…Onward to Madurai

After a hearty breakfast at “Pappu’s” – steaming idlis and vadas, and a shared cuppa coffee. The coffee we had so far in Tamil Nadu on this trip has been sadly disappointing. There are two very important gastrnomical aspects of being a South Indian – the hot cup of filter coffee (it is actually coffee in a steel tumbler) in the morning and the finish of lunch/dinner with “mosroo anna (kannada)/tahir sadam (tamil)” or curd rice accompanied by lemon prickle or fried chilllies fermented in curd and salt.

 

I think nowadays if you want to have a good cuppa Kapi (coffee as is universally pronounced in the South) you either have to come home or visit my friend Siva (Sivaramakrishnan) in Chembur whose wife Devika makes the the “kapi” that our revered ancestors would be proud of. It is no coincidence that both of us buy our coffee powder from Mysore Concerns in Matunga, Mumbai, and only 250 gms at a time as the coffee looses its aroma during long storage.

In India, only South Indians, and that too primarily from erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore and Tamil Nadu, who can prepare the coffee that intoxicates your senses with the aroma, color and taste. The perfect morning cuppa is best described by RK Narayan in the beginning chapter of his book “The Dateless Diary.”

However, I digress and getting – Back to the trip, the 242 kms, from Kanyakumari to Madurai, was a dream. TN highways both national and state, are a road travellers dream, and having motored through all the western states up to Rajasthan and all the southern states, I can personally vouch for the TN roads (except panchayat and muncipal roads) as the best that I have experienced in India.

We were back to an Airbnb booking at Madurai, our hostess Ms Renukadevi, had to guide us to her place as google aunty got confused after taking us quite close to the location.

The dry heat was draining away our energy and we slept off the afternoon.

Our hostess, was full of information about the various places to see both the well known as well as the not so well known.

Madurai – the city

Madurai is one of the major cities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the third largest city in Tamil Nadu and 25th most populated city in India. It is located on the banks of river Vaigai and has been a major settlement for two millennia.

Madurai is closely associated with Tamil literature and the third Tamil Sangam, a major congregation of Tamil scholars was held in the city. The city’s history goes back to the 3rd century BCE, being mentioned by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the Maurya Empire and Kautilya (Chanakya) the guide and mentor to the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya. Signs of human settlements and Roman trade links dating back to 300BC are evident from excavations by the ASI (Archeological Survey of India) in Manalur. The city is of significant antiquity and has been ruled, at different times, by the Pandyas, Cholas, Madurai Sultanate, Vijayanagar Empire, Madurai Nayaks and the British.

The city has a number of historical monuments, with the Meenakshi Amman Temple and Tirumalai Nayak Palace amongst the most prominent. Madurai is also an important industrial and educational hub in South Tamil Nadu.

The evening we went for a drive, our hostess advised us to visit a temple on the outskirts, the Pazhamudircholai Murugan Temple located about 25 kilometres north of Madurai atop a hill covered with dense forests. Pazhamudircholai is a fertile hill, blessed with nature’s bounty in the form of innumerable fruits, vegetables and natural springs. It is a dense forest where his consort Valli is supposed to have lived. The temple itself is relatively small with Valli, his (Muruga’s) wife Deivayanai, and Lord Muruga in a separate shrine. Lord Ganesha is also present in a separate shrine. There is a Temple Tower and monkeys play around the area. There is another small temple above Pazhamudhir Cholai around which the local tribes live. One of the six important abodes of Lord Muruga, it is close to the Vishnu temple of Alzaghar Kovil. It is said that the Azhagar Kovil was the actual temple for the main deity of the temple, and the deity was later shifted or relocated to Pazhamudircholai during Thirumala Nayak’s rule in Madurai.

