Sri Meenakshi Amman Temple

This morning I visited this very famous temple in Madurai, kindly arranged for me by a dear friend. It is one of the most famous and iconic temples in India.

This ancient temple has a recorded history going back to about 6 CE in Tamil literature. It is one of the few temples in India dedicated to a goddess.

The ancient temple was built by several kings over the centuries. The present form of the temple was built by a Pandiya king in about 1200 CE. This temple was completely destroyed in the 1400s. The current temple in its present form was constructed in the 14th century and progressively expanded.

The temple complex is spread over a 14 acres site. It has a large water tank (pottramarai kulam) within the temple complex, 14 towers (gopurams) and a famous 1000 pillared hall (ayiramkaal mandavam) and many other fascinating features.

This temple is the most famous landmark in Madurai and tens of thousands of people visit this temple every day.

I could not bring my phone into the temple and had to leave it in the car.

I had permission for the car to drive up to the East Gopuram. I was met at the gate and escorted through the temple to the Meenakshi Amman deity. I was blessed to be able to sit right in front of the deity and receive darshans or blessings.

Then I was escorted to the Sundareswar deity and again I was blessed to be able to sit right in front of the deity and receive darshan.

I was then brought to the main office where another priest blessed me and covered me with a ponnadai.

This was a wonderful day.

The temple itself is massive and filled with beautiful carvings, statues and colourful drawings.

I saw an elephant inside the temple blessing people and a cow to which people were paying respects to.

People were walking around the hallways, queuing for the darshans or simply sitting by the pottramarai kulam.

On the way there, the driver brought me to a big lake called Theppakulam.  It was originally a flat piece of land but it was dug out and the sand from there was used to build the Meenakshi Amman temple. This sand was brought down there by the Vaigai River.

An interesting story I heard is that when they were digging for the sand, they came across a Vinayagar (Ganesha) statue stuck deep in the sand. It is called the Mukuruny Vinayagar. It is carved out of a single stone. No one knows when it was carved or where it came from. That statue is also now in the temple and I am glad I saw that too!