India (Frommer's, 4th Edition) - Keith Bain [301]
It’s also worth being warned that the smell from the nearby waters is, on certain days, appalling. Aside from the temple’s incredible pillared courtyard, the key attraction and worth seeing, it is not architecturally on a par with the Meenakshi Temple, but the carnival-like atmosphere—created by domestic pilgrims for whom a visit here is the fulfillment of a spiritual quest to visit the seven holy sites of Varanasi, Rishikesh, Haridwar, Pushkar, Kanchipuram, Madurai, and Rameshwaram—is what a trip to the temple destinations of India is all about.
Perfume City
While walking through the temple you will come across women selling garlands of jasmine flowers—purchase one for a small donation (Rs 10/Rs 20) and ask the seller to tie the garland in your or your female companion’s hair, or simply hang it around your neck and breathe in the sublime perfume of the Madurai jasmine flowers, said to give off a unique fragrance, for which tons are exported all over the world. If you’re here for a few days make time to visit the city’s bustling 24-hour flower market, located behind the equally compelling fruit and vegetable market (between North Chitrai and North Avani Moola sts.) where vendors deal in masses of the most gorgeous blooms, many of them destined to become temple or wedding garlands.
Pulling Out Sin
You may notice devotees, particularly of Ganesh, standing before their god and tugging their ears—this action is symbolic of pulling out sin!
Shri Meenakshi-Sundareshwarar Temple One of South India’s biggest, busiest pilgrimage sites, attracting up to 15,000 devotees a day, this sprawling temple, always undergoing renovation and repairs, is a place of intense spiritual activity. A 6m-high (20-ft.) wall surrounds the complex, and 12 looming goparums (pyramidal gateways)—the most impressive in south India, with the four highest reaching 46m (151 ft.)—mark the various entrances. Garish stucco gods, demons, beasts, and heroes smother these towers in a writhing, fascinating mass of symbolism, vividly painted in a riot of bright Disneyesque colors—these are repainted every 12 years and currently (painted in 2008) looking absolutely gorgeous. Traditionally, entrance to the complex is through the eastern Ashta Shakti Mandapa, a hall of pillars graced by sculptural representations of the goddess Shakti in her many aspects, and devotees then perambulate in a clockwise direction but you are welcome to enter through any gate (the northern gate is quieter, and you can see the houses of the priests, some 50 of whom are in the temple’s employ, and live communally in the humble lane leading up to the gate), and then wander at will. Adjacent to the mandapa is Meenakshi Nayaka Mandapa, where pilgrims purchase all manner of devotional paraphernalia and holy souvenirs. Near the inner gate, a temple elephant earns her keep by accepting a few rupees’ donation in exchange for the usual blessing—bestowed with a light tap of her dexterous trunk (note that if you wish to photograph her you would do well to donate a few rupees rather than just take a photograph and irritate her mahout). From here you can wander in any direction, finding your way at some stage to the impressive 16th-century Hall of a Thousand Pillars. This hall (or museum, as it is also called) has 985 elegantly sculpted columns, including a set of “musical pillars” that