The Legend of the Temple:

The great Tamil poet and saint Avvaiyar was tested by Muruga here. In an episode of Divine Play with Avvaiyar, one of the most famous devotees of Muruga, the Lord enacted the following drama. One day Avvaiyar became tired while traveling under the hot sun and sought refuge under the shadow of a fruit tree, hungry and thirsty, when a boy who sitting on the tree asked her whether she wanted fruits from the tree. When Avvaiyar told him that she did, the boy asked Avvaiyar whether she wanted roasted fruits or unroasted fruits. Avvaiyar who was a famous Tamil poet and incredibly knowledgeable litterateur scoffed silently at the very thought of the existence of a “roasted fruit” and decided that the boy didn’t have knowledge even about a fruit. However, tired as she was, she decided that she didn’t want to argue with the boy and asked him to pick unroasted fruits for her, which the boy then proceeded to do. Several fruits fell out of the tree and Avvaiyar picked them up, blowing on them to remove the sand. Smiling, the boy asked Avvaiyar if she was blowing on his “roasted fruits” to cool them down.

Avvaiyar was astonished as to how a small village cowherd could have played such an intelligent drama. Blowing on the fruit to remove the sand was indeed poetically comparable to an attempt to cool “roasted fruits”. Humbled by the immense poetic knowledge and clever wordplay of the boy, Avvaiyar begged the boy to reveal his true identity, unable to reconcile herself with the fact that a simple cowherd could have such profound thoughts. The boy then disappeared and in his place, Muruga appeared. Avvaiyar, stunned to find herself in Divine Company, bowed in obeisance and realising the infinite nature of knowledge, prayed to Muruga to bless her and continue bestowing his Infinite Grace on her to aid her virtually endless quest for knowledge.

Avvaiyar:

The Avvaiyars (Tamil ; ‘Respectable Women’) was the title of more than one poet who was active during different periods of Tamil Literature. The Avvaiyar were some of the most famous and important female poets of the Tamil canon. Abithana Chintamani (Abithana Chintamani is an encyclopedia on Tamil literature written by A Singaravelu Mudaliar CE 1855 – 1931) states that there were three female poets titled Avvaiyar.

Among them, the first Avvaiyar lived during the Sangam period (c. 1st and 2nd century CE) and is said to have had cordial relations with the Tamil chieftains Vel Pari and Athiyaman. She wrote 59 poems in the Purananru.

Avvaiyar II lived during the period of Kambar and Othakoothar during the reign of the Chola dynasty in the tenth century. She is often imagined as an old and intelligent lady by Tamil people. She wrote many of the poems that remain very popular even today, and are inculcated in school textbooks in Tamil Nadu. These books include a list of dos and don’ts, useful for daily life, arranged in simple and short sentences.

I am unable to trace the details of the third Avvaiyar.

Unfortunately the temple was closed by the time we reached as it was past 1900 hrs. However we did make it the next day.

 

Day 2

We left early to visit the Pazhamudircholai Murugan Temple, the temple is not very imposing compared to the earlier temples visited in Rameswaram, Kumbakonam or Thanjavur, but the location is very beautiful and the drive is very pleasant. Unfortunately as with all temples, we were unable to photograph the beautiful temple interior.

Our next visit was to a lesser known temple devoted to Narasimha, the half lion half human avatar of Lord Vishnu.

Narasingam Yoga Narasimha Perumal Temple

Narasingam is a village located 8 km from Madurai on the road to Melur. It is named for the nearby cave temple dedicated to Yoga Narasimha Perumal, at the foot of the Yanaimalai Hills. This temple was constructed in 770 A.D. by Madurakavi alias Marankaari who was the minister of the Madurai King Parantaka Nedunjadaiyan. The sculpture of Narasinga Perumal is carved out of the hill itself. The temple is a fine example of the cave sculpturing of the artisans of the Pandyan Kingdom. In front of this there is a stone temple for the goddess Narasingavalli.

