We met Shelley over breakfast this morning, who had a great adventure traveling by train from Chennai to Madurai to meet up with us. Our good friend Samy from SJDT met us with our bus this morning, and we took off for a day of sightseeing and cultural orientation.
First stop was the famous Sri Meenakshi temple in the center of the city.
Madurai is known as the Temple city, not least for Sri Meenakshi, but also the many other temples surrounding it, and is a major centre for pilgrimage.
Construction of the temple began in the third century BC, with most of the current buildings around the perimeter built from the 14th Century until the arrival of the British.
We were met by our wonderful guide from last year, Rishi, and left our shoes with the caretaker outside the North gate before stepping barefoot back in time, but also into the present day spiritual life of India. The temple has
6 gates and the one we entered through is the North Gate. The towers above the gates and the temple themselves are called gopurams, and are covered with brightly painted depictions of Hindu deities and stories.
The North gate is only decorated above the first level, with the lower level deliberately left unfinished. This signifies that the world and work of men is imperfect, but once you step through you enter the world of the divine which is perfect.
Legend tells that the Hindu Lord Shiva married his consort Parvati at the site of the temple, and the marriage is renacted regularly with statues of the gods by the priests and local devotees.
The Hindu pantheon has over 30 million gods, but in reality they are all just different representations of the main gods such as Shiva and Parvati.
We wandered through the ancient stone halls surrounded by locals on pilgrimage or their way to worship, with Rishi explaining each tradition and statue as we walked by. On an average day 10,000 - 12,000 people will pass through the temple. It was a wonderful introduction to the local culture and beliefs.
After we left the temple we went to the rooftop of a nearby shop for a better view of the North Tower, then after a quick browse of the store headed back to the bus for our next stop.
Our next temple for the day was about 30 minutes out of town, and it was wonderful to escape the madness and traffic of the city out into quiet rice paddies and local villages.
The road started winding up a lush forested hill, and along the side of the road we saw tens of monkeys, sitting, playing, eating and climbing. As we rose higher, we overtook a 300 yard long column of women dressed in beautiful silk saris, making the 3km walk to the temple on pilgrimage.
This temple was founded some two thousand years ago also by one of the local kings. Each year the king had made the pilgrimage to the holy Ganges, but prayed to the Goddess that a source of sacred water could be found nearer to home.
The Goddess responded, and a sacred spring erupted from the mountainside, and no matter how bad a drought may be, the water never runs dry. We climbed several hundred steps to the temple, with monkeys sitting on the side of the steps watching us and darting across our path.
In the temple itself we were taken on a tour to see the tank where devotees bathed in the holy spring which gushes forth from beneath a statue of the Goddess. As we reached the shrine, the Brahmin priests beckoned us forward, and blessed us with sacred fire, and ash on our foreheads. The ash in Hindu culture represents purity.
After the long climb down, we headed back to the bus and to the hotel for lunch. After a great meal and a rest, we took off again for our final temple of the day, just outside of town and in front of a nearby lake.
This temple is dedicated to Lord Murugan, who is the second son of Parvati and Shiva (after Ganesha, the first son). As we walked through the temple amongst the devotees we came to our first temple elephant.
We offered the gentle giant a 10 rupee note each, which he took with his trunk, and then he blessed each of us with what can only be described as an elephant cuddle, wrapping his trunk around our heads. It was a magic moment!
We toured the temple and again we were so lucky to be blessed by the Brahmin priests as we reached the inner sanctum. On our way out, the elephant handler beckoned us over for a group photo, and Carol had the chance to hug an elephant for the first time.
In the stone halls of the temple there was a school for the local Brahmin caste kids who were learning their prayers to become priests. Brahmin priests can marry and still participate fully in community life.
We headed back to the hotel, and spent the evening getting to know each other, and talking about the week ahead, over dinner on the rooftop in the open. Halfway through our meal, fireworks broke out nearby, lighting up the sky in honor of a local marriage. It was the perfect ending to an unbelievable day.
