MEENAKSHI AMBAAL TEMPLE

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Jaya Jaya Shankara!

 

 

The Sri Minakshi Sundaresvara temple and Madurai city

originated together. According to tradition, Indra once committed sin

when he killed a demon who was then performing penance. He could find

no relief from remorse in his own kingdom. He came down to earth.

While passing through a forest of Kadamba trees in the Pandya land,

he felt relieved of his burden. His servitors told him that there was

a Siva Linga under a Kadamba tree and beside a lake. Certain that it

was the Linga that had helped him, he worshipped it and built a small

temple around it. It is believed that it is this Linga which is still

under worship in the Madurai temple. The shrine is called the Indra

Vimana.

Once Dhananjaya, a merchant of Manavur, where the Pandyas had arrived

after the second deluge in Kumari Kandam, having been overtaken by

nightfall in Kadamba forest, spent the night in the Indra Vimana.

When next morning he woke up, he was surprised to see signs of

worship. Thinking that this must be the work of the Devas, he told

the Pandya, Kulasekhara, in Manavur, of this. Meanwhile Lord Siva had

instructed the pandya in a dream to build a temple and a city at the

spot Dhananjaya would indicate. Kulasekhara did so. Thus originated

temple and city.

When the next Pandya, Malayadhvaja, and his queen, Kanchanamala,

performed a sacrifice for a child, Lord Siva caused Goddess Parvathi

Herself to step out of the fire as a little girl. She hand three

breasts. Lord Siva told the couple that the third breast would

disappear when she set eyes on he who was to be her husband. They

were to name her Thadathagai and bring her up as if she were a boy.

She succeeded her father to the throne at his death. She gained many

military victories. Finally, she marched on Kailasa itself. When she

saw Lord Siva, her third breast disappeared. The Lord told her to

return to Madurai and said that He would marry her there. The divine

marriage was celebrated. This is a theme much beloved of Madurai

artists. There is a superb sculpture of this in the temple. The

crowning of Minakshi, for She was the same as Thadathagai, is

celebrated as a festival in the temple.

The Lord performed many miracles at the wedding. These are described

in a celebrated poem, the "Tiruviayadal Puranam". Under the name of

Sundara Pandya, the Lord ruled the land as a mortal. After some time,

crowning Lord Muruga, their son, who was named Ugra Pandya, Sundara

Pandya and Thadathagai went into the temple and assumed divine forms

is Lord Somasundara and Goddess Minakshi respectively.

The "Trruvilayadal Puranam" was written by Paranjothi Munivar in the

sixteenth century. It is regarded as the temple's sthala purana. An

earlier work adds a few celestial sports not included in the latter.

These are, or rather were, painted on the walls around the Golden

Lily Tank. Some of the painted wooden panels are in the Temple

Museum.

While the temple originated in times to which no date can be

assigned, the structures that are standing today date mostly from the

twelfth to the eighteenth century. They occupy a vast space, 258 m by

241m. There are two main shrines, no less than twelve gopuras, a tank

and innumerable mandapas. At every turn there is superb srulpture,

magnificent architecture.

The earliest references available to any structure in this temple is

a hymn of Sambandar's, in the seventh century, which refers to

the "Kapali Madil". The present inner walls of the Lord's shrine bear

this name today. In the early times the entire temple must have been

confined to the area between these walls, and the structures must

have of brick and mortar.

In the fourteenth century an invasion by Malik Kafur damaged the

temple. In the same century Madurai was under Muslim rule for nearly

fifty years. The temple authorities closed the sanctum, covered up

the Linga and set up another in the ardhamandapa. When the city was

liberated, the sanctum was opened, and, tradition says, the flower

garlands and the sandalwood paste placed on the Linga were as fresh

as on the first day, and two oil lamps were still burning.

It is a convention in this temple, different from that followed in

others, that the devotee offers worship first to Goddess Minakshi.

Therefore, while there are four other entrances into the temple,

under huge gopuras in the four cardinal directions, it is customary

to enter not through any of them but through a mandapa, with no tower

above it. This entrance leads directly to the shrine of the Goddess.

This mandapa is an impressive structure, with a hemispherical

ceiling. It is 14m long and 5.5m wide. There are bas reliefs all over

the place. Over the entrance one of them depicts the marriage of

Goddess Minakshi with Lord Somasundara. The mandapa derives its name,

the Ashta Sakthi, from the fact that it contains sculptures of the

eight Sakthis. Those of the four principal Nayanmars were added

during a renovation of the temple in 1960-63.

