मीनाक्षी सुन्दरेश्वर मन्दिर

( Meenakshi Temple )

Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple a.k.a Arulmigu Meenakshi Amman Thirukkovil is a historic Hindu temple located on the southern bank of the Vaigai River in the temple city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is dedicated to the goddess Meenakshi, a form of Shakti, and her consort, Sundareshwarar, a form of Shiva. The temple is at the centre of the ancient temple city of Madurai mentioned in the Tamil Sangam literature, with the goddess temple mentioned in 6th-century CE texts. This temple is one of the Paadal Petra Sthalams, which are 275 temples of Shiva that are revered in the verses of Tamil Saiva Nayanars of the 6th-9th century CE.

The west tower (gopuram) of the temple is the model based on which the Tamil Nadu State Emblem is designed.

 Temple wall painting depicting its founding legend

The town of Madurai is ancient and one mentioned in Sangam era texts.[1] These are dated to be from the 1st to 4th century CE.[2] Some early Tamil texts call Madurai as Koodal, and these portray it as a capital and a temple town where every street radiated from the temple. Goddess Meenakshi is described as the divine ruler, who along with Shiva were the primary deities that the southern Tamil kingdoms such as the Pandya dynasty revered.[1] The early texts imply that a temple existed in Madurai by the mid-6th century.[3] In medieval literature and inscriptions, it is sometimes referred to as Kadambavanam (lit. "forest of Kadamba") or Velliambalam (lit. "silver hall" where Shiva danced). It was described to be the Sangam of scholars, or a place where scholars meet. It is mentioned in the Tamil text Tiruvilayadalpuranam and the Sanskrit text Halasya Mahatmya.[4] It is one of the shrines of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams.

Early Tamil texts mention the temple and its primary deity by various epithets and names. Thirugnanasambandar, the famous Hindu saint of Saiva philosophy for example, mentioned this temple in the 7th century, and described the deity as Aalavaai Iraivan.[5] The origin of the temple is mentioned in these early Tamil texts, some in the regional Puranam genre of literature. All of these place the temple in ancient times and include a warrior goddess, but the details vary significantly and are inconsistent with each other. Some link to it deities they call Aalavaai Iraivan and Aalavaai Annal, or alternatively Angayar Kanni Ammai. Some link its legend to other deities such as Indra who proclaim the primacy of the goddess, while some describe Hindu gods appearing before ancient kings or saints urging wealthy merchants to build this temple in the honour of a goddess. One legend describes a childless king and queen performing yajna for a son, they get a daughter who inherits the kingdom, conquers the earth, meets Shiva ultimately, marries him, continues to rule from Madurai, and the temple memorializes those times. Scholars have attempted to determine the history of the temple from inscriptions found in and outside Madurai, as well as comparing the records relating to South Indian dynasties. These largely post-date the 12th century.[6][7]

Invasions and Destruction

In the north of India, the Indian subcontinent was conquered by the Delhi Sultanate. Muslim armies began raiding central India for plunder by the late 13th century. After subduing and extracting huge wealth along with promised annual tributes from the Marathas Yadavas of Devagiri in 1308, the Telugu Kakatiyas of Warangal in 1310 and the Kannada Hoysalas of Dwarasamudra in 1311, Sultan Ala ud Din Khalji's infamous eunuch Muslim general, Malik Kafur, and his Delhi Sultanate forces in 1311 went deeper into the Deccan peninsula for loot and to establish annual tributes to be paid by the Hindu kings.[8][9][10] The records left by the court historians of the Delhi Sultanate state that Malik Kafur raided Madurai, Chidambaram, Srirangam, Vriddhachalam, Rameswaram and other sacred temple towns, destroyed the temples which were sources of gold and jewels. He brought back enormous loot from Dwarasamudra and the Pandya kingdom to Delhi in 1311.[11][12][13]

The Islamic invasion in the 14th century brought an abrupt end to the patronage of Tamil Hindu temple towns.[14] The Tamil Hindus revived these towns but in some places such as Madurai, it took a long while.[9] After the conquest and destruction, the Delhi Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq appointed a Muslim governor in Madurai named Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan, who seceded in 1335 from the Delhi Sultanate and began the Madurai Sultanate. The Sultanate sought tributes from the temple towns, instead of supporting them, and on some occasions damaged them heavily and imposed tyranny upon the local populace. The Muslim Madurai Sultanate was relatively short-lived, with the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire under Bukka Raya removing it in 1378 CE.[14] According to one poetic legend called Madhura Vijayam attributed to Gangadevi, the wife of the commander Kumara Kampana, she gave him a sword, urged him to liberate Madurai, right the wrongs, and reopen the Meenakshi temple out of its ruins. The Vijayanagara rulers succeeded, cleared the ruins and reopened the temple for active worship.[15] They restored, repaired and expanded the temple through the 16th century, along with many other regional temples.[16]

Rebuilding
 
Meenakshi in the sanctum (1801 sketch).
 
