India 2007, part 14 (Kanniyakumari, Madurai)
The next morning my friend Sneža and I went to the railway station in Varkala and caught a train to Kanniyakumari there. The main reason why we were going to this place was that this is the most southern point of the Indian sub-continent and Sneža was very keen on going there. Sufficiently good reason to head that way.
During the train ride, we could watch the surrounding vegetation. Everything was intensively green, but at some point the coconut palms that dominated at first gave way to young banana plantations and rice fields.
When we got to our destination and got out of the train, we could not help it and asked a man to take a photo of us. In addition to showing where we were, the photo also shows how we travel, i.e., with what kind of luggage.
As it may be discerned in the photo, we had to walk a little to the building of the railway station, but once there we left our backpacks at the left-luggage office after which we bought the tickets to the city of Madurai where we went later that day. By this time we were already in the federal state Tamil Nadu.
When we finished with all of this, we took an auto rickshaw soon reaching the centre of this town. We followed a street that had numerous stands with different types of goods, so we took the opportunity to buy some spices in order to take them back home, as well as some cashew nuts in order to eat them right away.
Talking about spices, India is, of course, famous for them, perhaps even more so than any other country and I certainly took this great opportunity to buy some spices to take back with me. Some of them were new for me at that moment, some not, but with time I have used different recipes where I applied these spices quite well. This time in the town of Kanniyakumari I did not take any photos of the stands with spices, but I do have a good one from Anjuna, so it is possible to see the wealth of spices on offer.
After this bazaar, we reached a clearing in which there were many benches. I guess the Indians love to come here, sit down and watch this immense water in front of them. Namely, in theory, from this promontory it is possible to see the Arabian Sea on the right-hand side, the Bay of Bengal on the left-hand side, while in front there is the Indian Ocean. Of course, the sea does not know its name, but it was nonetheless interesting to be in this spot.
On the sand beach that exists here, after all like on the other beaches we had already visited before, neither men nor women, especially the women, bathed in any form of swim suits, but in the same wardrobe in which they came to the beach. Only the young men did not bathe fully clothed.
Of course, the two of us also dipped our feet in the water; we felt it was almost our obligation to do so at this joint of the continent and the large bodies of water. Generally speaking, the Hindus consider the confluence of three rivers a holy place and this is the point where all the sins can be washed away and one can get free from the wheel of karma, so perhaps the two of us may have at least diminished a sin or two in the place where three bodies of salty water come together.
Right across the promontory, there are two tiny islets.
On the island to the right, there is the imposing statue of Tiruvalluvar, famous Tamil poet from the 1st century CE, which is 40 metres tall (the pedestal and the statue combined).
Right next to it (to the left of the photo) there is the other islet on which there is Vivekananda Memorial. This is the structure with the red roof and it was on this islet that Swami Vivekananda, the famous philosopher and Hindu monk, meditated in 1892, a year before attending the assembly of the World's Parliament of Religions. It is also believed that Vivekananda has attained enlightenment.
In fact, Kanniyakumari should not be just a place along the way where one stops by coincidence. In addition to these two islets, it is important that the town was named after goddess Devi Kanya Kumari. She, too, is an avatar of goddess Parvati, in the form of a young innocent girl who was to marry god Shiva, but the groom did not come on the day of the wedding. As the legend has it, the rice and other grains that remained uncooked on account of the cancellation of the wedding fell down to earth and these are the pebbles that can be seen on the beach.
As for the memorial, we did not go to the islet to visit Vivekananda Memorial, but we did visit another one that is situated on the promontory itself and that was Mahatma Gandhi Memorial. Namely, after the burning of his body, a part of the ashes in an urn was displayed right here in this place before the ashes were scattered over the ocean (the ashes were previously divided into several parts and displayed across India). By the way, most of the ashes after the cremation of Mahatma Gandhi were scattered precisely in one of those holy confluences of three rivers, which I mentioned above, that is called Triveni Sangam and that is located in the city of Prayagraj.
After this, we walked a little bit more around the bazaar until we reached a restaurant where we wanted to eat.
Later in the afternoon we had a train to Madurai, where we had very good accommodation and that was the first proper hotel in which we stayed. They also had a fine terrace on the top of the hotel and this was where we went for coffee/juice later in the evening, but I felt quite cold because of the wind and I also felt rather sleepy. In fact, this was all just a part of the cold/flu that kept progressing, but apart from taking the standard medicines for this, there was not much more that I could do. There was a lot of sightseeing left to complete.
In the morning, from the top of the hotel I could look a little better at Madurai in daylight. Close to our hotel there was a mosque with a minaret, but more than 85 per cent of the residents are Hindu.
