Devi Temple : Meenakshi, Madurai

[Guest guest]

Dear Nora:

Just note

Dwaadashaantha staanam thu lalaadasya uttara bhagaha.

The place dwaadasaantha is just above the forehead.

This is important.

 

Menon

--- nora55_1999 <nora55_1999 wrote:

> On the Somavar, the day of the moon, of nectar (

> also known as

> Monday ) evening, many moons ago, Dhananjaya, a

> merchant from

> Manavoor, was returning to his home after a long and

> arduous business

> trip to the west coast. Making his way through the

> darkening forest

> at dusk, he stumbled upon Indra the god of thunder.

> Now Indra, who

> had in some way offended the mighty god, Brihaspati,

> was in the

> forest to atone for his sins. Here he sat and he

> prayed for

> forgiveness, on one full moon night a year ( Chitra

> Poornima ) to

> Sundaresvara ( Siva)

>

> The holy sight of Indra worshipping the Siva Linga

> elated Dhananjaya.

> He shared his story with his monarch who immediately

> ordered that a

> shrine be built commemorating the divine site. So

> workers cleared the

> woods, constructed a temple and built a planned city

> in the shape of

> a coiled serpent. They could not, however find name

> for this new

> town. Then one night, the king dreamt that Siva was

> sprinkling sweet

> madhura ( nectar ) over it and so called it

> Madhurapura, the sweet

> town, later shortened to Madura and now known as

> Madurai. It was

> part of the Pandya Kingdom from the 12th to the 13th

> century A.D and

> the `seat of Tamil literature'. Literary conferences

> called

> sangam-s

> were held there and Siva is said to have even

> attended one as

> Sundaresvara, the poet. Here also Parvati was born

> on the earth once

> more, this time as Meenakshi, `the oen with the eyes

> of a

> fish', the

> daughter of the local Pandya ruler.

>

> Nevertheless, it was in this environment that the

> large, intricate,

> labyrinthine, and necessarily expensive temple

> complex was built to

> celebrate the marriage of the

> Meenakshi-Sundareshwara incarnations of

> Parvati and Siva. The divine couple lived in their

> abode in Madura.

>

> Their six hectare estate known as the "twelfth place

> of

> peace" (

> Dwadasantham ) , has four high outer walls and

> stands in the heart of

> the city. Above it, the temple's 12 lofty gopurams-s

> rise

> skyward.

> Much of the enclosed space was rebuilt in the 17th

> century after its

> destruction by Malik Kafur who razed the walls and

> 14 original

> gopuram-s to the ground, leaving only the inner

> sanctums intact. The

> new structures were designed by Viswanathan Nayak in

> 1560 but erected

> between 1623 and 1655 AD during the rule or Tirumala

> Nayaka.

>

> The Baroque-style temple contains not only a

> collection of shrines

> and cloisters but also mandapa-s – these includde a

> kalyana

> mandapa

> where Siva and Parvati are ritually married every

> year and a 1000

> pillar hall ( with only 985 pillars ) built around

> the middle of the

> 16th century – tanks, chapels, palaces, alters and

> storehouses.

> It is

> a miniature, self-sufficient world.

>

> The foci of this busy world are the shrines of the

> presiding deities,

> Sundaresvara and his wife. The alter of the former

> is forbidden to

> pilgrims and is cloaked in perpetual darkness.

> Nearby is a holy tank,

> the Maha Pathaka Tirtham, the waters of which are

> believed to cleanse

> the worst of sinners. Opposite this lie the ruins of

> an old Vishnu

> temple.

>

> The shrine of Meenakshi is also dark like her

> husband's, framed

> by a

> golden door and reached by the Ashta Sakti Mandapam

> ( hall of the

> eight goddesses or powers ). The goddess's sanctum

> is protected

> by

> those of her sons, Ganesha on her right and

> Subramanian on her left.

