Madurai Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple

Meenakshi Sundareswarar 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). Madurai's Meenakshi-Sundareswarar temple was originally built by the Pandya King Kulasekara. This is the place where Lord Nataraja performed the dance raising his right leg.

The complex houses 12 magnificent Gopurams or towers including two golden Gopurams for the main deities, that are elaborately sculptured and painted. The tallest temple tower is 51.9 metre high.

Thousand Pillar hall of Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple was built with the oldest Nellaiappar Temple, Tirunleveli as a
model. The Aayiram Kaal Mandapam or Thousand Pillar Hall contains 985 (instead of 1000) carved pillars. The Thousand Pillared Hall was built by Ariyanatha Mudaliar in 1569. He was the Prime Minister and General of Viswanatha Nayak of the first Nayaka of Madurai (1559-1600 AD).

Each pillar is carved and is a monument of the Dravidian sculpture. There is a Temple Art Museum in the hall where icons, photographs, drawings, and other exhibits of the 1200 years old history are displayed. Just outside this mandapam, towards the west, are the Musical Pillars. Each pillar, when struck, produces a different musical note. The kalyana mandapa, to the south of the pillared hall, is where the marriage of Shiva and Parvati is celebrated every year during the Chithirai Festival in mid-April.

Festivals

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 The 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 (July 15 - Aug 17) and Thai (Jan 15 to Feb 15) are popularly celebrated with thousands of devotees thronging to the temple. In every Tamil month some festive occasions will happen in the temple like Aavani Urchavam, Maarghazi Urchavam, Navaraathri, etc.




How to Reach

Madurai Airport is 9 km from the city and the Railway station.

From Arapalayam bus stand, buses to places of western Tamil Nadu like Theni, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Salem operate and Periyar bus stand is where only city buses and private buses to major cities operate. It has good road connections to all major cities. National highways passing through Madurai are

NH 7 : Bangalore – Salem – Dindigul – Madurai – Tirunelveli – Kanyakumari

NH 45B : Trichy – Madurai – Thoothukudi

NH 49 : Madurai – Rameswaram

NH 49 Extn : Madurai – Theni – Bodi – Kochi.