Page 617 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

M ADUR AI  615

VISITORS’ CHECKLIST
Practical Information
Chitrai St.
Tel (0452) 234 4360. Open daily.
Non-Hindus not allowed inside
the sanctum. Extra charges for
photography. _ Chitirai Festival
(mid-Apr), Avanimoolam (Aug/
Sep). Museum: Open daily. &
Extra charges for photography.

Profusely carved columns in the Thousand-Pillared Hall
north. The god resides in this,
Exploring the columned hall used for shops the second main shrine, amid
Minakshi Temple and stores. This hall has a votive columns that bear the fish
The temple is entered from the lamp-holder with 1,008 lamps, motifs emblematic of his wife.
eastern side through the Ashta which are lit on festive occasions The 16th-century “Flagpole Hall”
Shakti Mandapa, or the “Hall of and present a spectacular sight. or Kambattadi Mandapa, in
Eight Goddesses”, with sculpted The adjacent seven-storeyed front of this shrine, has a pavilion
pillars representing the various Chitra Gopura, is the tallest with a seated Nandi, a gilded
aspects of the Goddess Shakti. tower in the complex. flagpole and ornately
Next to this hall is the Minakshi Next to it is the carved pillars
Nayaka Mandapa, Potramarai Kulam, depicting the
a spacious or “Golden Lotus” 24 forms of Shiva.
Tank, with steps To its east is the
leading down to Thousand-Pillared
the water. It is Hall, with 985 beau-
surrounded by Kalyana Sundara, Vishnu tifully decorated
pillared corridors giving Minakshi to Shiva columns. Dating to
that once bore the 16th cen tury, this
paintings from the Vijayanagar hall is now a museum, which
period. To the west of this tank is displays bronze and stone
the Minakshi Shrine, one of the images. A set of pillars, a marvel
two main shrines, comprising in stone, produce the seven
dual concentric corridors and notes of Carnatic music. The
many halls and galleries. This Kalyana Mandapa, to the south
is the site of the bed to which of the pillared hall, is where the
Minakshi’s “husband”, in the form marriage of Shiva and Parvati is
of Sundareshvara’s image, is celebrated every year during the
brought every night from his Chitirai Festival in mid-April.
own shrine, the Sundareshvara Pudumandapa, the 100-m
Shrine, which stands to the (328-ft) long “New Hall” with
portrait sculptures of the Nayaka
rulers, is outside the main temple
Minakshi Sundareshvara complex. Built by Tirumalai
Temple Complex Nayaka in 1635, it now houses
1 Ashta Shakti Mandapa a market selling saris, jewellery
2 Minakshi Nayaka and spices.
Mandapa
3 Chitra Gopura 5
4 Potramarai Kulam
5 Minakshi Shrine 6
6 Sundareshvara Shrine
7 Kambattadi Mandapa 4 7
8 Thousand-Pillared Hall
9 Kalyana Mandapa
3
9 8
0 metres 100 2
0 yards 100
1 Potramarai Kulam, surrounded
by a colonnade

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