Largest temple in the world

[Guest guest]

Hello,

 

There was a posting recently saying,

 

'I also read in the guinnes book of

>world records for year 2001 about srirangm. The book wrote

>"The srirangam temple complex in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil

>Nadu, India is the largest Hindu temple in the world.'

 

Since I wanted to get more info on this, I went to

guinnessworldrecords.com Surprisingly, there is no mention of

Srirangam in it(atleast in this context.). There was a mention of

Largest buddhist temple and a largest Hindu temple outside India.

But, I would like to confirm the above info before I give this piece

of info to my kid. Does anyone shed some light on this?

 

Thanks

-Akila

[Guest guest]

Akila wrote:

> Hello,

>

> There was a posting recently saying,

>

> 'I also read in the guinnes book of

> >world records for year 2001 about srirangm. The book wrote

> >"The srirangam temple complex in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil

> >Nadu, India is the largest Hindu temple in the world.'

>

> Since I wanted to get more info on this, I went to

> guinnessworldrecords.com Surprisingly, there is no mention of

> Srirangam in it(atleast in this context.). There was a mention of

> Largest buddhist temple and a largest Hindu temple outside India.

> But, I would like to confirm the above info before I give this piece

> of info to my kid. Does anyone shed some light on this?

 

Hi Akila,

 

Among Hindu temples in use, i.e., temples where worship and services

are actively conducted, Srirangam is the largest temple in the

world. Angkor Wat in Cambodia is the largest temple if worship

is not a consideration.

 

Some books mistakenly list Angkor Wat as a Buddhist temple

and make no mention of its original heritage. In actuality,

this magnificent structure was originally dedicated to

Lord Vishnu and was built by King Suryavarman II in the 12th

century over a period of 30 years. It contains some of

the most beautiful examples of Khmer Vaishnava art. Over

the years, with the decline of the Khmer empire, the temple

came under increasing Buddhist influence and shrines to the

Buddha were also constructed within its premises. The Cambodians

are not very religiously dogmatic so this posed no problem

for them.

 

Srirangam's size is often not very obvious because the temple's

seven prakAra-s include the town itself. This masks the true

extent of the temple. It is true that the core of the temple

itself is quite small. The shrines of Lord Rangantha,

Sri Ranganayaki Thaayaar, Bhagavad Ramanuja, etc., can easily

be visited within a few minutes not taking into account

queues. In this respect the temple feels smaller than say

the Madurai Meenakshi temple. However, since the actual temple's

seven prakAra-s include small shrines in the outermost reaches

of the town, it is easily the largest active Hindu temple in

the world.

 

Mani