Pandi Temple

The last temple I visited yesterday was the Pandi temple. I have visited this temple on my way to the airport the last time I was in Madurai.

This time I went there at about 10am with more time on my hands.

Everyone in Madurai knows this temple and they tell me that it is an important temple. But it is a temple very different from all the other temples I have visited.

It is a relatively newer temple. It isn’t a huge complex with magnificent sculptures. It is in the middle of what appears to be a market place and it’s a low rise building. It attracts a lot of people but all local folks and primarily rural people.

When I told my mother on Sunday that I was visiting this temple I was surprised that she even knew this place. She said that the deity is a fierce one and she thought women did not in the past go to the temple.

Anyway I was met at the entrance and I was brought to stand right in front of the main deity of the temple, Pandi Muneeswarar, to receive blessings. There was a queue of people behind me and while I was standing in front of the deity, a young girl behind me started screaming or wailing very loudly. I turned back and she must have been about 8 to 10 years old and she was with her mother.

I was then brought to the other parts of the temple which I didn’t visit the last time.

There was a shrine manned by an old lady who blesses people. I believe the shrine is dedicated to Ganesha.

Then I was shown another section where a lot of small cots where hanging. I was told that people who wanted babies would come to this temple and pray and tie a small cot here. There were so many cots on that structure and I was told that the temple authorities remove them regularly.

Then there was the middle part of the complex where they were sacrifing goats. I actually saw a small black goat which was having it’s legs tied up and a man was standing next to it with huge knife getting ready to behead it. I didn’t want to see the actual beheading and so I looked away and walked. There was quite a bit of blood on the floor in that area and I saw the heads of 8 goats lined up on the floor. I was told that people who prayed for something and had their wish granted would come here to give thanks by sacrificing animals.

Right at the other end of the temple complex was another shrine. This deity, Samaya Karuppar, had all its parts cut up. There was a half torso in the middle and the head and other parts of the body were placed alongside it.

A very different type of a temple from all the others I have visited. But that explains the diversity of people and their beliefs in this country.