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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”. |
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