Madurai-Tirunelveli Travels

Madurai is a city that has been largely fantasized and portrayed in many Thamizh movies as a city filled with violent gangsters wielding huge aruvals and running around hacking people. Well, it is also a beautiful city which is said to be home to the golden Sangam period and sometimes also called the home of Thamizh. Well let us leave all these fantasies aside and explore this beautiful place for its rich temples and varied heritage.

I had long been planning a trip to Madurai and that finally came true very recently. A couple of friends and myself decided to visit the Madurai-Thirunelveli belt and explore some wonderful and ancient temples that had been visited and sung beautifully by our great Azhwars and Acharyans. While not every temple was a divya desam, we also visited some other temples for their beauty and tremendous energy.

I thought what other way than to start a blog and make notes of my travels. This blog will not only cover my outstation visits but also visit to local temples. I will try to provide some background on the temple based on my limited knowledge with support from wikipedia as well. I will also try to provide some information on travel, some history of the temple, some directions to get there plus some links to affordable hotel accommodations which can help anybody getting there.

We started off from Chennai Egmore and took the Pandian express which leaves at around 9:45pm IST. It is a fairly comfortable timing for folks who want to hop on a train after completing their day. It is normally scheduled to reach Madurai at 05:30am IST the next day morning but am told it reaches there before time and it did. We reached Madurai station at around 5:15am IST, 15 minutes before scheduled time.

There are many small, medium and large hotels very close to the Madurai railway station. Since we were all boys and just wanted to a quick place to shower and change before starting off our road trip, we booked in to a small lodge that was recommended by one of my friends who is quite familiar with Madurai city.

Iam not able to recommend any cabs or cab services for now since we used the car and driver services of my friend who was a native of Madurai and did a fantastic job of taking us around for the next 3 days. Iam sure there are some cab services that might be definitely available that can be arranged by the hotels you stay in or can be arranged on your own. There are many cab operators also available on a package basis.

We started off our trip by visiting the famous Narasingam Sri Yoga Narasimhar temple which is about 8km from Madurai city on the road to Melur. Even though this is not a Divya Desam, this temple nestled in the Yaanamalai hills has immense historical significance. The moolavar vigraham of Swami Yoga Narasimhar is magnificient and is about 6ft in height. The Thaayar here is Narasingavalli. This place is a definite must visit because of its beautiful surroundings including the beautiful kovil kolam (temple tank).

Next up, we were off to the famous Thirumohoor Kalamegaperumal kovil which is situated on the same Melur road. Apart from being a Divya Desam, this temple is world famous because of the Chakrathazhwar (the divine discuss of Lord Mahavishnu) sannidhi. This Divya Desam is part of the Pandiya naatu Divya Desams. There are nearly 12 Pasurams dedicated to this Divya Desam that have been sung by Nammazhwar and Thirumangaizhwar.

Our next stop was Thirukoshtiyur Soumyanarayana Perumal temple at Thirukoshtiyur. This is another Divya Desam which was sung by four Azhwars including Periazhwar, Thirumazhisai Azhwar, Boothathazhwar and Peyazhwar. This temple has immense significance as this is the place where Swami Ramanuja got the ashtaakshara ragisaya upadesam from Sri Thirukoshtiyur Nambigal, who was one of the prime sishyas of Swami Aalavandhar. It is said that Thirukoshtiyur Nambigal made Swami Ramanuja travel atleast 18 times from Srirangam to Thirukoshtiyur before finally imparting the upadesam. Many upanyasakars have given a separate lecture on these 18 trips Swami made called the “18 ragasiyangal” or 18 secrets where it is said that the 18 trips made were for Swami to drop 18 different kinds of physical and emotional attachments before getting the upadesam. These days we are lucky to have motor transport but imagine during Swami Ramanuja’s time, he had to cover this entire distance by foot from Srirangam to Thirukoshtiyur. Nambigal also warned Swami Ramanuja not to impart this mantra or its significance without adequately testing a disciple or anybody who yearned to know it. As soon as Swami Ramanuja got the upadesam, he went right on top of the temple tower and called out to the everybody in the village regardless of their caste, creed, varna etc who are interested in Mukti to come and learn the significance of the holy ashtakshara mantram. Knowing that Swami Ramanuja had defied his orders, Thirukoshtiyur Nambigal was extremely furious and cursed him that he would go to hell for defying his orders. Swami said that he would gladly be willing to go to hell and would not mind it if even 10 people can attain mukti. Such was Swami’s magnanimity. Thirukoshtiyur Nambigal was extremely moved by this gesture of Swami and hence gave him the name “Emberumanar” meaning are you my Lord? Even today devotees can go to the same place where Swami Ramanuja stood and called out to devotees to learn this secret. You would find a guide on top of the gopuram who would claim that Swami Ramanuja had screamed out the ashtakshara mantram but that is not true and has been refuted by many famous upanyasakars like Velukkudi Swami and Dushyanth Sridhar. He only gave the meaning of the mantra but not the mantra itself. To obtain the mantropadesam, one has to approach an Acharyan (for eg: Pontiff of a mutt like Ahobila Mutt or Andavan Ashramam) i.e one of the 74 Simhasanathipathis who have been nominated by Swami Ramanuja, who alone have the right to impart the mantra during the process of Samashrayanam. We also had the privilege of visiting the thirumaligai (divine home) of Thirukoshtiyur Nambigal which still exists (approximately 1000+ years old) very close to the temple. I have posted pictures of the outside of the house and the room where Nambigal imparted the divine mantra and its meaning to Swami Ramanuja. The descendants (vamsavali) of Nambigal are still there even today and are taking care of this very important place which holds a lot of significance for many Sri Vaishnavites. Standing in the same room where Swami got his upadesam is an unexplainable experience and thanks to his grace, we were able to visit this holy place. I would request everybody visiting this temple to visit Nambigal’s thirumaligai as well. You can ask anybody in the temple and they will guide you to his house.

