February 15, 2006 - Madurai
I had been in India only a week and had already lost track of time! I kept thinking that we arrived in Madurai on Thursday, the 16th, but it was Wednesday, the 15th.
We took the bus from Thekkady to Madurai – a four-hour trip along slow and winding roads leading down from the hills and back into the plains. The holy city of Madurai is located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the oldest cities in India, with a history dating all the way back to the Sangam period of the pre-Christian era. (Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the details.) Today Madurai is famous for its temples and is frequently called the Temple City.
Once we arrived in Madurai, we checked into the Hotel Chentoor, a business-class hotel. The hotel’s website describes it as “mainly remarkable for it’s cleanliness and tidiness by which declared as No. 1 Hotel in the city. Hotel Chentoor is nearly 11 years old. But still looks and maintained was new born baby of one year old… This hotel has got a heritage of best customer service and the mesmerism is being continued till now… Good luck TO Customers.” (This is an exact quote.) My room was nice and cool, but the bathroom had no air whatsoever. It did, however, have an OPEN window (more like a slit) to the outside. Several mosquitoes were already in the bathroom waiting for their next meal!
I ate lunch at a nice place two doors down from the hotel. I had a thali, which is a selection of different foods served in small bowls on a round, metal tray. On the way back to the hotel, I bought some postcards to send to family and friends back home.
That afternoon, I walked along with my fellow travelers to Sri Meenakshi Temple. The walk was through city streets that were jammed with people, cows, bicycles, auto rickshaws and the odd car. The roads were narrow and lined with small storefronts selling everything. As we got nearer to the temple, I started seeing lots of sadhus sitting on the sidewalks. These holy men of Hinduism are dedicated to achieving the fourth and final Hindu goal of life, moksha (liberation), through meditation and contemplation of Brahman, the “eternal, unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being and everything beyond this Universe.” (Whew! Quite a lofty ambition!) Sadhus leave behind all material and sexual attachments and live in caves, forests, temples and – in this particular case – the sidewalks in front of temples. I also started noticing poor people, families living (and cooking and sleeping) on a little patch of the sidewalk, beggars and disfigured human beings.
(Click on the images below to view.)
We took the bus from Thekkady to Madurai – a four-hour trip along slow and winding roads leading down from the hills and back into the plains. The holy city of Madurai is located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the oldest cities in India, with a history dating all the way back to the Sangam period of the pre-Christian era. (Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the details.) Today Madurai is famous for its temples and is frequently called the Temple City.
Once we arrived in Madurai, we checked into the Hotel Chentoor, a business-class hotel. The hotel’s website describes it as “mainly remarkable for it’s cleanliness and tidiness by which declared as No. 1 Hotel in the city. Hotel Chentoor is nearly 11 years old. But still looks and maintained was new born baby of one year old… This hotel has got a heritage of best customer service and the mesmerism is being continued till now… Good luck TO Customers.” (This is an exact quote.) My room was nice and cool, but the bathroom had no air whatsoever. It did, however, have an OPEN window (more like a slit) to the outside. Several mosquitoes were already in the bathroom waiting for their next meal!
I ate lunch at a nice place two doors down from the hotel. I had a thali, which is a selection of different foods served in small bowls on a round, metal tray. On the way back to the hotel, I bought some postcards to send to family and friends back home.
That afternoon, I walked along with my fellow travelers to Sri Meenakshi Temple. The walk was through city streets that were jammed with people, cows, bicycles, auto rickshaws and the odd car. The roads were narrow and lined with small storefronts selling everything. As we got nearer to the temple, I started seeing lots of sadhus sitting on the sidewalks. These holy men of Hinduism are dedicated to achieving the fourth and final Hindu goal of life, moksha (liberation), through meditation and contemplation of Brahman, the “eternal, unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being and everything beyond this Universe.” (Whew! Quite a lofty ambition!) Sadhus leave behind all material and sexual attachments and live in caves, forests, temples and – in this particular case – the sidewalks in front of temples. I also started noticing poor people, families living (and cooking and sleeping) on a little patch of the sidewalk, beggars and disfigured human beings.
(Click on the images below to view.)