Sculptures in the 1000-pillar mandapa (choultry), around 1895.

The temple was rebuilt by the Hindu Nayaka dynasty ruler Vishwanatha Nayak in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Nayaka rulers followed the Hindu texts on architecture called the Shilpa Shastras in redesigning the temple city plan and the Meenakshi temple. The city was laid out in the shape of concentric squares and ring roads around them, with radiating streets culminating in the Meenakshi-Sundaresvara temple.[17] These streets use traditional Tamil Hindu month names, such as Adhi, Chitrai, Avani-moola, Masi and others. In each of these months, the Hindus started their tradition of taking the temple bronzes festively through the street of the same name.[17] The temple and the city were once again east facing to greet the rising Surya (sun god).[17][note 1] The temple city grew again around the new temple, with human settlements structured as per their castes, with the royalty, Kshatriyas and Vaishya merchants living on the southeast side of the temple, the Brahmins in a special quarter close to the temple, while others in other areas and fringes of the city.[18] The king started a procession tradition linked to the temple to link his authority with the divine and maintain the social system.[18] In contrast, the procession reflects the traditional matrilineal social values, the brother-sister-groom kinship values that better explain its popularity. The warrior goddess worship tradition is ancient in the Tamil Hindu tradition, and it dramatically expanded after the 14th-century wars.[19]

The work completed by Vishwanatha Nayaka in 1560 was substantially expanded to the current structure during the reign of Tirumala Nayaka (1623–55). Tirumala Nayaka, a Hindu king, took considerable interest in erecting many complexes inside the temple. His major contributions are the Vasantha Mandapam for celebrating Vasanthotsavam (spring festival) and Kilikoondu Mandapam (corridor of parrots). The corridors of the temple tank and Meenatchi Nayakar Mandapam were built by Rani Mangammal. The initiative for some changes to the structure was under the supervision of Ariyanatha Mudaliar, the prime minister of the Nayaka Dynasty.[20]

During the colonial era, the population around the Meenakshi temple attracted a hub of Christian missionary activity headed by competing missions from Portugal and other parts of Europe.[21] The British rulers first gave endowments to the temple and the British troops participated in temple festivities to gain socio-political acceptance. Lord Clive, for example, donated jewels looted by the East India Company from Sringapatam, but in 1820 they withdrew from their roles as temple patrons and participated in temple festivities.[18][22] The missionaries ridiculed the temple artwork and criticized the temple practices while introducing themselves as "Roman Brahmins" and "Northern Sanniasis" [sic]. The missionary efforts were largely unsuccessful with people continuing to patronize the temple after baptizing. The missionaries wrote back that the Tamils were "baptizing, but not converting", for they baptize if "someone wants a wife who is Christian" or medical aid when they have a disease, and material aid if they are poor.[23][24]

After the end of the Nayakas, the start of the Madras presidency and the withdrawal of the colonial British from support, the temple condition degraded. In 1959, Tamil Hindus began collecting donations and initiated restoration work in consultation with engineers, Hindu monasteries, historians and other scholars. The completed restoration was celebrated with a Kumbhabhishekam in 1995.[25] The temple is sometimes spelt as Minaksi and the city as Madura in 17th to early 20th-century texts.[4]

The temple has its traditional version of history that it calls Shiva-lilas (sports of Shiva), and sixty four of these episodes are painted as murals around the temple walls. These depict the many destructions of Madurai and the temple, then its rise from the ashes and ruins of the destruction every time.[26]

Temple entry agitations of Nadars

In November 1895, the Nadars of kamuthi petitioned to the Meenakshi Sundaraswara temple, which was under Ramnad M. Baskara Sethupathi's trusteeship of the Raj, for permission to hold a ritual feast. Their petition was accepted, but it should be performed without the entry of Nadars into the temple. An anti-Nadar coalition was created by Vellasami Thevar, the inherited ruler of a vast land under the Raja of Ramnad and the grandfather of the late Muthuramalinga Thevar. He prohibited the Nadars from asserting their freedom. He ordered the allegiance of the society of Maravar and insisted on a distinction between all classes.[27][28][29]

A group of 15 Nadars belonging to the family of Erulappa Nadar entered the temple in Kamudi in May 1897, performing puja to the chief deity themselves. The Maravars and the Ramnad Zamindar M. Baskara Sethupathi objected to it and lodged a complaint against fifteen members of the family of Erulappa Nadar arguing that they had polluted the temple and requested the payment of 2500 for purification rituals. The court decided on 20 July 1899 that neither the accused nor any member of their community had the right to enter any part of the temple. For the required ritual purification ceremonies at the temple, the defendants were ordered to pay the amount of five hundred rupees.[28][29]