An interesting story is told of what an artist did in 1923 when

adding some paintings there. In one of these depicting the coronation

of Goddess Minakshi, he included a figure of Mahatma Gandhi. The

British authorities ordered that it be removed. What the artist did

was to add to the lasting oil painting long locks of hair in water

colour so that a sage resulted. But shortly after the locks

disappeared and Gandhiji re-merged.

The mandapa was erected by Queen Rudrapathi Ammal and Queen

Tholiammal, consorts of Tirumalai Nayak (1923-1659). Tirumalai, the

greatest of the Nayaks of Madurai, who were originally viceroys of

the Vijayanagar Rayas, but who later made themselves virtually

independent, was the grandest builder in the history of the temple

and the city. Formerly, pilgrims used to be fed in this mandapa.

A smaller mandapa connects the large one with another large one with

another large hall, called the Samagam Minakshi Naicker Mandapa,

after its builder, a minister of Vijayaranga Chokkanatha (1706-32),

who erected in 1707. In former times the temple's elephants camels

and bulls used to be stabled here. A brass "tiruvatchi" holding a

thousand and eight lamps, stands here, 7.6m high. It was installed by

Marudu Pandya, one of the early opponents of the growing British

power.

The Minakshi Naicker Mandapa is a huge hall, 4209m long and 33.5m

wide. It contains 110 stone columns, each 6.7m high. There are yalis

in the capital and delicate reliefs below. Some of the carvings are

unfinished.

The Chitra Gopura, its name amply justified by its exquisite

sculptures, 740 in number, stands over the entrance from this mandapa

into shrine complex of the Goddess. It could have been the original

entrance into the sanctum. Of seven tiers, and 35.6m high, it is

tallest of those over the shrine of the Goddess. It was built about

1570 by Kalatthi Mudaliar, a son of Aryanatha Mudaliar, who helped

Vishvanatha Nayak, the founder of the Madurai Nayak dynasty, to

consolidate his power. He rose from poverty and obscurity to the

highest post after the Nayak. There are equestrian statues of him in

two places in the temple, in the Pudumandapa and in the thousand

pillared hall. The gopura was extensively renovated in 1960-63.

The Mudali Pillar Mandapa follows the Chitra Gopura. Added in 1613,

it is 183m long and 7.6m wide. On its walls are many puranic scenes.

It used to be without any natural light, but windows were added in

the last renovation.

The lovely and historic Golden Lily Tank then comes to view. It is

from its banks that most popular photographic views of the temple are

taken, showing the gigantic south outer gopura. The northern corridor

leads directly to the shrine of the Goddess. On its pillars are

images of some of the Sangam poets, of Kulasekhara Pandya, the first

builder of the temple, and of Dhananjaya, who figures in the

traditional story of its origin. There are no fish in the tank.

The corridors around the tank are rightly called the Chitra Mandapa,

for the walls carry paintings of the divine sports of the Lord, as

narrated in the "Tiruvilayadal Puranam". They have been renewed from

time to time. A short while ago there were paintings on wooden panels

affixed over an older series. They have since been removed to the

Temple Museum in the thousand pillared mandapa, leaving some

dilapidated murals to view. It is impossible to ascertain the date of

these.

It was in the sixteenth century that the corridors and the steps

leading down to the tank were constructed; the northern corridor and

steps in 1562, those on the east in 1573, and those on the south five

years later.

Two mandapas, the Unjal and the Kilikatti, stand on the farther way

to the shrine of the Goddess. On their ceilings are more paintings. A

celebrated mural, opposite to the entrance of the shrine, depicts the

marriage of Goddess Minakshi. The Kilikatti Mandapa derives its name

from the fact that there are parrots in a cage here. On its walls are

carvings of the divine sports. The most ornamental of the temple's

mandapas, it was built in 1623.

A gopura of three tiers stands over the entrance from this mandapa

into the shrine of the Goddess. Built in 1227 by Vambathura Ananda

Tandava Nambi, it is named the Vambuthurar Gopura after him. The

shrine consists of a square sanctum, an ardhamandapa and a

mukhamandapa. In the niches on the walls of the shrine are images of

Iccasakthi in the south, Kriyasakthi in the west, and Jnanasakthi in

the north. There are shrines of Vinayaka and Subramania in the outer

prakara. They probably belong to the fifteenth century.

