The Good Life With IQ
If you want tips, tricks and insights on travelling, being vegetarian, sustainability and India, and from someone who’s been there and done that, then The Good Life With IQ is a good place to be! The inspiration for this blog was a trip to the Lakshadweep islands in early 2017. We had a really tough time trying to figure out how to plan our trip, and the fact that there wasn’t really much useful information on the net was really frustrating. When we got back, I decided to write a post on how we planned our Lakshadweep trip, so that other travellers could be spared our frustration. But once I got started, it was difficult to stop. And that's how The Good Life With IQ got where it is today.
The jaw-dropping size and intricacy of these ancient temples in South India will leave you speechless. Even if you only see them from the outside.
During a short family vacation through Tamil Nadu over Christmas in 2017, we paid a quick visit to two legendary South Indian temples—the 2,000 year-old Meenakshi Amman temple in Madurai, and 1,000 year-old Brihadeeswara temple in Thanjavur (Tanjore). Though we only had time for a quick visit, the size and intricacy of each complex left us gobsmacked!
Also read: Magical sights of Hampi that you may not even know exist
Madurai’s Meenakshi temple: Still unique after 2,000 years
They say Madurai has existed for at least 2,000 years, making it one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in India. And the great Meenakshi Amman temple has always been at its heart. The old city is even built in roughly concentric squares around it. The temple itself is unique because, though it is part of the Shaivite (Shiva-worship) tradition, it is actually dedicated not to Shiva himself, but rather to his consort Parvati in the form of Meenakshi.
Combining both Shaivite and Vaishnavite themes
Even more interestingly, the temple also incorporates many Vaishanavite (Vishnu-worship) themes, even though Shaivism and Vaishnavism are considered separate from each other. The strongest of the Vaishnavite themes shows Vishnu as the brother of Meenakshi and, therefore, the brother-in-law of Shiva. This makes the temple an important pilgrimage site for devotees of both Shiva and Vishnu, something almost unheard of. Lastly, besides Shaivite and Viashnavite themes, the temple also contains references to Brahma, the third member of Hinduism’s ‘trimurti’, the three forms of the divine.
Approaching the east gopuram from Elu Kadal street
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A mistake in timing
We flew into Madurai on the mid-morning flight from Hyderabad, and thought we would spend an hour or two taking in the Meenakshi temple before making the three-hour drive to Thanjavur. But we realized too late that the temple would be closed to visitors from 12:30 to 3:30 pm. And we would arrive at 12:45! We had to content ourselves with a walk around the high walls that surrounded the inner temple complex. But what a walk it was!
The old and the new coexist
Everywhere, the ancient rubbed shoulders with the modern, and life carried on as usual. The intricately carved yali pillars of the breathtaking Pudumandapa (a mandapa is a pilgrim’s hall) at the east gate of the temple complex played host to local shopkeepers; the imposing columns of Elu Kadal Street funnelled the stream of humanity towards and away from the painted Nandi statue at the entrance of the Pudumandapa; devotees, locals and tourists thronged the pedestrian zone around the temple; and over everything towered the massive, brightly painted outer gopurams (gate towers), covered in innumerable episodes from Hindu scripture.
Having seen all this, we were a little less disappointed that we couldn’t see the inside (especially the gold-plated vimanas—the sanctum towers—of the central shrines). And now we have something to look forward to during our next visit!
An unrecognizable figure carved on a pillar and worn smooth by millions of reverential hands
The Nandi statue at the entrance to the Pudumandapa
The central pillared hall of the Pudumandapa
Shops in the gallery
The yalis on the pillars of the Pudumandapa
A man adjusts his veshti while the goddess Kali looks on
The dazzling rows of brass shops
An incredibly ornate yali statue in the central gallery
A statue still revered
Ceiling carving in the Pudumandapa
A worshipper at the colourful Ashta Shakti Mandapa (Hall of Eight Goddesses) in the east wall of the complex
The ancient and the modern
The north gopuram silhouetted against the midday sun
The impossibly complex detail on the north gopuram
A view of the inner gopuram through the outer one
The keerthimukham, symbol of reabsorption and renewal, at the top of the south gopuram
A memorial to Mahatma Gandhi outside the east wall, interestingly in completely Islamic style
Temple imagery is everywhere in Madurai, even over the entrance to a school
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The Brihadeeswara temple of Thanjavur: The center of an empire that transformed Southeast Asia
The ancient city of Thanjavur was at the center of the powerful Chola empire that, at its peak, covered most of South India, and wielded major influence across Southeast Asia. And the heart of Thanjavur lay the enormous Brihadeeswara temple. Built over 1,000 years ago, this Shiva temple is considered the height of South Indian temple architecture, together with its smaller sibling at nearby Gangaikonda Cholapuram. And even though it also incorporates some Vaishanvite themes like the Meenakshi temple at Madurai, it looks quite different.
