A short trip to Madurai "Thoonganagaram", FB, N, A

ജൂൺ 29, 2019

A small part of my dream trips, A short trip to Madhurai.

I like to explore temple architecture, especially from South India.

Madurai (Thoonganagaram) is an ancient city located on the bank of Vaigai River in South India.
The Historic Meenakshi Amman temple is located in this temple city. Meenakshi Amman is a form of Parvathi.

We started our trip at 7am from Bangalore and reached Madurai by 1pm. It was a nonstop 6 hours journey until we reached the famous Amma Mess. We enjoyed Chettinadu Style non-vegetarian dishes there. The quality of the food was good but the quantity was not justifying the price.

Post Lunch we took rest as it was a hot day and the heat was unbearable for a person from Bangalore who is exploring Tamilnadu in Summer. We thought of exploring the temple in the evening. We were aware that it's very difficult to park a vehicle near to the temple. So first we searched for a place to park our vehicle and found a place around a kilometre away from the temple. We took an auto from there to temple.

The temple has four towers and it was overcrowded. There was a long queue. We tried to enter the temple through the west tower entrance as it was less crowded.

We had only Mobile phones and Camera with us. It is advisable to carry minimal items along with you as personal belongings including mobile phones and cameras have to be kept at the baggage counters outside the temple.

The Dravidian Architecture of Meenakshi temple was mindblowing. It was a large complex dominated by Gopurams or Gatehouse Towers. The square-shaped temple called Vimana has one or more storied pyramidal roof while its cell houses the image of God.

It took almost two hours to see the entire temple. After finishing our temple visit we walked towards the famous Murugan Idly shop. The food was tasty and the price was reasonable. We ordered Idly, Podi idly, Panyaram, Dosa, Ghee Roast, Coffee and Jigarthanda.

It was a lovely bright moonlit night and post supper we slowly walk towards our car. We started our trip towards our next destination Rameshwaram.

.......................Suja Anup