Near the flagstaff is a six-pillared structure which is of historic

interest. A famous poet, Kumaragurubarar, composed verses in praise

of the Goddess at the request of Tirumalai Nayak. He recited the work

in this part of the temple with Tirumalai present. As he was doing,

so a little girl walked up to the Nayak, took a pearl necklace from

his neck, gave it to the poet and disappeared. She was Goddess

Minakshi Herself. There is a stone bell on the ceiling of the

mukhamandapa. The entire shrine measures 68.5 m by 45.7m.

On the way to the Lord's shrine from here there are two gopuras, the

Nadu Kattu over a doorway leading from the Kilikatti Mandapa, and the

Gopuranayaka, which rises above the actual entrance into the shrine.

Each is of five storeys and perhaps belongs to the mid-sixteenth

century.

Beyond the former, facing south, is a huge image of Lord Vinayaka,

engagingly the `Mukkuruni Vinayaka' from the fact that a single

enormous edible, the "Kozhukattai" , made from 34 kg of rice, is

offered to Him on Vinayaka Chaturthi Day. There is a tradition that

the image was discovered when Tirumalai Nayak was digging the

beautiful tank on the outskirts of the city, called the Vandiyur

Teppakulam.

The Kambathadi Mandapa which contains the flagstaffs of the Lord's

shrine, has besides, some of the most striking baroque sculpture in

the century. It was originally built by Krishna Veerappa Nayak (1572-

95) and renovated in 1877 by the Nagarattars, a class of Chettiars,

who have built and renovated many a lane in Tamil Nadu.

This mandapa encloses the Nandi shrine, two flagstaffs and the

balipitha has eight monolithic clotmns, which carry huge sculptures

of the Lord in various firms. These includes Somasundara, the

Protector of Markandeya, Nataraja, Chandrasekhara, Ardhanarisvara,

Dakshinamurthi, Bikshatana, Somaskanda, Rudra, Ekapadamurthi and

Rshbaruda. There are also the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. It is

here that the celebrated sculpture of Goddess Minakshi's marriage is

to be found. On either side of the entrance there are imposing

monoliths of Bhadrakali, Agora Virabhadra, Agni Virabhadra and

Urdhatandava. The Nandi shrine is covered by a carved ceiling made of

a single stone.

Over the entrance into the shrine stands a gopura of three storeys.

It was originally built by a Pandya in 1168 and, therefore, is one of

the oldest surviving structures in the temple. Flanking the entrance

are huge dvarpalkas, each 3.6m high, made of a single stone each, and

standing on a pedestal about 1.5m high.

The shrine is a square of 10.4m. Its base is supported by eight

elephants, thirty-two lions and sixty-four sportive dwarfs. On its

outer walls there are prominent niches on the three sides, each

projecting 1.8m. In the south there is Dakshinamurthy, in the west

Lingodbhava, and in the north Durga. These niches are so bigh as to

be small shrines. Stone elephants about 3m high flank each of them.

There is always a concourse of worshippers in front of the Durga

image. The vimana above the sanctum is of three storeys. The sikhara

is plated with gold.

In front of the shrine there are successively an antarala, an

ardhamandapa, a mukhamandapa and a mahamandapa so that this is

virtually a temple by itself. The whole measures 128m by 94.5m. There

are two prakaras and five gopuras. The outer walls are called the

Sundara Pandya Madil and the inner ones, which measure 76.2m by

47.5m, the Kapali Madil. The latter is referred to by Sambandar in

the seventh century.

There are a number of historic shrines in the prakaras. Opposite to

an entrance into the first from the mahamandapa there is one of Lord

Sabhapathi. This is the famous Velliambalam where one of the Lord's

divine sports took place when at the request of the sages, Patanjali

and Vyagrapadha; He danced as Lord Nataraja. In the second prakara a

shrine, now called that of the Sangam poets, contains images of many

of them. In the same prakara there is a shrine apparently dedicated

to Kariyamanikka Perumal, but now empty. Also in the same prakara

there is a row of fourteen small shrines, called the "isvarams". Many

of them contain Lingas.

Among the other mandapas in the temple is the celebrated thousand

pillared one. It was erected in 1569 by Aryanatha Mudaliar, who

bestrides a horse at the entrance. Measuring 76.2m by 73m, it

contains 985 pillars. The central nave leads to a shrine of Lord

Sabapathi. On every pillar there are sculptures. These are of varied

iconographic interest. Among themselves they make a veritable

pantheon. On the ceiling near the entrance there is a wheel which

gives the cycle of sixty years of the Tamil calendar. Fergusson calls

the mandapa "the wonder of the place".

West of it is a small mandapa added during the renovation of 1960-63.

