Around the World

We reached Madurai at about 7:30 AM. We had told someone to book a Tavera for us to travel around. So the driver was waiting for us at the station.

The Tavera costed us 8Rs per KM without AC and 9 Rs with AC.

 

The driver had blocked rooms for us at hotel Empee. This hotel is on a road parallel to the railway station. We went there and took 2 rooms for half a day. He charged us Rs 600 for each room.

The rooms were not very big and luxurious. But they were decently sized, clean. The bathroom was also very clean. There was hot water available in the bathroom all the time (of course it was not necessary due to the heat).

Just one thing was that in one of the rooms we had a stupid curtain that dint really cover the complete window. It was fine otherwise.

 

We got all dressed and went down for breakfast. We had nice ghee roasts (Dosas), vadai, pongal and coffee. We filled our stomachs with all the stuff and left for the famous Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple.

 

It has been a few years since I have been there…and I found a lot of changes…

The car could not go till the temple as there is some area around the temple which has been made pedestrian only; vehicles are not allowed. This area has been tiled and some lawn and nice plants have been grown to add to the beauty. Truly impressive I must say.

 

We went in and left our footwear at a designated place and went into the temple.

 

I have started noticing that there are so many things in these temples that are just contrast to what people follow. We can actually see that over time, man has really changed the meaning of rituals as per his conveniences and over time these seem to have become blind beliefs.

 

First thing I did not like about the temple is that they have put a board at some points stating that “Only hindus allowed beyond this point”. This is something that I am totally not ok with. I agree with the boards that say no lungis etc….because they are just to maintain a discipline and decorum of the temple. But not this caste distinction.

 

Next thing that struck me was the fact that the temple has sannidhis for Shiva, Vishnu, their respective consorts, Krishna inscribed in the pillars….This totally is against the fact of vaishnava and Shaiva.

I don’t know how this was done. This temple belongs to the olden times and it seems to me that this kind of a distinction was not present in that period….then when did it come??

Hari and Shiva are one…..this is what I have come to notice in many temples include the famous Thillai temple.

 

In fact I learnt something new that I was astonished about…. I don’t know if this is just new to me or many of them don’t know it….

Did you know that Meenakshi is actually Vishnu’s sister?

If you dint ….then here you go….

There is actually a separate Sannidhi (shrine) where we see the statue of Lord Vishnu, Shiva and Meenakshi. Here Vishnu is doing the Kannikadhanam ritual and hence handing over Meenakshi in marriage to Lord Shiva.

So they are actually of the same family….what is all about the vaishnava and shaiva I still don’t get the point….maybe I am tooooo less intelligent to understand the nuiances and the greatness of these differences…

 

Anyway….talking more about the temple itself…

 

We entered from one of the four entrances (I forgot which one) and as soon as we entered we saw the pond of the golden lotus. This is called the Pottramarai kolam. There seem to be a lot of stories about this pond. Some pictures can be seen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Temple#The_lake_Porthamarai

 

There is actually one story that I know which has the lotus pond mentioned in it. This is one of Shiva’s thiruvilayadal….how I know this … I watched the movie

The story goes something like this…

The king who ruled then ( the pandian king I guess) suddenly announces a competition for poetry and also promises a nice hefty prize.

There is this poor temple aachary named Tarumi. He keeps feeling frustrated that if at all he could write a poem, then he could win the price. Suddenly there appears a man in the temple who seems to have written a poetry and is not interested it in submitting it himself to the king. He gives it to Tarumi to take the credit.

Tarumi also does so. The king is extremely impressed and finally decides to handover the prize. At this point, the court poet Nakeeran gets up and acts as a critic and says that there is one line in the poem that states that “ women have hair that comes with natural fragrance”. He says this is wrong. Women have fragrant hair only because of the flowers and other stuff that they adorn their hair with and there is no question of natural fragrance.

At this point Tarumi is unable to defend himself and they get to know that he is not the actual owner of the poem. Tarumi is asked to being the actual author.

This strange man who met Tarumi gets furious and walks to the court and argues with Nakeeran.

At the climax, Nakeeran is asked if he thinks that parvathi the consort of lord Shiva whom he prays to also does not have fragrant hair….and Nakeeran says NO.

At this point, the strange man reveals himself to be lord Shiva himself by sowing Nakeeran his third eye

Nakeeran bows to him and says “ I respect you oh Lord…However…even if you show me your third eye I cannot accept a mistake”

The lord gets angry and burns him down. He brings him back to life at the Lotus pond where he says he is pleased with Nakeeran for sticking to his words although he knew what was about to happen.