Devi Temple : Meenakshi, Madurai

[Guest guest]

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