Meenakshi Amman
Temple (Other
names : Meenakshi
Sundareswarar Temple or Tiru-aalavaai or Meenakshi Amman Kovil) is a historic
Hindu temple located in the southern bank of river Vaigai HYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaigai HYPERLINK
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vain the temple city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is dedicated
toParvati who is known
as Meenakshi and her
consort, Shiva, named here as
Sundareswarar. Temple forms the
heart and lifeline of the 2500 year old cityHYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Temple"HYPERLINK
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Temple of Madurai. The complex houses 14 gateway
towers called gopurams, ranging from
45-50m in height, the tallest being the southern tower, 51.9 metres
(170 ft) high,HYPERLINK
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Temple"HYPERLINK
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Templ and two
golden sculptured vimana, the shrine over
sanctum of the main deities. The temple is a significant symbol for the Tamil people, and has been
mentioned since antiquity in Tamil literature, though the
present structure is built during 1623 to 1655 CEHYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_ErHYPERLINK
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era"... The temple
attracts 15,000 visitors a day, around 25,000 during Fridays and gets an annual revenue of sixty million
. There is an estimated 33,000 sculptures in the temple and
it was in the list of top 30 nominees of the "New Seven Wonders of the World". The annual
10 day Meenakshi Tirukalyanam festival celebrated during April–May attracts 1
million visitors.
Deity of Meenakshi in the temple
Meenakashi is an avatar of the Hindu goddess Parvati - the
consort of Shiva.HYPERLINK
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Temple"] She is also
one of the Hindu female deities to have a major temple devoted to her. The name
"Mīnachchi" means fish eyed and is derived from the words
"mīna" meaning fish and "akṣi" meaning eyes. The lady
goddess Meenakshi is the principal deity of the temple and not Sundareswarar -
this is unlike most Shiva temples in South India where Shiva
is the principal deity. According to Hindu legend, in order to answer the
prayers of the second Pandya king Malayadwaja Pandya and his wife
Kanchanamalai, Parvati appeared out of the holy fire of the Putra Kameshti Yagna (sacrifice
for childhood) performed by the king. According to another legend, the
goddess herself gave a boon to Kanchanamalai in one of her previous births that
she would have the privilege of mothering the goddess. The girl who came out of
the holy fire had three breasts. A voice from the heavens told the king not to
worry about the abnormality and added that the third breast would vanish as
soon as the girl meets her future husband. The happy king named the girl
"Tadaatagai" and being the heir to the throne, Tadaatagai was
trained carefully in all the 64 sastras, the fields of science.
As the time came for Tadaatagai's coronation, she had to wage war on the three
worlds across eight directions. After conquering Brahma's Abode, Sathyaloka, Vishnu's
Abode, Vaikunta, and Devas' abode Amaravati, she advanced to Shiva's Abode Kailasha. She very
easily defeated the bhoota ganas(IAST:
Bhūtagana, meaning Shiva's army) and Nandi, the celestial bull of Shiva, and headed
to attack and conquer Shiva. The moment she looked at Shiva, she was unable to
fight and bowed her head down due to shyness; the third breast vanished
immediately. Tadaatagai realized that Shiva was her destined husband. She
also realized that she was the incarnation of Parvati. Both Shiva and
Tadaatagai returned to Madurai and the king arranged the coronation ceremony of
his daughter, followed by her marriage with Shiva.
Vishnu hands over his sister Meenakshi to Shiva
The marriage was supposed to be the biggest event on earth,
with the whole earth gathering near Madurai. Vishnu, the brother of Meenakshi,
prepared to travel from his holy abode at Vaikuntam to preside
over the marriage. Due to a divine play, he was tricked by the Deva, Indra and was
delayed on the way. After the marriage, the pair ruled over Madurai for a long
time and then assumed divine forms as Sundareswarar and Meenakshi who are
presiding deities of the temple. Following the tradition, every evening,
before closing the temple, a ritual procession lead by drummers and a brass
ensemble carries the image of Sundareswarar to Meenakshi's bedroom to
consummate the union, to be taken back the next morning in dawn. The
marriage is celebrated annually as Chithirai
Thiruvizha in Madurai. During the period of Nayakar rule in
Madurai, the ruler Thirumalai Nayakar linked the festival Azhakar Thiruvizha and the
Meenakshi wedding ceremony.
