19 JAN Friday. Madurai - Meenakshi Temple (part I)

We wanted to revisit the colourful  Meenakshi Hindu Temple which is dedicated to Meenakshi who is a form of Parvati (Goddess of Fertility) and her consort Sundareswar, a form of Lord Shiva (death and Dissolution).   I don't know much about the Indian deities and their many incarnations but Ganesha (the elephant God - success, knowledge and wealth) is the son of Parvati and Shiva so they're all very important in the Hindu religion.

Madurai is the second largest city in Tamil Nadu (Chennai being the largest) and this temple town is a major attraction to devotees (and to tourists).

The four main temple towers (North, South, East and West) are absolutely covered in ornate, colourful figures.     Last time we were here in 2014 these were being repainted and there was a lot of scaffolding around the towers.   They are repainted periodically (Joshy thought every 5 years) so although there was no scaffolding this time the colours are very much faded/subdued.  It looks like they are due for a refurb. 

The main 'inner' temple area closes between 12 noon and 4pm and  we didn't go inside (lack of time) but cameras aren't allowed inside anyway out of deference to the devotees and we have visited it before. 

As with all temples you must remove shoes before entering.    These were left outside - we didn't actually get to see the owner but they obviously have a sense of humour

 
Its huge and impressive with lots of stalls selling 'tourist tat' but we were happy enough just wandering around the temple perimeter and surrounding streets with its abundance of market stalls, shops and small businesses.   I have made another post specifically to show pics of these.

On this page I'm just posting photos of the temple towers and walls.   They don't need any explanation (and I certainly don't know the significance of the figures depicted) so here they are:

Its very difficult to convey in photos how grand/tall these towers are

Some of the individual characters ... they are high up so difficult to get good close up shots

and some of the carvings adorning the top of the walls around the temple

and ........  David!