The rooftop pool.
Madurai as seen from our hotel roof.
Stock photos of Sri Meenakshi Temple with the gopurams and the inner pond.
Madurai street scenes.
Saturday, March 3rd.
We had a relaxing morning and breakfast at the Mansion before setting out for a two-hour drive. We left at 9:30 and drove through some beautiful, dry rural country along a couple of narrow secondary roads, before we joined a good dual carriageway on which we made better time. After mostly flat farmland for the last few days we saw a few hills. There were a couple of granite rock outcrops that were being systematically dismantled into blocks. The area was a series of quarries. Shortly after that we arrived at Madurai, a holy city of about three million people. This is the second oldest city in India after Varanasi. Like Varanasi it is a very religious city. The city is built around the Sri Meenakshi Temple and all Hindus are expected to make a pilgrimage once in their life time.
We checked into our hotel and had a couple of hours to relax, have lunch and make use of the rooftop pool.
At 4:00 we drove to the temple. This is an active temple that requires visitors to cover their shoulders and wear long pants and bare feet. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to use cameras. We had to leave all cameras and cellphones outside the temple.
The Sri Meenakshi Temple was first mentioned in 6th century texts. Though it has historic roots, most of the present campus structure was rebuilt after the 14th century, further repaired, renovated and expanded in the 17th century. In early 14th century, the armies of Delhi Sultanate led by a Muslim Commander plundered the temple, looted it of its valuables and destroyed the Madurai temple town along with many other temple towns of South India. The contemporary temple is the result of rebuilding efforts started by the Vijayanagara Empire rulers who rebuilt the core and reopened the temple. In the 16th century, the temple complex was further expanded and fortified by the Nayak ruler Vishwanatha Nayakar and later others. The restored complex now houses 14 gopurams (gateway towers), ranging from 45–50m in height, with the southern gopura tallest at 51.9 metres (170 ft). The towers are beautiful and covered with hundreds of statues in layers, like a wedding cake, made from teak and painted in many bright colours, and the whole thing is constructed on top of a granite base that is about two floors tall. The complex has numerous sculpted pillared halls. Its shrines are dedicated to Hindu deities.
The temple is massive and is still in use today. This ancient temple is a maze of lamp-lit corridors leading to shrines where traditional rituals take place. We had an excellent hired local guide, Anderson, who gave us lots of information again, but with all the names being unfamiliar and impossible to pronounce there was no chance of remembering most of it. Non-Hindus are not allowed into the inner sanctum where there is a gold leaf encrusted dome. Anderson lead us through the complex for a couple of hours.
We returned to the Germanus Hotel, got cleaned up and went to the hotel restaurant for dinner, which was a buffet and then we headed off to our rooms for the night.
We had a relaxing morning and breakfast at the Mansion before setting out for a two-hour drive. We left at 9:30 and drove through some beautiful, dry rural country along a couple of narrow secondary roads, before we joined a good dual carriageway on which we made better time. After mostly flat farmland for the last few days we saw a few hills. There were a couple of granite rock outcrops that were being systematically dismantled into blocks. The area was a series of quarries. Shortly after that we arrived at Madurai, a holy city of about three million people. This is the second oldest city in India after Varanasi. Like Varanasi it is a very religious city. The city is built around the Sri Meenakshi Temple and all Hindus are expected to make a pilgrimage once in their life time.
We checked into our hotel and had a couple of hours to relax, have lunch and make use of the rooftop pool.
At 4:00 we drove to the temple. This is an active temple that requires visitors to cover their shoulders and wear long pants and bare feet. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to use cameras. We had to leave all cameras and cellphones outside the temple.
The Sri Meenakshi Temple was first mentioned in 6th century texts. Though it has historic roots, most of the present campus structure was rebuilt after the 14th century, further repaired, renovated and expanded in the 17th century. In early 14th century, the armies of Delhi Sultanate led by a Muslim Commander plundered the temple, looted it of its valuables and destroyed the Madurai temple town along with many other temple towns of South India. The contemporary temple is the result of rebuilding efforts started by the Vijayanagara Empire rulers who rebuilt the core and reopened the temple. In the 16th century, the temple complex was further expanded and fortified by the Nayak ruler Vishwanatha Nayakar and later others. The restored complex now houses 14 gopurams (gateway towers), ranging from 45–50m in height, with the southern gopura tallest at 51.9 metres (170 ft). The towers are beautiful and covered with hundreds of statues in layers, like a wedding cake, made from teak and painted in many bright colours, and the whole thing is constructed on top of a granite base that is about two floors tall. The complex has numerous sculpted pillared halls. Its shrines are dedicated to Hindu deities.
The temple is massive and is still in use today. This ancient temple is a maze of lamp-lit corridors leading to shrines where traditional rituals take place. We had an excellent hired local guide, Anderson, who gave us lots of information again, but with all the names being unfamiliar and impossible to pronounce there was no chance of remembering most of it. Non-Hindus are not allowed into the inner sanctum where there is a gold leaf encrusted dome. Anderson lead us through the complex for a couple of hours.
We returned to the Germanus Hotel, got cleaned up and went to the hotel restaurant for dinner, which was a buffet and then we headed off to our rooms for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment