Madurai
The
cultural capital of Tamil Nadu, Madurai is also the oldest city, ( it was
also quoted by Roman geographers ) The visit of the city is worth especially
for the very remarkable temple of Meenakshi Sundareshvara, the most
exuberant example of thee evolution of the architecture of the
temples of dravidian India. Its style is Nayak (17 th century): although
ancient place of worship, most of the temple was built under the reign
of king Tirumalai Nayak (1623-1659). But certain older parts testify the influence
of Vijayanagar which controlled the area until the defeat of Talikota
(1565) by the Muslims.
It is infact a double temple, devoted to Shiva Sundareshvara "the Beautiful Lord" and to Meenakshi, "Whose eyes have the shape of a fish", local divinity reincorporated in the Hindu Pantheon as Shakti of Shiva. Let us recall that Shakti is the parèdre, female counterpart, or more precisely energy of creation of God.
This temple appears by
certain aspects like a district of city, for example in the zones where merchants
(Pudhu Mandapa) are installed. Everywhere, they are only hypostyle courses
and labyrinths, halls (mandapa) with the decorated pillars gods, celestial
goddesses, creatures and fantastic animals.
This crowned city witnesses the "pûjâ", rites several times a day periodically , that the priests carry out to honour the divinities. The gods are waken up, bathed, offered prasadam,. Crowds of pilgrims from the four corners of India comes here.
Ashta Shakti mandapa, with the mural frescos and statues of divinities
A visit of the Museum,
installed in the mandapa of 1000 columns, located close to the gopuram, makes
it possible to admire some beautiful statues,.. The large corridor which faces
the entry, all in semi - light is splendid, with its pillars decorated
with mythological monsters. In the room not always rather enlightened, one
will stop in front of the splendid bronze sculptures of the divinities, of
Chola period
Gandhi Museum is devoted to the different stages of Indian Independence Movement with many an interesting documents of the period. Area
Tirupparankunram
Located at approximately 10 km in the south west of Madurai, this agglomeration has a remarkable temple of Murugan (name Tamoul de Kârtikeya, the brother of Ganesh), of Nayak period The massive and impressive sculptures of the divinities are blackened by the smoke and luisantes of oils. At the bottom, one recognizes Kârtikeya, Durgâ and Ganesh, whereas on the sides are Vishnu and Shiva-lingam
Various rooms of the Mahabharat period can be visited .The interior of the cave is announced especially by a completely remarkable low-relief, carried out on the bottom of the wall . It represents Heramba Ganapati (form of Ganesh) with five heads and ten arms, sitted on a lion, surrounded by a series of eight small Ganesh.
Other low-reliefs of interest: Shiva Nâtarâja, Shivakamasundari, Skanda (Murugan), Ardhanarishvara.
Rameshvaram
Rameshvaram,
is 170 km of Madurai, an island which one reaches by a superb toll bridge
which spans an arm of the sea (as well as the underground railway ).A
splendid sight from the bridge.
The Hindus say that any pilgrim who has gone
to Bénarès must, at least once in his life, visit Rameshvaram,
and reciprocally. Rameshvaram is thus a significant center of pilgrimage.
The temple of Ramanathaswami constitutes one of the very large sanctuaries
of South India . It is typical with its immense hypostyle
corridors (longest 210 m ), with the carved pillars and the painted ceilings.