It commemorates Sambandar's reclamation of the Pandya to Hindusim. It

contains a Linga and images of Sambandar, Mangayarkarasi,

Kulachirayar and Kun Pandya. The second was the queen, the third the

minister of the Pandya.

The Kalyanamandapa, built by Vijayaranga Chokkanatha (who stands here

in effigy) in the first decade on the eighteenth century, contains

much excellent wood work. It was originally open on all sides. In the

center is a large platform, where annually the marriage of the Lord

and the Goddess is celebrated. On two of the walls are two huge

paintings of the "two worlds" of Hindu cosomogony, each about 1.8m in

diameter.

Near the east outer gopura stands the celebrated Pudumandapa. Built

by Tirumalai Nayak between 1626 and 1633, it is a large hall, 100m by

32m, and contains a hundred and twenty-four pillars. These

magnificent columns carry bold reliefs. There are equestrians and

yalis on the outer pillars, while at the center there are portraits

of the ten Nayaks from Visvanatha, the first of them, to Tirumalai.

There are, besides, some of the Tiruvilayadal" scenes, the wedding of

Goddess Minakshi, Goddess Minakshi as Thadathagai, and Ekapadamurthi,

among other themes. At the western end there is a canopied mandapa,

the Vasanta, where the images of the Lord and the Goddess are brought

on certain festival occasions.

Loving tradition tells of the great personal interest Tirumalai Nayak

took in the erection of this mandapa. On one occasion, Sumandramurthi

Achari, the principal architect, was so deeply engrossed in sculpting

a relief of the stone elephant eating sugarcane, an incident in the

temple's puranic history, that he did not notice the Nayak standing

by him. The Nayak rolled some betel leaves and arecanuts and handed

them to him. Thinking that it was an assistant who had done so, he

took them and began to chew them without looking around. When he

realized that it was the Nayak himself, he was so much affected that

he damaged the two fingers of his that had taken the betel leaves.

Moved by his devotion to duty, the Nayak gave him many gifts.

On another occasion a son of the artist pestered him for a mango when

that fruit was not in season. He would not take no for an answer. The

Nayak ordered that gold mangoes be brought from the palace. The boy

was content and allowed his father to continue to work undisturbed.

>From this incident the family came to be called the "Mampazham"

family.

When, on yet another occasion, the artist was making a sculpture of a

consort of the Nayak's a chip broke off from the thigh. He started

work on another image, but again a chip came off from the same place.

A minister of the Nayak advised the artist to leave the image as it

was. When the Nayak came to know of this from the artist, he was

angry, wondering how the minister could know that his queen hand a

scar on her thigh. He sent for him. The minister knew that the Nayak

was angry and might punish him. So he put out his eyes. At this the

Nayak was filled with grief. Thereupon the minister composed a poem

in praise of the Goddess, beseeching her to give him back his

eyesight if he was innocent. She restored it. The minister was a

famous Sanskrit poet. Among his works are the "Sivalilamava" on the

traditions of Lord Siva in Madurai, and the "Gangavatarana", on the

descent of the Ganga to the earth.

When the "Vasantha" festival was celebrated the year the mandapa was

completed, the Nayak himself received the customary honours in

person. In subsequent years they were offered to his sculpture. The

practice continues.

Near the mandapa is the base of an unfinished gopura. Work began in

1654, but was not completed. Had it been the gopura would have been

tallest in the country then. It measurers 53m by 35.6m at the base.

The four outer gopuras in the four directions are marvelous works of

art. They are of perfect proportions, though they were built at

different time and though, moreover, they have been repaired and

renovated from time to time. The gopuras of Tamil Nadu, by

themselves, form a chapter in the history of Indian Art. Some of the

brightest pages are due to the towers of Madurai.

The eastern gopura is the oldest of the four. While it is generally

attributed to Jatavarman Sundara Pandya I, who ruled in the first

half of the thirteenth century, it is possible, judging from some of

its inscriptions, that an earlier Pandya or Pandyas had commenced it.

One of these epigraphs, dated in a year in the last decade of the

twelth century, is the oldest in the temple.

As with the other gopuras, the base of this one is a stone structure

built in two storeys. It measures 34m by 20m. Over it the

superstructure towers to a height of 47m in nine storeys. A leaf of

the doorway, measuring about 9m by about 2m, is a remarkable specimen

of the wood carver's art. It was removed during the renovation in the

1960's. Because a temple servant committed suicide by falling down

from this gopura in the reign of Vijayaranga Chokkanatha, devotees

did not use the entrance. They do so now after the last renovation.