It is precisely one Hindu temple that is the most important and the most impressive venue in Madurai. This is a temple complex called Meenakshi Temple or Meenakshi Sundareshvara Temple. As the name suggests (!), it is primarily dedicated to goddess Meenakshi who was (as if she could be anything else) yet another avatar of goddess Parvati and her name roughly means “Fish-eyed goddess.” Sundareshvara, meaning “Handsome god,” is an avatar of god Shiva. Since nothing is simple and one-way in Hinduism, the temple, which is actually dedicated to Shiva as well, also contains shrines dedicated to Vishnu (who is, by the way, a brother of Meenakshi) and numerous other deities are also celebrated here.
Madurai is one of the oldest cities in India and this temple is certainly one of the most magnificent in the whole country.
So, Meenakshi Temple is in fact a complex of temples and shrines. It was originally built in the period from the 7th to the 10th century CE, but the main modifications and additions were done between the 14th and the 18th centuries. What is characteristic of this place is that it is all incredibly colourful.
The temple complex is surrounded by a high wall on which, on the four points of compass, there are four huge gopurams (towers above the entrances) that are very tall – the tallest one is the one in the south, it is over 52 metres tall. In addition to them, there are ten more gopurams within the complex. These ones are somewhat lower and they rise above the gates that lead into different shrines.
Regardless of the different heights, all of these gopurams are remarkably colourful and they have an incredible abundance of different figures – depictions of gods, goddesses, saints, heroes, gurus, mythical animals, monsters and demons. For instance, somewhere I came across a piece of data saying that on the west tower there are 1511 figures.
Every 12 years these gopurams are alternately restored, repaired, painted and consecrated again.
When you enter the temple, the impressions and the colourfulness do not diminish in the least.
But, in order to properly visit the temple complex, it is important to bear in mind that it is enormous – it covers the area of almost six hectares and one should count on a few leisurely hours. There are sections that are very crowded, but there are also quieter parts. On the other hand, as I’ve mentioned, within the temple complex there is a large number of shrines; around some there were a lot of people, while around some others we did not see anybody.
Although the temple complex may be entered without any problems, provided you take off your shoes and respect the basic rules of decent dress code (long pants or skirts and covered shoulders), in the case of some shrines there were information boards that clearly stated that these holy places may be visited by Hindus only. And that is all right. Sneža and I were quite content with what we could see around us.
Already at the very entrance into Meenakshi Temple, we came across throngs of people. I don’t know if this had anything to do with the fact that it was Sunday, but it was also the day of some festival (or at least that was what we were told). So, the crowds were intensive and so were the impressions. We walked around taking photos. As for the photo-taking, even in a temple, the Indians exhibited their huge love towards being photographed. As soon as they saw me holding my camera, they clearly showed their readiness to be in my photos.
By the way, different offerings intended for gods, and some may be seen in my photos, may be bought both outside the temple and in the temple itself.
At Meenakshi Temple there is nothing that was made in one single colour.
Before the end of our visit we also made a circle around temple tank Potramalai Kulam or the Golden Lotus.
As we were getting ready to leave the temple, overwhelmed by impressions I couldn’t help myself and made a few more photos of the stunning gopurams.
By the way, on the lateral sides of the tops of the gopurams there are monsters with bulging eyes, horns and fangs, and they serve as deities in charge of the protection of the temple.
After the visit to the temple, we headed for a stroll around its surroundings since there are lots of markets and shops there. Admittedly I was not particularly interested in that, but Sneža likes shopping and I kept her company. What I found fascinating was that even a part of the bazaar in Madurai was located within a building that had opulently decorated pillars – it seemed as if this had been a temple once, although now it was all filled with small shops.
Along the way, at some point, in front of an entrance door I saw a very interesting home amulet (I presume that’s what it was).
After an hour of walking along dusty, more or less noisy streets and lanes of Madurai, we decided to return to the hotel in order to check out and have lunch, after which we went to the coach station where we caught an “express” coach to Thanjavur.
We settled together with our backpacks at the very back of the coach, for this was the only place where we could fit together with our luggage. These places also meant that during the entire journey (and it lasted over three hours) we were sitting by a large opening in the back door, since there was no window in terms of a glass partition (but admittedly there was the lower, metal part of the door). By this point we were quite well used to the Indian trains and felt rather comfortable and relaxed in them, but the coaches could still surprise us.
The interior of the coach did seem quite scrappy to us at this point, but now when I look at the photo I think the transportation was perfectly all right (apart from not having enough space).
On the other hand, it was important that this was the fastest transportation we could find to Thanjavur. After all, it was written nicely for all to see – express.