The Nadars appealed to the High Court of Judicature in Madras, unhappy with the judgment of the subordinate judge of Madurai, with funds of 42,000 raised from members of the community. The judgment went against the Nadars, then they took their appeal to the London Privy Council. The Privy Council approved the decision of the Subordinate Judge of Madurai, citing the High Court's decision of 1908. The District Magistrate of Madurai suggested that the stay of the public force be extended to another term on the ground that the Privy Council 's decision on the Kamudi Temple Entry case could again cause trouble.[28][29]

Post-1923

The temple is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu.[30]

^ a b Cite error: The named reference Ramaswamy2017p9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ Sangam Literature Archived 28 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopedia Britannica ^ Cite error: The named reference Geographic2008p155 was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ a b P. V. Jagadisa Ayyar (1982). South Indian Shrines: Illustrated. Asian Educational Services. pp. 477–479. ISBN 978-81-206-0151-2. ^ Cotterell 2011, p. 190. ^ Cite error: The named reference fuller94 was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ D. Uma 2015, pp. 19–32. ^ Michell 1995, pp. 9-10, Quote: "The era under consideration opens with an unprecedented calamity for Southern India: the invasion of the region at the turn of the fourteenth century by Malik Kafur, general of Alauddin, Sultan of Delhi. Malik Kafur's forces brought to an abrupt end all of the indigenous ruling houses of Southern India, not one of which was able to withstand the assault or outlive the conquest. Virtually every city of importance in the Kannada, Telugu and Tamil lands succumbed to the raids of Malik Kafur and later Muslim invasions; forts were destroyed, palaces dismantled and temple sanctuaries wrecked in the search for treasure. In order to consolidate the rapidly won gains of this pillage, the Delhi Sultanate established the province of Ma'bar in 1323 with the capital at Madurai (Madura) in the southernmost part of the Tamil zone, former capital of the Pandyas who were dislodged by the Delhi forces. Madurai thereupon became the capital of the Ma'bar (Malabar) province of the Delhi empire." ^ a b J. Gordon Melton (2014). Faiths Across Time: 5,000 Years of Religious History [4 Volumes]: 5,000 Years of Religious History. ABC-CLIO. p. 884. ISBN 978-1-61069-026-3. ^ Susan Bayly (1989). Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700-1900. Cambridge University Press. pp. 109–110. ISBN 978-0-521-89103-5. ^ Carl W. Ernst (2004). Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi Center. Oxford University Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-19-566869-8. ^ Sarojini Chaturvedi (2006). A short history of South India. Saṁskṛiti. p. 209. ISBN 978-81-87374-37-4. ^ Abraham Eraly (2015). The Age of Wrath: A History of the Delhi Sultanate. Penguin Books. pp. 155–156. ISBN 978-93-5118-658-8. ^ a b George Michell (1993). Temple Towns of Tamil Nadu. Marg Publications. pp. 4–8, 95–96. ISBN 978-81-85026-21-3. ^ William J. Jackson (2016). Vijayanagara Voices: Exploring South Indian History and Hindu Literature. Routledge. pp. 62–66. ISBN 978-1-317-00193-5. ^ Michell 1995, pp. 14, 78-81, 158 ^ a b c King 2005, pp. 72–73. ^ a b c d King 2005, pp. 72–75. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bayly1989p29 was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ V. 1995, p. 115. ^ Županov, Ines G. (1993). "Aristocratic Analogies and Demotic Descriptions in the Seventeenth-Century Madurai Mission". Representations. 41 (41): 123–148. doi:10.2307/2928680. JSTOR 2928680. ^ Lewandowski, Susan J. (1977). "Changing Form and Function in the Ceremonial and the Colonial Port City in India: An Historical Analysis of Madurai and Madras". Modern Asian Studies. 11 (2): 183–212. doi:10.1017/s0026749x00015080. ISSN 0026-749X. S2CID 145422778. ^ Sabina Pavone (2014). Robert Maryks and Jonathan Wright (ed.). Jesuit Survival and Restoration: A Global History, 1773-1900. BRILL Academic. pp. 338–352 wth footnotes 25. ISBN 978-90-04-28387-9. ^ Susan Bayly (1989). Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700-1900. Cambridge University Press. pp. 391–394. ISBN 978-0-521-89103-5. ^ D. Uma 2015, pp. 48–53. ^ Milton Singer (1991). Semiotics of Cities, Selves, and Cultures: Explorations in Semiotic Anthropology. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 94–95. ISBN 978-3-11-085775-7. ^ Thenmozhi, Kuru (1969). Nadar Chamuga Varalaru (T). Madurai. p. 2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) ^ a b c Hardgrave, Robert L. (2006). The Nadars of Tamilnad: The Political Culture of a Community in Change. Ajay Kumar Jain for Manohar Publishers & Distributours. pp. 99–155. ISBN 978-81-7304-701-5. ^ a b c Karthikeyan, D. (9 July 2013). "Reliving the historic temple entry". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020. ^ "Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959". Archived from the original on 6 December 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2021.


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