Madurai Meenakshi

[Guest guest]

Dear Shakthas,

 

I hardly ever post messages but had to do son in this one instance. My mother

was born and raised in Madurai and so I am quite familiar with this beautiful

goddess.

 

The temple's official website is : www.maduraimeenakshi.org

 

It has lots of pictures, especially of the Chitthirai wedding festival fo the

goddess. Another resource that is of good use on this topic is a set of videos

made by the University of Wisconsin, Madison called "The Wedding of the Goddess"

(2 parts). It shows the city of Madurai in the 60s, and the festival is quite

beautifully recorded and narrated. Clips of the coronation ceremony held before

the wedding are also shown. I have not been fortunate to have seen this festival

in real life, and the video was a treat.

 

The video mentioned a few interesting pieces of information about the goddess.

She is regarded as Vishnu/Kalazhagar's sister, but this connection first emerged

during the period of the Nayak kings who sought to relieve tensions between the

saivas and vaishnava communities by forging a divine alliance. Interestingly

enough, to this day, the preists of the Azhagar temple insist that the

procession of Azhagar and the wedding of Meenakshi are two separate festivals,

since Azhagar makes the trip to give darshan to a saint who is trapped in a well

in the form of a frog...

 

Another interesting thing to note is the names of all the deities in Madurai

denote their beauty. Kalazhagar ("Beautiful Theif" since he is the patron deity

of the Kallars or tribal theives) is Vishnu. Sundereshwara is Shiva in Madurai

as "The Beautiful Lord." The Goddess Meenakshi's form is said to be beauty

incarnate and her common epithet is Sundarvalli or "Beautiful Goddess." Madurai

itself comes from "Madura" which means "sweet."

 

There is another connection between Meenakshi and another famed temple for Devi

in South India- Kanyakumari (Virgin Goddess). Shiva was supposed to marry

Kanyakumari and folk tradition says that he stopped at Madurai and married

Meenakshi instead, leaving Kanyakumari eternally waiting in her bridal dress at

the junction of the three seas in South India.

 

Sincerely,

 

Krishna

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Namaskar Krishna!

 

You note that you "hardly ever post messages but had to do so in this

one instance." Well, I thank you for doing so, and hope you decide to

do so more often. What a lovely post it was!

 

Please add your website to our links page so that interested members

will always be able to find it. Also, I am preparing a Meenakshi page

for the group's homepage (http://www.shaktisadhana.org); may I

include the text of your post?

 

Thank you once again. Aum Maatangyai Namahe!

 

DB