|
Ancient
Goddess Temple in South India
By
Robert Scheer
 I
had to stretch my neck to look up at the enormous tower. Nine
stories tall, the gopuram was alive with colorfully painted, sculpted
gods, goddesses and animals, soaring above the entrance to one
of the largest and most unusual Hindu temples in South
India. The Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai attracts
10,000 visitors on a slow day, 25,000 on Fridays, and even more
during a festival. I was there on a Friday evening during the
Navaratri festival, and I felt grateful to have met a local who
agreed to show me around.
We left our shoes and socks at the gatehouse and walked past stalls
selling garlands of fresh flowers-bright orange marigolds and
red and yellow flowers that looked like chrysanthemums. The temple
was busy, but it wasn't as crowded as I feared it might be.
Covering an area greater than fourteen acres, it can comfortably
hold thousands of people.
Mr. Siva told me that the temple was unusual because its primary
deity is not the god Shiva (known locallyas Sundareswarar) but
the goddess Meenakshi (another name for Shakti). It is commonly
called the Meenakshi temple, and the most popular of its three
entrances leads directly to the shrine of the goddess.
We walked past a long row of columns that surrounded the tank,
a large rectangular pool of water where worshippers ceremonially
bathe before entering the holy shrines. In the middle of the water
was a large golden lotus sculpture. “This is the only temple
tank in India that has no fish in it,” Mr. Shiva said. “According
to legend, a heron-like bird once came here to meditate, but the
fish in the tank were interfering with his meditation, so he prayed
to God, and from then on there have been no more fish.”
Mass prayers are also very unusual in Hindu temples, but each
Friday evening in the Meenakshi temple, a group of worshippers
prays for patients in a nearby hospital who are facing major surgery.
The patients' names are written on a white board and read
aloud during the service. The policy was started one year ago
by temple commissioners, because the power of prayer is known
to promote healing.
The city of Madurai is so ancient that its origins are lost in
the mists of time, but a manuscript written in 650 A.D. refers
to the area having been a center of learning for 9,990 years.
According to legend, the temple was built around a lingam (ceremonial
phallus) that was discovered in a forest. The earliest written
reference to a temple in Madurai dates from the 9th century. Whenever
it was first built, Muslim invaders destroyed it in 1310. Construction
of the current temple began in 1560.
The lingam symbolizes the power of creation, Mr. Siva told me.
He said that lingams are designed to be the focal point of power
in a temple – the meeting point of energy from the heavens
coming in from above and energy from the earth coming up from
below.
As we walked through the temple's 1,000 pillar hall, I remembered
what I had been told about another Shiva temple I visited in Kanchipuram
- that it contained 108 lingam stones. Someone else had told me
there are 108 classical Indian dance positions. When I asked Mr.
Siva about the significance of the number, he said that the numbers
108 and 1,008 are commonly found in Hindu temples because the
value of the digits totals nine, and nine is a sacred number.
There are nine holes in the body and nine planets, and the temple's
four main gopurams are nine storeys tall.
I was shown a fenced-off area where there were gleaming silver
shrines devoted to the nine planets. We saw people walking around
them (always in a clockwise direction) and praying. Siva told
me it is particularly auspicious to circumambulate the nine planets
nine times on a Saturday, because Saturn is the most powerful
of the planets.
Near another shrine I noticed anarea where you could buy coconuts.
Remembering having once been in a Hindu temple in Malaysia where
someone was smashing coconuts, I asked Siva what it meant. He
told me that coconuts are sacrificed because they have three eyes,
just like an enlightened human. Before devotees go into this shrine,
they ceremonially leave behind their ego. Breaking the coconut
symbolizes destroying one's Self.
Of course I could not enter, because only Hindus are allowed into
the most sacred shrines, but as I watched people going in I wondered
whether I would ever become enlightened enough to open my third
eye, or strong enough to let go of my ego. Certainly they are
goals worth pursuing.
Robert
Scheer is a freelance travel writer based in Vancouver, Canada. Email:
robert@cedarcottage.com
|
Travel
