The Largest temple in India, is that of a Goddess!

[Vehl]

I thought ill share this piece of information I came across recently.
Apparently the largest temple In India is that of the Goddess Meenakshi.


Even though i'm an Atheist Hindu, I find the goddesses to be interesting, and important in a world where male-centric gods try to marginalize any remnant of Goddess worship.


The name Meenakshi means the"fish eyed goddess" ( historical note: fish eyed is a term used in southern India to portray wide, beautiful eyes. apparently wide eyes are a sign of beauty)


This temple has been around in one form or another at least for the past 2500 years, and the goddess is revered as the patron goddess/deity of the city of Madhurai. Greek and Roman traders spoke of this temple of the goddess of Madurai when they came to India to trade. And they would have felt at home, because Meenakshi is to the city of Madhurai and the people as a whole what Athena was to the City of Athens.

Sadly Athena is no more... while Meenakshi is still revered to this day. This is what Micheal Wood says in the BBC/PBS documentary, the "Story of India" about the Meenakshi temple.

"Just imagine if classical Athens was alive today, and the goddess of the city still presiding over her citizens Thats Madurai Meenakshi temple"


anyways...enough of my typing :P time for some pics

_____________________________________________________-

Meenakshi, the fish eyed green goddess and her temple, with Gopurams(towers) as high as 170 feet





An awesome virtual/interactive 360 tour of the temple online
http://www.view360.in/virtualtour/madurai/

^^couldn't recommend this more. Ive been to the temple a couple of times...and this virtual tour comes almost as close to it!





the amazing details carved into each of these granite towers

[Cleita]

1. According to historians humans worshipped goddesses

as their main deities in ancient times and they were more important than the male gods. Even the Hebrew God, which we inherited in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) once had a wife named Ashtoreth. I believe the deification of the Virgin Mary in Catholicism is a throwback to that time.

It would seem that a female deity would be more proper as a creator, since it is the females who actually create life in our universe. I find the Hindu goddesses fascinating as well.

[Vehl]

3. i totally agree

"
It would seem that a female deity would be more proper as a creator, since it is the females who actually create life in our universe. "

^^ could not have said it better :)

and yes....the earlier evidence of divinity amongst ancient humans seems to be that of a female goddess.This has been the case throughout the world.

The same in Hinduism..where there are many goddesses(metaphors all) and even the male gods(metaphors as well) have equal female counterparts...or even better..half male/half female forms

[niyad]

7. don't forget that the last temple dedicated to the goddess was destroyed somewhere around the 5th

century c. e (common era, otherwise known as a.d.) and Ashtoreth was a goddess long before She had a consort (who later supplanted Her).

[heavyweaponsguy]

16. Of course, men had nothing to do with it

Nothing at all :eyes:

[Bad Thoughts]

18. Female gods and male gods were rather equal

Among stone age humans, Earth goddesses tended to share the affections of communities with bull gods. The theory is that the two represented different aspects of nature that early humans were trying to comprehend. On the one side, the nurturing aspects of the world. On the other, the terrifying violence and uncertainty of nature.

[tomg]

2. Remarkable.

Thank you so much for linking to the tour.

[Vehl]

4. thank you, i too loved the virtual tour

and the best part is one need not have to wade through the thronging devotees on a virtual tour....like they might have to if they decided on visiting the temple on a festival day, as i did.lol

[d_r]

5. that is very cool

[housewolf]

6. Thanks for the tour!

I had never heard of this temple before, thanks so much for introducing me to it. It's gorgeous! I loved the video tour of it.

[Vehl]

11. you are welcome :)

There are many such treasures which are hardly known outside the Indian community and/or those who visit there. But the good news is at long last discovery channel/natgeo are doing some documentaries on places like these

:)

[niyad]

8. k and r--thank you for the link to the interactive tour--much cheaper and easier than a trip to

india.

[Vehl]

12. yep :)

I liked how it was nicely done. I used to think the UNESCO world heritage virtual tours were good, but this is way better in presentation...and more importantly...load time

if interested, check the other similar virtual tours out, of some famous temples/places of interest

http://www.view360.in/virtualtour/

[Wilber_Stool]

9. It's carved out of granite? The whole thing?.......n/t

[Vehl]

13. Yes, they even make music out of stone

Stone, and especially granite was the preferred medium of Temple construction in southern India, Especially in the state of Tamil Nadu as granite provided a building materiel that is long lasting.

The towers of the Meenakshi temple were built using huge granite blocks and pillars. and the statues that adorn them were carved out of individual granite blocks and fitted onto the superstructure.

Each statue is carved from a single stone (as it was a matter of pride amongst the sculptures to not use multiple stones). The stone pillars one sees inside the temples were also carved out of individual granite blocks.

it is a really hard stone to work(especially when those days diamond tipped tools were not available)...but once done...its virtually impervious to the elements.Also the high rigidity of the atone allowed finer details to be carved.




some temples were literally built by carving/hollowing out huge granite boulders.

like the ones in Mahabalipuram

http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/south-asia/india/mahabalipuram/five-rathas-nandi/sphere-flash.html


The Art of stone carving/construction was so fine tuned that some temples had/have huge granite pillars called the musical pillars.
Each mini column in that pillar was tuned to emit a note when struck by the hand. Some mimicked the tones of musical instruments. Thus an entire musical ensemble could be simulated by people tapping on those pillars.

In some ancient Hindu temples built in India between the 7th century and the 16th century can be found a fascinating architectural
element: intricately designed musical pillars of solid granite. These pillars, clusters of which were often carved from a single piece of
stone, were tuned by means of their length, width, and tension
induced by a load from above and were played to accompany devotional
readings and dance performances. Various tunings and sound characteristics were employed based on the intended purpose. In this
paper, examples of extant pillars will be presented and discussed within the context of their acoustical and architectural significance.

http://asa.aip.org/paris/thursdaypm.pdf

one of the musical pillars from the Meenakshi temple

[xchrom]

10. Recommend

[Manifestor_of_Light]

14. There is also a Meenakshi temple South of Houston.

in Pearland.

www.meenakshi.org

[Vehl]

15. thanks for the link :)

Ive never heard of this before. but i did hear that there are quite a few temples in Tx nowadays

[Manifestor_of_Light]

17. There's one of the BAPS Foundation in Stafford. Shaivites.

SW side of Houston, near I-59.

Also there is a small one off Wirt Road and Hammerly Boulevard in West Houston, Hindu Worship Society.

That is three I know of in the Houston Metro area.

[Vehl]

19. Thanks for the info, im from a Shaivite background myself :) .nt

[johnroshan]

20. Whoa!

Thats my hometown!! The place where I spent 20 years of my life!

I didn't know it was the largest temple. Granted, I'd been only twice to the place.


John.