ave
you seen a celestial marriage?” they ask the moment you
step into Madurai.
This is a city that exists as
much in the imagination of its poets and singers as it
does in the people who walk its streets today. Madurai,
the second largest city in Tamil Nadu is a night’s
journey by train from Chennai, the capital of Tamil
Nadu, and an hour’s flight by plane. As the once and
forever kingdom of the Pandyan dynasty, which ushered in
the golden age of Tamil literature, fine arts and temple
architecture, it is the legends that define the
place.
The name itself conjures an element of
sweetness and splendour. It is said that Lord Shiva
himself was so overwhelmed when he beheld the newly
built city from the sky that drops of honey fell from
his locks as he anointed it with madhu (honey), from
which it gets its name.
The city is also
synonymous with the name Meenakshi, the enchanting
goddess with her fish-shaped eyes, who waits demurely
clad in rich silks and glittering gold jewellery in the
temple that bears her name, around which the city has
been built.
‘The celestial marriage’ as it is
called refers to a climactic moment in the life of the
Goddess. It also refers to a festival that takes place
in April-May when the entire town takes to the streets
to witness the actual marriage ceremony of their goddess
that is re-enacted with all the tense expectation and
excitement of an actual wedding in the family. No matter
how many times you might visit Madurai, the first
question everyone asks you is: “Have you gone to the
temple?” The goddess is both a queen who demands the
devotion of her subjects and a young girl waiting for
her beloved.
“Can you see her third breast?” asks
our guide, pointing to the dramatic highlight from the
life of the Goddess that has been carved and painted in
panels set high up on both sides of the passage to the
temple. The story goes that when her royal parents had
all but despaired of getting an heir to the kingdom of
Madurai, they were told to organise a sacrificial fire.
To their great joy a daughter was born to them, but with
a flaw, she had three breasts.
 “They were
told that when the girl would meet her future husband,
the third breast would vanish,” explains the guide in
Tamil, “And so it happened, she was a great warrior who
defended her father’s kingdom but when she met the great
lord Shiva, in his guise of Sundareshwar, she felt a
sudden shyness. Her third breast had vanished. She knew
he was the only one and so every year we celebrate the
celestial marriage all over again.”
An even
stranger aspect of the story is that it is the Goddes’s
brother Vishnu who gives her hand away in marriage to
Sundareshwar. Another part of the ceremony consists of
the brother trying to cross the river Vaigai that flows
through the city from his own temple at Alagirikoil. A
figure on a golden horse is taken through to the
opposite bank of the river, but as in the legend, the
rider and the horse cannot make the crossing in time for
the wedding. At the temple however, the stone carving of
the ‘Celestial Marriage’ shows three beautiful figures
at the ceremony.
To hear a South Indian singing
praises of Madurai Meenakshi in rolling cadences that
bring to life another age altogether when the Vaigai
river flowed through the city brimming with ponds filled
with golden lotuses, humming with bees, and surrounded
by poets, is to be invited to partake of another reality
altogether. The poets of the Sangam age (the golden age
of Tamil literature) used to sit on a platform in the
pond of golden lotuses that can be seen at the Meenakshi
temple. The platform is said to have had magical
properties, it could seat just 24 poet laureates and if
an imposter tried to clamber on he would find himself
knocked down. So also with the manuscripts, those that
were genuine floated on top of the tank of golden
lotuses, the bad sank without a trace.
“It is a
tank with magical properties,” explains our guide. “ Can
you see there’s not a single fish inside ? The story
goes that there was once a heron that was so filled with
greed, he wanted to eat the sacred fish in the golden
tank. But he realised his mistake and the goddess had
pity on him and now there are no fish at all in the
tank. Not even frogs live here,” he said, nodding his
head vigorously from side to side.
To the visitor
the countryside around Madurai is framed by a series of
gigantic bald mountains. They look like round boulders
that some giant race has casually tossed in between the
lush green fields of the gently undulating Vaigai
valley. As we climb up to the top of one of them near
the small town of Melur, east of Madurai using the flat
steps cut into the face of the smooth rock, we come
across a woman who is searching for her cows. She knows
at once that we have come to take a look at the figures
of the Jain saints carved into the caves hidden in
crevices at the top.
“Once, many many years ago,
there were two groups of holy people”
she tells
us, “the king asked them to tell him about god and the
group that lost came here to live as far away from the
eyes of people that they could.” ??