The west gopura was built in the fourteenth century, a troubled

period in the history of the temple and the city following the Muslim

invasions. It is difficult to believe that a venture of this

magnitude could have been possible in that time of travail. But the

sources of information are clear. They attribute the gopura to a

Parakrama Pandya. There were many kings of that name in the century.

Since the famous Pandya crest of two carps appears on this gopura, it

may be accepted that the pandyas did build it. This was their swan

song in the temple which will always be associated with their piety,

munificence and glory. It is 48m high, rising on a base that is 31m

by 14m. Like the three other gopuras, it is of nine tiers.

The most beautiful and the most artistic of the four, the southern,

frequently photographed for its lovely eminence over the Golden Lily

Tank, is also the tallest, 49m. Its stone base measures 32.9m by

20.4m. The tower sweeps in a graceful curve. It was built about the

middle on the sixteenth century by Siramalai Sevvanthi Murthi

Chettiar, a scion of a family of Tiruchi which has contributed much

to the temple.

The latest in date is the northern gopura, which was built by Krishna

Veerappa Nayak (1564-72). For some reason it was without a sikhara

and was not plastered. Therefore, it was called the "Mottai" gopura.

The deficiencies were supplied in a renovation about the end of the

last century.

Such an ancient and renowned fane has attracted considerable

literature and many beautiful traditions, apart from those narrated

above. It is said, for example, that Rous Peter, a Collector in the

early decades of the last century, was so beloved of the people that

they called him "Peter Pandya". Every day he would go round the

temple on horseback. One night, when he was asleep, there was heavy

rain. A little girl woke him up and beckoned him outside his house.

Immediately lightning struck the houses. The girl then vanished.

Peter, convinced that She was Goddess Minakshi, presented valuable

jewels to the temple.

Connected with the temple is the lovely tank called the Mariamman

Teppakulam, about 3 km to the east. It measures 345m by 290m, and has

stone steps leading down to the water. In the center is a towered

mandapa, with four smaller mandapas around it. The tank was excavated

and the mandapas built by Tirumalai Nayak. On his birthday a float

festival of the images of the Lord and the Goddess is celebrated. On

the other side of the road there is a famous Mariamman temple.

This account of the temple, brief as it is since it mentions only the

salient facts about the leading structures, yet serves to impress the

percipient reader, with the fact that it is the quintessence of the

spirit of Tamil Hinduism so splendid, so much storied, so ancient.

There are many other temples in Madurai the Kudal Azhagar is notable

for the fact that its sanctum is in three storeys. There are very few

temples of this type; the Vaikunta Perumal in Kanchipuram (see

below), the Sundara Varada in uttramerur, and the Sowmyanarayana in

Tirukoshtiyur. The vimana, called the "Asthanga", enshrines a seated

image of Lord Vishnu in the ground floor, a standing one in the

first, and a recumbent one in the second. The temple contains some

fine carvings.

A fine secular structure in Madurai is the palace, called Mahal,

which was built by Tirumalai Nayak and is named after him. What

remains is but a part of what he built. A grandson of Tirumalai who

removed his capital to Tiruchi., destroyed apart of it is order to

build a palace in his new capital with materials. There is no trace

today of the Tiruchi palace. What has survived in Madurai is yet

impressive. It consists of a huge corridor around courtyard. It has

remarkable columns. Many festivals used to be celebrated here.

The Subramania temple in Tirupparaniundram, 8 km from Madurai is a

great center of pilgrimage. Its nucleus is an excavated "cave". To

this in successive ages the parts of a big temple were added,

including a big gopura of seven tiers. Behind the temple rises a

hill. There are in this village another excavated temple and a third

one, but of the Jains. The Subramania temple has been sung by a

number saints and sages down the centuries. The earliest is Nakkirar,

a poet of the Sangam age. The temple is one of the "arupadai veedus"

fanes of Lord Subramania held particularly sacred.

One of the great festivals celebrated in Madurai annually brings the

image of Lord Azhagar, of the Sri Kallazagar temple in Azhagarkoil,

about 21 km from Madurai, to the Vaigai river. The tradition is that

Lord Azhagar is the brother of Goddess Minakshi, that He comes to

Madurai to attend Her wedding, but hearing on Vaigai banks that the

marriage had already been celebrated, He returns. His temple is set

within a fort, near a hill. Many of the Alvars have sung of it. Built

in the first Pandyan age, it was expanded and renovated by the

Nayaks. A famous temple of Lord Subramania, called Pazhamudhirsolai,

stands up on the hills. It is one of the "arupadai veedus".

 

 

namo namaste shiva kamakoti!