Madurai Meenakshiamman temple

Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple or Meenakshi Amman Temple' is a historic Hindu temple located in the holy city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is dedicated to Lord Shiva (in the form of Sundareswarar or Beautiful Lord) and his consort, Goddess Parvati (in the form of Meenakshi). The temple forms the heart and lifeline of the two thousand and five hundred year old city of Madurai. This temple has a stunning architecture and a significant testimony for Vishwakarma Brahmins for their master architecture in sculpting this temple.

This was a frontrunner in the election for the modern [seven wonders of the world] for its architectural importance. The Shiva shrine lies at the centre of the complex, suggesting that the ritual dominance of the goddess developed later. The Shiva shrine also consists of an unusual sculpture of the Hindu god [Nataraja]. This famous Hindu marquee and a dancing form of Shiva that normally has his left foot raised, has his right foot raised in this temple.

According to the legend, this is on the request of the Rajasekara Pandya king who asked the Lord to change his position, as he felt that always keeping a single foot raised will pose enormous stress on that, based on his personal experiments in dancing. This massive Nataraja sculpture is enclosed in a huge silver altar and hence called Velli Ambalam (Silver abode). Outside the Shrine, lies huge scultptures carved of single stone and there is a shrine for a giant Ganesh temple, called the Mukuruny Vinayakar. This idol is believed to have been found during an excavation process to dig the temple lake. The Meenkashi shrine is on the left of the [Shiva]shrine and is of scultpturally less valuable than the Shiva shrine.

The most important festival associated with the temple is the Meenakshi Thirukalyanam (The divine marriage of Meenkashi) that is celebrated in April every year. During that one month period, in which most Tamil Nadu temples celebrate their annual festivals, there are a number of events including the Ther Thiruvizhah (Chariot festival) and Theppa Thiruvizhah (Float festival) are celebrated. Apart from this, major Hindu festivals like Navrathri, Shivrathri are celebrated in a grand manner. Like most Shakti temples in Tamil Nadu, the Fridays during the Tamil months of Aadi are popularly celebrated with thousands of devotees thronging to the temple.