandapam. Fabric heaven, very curiosity evoking. If those typical textiles, utensils, old fashioned toys, old books, bangles in every imaginable color, earthenware, flowers for your hair fascinate you, this is the place to find them. Dimly lit stalls, cool, musty air, perfect for a lazy afternoon, the sewing machine sounds beating all the music in the world, this place quaint in its own way.

Well, after It’s all done you must realize, that marriage, especially a celestial one, is always an occasion for sweets. So finally when you’re satisfactorily filled up your shopping bag and you’ve decided you’ve bought enough ‘gifts’ for your folks back home its time to buy you ice cream from the push cart, now resting against the carefully painted Rin and Nescafe adverts on the temple wall… you immediately run out and stop the guy before he walks away ringing his bell. And by the way ‘vennilla’ is always better than ‘staw burry’!



P.S: The Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, has been nominated to become one of the worlds New Seven Wonders. The New Seven Wonders are being chosen by public voting from around the world. To be a part of history in the making, and to vote for the Meenakshi Temple, please visit http://www.n7w.com/vote/ambassador/6170

The Golden Gate Bridge and the Empire State Building can wait… what say you?!

Posted: Apr 28, 2005 by mAtchBoxWoRld · Comments (0)



When the Gods came down to earth… an invitation to a celestial wedding…

Visited Mar 20, 2005
Divine promises, dancing Gods and devout princesses …all come together in one celestial nuptial at The Meenakshi Temple, Madurai.(This ones not a fairy tale.)

In the Athens of the East, as the city is called, life is built around myth and legend …literally. Located at the core of Madurai, the origin of The Meenakshi Temple goes as far back as 1600BC which is also, the time around which this temple factory of a city flourished

Walking through the streets of this blessed city among lazy traffic blocking cows, furiously honking drivers only obeying the ‘horn ok please’ in front of them, tobacco chewing balloon sellers, and old women sitting under umbrellas selling lemons for 25 paisa, procrastination can be a very attractive deal.

And so as we keep walking, taking in the details, ahead of us we see soaring temple towers or gopurams of the Meenakshi temple, each of these filled with myriad stucco images reflecting legends from the puranas exploring a wide range of human emotions.… Our feet finally lead us to the most … ‘Impossible-to-describe-in-a-few-words’ structure, built by the legendary Pandya King Kulasekara, that majestically towers over the city in an imposing, protective, awesome stance. These towers seen over and over again as the cosmic personae enclose this temple dedicated to the wife of lord Shiva. The Meenakshi Kalyanam , the coronation of Meenakshi and Sundareswarar as the Queen and King of Madurai, still form part of the grand festival traditions. (the Chitrai festival celebrated every April/May)

We step into the temple complex and we are greeted with a queer mélange of smells (of kumkum, flowers, incense, coconuts, muddy floors, elephants, and even French perfume off that tourist). Our hearts dance as we take in the feel of the cool floor under our feet, after the sweaty experience outside.

Among the many versions of the story, the tour guide gives you his favorite, most fascinating one. He also gives you the statistics at a remarkable speed. The number of pillars, the date of birth of this saint, and the number of words in that poem and why the Vagai River is called so, and did you know the city was planned in the shape of a lotus? That the concentric rectangular streets around the temple symbolize the structure of the cosmos? We are impressed already…

Looking up at this incredible, massive structure and the and high ceilings, one could feel small, humbled, and our sleeping spirituality awakens as we are transported to a different realm of existence, a dream world in which maybe one can catch glimpses of what heaven might be like. Spirituality seems to reverberate through the atmosphere The walls and the ceilings come alive with unbelievable carving, painted with a rainbow of a palette, the stories of gods, humans, curses, promises, marriages, the universe, creation, existence and perhaps why the world is what it is today. The shiny lotuses, among other things, on the ceiling, pink and pink white, green and red prove geometry is definitely not a piece of cake especially when done on the ceiling!