History
The Meenakshi temple is believed to be founded by Indra (king
of Devas, celestial deities)
while he was on a pilgrimage to cure his misdeeds. He felt his burden taken off
nearing the swayambu lingam(self formed
lingam, a representation of Shiva used for worship in temples) of Madurai.
He ascribed this miracle to the lingam and
constructed the temple and enshrined the lingam there. Indra worshipped Shiva, who caused golden
lotuses to appear in the nearby pool. Tamil literature speaks about the temple
for the last couple of millennia. Thirugnanasambandar, the famous Hindu
saint of Saiva philosophy, mentioned this
temple as early as the 7th century, and described the deity as Aalavai Iraivan.
The temple was believed to be sacked by the infamous Muslim invader Malik Kafur in 1310 and
all the ancient elements were destroyed. The initiative to rebuild the
structure was taken by first Nayak king of Madurai, Viswanatha Nayak
(1559–1600) under the supervision of Ariyanatha Mudaliar, the prime
minister of the Nayak Dynasty and the founder of thePoligar System. The original
design by Vishwanatha Nayak in 1560 was substantially expanded to the current
structure during the reign of Thirumalai Nayak(1623–55). He
took considerable interest in erecting many complexes inside the temple. His
major contributions are the Vasantha
Mandapam for celebrating vasanthorsavam (spring
festival) and Kilikoondu Mandapam (corridor
of parrots). The corridors of the temple tank and Meenakshi Nayakar Mandapam were built by Rani Mangammal.
Architecture
Location of Meenakshi temple in Madurai
The temple is the geographic and ritual center of the ancient
city of Madurai and one of the largest temple complexes in Tamil Nadu. The
temple complex is divided into a number of concentric quadrangular enclosures
contained by high masonry walls. It is one of the few temples in Tamil Nadu to
have four entrances facing four directions. Vishwantha Nayaka allegedly
redesigned the city of Madurai in accordance with the principles laid down
by Shilpa Shastras (Sanskrit: śilpa śāstra, also anglicized as silpa sastra meaning rules of
architecture) relevant to urban planning. The city was laid out in the shape of
square with a series of concentric streets culminating from the temple. These
squares continue to retain their traditional names, Aadi, Chittirai,
Avani-moola and Masi streets, corresponding to Tamil month names. Ancient Tamil
classics mention that the temple was the center of the city and the streets
happened to be radiating out like lotus and its petals. The temple prakarams (outer
precincts of a temple) and streets accommodate an elobrate festival calendar in
which dramatic processions circumabulate the shrines at varying distances from
the centre. The vehicles used in processions are progressively more massive the
further they travel from the centre. The complex is in around 45 acres
(180,000 m2) and the temple is a massive structure
measuring 254 by .
Gopurams
The temple is surrounded by gopurams (gateway
tower)HYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Temple.There are ten
gopuram the tallest of which, the famous southern tower, rises to over
170 ft (52 m) and was built in 1559. The oldestgopuram is the eastern one, built by Maravarman Sundara Pandyan during
1216-1238. Each gopuram is a multi-storeyed
structure, covered with thousands of stone figures of animals, gods and demons
painted in bright hues. The outer gopuram presents
steeply pyramidal tower encrusted with plastic figures, while the inner gopuram serves as the entrance to
the inner enclosure of Sundareswarar shrine.
Shrines
Sculptures inside the temple
The central shrine of Meenakshi Amman temple and her consort
Sundareswarar are surrounded by three enclosures and each of these are protected
by four minor towers at the four points of the compass, the outer tower growing
larger and reaching higher to the corresponding inner one. The Meenakshi
shrine has the emerald-hued black stone image of Meenakshi. The
Sundareswarar shrine lies at the centre of the complex, suggesting that the
ritual dominance of the goddess developed later. Both the Meenakshi and
Sundareswarar shrines have gold plated Vimanam (tower
over sanctum). The golden top can be seen from a great distance in the west
through the apertures of two successive towers. The area covered by the shrine
of Sundareswarar is exactly one fourth of the area of the temple and that of
Meenakshi is one fourth that of Sundareswarar.
The tall sculpture of Ganesh carved of single stone located
outside the Sundareswarar shrine in the path from Meenashi shrine is called
the Mukuruny Vinayakar. A large
measure of rice measuring 3 kurini (a
measure) is shaped into a big ball of sacrifice and hence the Ganesh is
called Mukkurni Vinayagar (three kurinis). This deity is believed to
be found during a 17th-century excavation process to dig the Mariamman temple tank.