After Thirukoshtiyur, we did not know if we had enough time to make a run to Pillayarapatti Sri KarpagaVinayagar temple. Unfortunately, I could not take any pictures of my own as cameras are not allowed inside the temple and I almost got caught when I tried to stealthily take a picture inside :). This is a beautiful temple built by the Pandya Kings and one of my most favorite Pillaiyar temples.

Once we finished Pillaiyarpatti, we decided to break for lunch because the next temple we were going to go required some energy both physically and mentally. It is a temple that is very close to my heart. It is none other than Srivilliputhur.

As soon as you reach the precincts of Sri Andal Sri Rangamannar kovil, the first thing that strikes you is the imposing gopuram. There are two temples inside this complex, one is Sri Andal-Rangamannar temple and the other one is Sri MahaVishnu temple where Perumal is known as Vatapatra Sayee. Srivilliputhur is around 80km from Madurai and can be covered by road. It is again a Divya Desam and has the distinction of having housed 2 azhwars. One is Periyazhwar who was also known as Vishnu Chitthar and his daughter, Sri Andal Nacchiar. Legend has it that Periyazhwar used to string garlands for the lord of Srivilliputhur. He was childless and hence yearned for a child. Perumal granted his wish when Periazhwar found a girl child under the Tulasi maadam in the garden of the temple. This Tulasi maadam is still there today for everyone to see. He lovingly named the girl child as Kothai. Kothai was a great Krishna bhakthai from birth and she wanted to marry Lord Ranganatha. Once she wore the garland that had been strung together for the lord by her father who unknowingly presented it to the lord. When he came to know that Kothai had worn the garland meant for the lord, he was very upset. The lord then appeared in azhwar’s dream and told him that he would accept only the garland worn by Kothai going forward. This tradition is followed to this day. One may or may not know the divya prabandhams but there are many people who know the Thiruppavai pasurams by heart which is recited in every household during the month of margazhi (December 16th to January 15th). Andal has the distinction of being the only Lady Azhwar among Azhwars and has given us two beautiful literary gems in Thiruppavai and Nachiyar Thirumozhi. Andal is known by many names like Kothai, Godha etc… Swami Desikan’s dedication of the Godha Stuti in praise of Andal where he starts off by addressing her as “Sri Vishnu Chittha kula nandana kalpavallim” resulting in 29 beautiful verses in praise of Godha when Swami Desikan had visited Srivilliputhur is an absolute treat to the ears and soul. Srivilliputhur is also known for the world famous Srivilliputhur palkova which has also acquired the GI (Geographical Indication) tag now. One can find many shops inside and around the temple premises, each saying they have the most authentic palkova in Srivilliputhur. Of these, the Venkateswara Vilas Lala sweet shop is one of the most famous and authentic places to get tasty palkova. Go and get your hands on a packet and enjoy this wonderful sweet if you are a fan. I did 🙂