 It’s quite extraordinary
that a simple village woman should still be able to
describe the debate that once raged amongst the Jains
and the followers of Shiva. Legend has it that the Jains
used their magical powers to send a serpent, an elephant
and a cow to confuse the priests of Shiva. And each time
the priests were able to use their superior strength to
reduce the creatures into the huge mounds of stone that
are called, Nagamalai, Annamalai, and Pasumalai, the
hills that surround Madurai. In the case of the cow,
which could not be killed since it was a sacred animal,
the Shiva created a splendid bull. The cow was so
overwhelmed with love, that she just lay down and became
a rocky mound. The bull obviously went on his way,
muttering “Silly cow!” On each of these hills the Jains
have left their stamp in the form of carved images that
stare out to eternity from their rocky chambers, with a
serenity that is simply overwhelming.
That
however is the effect Madurai exerts on the visitor. You
slowly become entranced by the glorious past of the
city. It’s not just the temples that are full of
mystery. The palace of Tirumala Nayak, that was started
in the middle of the l6th century, just one doorstep
away from the main temple, is a place of such awesome
grandeur, that even in its dilapidated condition it
demands attention. A regular son-et- lumiere programme
brings alive some of its history, while also
highlighting the famous story of Kannagi and Kovalam and
the tragic episode of the ankle-bracelet, which forms
part of the classic tale Sillapadikaram. There is also a
museum devoted to the life history of Gandhiji. It
records the moment when Gandhiji decided to throw away
all the clothes that he had worn through his life and
use just the loin-cloth as a mark of identification with
the poorest of his countrymen. It has also preserved the
blood stained cloth that he wore on his body on the last
day of his life.
Even the jasmine grown in the
fields around Madurai and exported to the rest of Tamil
Nadu, in baskets that leave a trail of fragrance behind
them, have a hypnotic effect on the beholder. And an
age-old refrain that is on the lips of every young man
speaks with longing to a young woman:
O,
Meenakshi, with the jasmine in your hair,
Meenakshi
with the jasmines in your hair,
No matter where you
go Meenakshi,
I will follow you there!
Outside
the main temple however it is the smell of diesel that
is over-powering. Instead of jasmines there are
two-wheelers that have been parked in shiny rows like a
defending army beside the towering temple walls. Madurai
is a growing industrial hub that boasts of some of the
most progressive textile units, manufacturers of
automobile accessories and parts and farm equipment. It
exhibits all the least attractive qualities of an area
that is still struggling to keep pace with its
growth.
 “Four persons were
injured in a brawl over an omelette!’ read the headline
in the city newspaper. The report went on to say how two
young men had got very annoyed when a local tea-shop
favoured serving two customers outside of town before
them. “The people of Madurai are the most sweet tongued”
explained our host, “But if they get angry they will not
hesitate to chop your head off!” he said, with a slicing
movement of his hand.
The River Vaigai is perhaps
the most jarring sign of the city’s lop-sided
development. Once, a shining symbol of prosperity, it is
now a series of dirty streams, a waste-land of
grass-filled islands, where cattle graze. “This is the
price we have had to pay for the dams built on our
rivers, we have power for our industries, but no water
in the rivers, ” explain the residents. The famous
‘tanks’, or artificial reservoirs of water, like the
mega Teppakulam at Vandiyur, South of the town that used
to be filled with the over-flowing waters from the
Vaigai River, are now dry. Instead, vehicles of every
kind, from trucks, long distance lorries, to bullock
carts, tourist buses carting pilgrims to distant
temples, three wheelers, scooters, motorbikes and
cycles, cram the streets to a bursting point.
In
the early mornings as a mist spreads itself over the
green fields and tree-tops that surround Madurai, you
can hear the temple bells ring. At every street corner,
and village center smaller versions of the goddess
Madurai Meenakshi decorated with fresh flowers and
brilliant coloured sarees of silk and tinsel and gold
ornaments beckon passers-by to salute one more day, by
paying homage to her with incense and light.
To
those who live under its spell, Madurai will always be
the ‘celestial’ city.
| F A C T F I L E
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by air
Jet Airways
flies daily to Madurai from
Chennai.
Madurai is a hub for rail and
road connections.
where to Stay:
Fortune Pandiyan
Hotel. Race Course, Madurai 625 002, tel:
2337090. Fax - 91-452-2533 424
Set in a
large open area within the city of Madurai
itself, the Pandiyan Hotel has been recently
renovated by the ITC Welcomgroup and offers
excellent rooms at competitive rates.
Comfortably furnished rooms, with double beds,
modern bathrooms with all accessories and
television, fridge, coffee and tea-maker. The
hotel also has a coffee shop cum dining room -
the Orchid.
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