Madurai
The massive gopurams of Madurai’s Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple, ‘writhing with multicoloured mythological figures,’ are claimed to be the greatest man-made spectacle of southern India. We couldn’t believe our luck as we arrived in Madurai to find that the twelve-yearly renovations were in progress. The allegedly stunning gopurams were completely covered in palm leafs obscuring our view.
We soon realised, however, that the charm of the Meenakshi temple comes from spending time inside the complex. Everyday no less than fifteen thousand Hindus from all over India make the pilgrimage to Madurai to pray to Meenakshi, the fish-eyed goddess.
We spent the best part of a day in the temple completely mesmerised. There was a carnival atmosphere amongst those pilgrims who had travelled such long distances. Although a very important spiritual place for them we were made to feel very welcome as tourists to their temple and were the source of much curiosity. Many hours were spent around the central tank chatting to various groups of people. One intelligent young boy we got talking to kept us entertained for some time. Amongst the general chitchat Matthew jokingly asked if he was married. To which he replied, stern faced and in perfect English, “No sir, child marriage has now been abolished in India.”
The climax to the day at the Meenakshi temple occurs at nine when the images of Siva and Meenakshi are carried from their shrines to the bed chamber. This movement of the images is accompanied by great ceremony with music and throngs of devotees pushing their way though the crowds to get a good view of the spectacle. Once safely inside their bed chamber a number of the fifty priests who work at the temple sing them lullabies before closing the temple for the night.
Aside from the Meenkshi temple we also spent our time in Madurai visiting the Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal, the colourful flower market and the informative Gandhi museum.