Once we finished Srivilliputhur, we wanted to sign off the day by visiting one more Divya Desam which was close by. This was the Sri Ninra Narayana Perumal temple in Thiruthangal which is located around the outskirts of Sivakasi. The Perumal here is called Ninra Narayanan and the thaayar here is called Sri Arunakamala Mahadevi. This is again a Divya Desam and pasurams praising the perumal in this temple were sung by Sri Boothathazhwar and Thirumangai Azhwar. The temple has a beautiful 3-tier architecture, where there is Perumal in a reclining posture in the lower tier, Thaayar in the second tier and Sri Ninra Narayanan in the top most tier in a standing position. This was a fantastic temple which was not even on our list but one that was decided in the last minute. Well, we did not decide anything but it was just Perumal’s infinite grace and blessings and he decided to give us his darshan. What an end to a wonderful day!

After Thiruthangal, we decided to call it a day and get a good night’s sleep as we had a very long day the next day and also a very important day. It was time for us to head to Nellai. The land of the great Tamarabarani river. The abode of Lord Nellaiappar Swami and Kanthimathi Amman. The one and only “Thirunelveli”. The distance from Thiruthangal to the hotel we stayed in is about 100 kms and takes a good 2 hours. The highway is just brilliant so am sure you will enjoy the drive. We stayed at Hotel Aryaas. It was quite affordable and we took a deluxe room since we had to get a good night’s sleep to cover the next day. The food was pretty decent but folks not interested in hotel food may want to slip out to try the local flavors. The hotel is centrally located and local joints can be accessed easily.

We started off the next day with our Nava Thirupati tour. The Nava Thirupati temples are nine Divya Desams in Thirunelveli which are all within a short radius. Every single temple which is part of the Navathirupati would have a map of all the nine Thirupati’s for easy reference like the one below.

The first temple we covered was the Sri Vaikuntam Sri Vaikuntanatha Perumal temple. The Perumal here has another name called Sri Kallapiraan. The Thaayar is known as Vaikuntavalli Thaayar. Since the day we planned (or rather did not intentionally plan) for this visit was on a purattasi Sani (Saturday), all the temples were crowded to the hilt. The point is note is that, when there are no festivals that happen, the temples are rarely crowded and are mostly empty. It was luck that we got to see Perumal and Thaayar in their full splendor in all the 9 temples resplendent in their thangam/velli kavacham for the moolavar and beautiful alankaram for the Archya vigraham. Nammazhwar has sung on the lord of this temple. I would also suggest taking some time out to see the beautiful architectural works in this temple. It is a visual treat.

The next temple we visited after Sri Vaikuntanatha Perumal temple was Thiruvaragunamangai Sri Vijayasana Perumal temple. This temple is on the Tiruchendur-Tirunelveli road. The distance between SriVaikuntam temple and Thiruvaragunamangai temple is only 1.8km and should take you roughly 10 minutes to reach. When we arrived at this temple, a place that is normally empty was throbbing with so many people that we found it tough to get a parking spot for our car. It was because of Purattasi Sani and everybody had come to celebrate this wonderful day with Perumal. It was a miracle that we were able to quickly go through the massive crowd and get a wonderful darshan of Perumal and Varagunavalli Thaayar.

After an unexpectedly wonderful darshan of Sri Vijayasana Perumal and Thaayar we next moved on to Thirupuliyangudi Sri Kasiniventhan Perumal temple. Here Perumal is in a beautiful sayana thirukolam reclining on Adi Seshan with Sri Mahalakshmi and Bhoomadevi at his feet. This Perumal is also known as Sri Bhoomipalagar. The temple is around 5km from Srivaikuntam temple and just 1.2km from Sri Vijayasana Perumal temple. It is again part of the Nava Thirupathi temples and Nammazhwar has sung nearly 12 pasurams in praise of this Perumal.

The next temple we visited was Thenthiruperai Sri Makaranedunkuzhai Kather Kannan Perumal temple. The Perumal in this temple is in amarntha (seated) thirukolam. Thaayar is know by Thirupperai Naachiyar. As it is part of the Navathirupathi sthalams, Nammazhwar has sung nearly 11 pasurams in the praise of the Lord in this temple. We went by a specific order of temples prescribed and did not necessarily go by the distance. Normally if you take a cab or a taxi, you might be routed through the shortest distance from one temple to another but since we were using a personal vehicle, we followed the same order in which am sharing details here. The distance from Thiruvaragunamangai temple to this temple would be around 11km and can be covered in roughly 15-20 minutes.