Once we arrived at the main entrance to Sri Meenakshi, we removed our shoes (required in all Hindu temples) and then proceeded to be amazed and mesmerized by this beautiful and sprawling temple complex. Dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva and his consort, Parvati in the form of Meenakshi, the temple in its present form is 847 feet long and 792 feet wide, and parts of it were built as early as 1168, though it was mentioned in Hindu literature as early as the 7th century. It is home to 14 magnificent gopurams, or towers, the largest being 170 feet high, including two gopurams specifically for the main deities, that are elaborately sculptured and painted. Every 12 years, the figures of the deities on the gopurams are reconditioned, repainted and ritually reconsecrated. (To me it looked like the deities were due for a painting soon as many of the colors were pale.) [I have subsequently found out that the most recent repainting of the temple was completed in March 2009, and it was reconsecreated in April 2009 by 300 sivachariyars, or temple priests, in grand fashion.]
(Click on the images below to enlarge them.)
(Click on the images below to enlarge them.)
Sri Meenakshi is a working Hindu temple and the place was swarming inside with devotees. I could have spent a whole day exploring the different areas of the temple, but today I only had a few hours. Right inside was Ashta Shakthi Mandapam, the first hall, which contained row upon row of vendors in small stalls selling flowers and colorful powders for the Hindu followers to buy and present as ritual offerings to the many deities inside the temple complex. Next, there were vendors selling statues and framed pictures of the gods. It was like walking through a holy junk shop! (No disrespect intended.) A little further on was a large elephant blessing people with its trunk, which I just had to have done myself! Temple elephants are a regular feature of the larger temples in South India. For a small donation, the elephant will give you a blessing. So, I paid my 50 rupees and had the Sri Meenakshi Temple elephant bless me. I must admit, I was a little intimidated standing so close to this colossal beast, but how often can one say they've been blessed by an elephant!
As I continued to discover the many wonders of this huge, throbbing temple complex, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of Indians wandering about or involved in worshiping their gods. I walked down expansive, dark temple corridors and explored the many shrines and rooms located in the temple. I watched Hindu priests perform rituals to the different gods housed in the temple and the devotees performing puja to their god(s) of choice.
(Click on the images below to enlarge them.)
(Click on the images below to enlarge them.)
Eventually I came upon the Hall of Thousand Pillars, which actually contains only 985 pillars and is so arranged that from every single angle they appear to be in a straight line.
Porthamarai Kulam is a man-made, square, sacred pond inside the temple and is a very holy site for devotees. The name of the pond means “pond with the golden lotus,” and the pond contains a sculpture of a golden lotus. According to legend, Lord Shiva promised a stork that no fish or other marine life would grow here and accordingly no marine animals are found in the pond. In the Tamil legends, the lake is supposed to be a judge for determining the worth of new literature. Thus, authors place their works here and the poorly written works are supposed to sink and the scholastic ones are supposed to float.
(Click on the images below view.)
Porthamarai Kulam is a man-made, square, sacred pond inside the temple and is a very holy site for devotees. The name of the pond means “pond with the golden lotus,” and the pond contains a sculpture of a golden lotus. According to legend, Lord Shiva promised a stork that no fish or other marine life would grow here and accordingly no marine animals are found in the pond. In the Tamil legends, the lake is supposed to be a judge for determining the worth of new literature. Thus, authors place their works here and the poorly written works are supposed to sink and the scholastic ones are supposed to float.
(Click on the images below view.)
In my wanderings, I came upon a group of men sitting outdoors under a pavilion on the temple grounds listening to another man reading from a book. I can only imagine that it was a Hindu holy text and that he was perhaps teaching the others. I stopped and watched them for awhile, taking a few photographs, until I started feeling like an interloper.
(Click on the images below to enlarge them.)
(Click on the images below to enlarge them.)
I then met up with my fellow travel companions; we retrieved our shoes and walked across the street from the temple to an upscale shop. I was definitely turned off by the prices of the items in the shop, so I didn’t buy anything and I doubt if anyone else in my group did either. We then bought some cold drinks and walked out onto a large balcony where we gazed at Sri Meenakshi Temple as the sun was going down.
Back at the hotel, we all ate dinner together, then it was off to bed for me.
NEXT: PONDICHERRY, INDIA
NEXT: PONDICHERRY, INDIA