Tamil Nadu & Chennai - South India and Kerala - page 796

Sights

Meenakshi Amman Temple
MAP

HINDU TEMPLE

GOOGLE MAP

(camera/video ?50/250; 4am-12.30pm & 4-9.30pm) The abode of the triple-breasted goddess
Meenakshi ('fish-eyed' - an epithet for perfect eyes in classical Tamil poetry) is con-
sidered by many to be the height of South Indian temple architecture, as vital to the aes-
thetic heritage of this region as the Taj Mahal is to North India. It's not so much a temple
as a 6-hectare complex with 12 tall gopurams, all encrusted with a staggering array of
gods, goddesses, demons and heroes (1511 of them on the south gopuram alone).
According to legend, the beautiful Meenakshi (a version of Parvati) was born with three
breasts and this prophecy: her superfluous breast would melt away when she met her hus-
band. The event came to pass when she met Shiva and took her place as his consort. The
existing temple was built during the 17th-century reign of Tirumalai Nayak, but its origins
go back 2000 years to when Madurai was a Pandyan capital.
The four streets surrounding the temple are pedestrian-only. The main entrance is by
the eastern gopuram . First, have a look round the Pudhu Mandapa MAP GOOGLE MAP (East
Chitrai St) , the 100m-long, 16th-century pillared hall facing the gopuram . It's filled with col-
ourful textile and craft stalls and tailors at sewing machines, partly hiding some of the
lovely pillar sculptures, but it's easy to find the triple-breasted Meenakshi near the south-
east corner, and her marriage to Shiva, accompanied by Vishnu, just inside the western en-
trance. A particularly handsome light-blue Nandi bull (Shiva's vehicle) sits outside the
mandapa's eastern entrance.
Dress codes are fairly strict for the temple itself: no women's shoulders, or legs of
either gender, may be exposed. Despite this the temple has a happier, more joyful atmo-
sphere than some of Tamil Nadu's more solemn shrines, and is adorned with particularly
colourful ceiling and wall paintings. There's often classical dance somewhere in the com-
plex at the weekends.
Once inside the eastern gopuram , you'll find the Nayak-period Thousand Pillar Hall on
your right. This is now an Art Museum MAP GOOGLE MAP (Indian/foreigner ?5/50, camera/video ?50/250;
7am-7.30pm) where you can admire at your leisure a Shiva shrine with a large bronze
Nataraja at the end of a corridor of superbly carved pillars, plus many other fine bronzes
and colourful painted panels. Some of the best carvings, including Krishna with his flute,
Ganesh dancing with a woman on his knee, and a female deity cradling a baby, are imme-