The Legends:

According to the Sthala Purana (Sthala – Place/Location, Purana – History) for the Madurai Koodal Azhagar Temple, sage Romasa had installed the Narasimha idol in a cave in the hill. And the 87th chapter of the Uttara Kanda (ancient Hindu text) of the Brahmanda Purana (Brahmanda – Universe) says the sage did penance on the banks of the Padma Thadagam, as it was filled with lotus flowers, near the Gajagiri Kshetram(the present Anaimalai) seeking progeny, and wanted the Lord to appear in His Narasimha Avatar. The Lord appeared as Ugra Narasimha (Ugra – Fiery Anger) and the heat that emanated from Him was unbearable. Even the celestials were affected by it and they all came to Gajagiri Kshetram and prayed to the Lord to calm down. The Lord could not be pacified and then they sought the help of Prahlada (a very great devotee and son of an Asura King Hiranyakashpu), whose arrival quietened Him to some extent. They prayed to the Goddess Mahalakshmi, who also took Her abode in Him as Narasingavalli, after which He became Yoga Narasimha. The Lord later granted the boon sought by the sage.

According to another legend, Lord Shiva was afflicted by Brahma Hathya Dosham (a curse that descends upon a Hindu if he murders a Vedic Brahman) after He decapitated one of the five heads of Lord Brahma (another interesting story but later). He was relieved of it after He took a bath in the holy water source there, also known as Chakra Theertham, and He worshipped Lord Narasimha. It is believed that taking a dip in the Chakra Theertham, which is near the temple, rids one of all sins.

If you have been following my blog, you will notice something very interesting, in Rameswaram, Lord Rama an avatar of Lord Vishnu, prays to Lord Shiva for releiving him of the curse of Brahma Hathya for killing the Brahmin King Ravana and here in Madurai Lord Shiva invokes Lord Narasimha, an avatar of Lord Vishnu to purify himself. Hindu scriptures are full of such events to show us that even the most powerful beings are subject to the rules that they impose on us and have to obey natural laws.

Later we visited the Meenakshi Amman temple, this is an unbelievably beautiful temple, not as large as the Ramnathaswamy Temple at Rameswaram, but exquisitely beautiful.

Meenakshi Amman Temple

Meenakshi Temple, also referred to as Meenakshi Amman or Minakshi-Sundareshwara Temple, is a historic Hindu temple located on the southern bank of the river Vaigai in the heart of the temple city of Madurai. It is dedicated to Meenakshi a form of Parvati and her consort, Sundareshwar, a form of  Shiva.The temple is at the center of the ancient temple city of Madurai mentioned in the Tamil Sangam literature, with the goddess temple mentioned in 6th century CE texts.

Though the temple has historic roots, most of the present campus structure was rebuilt after the 14th century CE, further repaired, renovated and expanded in the 17th century by Thirumalai Nayak. In the early 14th century, the armies of the Delhi Sultanate led by Muslim Commander Malik Kafur plundered the temple, looted it of its valuables and destroyed the Madurai temple town along with many other temple towns of South India. The contemporary temple is the result of rebuilding efforts started by the Vijayanagara Empire rulers who rebuilt the core and reopened the temple. In the 16th century, the temple complex was further expanded and fortified by the Nayak ruler Vishwanatha Nayakar and later others. The restored complex now houses 14 gopurams (gateway towers), ranging from 45–50m in height, with the southern gopura tallest at 51.9 metres (170 ft).

The complex has numerous sculpted pillared halls such as Ayirakkal (1,000 pillar hall), Kilikoondu-mandapam, Golu-mandapam and Pudu-mandapam. Its shrines are dedicated to Hindu deities and Shaivism scholars, with the vimanas (flying vehicles) above the garbhagrihas (sanctums) of Meenakshi and Sundaresvara gilded with gold.

The Meenakshi temple inner sanctum imposing and beautiful as it was, the smaller Sundareshwar (Shiva) temple is also worth seeing, especially for the very well preserved and exquisitely carved pillars in the outer courtyard.

An interesting feature, Akshay wore shorts and was not permitted into the temple until he bought and wore a dhoti. No sexual discrimination here, it is not only women who have to cover their knees.

Another interesting fact that our hostess divulged to us, that due to the primacy of the Mother Goddess, women in this region are very influential.

Our stay in Madurai was cut short as we had to flee (?) in the dead of night.

A very interesting drama that I will recount in my next blog…….