We arrived at the temple in the early evening, because we wanted to see what it was like at night. A glimpse of the outer gopuram looming over the crowds told us that this would be very different from Madurai. But only once we walked through the entrance archway (the French built a defensive wall around the temple in the late 1800s) did we appreciate how different the structures here were.
A powerful influence across ancient Southeast Asia
Like the rest of the temple, the gopuram was made of granite brought in from 60 kilometers away (or so our guide said). The archway was supported by three-storey high pillars of solid granite, and the entire thing was covered in complex plasterwork. We were immediately struck by how Southeast Asian the figures looked! It turns out that much of Hindu art and culture actually spread to places like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia from the Chola empire—and we were standing at the source! The knowledge that the huge temple complexes of Prambanan in Indonesia and Angkor Wat in Cambodia had their roots where we were standing left us a little dazed.
The outer gopuram, with the gateway arch hardly visible in front
The rest of the sprawling complex was also made of carved granite, including the towering, 16-storey vimana. This was even taller than the temple’s gopurams, which is quite rare. As the evening grew darker, bright spotlights lit up the temple and courtyard. The interplay of their white-blue and deep yellow light made everything seem a little unreal. Besides which, it also made taking decent photographs quite difficult!
A leisurely few hours of wandering
We took our time walking around the courtyard, polished smooth by millions of bare feet over the centuries. As we admired the various temples surrounded by red-dressed pilgrims, we were thankful for the cool night. So we gazed at the huge monolithic Nandi bull, the main vimana, and a shrine here and there, and generally soaked in the atmosphere.
We left after about two hours of wandering around, knowing that we had really only scratched the surface. And knowing that there was more than enough left to see the next time around. Early next morning, we continued on the last leg of our trip: three days in the shadow of elephants in Valparai.
Also read: What to do on the weekend in Hyderabad: The ancient rockscape of Fakhruddingutta
Gods and demons on the outer gopuram
The inner gopuram seen though the outer, with its huge solid stone pillars
The concourse between the outer and inner gopurams
The vimana as seen through the inner gopuram, with the Nandi in front
Butter lamps sold to worshippers from between ancient pillars
1,000 year-old inscriptions in Tamil and Sanskrit
Flower sellers
The massive Nandi, and the platform from which oil and milk is poured over it
Ceiling mural at the Nandi statue
One of the more than 1,000 smaller Nandi statues across the complex ignores the argument behind it
Butter lamps burn at the foot of the Nandi
The incredible temple, with its towering vimana
Visitors admire the temple from its side entrance
The temple’s facade
Looking back towards the gopurams
Pilgrims willingly pose for photographs in the yellow spotlight
A last look at the outer gopuram, as it looms over the gateway arch, now clearly visible
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Top tips
- If you’re visiting Madurai, plan your schedule so you spend at least a day there. There’s more to see than just the temple.
- Visit the temple before 12:30 pm or after 3:30 pm. Visitors can’t enter during that time, but it seems you can stay if you’re already inside.
- Seeing just the outside took us an hour, so you might want to budget at least two hours if you’re going inside, too.
- You can’t take cameras into the temple complex. Strangely enough, mobile phones with cameras aren’t a problem.
- If you’re thirsty, there’s a very nice chap who sells fresh coconut water at the corner of the north and east streets just outside the temple complex.
- The area around the temple complex is a pedestrian zone. You’ll need to walk for a few minutes to get there.
- When visiting the Brihadeeswara temple in Thanjavur, you might want to take a taxi. Parking is a nightmare!
- Visit the temple during the day if you want to take photographs, but go at night if you want atmosphere.
- One needs to enter the temple complex barefoot, so if you have sensitive feet, wear thick socks.
- It might be worth it to spend Rs. 600 and hire a guide, though their accent can be tough to follow, and they might rush you a bit. Make sure that the guide is certified by the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India), though.
Veggie tip
If you’re looking for a nice vegetarian place to eat, you can’t go wrong with the local outlet of the popular Adyar Ananda Bhavan. If you can’t find one, ask a local to point you towards a restaurant that serves ‘saiva saapaad’ (roughly translated as ‘pure food’ or ‘untainted food’). Either way, vegetarian food is very easy to find.
Also read: Magical sights of Hampi that you may not even know exist
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