The next temple we visited was Thirukkulanthai Mayakoothan Perumal Temple. Perumal here is Srinivasa Perumal and Thaayar’s name is Alarmel Manga Thaayar. Like Thirupathi, Perumal is in ninra (standing) thirukolam. Nammazhwar has sung one pasuram in praise of this Perumal. This distance between these 2 temples is around 10 kms and will take about 15 mins to reach. Please note that since it was a Purattasi Sani (Purattasi Saturday), luckily for us all the temples were open throughout the day without any break which helped us cover all the Nava Thirupathi temples comfortably.

We then decided to take a break for lunch and were told that there was a Hotel Saravana Bhavan (HSB) close by. We were then told about the Vanathirupathi temple built by the Saravana Bhavan owner that has the HSB attached. However, we did not have time to go to the temple but had a good meal at HSB. I would suggest asking the locals there and they can provide directions to this place.

After a good lunch, we moved on to what is known as the Rettai Thirupathi or 2 Divya Desams almost adjacent to each other.

The first of the Rettai Thirupathi temples is Sri Aravindalochana Perumal temple. The name of the Thaayar is Karunthadankanni Thaayar. The Perumal vigraham is made of Saligramam which is significant. Being a part of the Nava Thirupathi, the lord of this temple has been praised by Nammazhwar in his Thiruvaimozhi pasurams.

The second of the Rettai Thirupathi temples is Sri Devapiran temple which is almost in the same compound as the Aravindalochana Perumal temple. Here Perumal is in Nindra thirukolam (standing posture). Nammazhwar has sung in praise of the Lord of this temple as well in his Thiruvaimozhi pasurams.

As we were approaching the last leg of the Nava Thirupathi temples, we were approaching two of the most important temples. The last but one being Thirukolur Sri Vaithamanidhi Perumal Temple. Thirukolur is famous and blessed as well as it is the birth place of Sri Madurakavi Azhwar. The Perumal in this temple is known as Sri Vaithamanidhi Perumal and is in a beautiful reclining posture. Thaayar is known as Kumudavalli or Kolurvalli Thaayar. Swami Nammazhwar has sung nearly 12 verses in praise of the Lord of this temple. At this juncture, we have to pay our obeisances to Sri Madurakavi as he was the one who I can say was instrumental in making the first notes of the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam (4000 divine hyms), namely the Thiruvaimozhi as it poured out of Nammazhwar who was in perpetual divine ecstasy. It is interesting to note that even though Madurakavi was born in Thirukolur, he had to almost do a full round of India before he landed in Azhwarthirunagari in the presence of his guru Nammazhwar. The story goes like this. Madurakavi (before he became Madurakaviazhwar) was born in Thirukolur in to a wealthy family. At one point of time in his life, he decided to drop all worldly attachments and dedicate his life to Perumal and work towards attaining moksha. He started on a pilgrimage all over the country and reached Ayodhya. One evening as he was doing his Nityakarma in the holy Sarayu river, he noticed a ball of fire in the sky. Not having a clue on what it was, he felt somehow that he was drawn to it but as and when he got closer, the fireball started to move southward. Finally, it vanished inside the Thirupuliadi maram (Holy Tamarind tree) at Azhwarthirunagari. Inside the hollow of the Tamarind tree sat a young yogi. Not knowing if the yogi was alive or not, Madurakavi dropped a stone right next to the boy. For the first time in 16 years, Nammazhwar opened his eyes. Madurakavi asked the question that had been eating his brains all these years. He asked – “Seththaththin vayiRRil siRayadhu piRandhaal eththai thinRu engE kidakkum?” to which Nammazhwar answered “Athu atthai thindru angey kedakkum”. The question asked was if the subtle soul is embodied in the gross body what will be its actions and thoughts? Nammazhwar’s answer meant that if it identifies with the gross body, then it will eat and continue to rest there but if it serves the divine, it will only eat and think of the Lord. Madurakaviazhwar then proceeded to make notes of the Thiruvaimozhi pasurams as they poured out of Nammazhwar who was in a constant state of ecstasy. He also wrote 11 verses in the praise of his guru Sri Nammazhwar titled “Kaninun Siruthambu” which are today part of the 4000 divya prabandhams. Nammazhwar decided to leave his mortal body and proceed to Srivaikuntam at the young age of 32 years. A grief stricken Madurakaviazhwar pleaded with his guru to leave him with some form of his guru’s remembrance as he was clueless on what to do next. Nammazwhar asked Madurakaviazhwar to make an earthen pot from the banks of the Thamaraibarani river and boil the river water in it and mentioned that an idol would emerge from it. As instructed, when Madurakaviazhwar boiled the water, a beautiful vigraham (idol) emerged from the boiling water but it did not resemble Nammazhwar but of a different Acharyan. Nammazhwar then told him that it was the vigraham of Swami Ramanuja and told him that he would be the “Bhavishyadacharyan” or the guru of the future who would lead Sri Vaishnavism and would be born after about 4000 years. He then asked him to repeat the process and this time a beautiful vigraham of Nammazhwar emerged from the boiling water. We can still worship this beautiful vigraham of both Sri Nammazhwar and Swami Ramanujar at Azhwarthirunagari.

