Hyderabad to Madurai Flight
On 17th April 2026, our Indigo flight departed from Hyderabad airport at 3.00 p.m and landed at Madurai airport at 4.30 p.m. The one-and-a-half flight journey was enjoyable with beautiful aerial view of Western Ghats (Meghamalai Range) and landscapes.
In 2018, we visited Meenakshi Amman Temple during Dasara this was our 2nd visit to Madurai. We reached Hotel Gopuram Grand which diagonally opposite to the temple's West Tower. It's a good hotel with neat ambiance and friendly staff. We got a comfortable room with 3 beds.
Restaurant is in the ground floor where we had snacks and filter coffee. We then refreshed ourselves and walked to the temple for evening darshan.
Things to Know Before Visiting the Temple
Special entrance tickets are available online. We booked special entrance tickets online for Meenakshi and Sundareswar Swamy darshan for Rs.100 /- per person.
For the first visit, it is good / auspicious to enter the temple from East Gopuram. So we walked all the way from West Entrance to East Entrance.
Mobiles and cameras are strictly prohibited inside the temple. So we deposited our cell and slippers at the free shoe counter. For mobile there is a nominal charge of Rs.10. Fridays and Amavasya days are very auspicious for Meenakshi Amman darshan. We visited on Friday Amavasya day, so the temple was heavily crowded with devotees.
Strict dress code for girls / women. They must wear traditional dress only and are not allowed in western outfits (jeans / pants).
Meenakshi Temple, Madurai
Meenakshi temple is located on the banks of river Vaiga in the ancient temple city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. It is also referred as Meenaskhi Amman or Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple. It is one of the oldest and most powerful temples of Tamil Nadu. The Gopurams or temple gates are very impressive with beautiful colourful imposing structures.
The presiding deity Meenakshi Amma is a form of Parvati Devi. Sundareswarar, a form of Shiva is Her divine consort. There is the mention of Meenakshi temple in the 6th century CE texts. The temple complex was re-built presently there are 14 tall gopurams. The South Gopuram is the tallest of all
The Gopurams have intricately designed colourful idols of variours forms. The architectural marvel of these Gopurams is a special attraction. The special attraction of these Gopurams is the intricately designed colourful idols of various forms which is a Dravidian style temple architectural marvel. The imposing Gopurams look magnificent from a distance and pilgrims automatically get attracted towards these Gopurams.
That's how the Gopuram looks. The above picture was clicked in 2018 during our visit to the temple. But this time unfortunately, there are some renovation works and this is how the gopuram looked now.
There are four majestic Rajagopurams, five gopurams on top of the grabha griha of Sundareswar temple and three gopurams on top of the grabha griha of Amman temple. Only Hindus are allowed inside sanctums to worship Meenakshi Amma and Sri Sundareswarar.
Inside the temple also, we couldn't enjoy the beautiful architecture due to the renovation works/
Meenakshi Temple History / Sthala Puranam
The temple is around 2,500 years old. According to legend, the childless couple, King Malayadwaja Pandya and Queen Kanchanamalai perform Putra Kameshti Yagna when a young girl with three breasts emerges from the Yagnakund.
A divine voice says that the young girl would become Queen Meenakshi. And her third / middle breast would disappear the moment she meets Her soulmate.
The young girl grows into a fierce warrior queen and goes on conquering territories. She reaches Mt Kailash and the moment she looks at Siva her third breast disappears. Thus, Siva visits Madurai in the form of Sundareswar and the divine wedding of queen Meenakshi and Sundareswar takes place in the grandest way.
The early construction of the temple was done by Pandyan Kings. The present structure of the temple was largely rebuilt and expanded by the Nayak dynasty in the 16th-17th century CE.
The Story of Meenakshamma and Adi Sankaracharya
According to local legend, initially Meenakshi Amma was worshipped only during the day time. The temple was closed in the night time and no one dared to go near the temple surroundings as Meenakshi Amma used to transform into a fierce, destructive form at night and roam around the city. The locals were thus terrified.
In the 8th century CE Adi Sankaracharya visited Madurai. When he came to know about the fierce form of the Mother, Adi Sankarachary determines to calm down and pacify the Mother. He enters the temple before night inspite of warnings from the locals. Adi Sankara calmly sits in front of the sanctum and starts meditating.
When Meenakshi Amma steps out of the sanctorum in Her fierce form, Adi Sankara stops Her and challenges with Her to a game of dice. The condition of the challenge is that loser of the game would do whatever the winner asks. Meenakshi Amman takes up the challenge and plays the game of dice with Adi Sankaracharya.
While trickly playing the game Adi Sankara designs and draws the sacred geometrical pattern in the sanctum sanctorum and thus installs the Sri Chakram.
After Adi Sankaracharya wins the game, he prostrates before the Mother and humbly requests Her to transform into a peaceful soothing energy. The Mother listens to her son's request and thus transforms herself from an uncontrollabe destructive night force into a calm, peaceful and merciful Mother and remains so forever. From then onwards, the Mother is worshipped during night as well.
On seeing Meenakshi Amman, Adi Sankaracharya instantly composed Meenakshi Pancharatna in praise of Amman.
Our Temple Visit
We walked from West Gopuram to East Gopuram, stood in the queue for security check and then stepped inside the temple. There are separate queues for free darshan and special darshan and both these queues are equally long. However, the queues moved fast and just at the entrance of the sanctum sanctorum, the movement was paused due to some special seva to Meenakshi Amma.
The security informed that darshan will be open after 45 minutes, so everyone in the queue sat down. I carried a pocket book of Lalita Sahasranamam, I started reciting it and felt blessed recite sitting right in front of the garbha griha.
It was peak summer and the space was flooded with devotees, and despite the hot and sultry weather with lots of sweat flowing down, our minds were focussed on the divine blissful darshan of Meenakshi Amma. As I about to finish reciting Lalita Sahasranamam, everyone in the Q suddenly stood up and started moving. And slowly the line moved through the thin railing.
At the entrance there is an idol of Valli Devasena sameta Subramanya Swamy. We then stepped inside the grabha griha and felt blessed to have a wonderful and blissful darshan of Meenakshi Amma from a distance. Free darshan line on left side and special darshan line on right side moving in thin railings.
These railings have a sufficient gap and devotees can bend sideways to have darshan of Meenakshi Amma continuously as the line moves. This is one thing which I liked the most, no push and pull by the devotees and no shouts. All walking slowly with folded hands and praying Amman. Everything went peacefully and we stepped out.
From here we walked to Sundareswara Swamy shrine where we got the chance to perform special puja sitting right in front of the Sivalingam. By the time we stepped out of the temple, it was around 10 p.m. We had dinner / tiffin in the nearby veg restaurant and walked to our hotel.
Day 2: Madurai to Rameswaram by Road via Pamban Road Bridge
We went for an early morning darshan, the next day. After a peaceful darshan, we walked to the 1000-Pillar Mandapam. There is an entry ticket for Rs.5/-. But unfortunately the place was under renovation. We walked out of the West Gopuram and savoured hot filter coffee at a local stall. As always I did little shopping, and walked to the hotel.
After having breakfast, we checked out at around 9.30 a.m and started for the 3.5 hour cab drive Rameswaram.
Related Posts |
Comments
Post a Comment