Madurai - Kanayakuari

Happy Diwali to all.  We had a lovely trip to Kanyakumari and back; Zarryl Lobo and myself.  As per my calculation, we did 1429 Kms on my odometer and I got 44 Km /litre for mileage.  

Some Pics are at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drprithviraval/sets/72157632006999260/show/

 On 10 November 2012, we left around 5.30 AM and were in Madurai by 1 PM.  Spent the evening walking around and visited the famous Madurai Meenakshi Temple.  It was absolutely fantastic.  Some history below if you need. Then next day we proceeded to Kanya Kumari, at the Southern tip of India.    We stayed at the Tamilnadu Guest house and visited the Vivekananda rock, the Kanyakumari temple. Ah, we missed the sunrise and the sunset, cloudy weather. 

 Next we went to see an old classmate from the dental school, at Kulasegaram.  It was pleasant and caught up on old memories with him. Returned via Madurai on Tuesday 13 Nov. by 4 pm.

      It was a nice trip and NH highway route 7 is good. But, real boring to hit a straight patch for some 25 hours + !

Some History:

 

     Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple or Meenakshi Amman Temple a historic Hindu temple located in the southern banks of river Vaigai in the temple city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is dedicated to Parvati who is known as Meenakshi and her consort, Shiva, named here as Sundareswarar. The temple forms the heart and lifeline of the 2500 year old city of Madurai. The complex houses 14 gateway towers called gopurams, ranging from 45-50m in height, the tallest being the southern tower, 51.9 metres (170 ft) high, and two golden sculptured vimana, the shrine over sanctum of the main deities. The temple is a significant symbol for the Tamil people, and has been mentioned since antiquity in Tamil literature, though the present structure is built during 1623 to 1655 CE. The temple attracts 15,000 visitors a day, around 25,000 during Fridays and gets annual revenue of sixty million. There is an estimated 33,000 sculptures in the temple and it was in the list of top 30 nominees of the "New Seven Wonders of the World". The annual 10 day Meenakshi Tirukalyanam festival celebrated during April–May attracts 1 million visitors.

Meenakshi is an avatar of the Hindu goddess Parvati - the consort of Shiva. She is also one of the few Hindu female deities to have a major temple devoted to her.

Thirugnanasambandar, the famous Hindu saint of Saiva philosophy, mentioned this temple as early as the 7th century, and described the deity as Aalavai Iraivan. The temple was believed to be sacked by the infamous Muslim invader Malik Kafur in 1310 and all the ancient elements were destroyed.  The initiative to rebuild the structure was taken by first Nayak king of Madurai, Viswanatha Nayak (1559–1600) under the supervision of Ariyanatha Mudaliar.

At Kanyakumari:

The Kanya is still waiting for Shiva to come and marry her, just close by at Suchendram.  A clever mishap conducted by Narada Muni so that the virgin Kanya could kill Banasura the Demon. She is still awaits Lord Shiva.

The small ride to the Vivekananda rock was serene, quite and calm.  The adjacent rock had the statue of Thiruvalluvar, the famous Tamil poet.    

At the Vivekananda rock, I liked the expression on ‘AUM’!

     AUM - Symbol of Absolute;  The essence of the Vedas, described by the Upanishads as the total human and divine consciousness; Recommended  by Swami Vivekananda as the great unifier of all Indian people; Praised by Sri Ramakrishna as a bridge between God with form and God without form.