Temple tank and
surrounding portico
The sacred temple tank Porthamarai Kulam ("Pond with the golden lotus"), is
165 ft (50 m) by 120 ft (37 m) in size. According to
legend, Shiva promised a stork that no fish or other marine life would grow
here and thus no marine animals are found in the lake. In the Tamil
legends, the lake is supposed to judge the worth of a new piece of literature.
Authors place their works here and the poorly written works are supposed to
sink and the scholastic ones are supposed to float, Tirukkural by Tiruvalluvar was one such
work.
Only a fraction of 17th and 18th century paintings of Nayak
period survives and one such portion is found in the small portico on the
western side of the tank. It depicts the marriage of Sundareswarar and
Meenkashi attended by Vijayaranga Chokkanatha and Rani Mangammal. The painting
is executed on a vivid red background, with delicate black linework and large
areas of white, green and ochre. The celestial couple is seated inside an
architectural frame with a flowering tree in the background.
Halls
The corridor surrounding the sanctum of Meenakshi is
called kilikoondu Mandapam ("bird
cage corridor"). The space was once used to keep green parrots that were
trained to utter the name of Meenakshi. There are two large cages full of
squawking green parrots.
The Kambatadi
Mandapam ("Hall of temple tree") with its seated Nandi
(sacred bull) has various manifestations of Shiva carved and also contains the
famous "Marriage of Meenakshi" sculpture. Sculptures of Shiva
and Kali trying to
out-dance one another are pelted with balls of ghee by devotees.
A golden flagstaff with 32 sections symbolizes the human backbone and is
surrounded by various gods, including Durga and Siddar.
The Meenakshi
Nayakkar Mandapam ("Hall of 100 pillars") has two rows of
pillars carved with images of yali (mythological
beast with body of lion and head of an elephant), commonly used as the symbol
of Nayak power. It is situated to the north of Sundareswarar flag staff
hall.
The Puthu Mandapam ("new
hall") constructed by Tirumala Nayak contains large number of sculptures. It
is situated opposite to the east gopuram.
The Ashta Shakthi
Mandapam ("Hall of eight goddess") is the first hall in the
entrance of Meenakshi shrine tower near to East Tower. Ashta indicates eight and Shakthi refers to goddess - the
hall has statues of eight goddesses. The gopurams (towers) can be viewed from this hall. The
passage was named for eight forms of goddess Sakthi carved on its
pillars. Other sculptures and paintings depict the Tiruvilayadal (holy games of Shiva). The sculptures of
heroes of Mahabharata, the Pancha pandavas can be seen
in the Pancha Pandava Mandapam (Hall
of Pandavas).
The Viravasantharaya
Mandapam is a large hall with huge corridors. To the south of
this hall is the kalyana mandapam,
to the south of the pillared hall, is where the marriage of Shiva and Parvati
is celebrated every year during the Chithirai Festival
in mid-April. The golden images of Meenakshi and Sundareswarar are carried into
the 16th centuryoonjal mandapam (swing
corridor) and placed on the swing every Friday at 5:30 p.m. The shrine has a
3-storied gopuram guarded
by two stern dwarapalakas (guardians)
and supported by golden, rectangular columns that bear lotus markings. Along
the perimeter of the chamber, granite panels of the divine couple are present. The
hall is situated in the western bank of the temple tank.
The Mudali Pillai
Mandapam or Iruttu Mandapam (Dark
hall) is a wide and long hall built by Muthu Pillai during 1613. On the pillars
of the halls, there are fine sculptures depicting the story of Shiva taking the
form of Bikshadanar to teach the
sages a lesson.
The Mangayarkarasi
mandapam is a newly built hall situated opposite to the marriage halls
and bears the name of saindy queen, Mangayarkarasi who contributed to Saivism
and Tamil language. To the south of Mangayarkarasi mandapam lies the Servaikarar Mandapam, a hall built by Marudu brothers in 1795. The Nagara mandapam (Hall of beating drums) lies opposite to
Sundareswarar shrine was built by Achaya Rayar, the minister of Rani Mangammal
in 1635. The Kolu Mandapam is
a hall for displaying dolls during the Navarathri festival
celebrated during September–October. This hall is situated in the second
corridor of the Meenakshi shrine at the western side.
