The receptionist at the front desk of our hotel says "The temple will be crowded today". We had traveled to Madurai during the time of Navaratri.
We do not ask for directions to go the Meenakshi Amman Temple. The towering gopurams leads us the path and acts as a giant compass. We enter through the west entrance. We visited this place 3 years back and lot had changed since then. The Paths leading outside the Outer Parakramas were neatly paved and there were electric cars doing the rounds of the temple.
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| The West entrance gopuram of Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple |
We enter the inner parakram from the south entrance and make way towards the sanctum of Meenakshi Amman Kovil. The large Hallways neatly painted with murals lead us to the sanctum. It was a large queue owing to the festival.
We now patiently wait for the darshan. The crowds move slowly, but we were in no hurry. Looking around this magnificent temple is itself a bonus. We look at each rock cut architecture on the pillars. Finally we make to the inner sanctum of Meenakshi Amman. Blessed and rejuvenated we offer our prayers and move out.
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| Inside the Sundareshwarar Koil |
We offer our prayers to lord Ganesha at the end of the hallway and make to the inner Sanctum of Lord Shiva also known as Lord Sundareshwarar here in Madurai. Different hallways lead us to different shrines at the Meenakshi Amman Temple. This temple is so huge it requires atleast 4 hours or more to know each and every part of this renowned place.
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| The Golden Lotus Pond |
Moving around the Temple
It is difficult to grasp the dimensions of this great temple and it requires at least half a day to be spent here. There are not less than 12 gopurams towering over each other. We make ourselves to the 1000 pillared temple. The paintings, the dancing nataraja and other sculptures are a must see here. There is also a musical pillar inside the 1000 pillared mandapam.
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| Inside Sundareshwarar Koil |
We move out of the mandapam and now face the giant Golden lotus tank. The tank is surrounded by spacious corridors on all sides with paintings and murals depicting the scenes from the puranas. From here we can see the golden vimanas of both Meenakshi Amman as well as Lord Sundareshwarar Shrines.
After a good 2 hours we move out of the temple mesmerized by its beauty and to be blessed by Meenakshi Amman itself.
Moving around Madurai
It was already 7pm and we were getting quite hungry. We had heard of Murugan idly Shop and we wanted to taste their delicious Idlis. We make it the place and find it very crowded and even more difficult to get a place to sit. The idly shop was a very congested place but the very smell of idlis was making me to lose my senses. After waiting patiently for 20 minutes we found it even more difficult to get a place. Such was the popularity of the idlis over here. We then made it to the other popular restaurant here, “The Modern Café”. Even this place was very crowded, but thanks to the owner of the place. He arranged us a place to sit and we were very soon ordering a plate of idlis to satisfy our tummies.
P.S: We did make it to Murugan Idly Shop the next day and I swear their Idlies and Chutnies are next to none, Fabulous.
We continued on to Kanyakumari the next day
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