>

> About three miles east of the temple is a 1000 foot

> square,

> picturesque tank called the vandiyur Teppakulam,

> connected to the

> Vaigai River by a channel. Like the Bindu Sagar (

> see devi temple :

> Vaitul Deul ) in Bhubaneshwar it has, at its center,

> a square island

> with one main temple on it and four subsidiary ones

> at its corners.

> The tank has been held as sacred ever since a large

> Ganesha statue

> was discovered in its depths. The statue is how

> housed in the middle

> gopuram near the Sive shrine.

>

>

> OM ParaShaktiye Namaha

>

>

>

>

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

God, not another complete moron loser who has no sense and has to

reply to every single message because they were too stupid to go to

their home page and change their group preferences. You

act like we d you here and control your tv like outer limits.

Well you d and can also change your own stupid preferences.

-

kg

Saturday, April 06, 2002 7:06 AM

Re: Devi Temple : Meenakshi, Madurai

Don't send me email, I'll read the messages atthe Web site.

Do You

?Everything you'll ever need on one web pagefrom News and Sport

to Email and Music Chartshttp://uk.my.To from

this group, send an email

to:shakti_sadhnaaYour use of

Groups is subject to the

[Guest guest]

Anyway, I'm sorry for the diatribe and personal attack. It was another

stupid forum elsewhere that got me into a really bad mood. Forgive

me.

-

kg

Saturday, April 06, 2002 7:06 AM

Re: Devi Temple : Meenakshi, Madurai

Don't send me email, I'll read the messages atthe Web site.

Do You

?Everything you'll ever need on one web pagefrom News and Sport

to Email and Music Chartshttp://uk.my.To from

this group, send an email

to:shakti_sadhnaaYour use of

Groups is subject to the

[Guest guest]

You all are certainly gracious and correct. I have been in a really

strange mood today. Perhaps to both reasons of the comet and five

planets all in same sign.

 

Five Planets Will Clump Together in April, May Tue Apr 2, 6:00 PM

ETBy Deborah ZabarenkoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The five so-called

naked eye planets -- Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn -- will

appear to clump together later this month in a sight that might not be

seen again for a century.But don't call this a planetary alignment.

And even though this is fairly rare, there is nothing for earthlings

to worry about, astronomer Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval

Observatory said on Tuesday.The grouping of the five will begin to be

visible with unaided eyes around April 20, with the planets clustered

closest by around May 4, Chester said by telephone."It is an

opportunity to see all five of the naked eye planets in the same part

of the sky at the same time and that does not happen very often,"

Chester said.It could be 50 or 100 years before this happens again,

he said.The display should be easy to see in most parts of the

inhabited world, weather permitting, though those at extreme northern

and southern latitudes may need binoculars or a small telescope, and

Mercury could still be hard to spot, he said.A similar grouping of

the same five planets, plus the moon, occurred on May 5, 2000,

accompanied by dire predictions of extraordinary tides and other

cataclysms. Earth survived.However, that cluster occurred on the

opposite side of the Sun from Earth, and the Sun's light was so

bright the planets could not be seen from Earth.This time, most

humans should have a good view, Chester said.What they should be able

to see will be Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn all grouped within the

span of 10 degrees of the sky, or about the width of a fist held at

arm's length.Jupiter will be a bit higher in the sky, about three

fist-widths away, but still quite close.The cluster will start to

dissipate around May 12, Chester said, when Mercury will dip closer

to the horizon and become less visible.This grouping is only the

planets people can see without help, and does not count as an

alignment, according to Chester, though others have used that

term.Chester considers a true alignment to be when all the planets

are on the same side of the sun, and grouped within about 90 degrees

-- nine fist-widths -- of each other, or closer. This occurs once in

several hundred years.The closest known planetary alignment in the

last two millennia occurred on April 11, 1128, before most planets

were identified as such, including Earth, according to Chester.

 

 

................

