Luckily I got into an AC bus run by TN govt directly upto Madurai. This newly introduced bus was built by Prakash, probably to give competition to Volvo in Indian market. Most of the features of the coach was a mimic to its competitor except for air suspension which it loses to the latter.
Reached Madurai at around 8.30am. City is pretty ok. Also called temple City, this is world famous for Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple.
This temple believed to be built around 2500 yrs ago, was a nominee for new 7 wonders of the world owing to its great architecture. The symbol of the gopuram here is even used as logo for TN Govt. Checked-in a hotel nearby temple.
Unexpectedly there was annual festival called "ThiruKalyanam" going on that day. Its actually a 11 day fest held every year with the auspicious Kalyanam (marriage of Meenakshi amman and Sundareswarar swamy) on the 9th day. I felt lucky to be present there at this fest.
The temple was heavily crowded with head count of visitors crossing some lakhs. I wondered how much time it would take for me to have darshan. After an hour or so, I managed to get inside. What a huge temple it was !!! It is one of the biggest temples in India(along with Srirangam, Tiruvannamalai). First visited shrine of Sri Sundareswarar. Very much in accordance to the name, the deity was a pleasant sight.
Unexpectedly there was annual festival called "ThiruKalyanam" going on that day. Its actually a 11 day fest held every year with the auspicious Kalyanam (marriage of Meenakshi amman and Sundareswarar swamy) on the 9th day. I felt lucky to be present there at this fest.
The temple was heavily crowded with head count of visitors crossing some lakhs. I wondered how much time it would take for me to have darshan. After an hour or so, I managed to get inside. What a huge temple it was !!! It is one of the biggest temples in India(along with Srirangam, Tiruvannamalai). First visited shrine of Sri Sundareswarar. Very much in accordance to the name, the deity was a pleasant sight.
Then moved to Sri Meenakshi amman shrine located next to this. The deity was too marvelous. Presence of parrot on right hand of the deity adds to its glory. Took special darshan ticket for 100 bucks and went ahead than the regular free darshan. After visting both the shrines, I made a point not to miss the famous Golden lotus pond located in the temple. It was too good.
After lunch, I proceeded to next destination Rameswaram around 165kms from Madurai.
3 comments:
I use the past tense when referring to this single mother and her three children because eight years ago they disappeared into thin air.
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