The sculptures are the most breathtaking, each Yali, each god, animal so real, complete with natural expressions, each with a different carefully thought design and detail. This only showing each was created with a huge amount of zeal, love, devotion and each expression comes from the heart of painter and sculptor, recording each moment in the history of the city. The most amazing feature of this temple is the fact that it is a living legend, absorbing traditions for over two millennia. Everything here seems like a larger than life exposition of the grandeur of Indian art.

We are shaken out of this reverie only by the flower sellers, hawkers, bargainers, beggars, tourist guides, a child who is scared of the temple elephants ‘blessings’, a priest looking (rather vocally) for his lost puja plate, the ticket seller, the crowd getting tired of the non existent queue ….

On the other hand, when we step into the southern gateway, after visiting the other shrines, including the much talked about sanctum of Shiva, and the rest of this heaven, we buy some equivalent of an ‘express ticket’ and are ushered into the shrine of Meenakshi ‘the fish eyed’ Goddess, where she waits, in all her glory, her diamond nose-pin gleaming in the dark. Devotees stand on both sides …some of whom traveled half the world for this one awesome, totally-worth-the-travel sighting of the Goddess, each brimming with piety.

Apart from the spiritual attraction, the temple is a house of many other exciting attractions. Even after my six hundred and fifty third …(well approximately..!) visit, I find myself looking forward to throw tiny balls of butter on the two colossal, angry, statues of Shiva and Meenkshi after a tiff ‘to calm the gods down’. Also, the point at which one can stand and see the golden pillar of the temple through the hole in the roof is not to be missed.

Other excitement includes the musical pillars, which produce the sapta-swaras, or seven sounds, when tapped with a wooden or iron rod, the art of which only the watchman of the hall seems to have mastered. Then of course, there is the famous thousand pillared hall, with some pillars not existing now, and the most exciting underground passage, from the temple to the Thirumalai Nayakar palace, which unfortunately remains closed!

The temple visit does not end with the buying of the prasad of adhirasam, muruku and puliyoddhrai alone; it is all completed in style. The grand finale includes resting at the golden lotus tank, so called since it was supposedly filled with lotuses and gold leaves at one point of time, but now it houses a single large gold lotus complete with a signboard announcing the contributor’s name, and a metal arch way (with the signboard as well). Devotees dip their feet in here to cleanse them before the prayers (and incidentally perhaps to wash away their sins too…)

As we leave the temple, we always want to ‘take a peek’ at the Pudumandapam market. If you think you’ve seen ‘the colors of India’ … you haven’t seen anything yet. The place where tourists get ripped off mercilessly, temptation gets the better of you and you think you are seeing the most beautiful colors come together and the most interesting things of whose existence, you did not even know about, or you see certain objects from good old days you thought you’d never see again, you are most likely to find yourself in Pudumandapam. Fabric heaven, very curiosity evoking. If those typical textiles, utensils, old fashioned toys, old books, bangles in every imaginable color, earthenware, flowers for your hair fascinate you, this is the place to find them. Dimly lit stalls, cool, musty air, perfect for a lazy afternoon, the sewing machine sounds beating all the music in the world, this place quaint in its own way.

Well, after It’s all done you must realize, that marriage, especially a celestial one, is always an occasion for sweets. So finally when you’re satisfactorily filled up your shopping bag and you’ve decided you’ve bought enough ‘gifts’ for your folks back home its time to buy you ice cream from the push cart, now resting against the carefully painted Rin and Nescafe adverts on the temple wall… you immediately run out and stop the guy before he walks away ringing his bell. And by the way ‘vennilla’ is always better than ‘staw burry’!



P.S: The Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, has been nominated to become one of the worlds New Seven Wonders. The New Seven Wonders are being chosen by public voting from around the world. To be a part of history in the making, and to vote for the Meenakshi Temple, please visit http://www.n7w.com/vote/ambassador/6170

The Golden Gate Bridge and the Empire State Building can wait… what say you?!

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