 

 

 

 

News Source:

<AHREF="UniScihttp://unisci.com/stories/20022/0404022.htm">UniSci</A>Date:

04-04-02=============================================================Comet

And Andromeda Galaxy Visible Together TonightFor the past few weeks,

the brightest comet for nearly 6 years has beenvisible in the western

sky after sunset.On the nights of April 4th and 5th, it passes through

the constellationAndromeda, appearing, by chance, in the sky close to

a giant spiral galaxy,the Andromeda Nebula, similar to our own Milky

Way Galaxy.Should the skies be clear, we will have a chance of seeing

both in the samebinocular field of view.Under ideal conditions, both

the comet, called Ikeya-Zhang after itsJapaneseand Chinese

co-discoverers, and the Andromeda Galaxy would be visible to

theunaided eye but, as they are low in the sky, binoculars will be

needed.The best time to see them is about 8:30 to 9pm as the Sun's

light is finallyfading from the western sky.Ian Morison, an

astronomer at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, described how tofind the

comet and galaxy:"First find the planet Mars. This will be almost due

west about 15 degreesabove the horizon and, reddish in color, is the

brightest object in the lowwestern sky. (An outstretched hand at arms

length is about 15 degrees.)"Now sweep round to the north-west (45

degrees or three hand spans), keepingabout the same height above the

horizon. You should find two fuzzy lookingobjects close in the sky.

The upper is the Comet and you should see its tailarcing up and to

the right -- away from the Sun."The bright central region is called

the coma -- a great cloud of gasevaporated off the comet's nucleus as

it passed near to the Sun.A little lower in the sky, you should see a

second smudge of light. This islight from the bright nucleus at the

center of the Andromeda Galaxy. Itliesover 2 million light years

away -- that is, it has taken its light over 2million years to reach

us. It is the most distant object in the Universethatwe can see with

our unaided eyes or small binoculars."In contrast, the comet is a

member of our solar system and its light onlytakes a few minutes to

reach us. It is thus pure coincidence that theyappearin the same

direction."There is a link between comets and the other name of the

Andromeda Galaxy,M31. The Andromeda Galaxy is the 31st entry in a

catalogue of "nebulous"objects published by the French astronomer

Charles Messier in 1774 -- henceM31.Messier was one of the great

cometary discoverers of his day and found manyfuzzy objects that

initially appeared to be comets but remained in fixedlocations in the

sky -- as opposed to the relatively rapid motion of comets.In order

for these not to confuse other astronomers, he produced

acatalogue,the Messier Catalogue, which finally contained over 100

objects. We now knowthat many of these objects are galaxies like the

Andromeda Nebula.The comet Ikeya-Zhang (pronounced ee-KAY-uh JONG)

was discovered on February1st by the Japanese astronomer Kaoru Ikeya,

also famous for the discovery ofthe bright comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965,

and the Chinese astronomer DaqingZhang.It passed closest to the Sun

on March 18th at a distance of 47 million milesand is now moving back

out into deep space.It will pass within 38 million miles of the Earth

on April 30th. The comethas a period of 341 years and is believed to

be the same comet as that seenin 1661. It might then have been seen

by the young boy, Edmond Halley, whosename is given to the most

famous periodic comet, Halley`s comet, last seenin1985 and which

returns every 76 years. At 341 years, Ikeya-Zhang has thelongest

period of any periodic comet yet discovered.M31 is a spiral galaxy

very similar in size to our own Milky Way galaxy.Along with a third

spiral galaxy, M33, about half their size, they are thethree major

galaxies in our own "Local Group" of galaxies.This contains a total

of about 30 galaxies spread throughout a volume ofspace about 10

million light years across. The other galaxies are allrelatively

small and include the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds,companions to

our Milky Way. M31 is moving towards us through space and inabout

5,000 million years, M31 and our own galaxy may well merge into

one.Related image:Comet Ikeya-Zhang (1023k jpeg image)