Hall of Thousand
Pillars
A section of the Thousand Pillar Hall
The "Aayiram Kaal Mandapam" or Thousand Pillar Hall
contains 985 (instead of 1000) carved pillars. The hall was built
by Ariyanatha Mudaliar in 1569 and it is a structure where the
engineering skill and artistic vision are blended. Ariyanatha Mudaliar was
the prime minister and general of Viswanatha Nayak, the first Nayaka
of Madurai (1559–1600). He was also the founder of Poligar System, the
quasi-feudal organization of the country, which was divided into multiple palayams or small provinces and
each palayam was ruled by
a palayakkarar or a petty
chief. At the entrance of the hall the statue of Ariyanatha Mudaliar seated on
a horse-back is present, which flanks one side of the entrance to the temple.
The statue is periodically garlanded by worshippers. Each pillar in the hall is
a carved monument of the Dravidian sculpture. The more prominent among the
carved figures are those of Rati (wife of Kama), Karthikeya, Ganesha, Shiva as a
wandering mendicant and endless number of yalis (mythical figures of lions). There is a Temple Art
Museum in the hall where icons, photographs, drawings, and other exhibits of
the 1200 years old history of the temple is displayed. Just outside this
hall, towards the west, are the Musical Pillars. Each pillar, when struck,
produces a different musical note.
Religious significance of the temple
A distinct feature of Meenakshi in terms of iconography is
the presence of parrot in her right hand. The parrot is generally associated
with the Vaishnavaazhwar saint Andal. HYPERLINK
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Temple" "Pancha Sabhai" refers to the five royal courts of Nataraja(dancing form of
Shiva) where he performed cosmic dance. The Tamil word velli means silver and ambalam means stage or altar. This
massive Nataraja sculpture is enclosed in a huge silver altar and hence called
"Velli Ambalam" (silver abode). This is a special figure of Natarja
which usually differs from Chola bronzes; in the Chola
images, Nataraja is shown dancing with his left leg raised, but this sculpture
has the right leg raised. According to the Tiruvilayaadal Puranam (Shiva's sacred games), this is on the
request of Rajasekara Pandya, who was a sincere devotee of Shiva. He requested
the deity to change his position, as he felt that keeping the same foot raised
would put enormous strain and got a graceful acquiescence from the divine
master.
Worship
There are close to 50 priests in the temple who perform
the pooja (rituals) during festivals and on a daily basis. Like
other Shiva temples of Tamil Nadu, the priests belong to Shivaite to the
Adishaivas, a Brahmin sub-caste. The priests live in a closed area north of the
temple.The temple has a six time pooja calendar everyday, each comprising four
rituals namely abhisheka (sacred
bath), alangaram (decoration), neivethanam (food offering)
and deepa aradanai(waving of
lamps) for both Meenakshi and Sundareswarar. Thepuja(worship)
ceremonies are held amidst music with nagaswaram (pipe
instrument) and tavil (percussion
instrument), religious instructions in the Vedas by priests and prostration by
worshippers in front of the temple mast. The common practise is to worship
Meenakshi before Sundareswarar. Margazhi (December–January)
ritual is prominent one for winning a perfect, god-like husband - it is
Meenakshi's ennai kappu festival. Aligned
with the cardinal points, the street plans forms a giant mandala (group) whose sacred
properties are believed to be activated during the mass clockwise
cicumambulations of the central temple..
Festivals
The most important festival associated with the temple is the
"Meenakshi Thirukalyanam" (The divine marriage of Meenakshi) that is
celebrated in April every year. The marriage
of the divine couple is regarded as a classic instance of south Indian
female-dominated marriage, an arrangement referred as "Madurai
marriage". The male dominated marriage is called "Chidambaram
marriage", referring to Shiva's uncontested dominance, ritual and mythic,
at the famous Shiva temple of Chidhambaram. The marriage
brings together rural and urban people, deities and mortals, Saivas (those who
worship Shiva) and Vaishnavas (those who
worship Vishnu) in order to celebrate Meenakshi as the royal monarch. During
the one month period, there are a number of events including the "Ther
Thiruvizhah" (chariot festival) and "Theppa Thiruvizhah" (float
festival). Major Hindu festivals like Navrathri and Shivrathri are
celebrated in the temple. Like most Shakti temples in Tamil Nadu, the Fridays
during the Tamil months of Aadi (July–August)
and Thai (January -
February) are celebrated in the temple by thousands of devotees. "Avani
Moola Utsavam" is a 10-day festival mainly devoted to Sundareswarar
describes his various Thiruvilayadal meaning
Shiva's sacred games).