Finally, we reached the pinnacle of all the Nava Thirupathi temples and that is the Azhwarthirunagari Aadhi natha Perumal temple. The Perumal Sri Adinathan is in ninra tirukolam (standing posture) and the Thaayar is Adinaatha Valli Thaayar. Sri Nammazhwar who resides in this temple has dedicated nearly 11 verses to the lord of this temple. I can go on and on about Nammazhwar, who was rightly proclaimed as the Thalamai Azhwar (Head of Azhwars) by Lord Sriman Narayanan himself and rightfully so. One of the great Sri Vaishnava Acharyans Sri Manavalamamunigal praised Sri Nammazhwar thus “Undo vaigaasi visaagathukku opporu naal, undo Sadagoparakku opporuvar, undo thiruvaimozhikkuoppu, then kurigaikundo oruppar thannil okkumoor” which translates to “Is there any star that can match the auspicious stature of Vaigasi Visagam?”, Is there anybody who can match the glory of our Kulapathi Sri Sadagopan (Sri Nammazhwar)?, Is there any divyaprabhandam that can match the Thiruvaimozhi?, Can there be a Divya Desam that can match the auspiciousness of Thirukurugoor that has given birth to our Nammazhwar?”. Standing in this temple after reading and hearing so much about Nammazhwar was a surreal experience for me. Nammazhwar was born in a “Mallar” kulam family. As a child, he was different than normal children as he did not cry, did not drink milk or show any normal qualities that a child would display. Upanyasakars interpret it in this way. They say that when any baby is in it’s mother’s womb, it is in a yogic state and one with the paramatman. The moment it is about to come out of the womb it is engulfed by the outside worldly atmospheric air called “Shatam” post which the attachment to this life starts. Apparently Nammazhwar when he was about to be engulfed by this air, kicked it in anger and hence was born differently. Since he kicked the “Shatam” angrily, he was called “Satakopan” and as he was different from the normal ways of the world, he was also called as “Maaran”. The Sri Shataari that we have in temples today is named after him. His parents not knowing what to do with him, left him at the holy feet of Sri Adinatha Perumal at Thirukurungudi which is modern day Azhwarthirunagari. The child then crawled and got in to the hollow of a Tamarind tree or the Thirupuli adi maram as it is known today.

He sat in a lotus posture in the hollow of this very tree you see above and meditated for nearly 16 years before he was awakened from his yoga nidrai by Sri Madurakaviazhwar. It was in this very place that Swami Nammazhwar contributed to nearly 1296 verses of the 4000 divyaprabhandams. His works include the Thiruviruttam (100 verses), Thiruvasiriyam (7 verses), Periya Thiruvanthathi (87 verses) and the Thiruvaimozhi (1102 verses). These four works are considered the equivalent of the four Vedas, Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana. It is also believed that Swami Nammazhwar did not move an inch from the hollow of the Tamarind tree but has the distinction of having all the deities of the Divya Desams visit him at this place to get their share of the pasurams sung by him in their praise. Sri Nammazhwar decided to leave his mortal coil at the young age of 32. Thanks to him, we have his beautiful Archya vigraham that Madurakaviazhwar made based on his instructions which I have spoken about in my previous temple (Thirukolur) description. It is said that when Swami Nammazhwar went to Sri Vaikuntam after shedding his mortal coil, Lord Sriman Narayanan himself opened the doors for him. My sincere wishes and prayers that everybody visit this place atleast once in their lifetime to get the divine blessings of Swami Nammazhwar.

After a fantastic and blissful day, we decided it was time to head back to Madurai. It had been a hectic day but we loved every minute of it. Finishing the Nava Thirupathi’s on a single day, that too on a purattasi sani was purely due to the grace and the blessings of Perumal, Thaayar and of course all our Azhwars and Acharyans. We decided to take a hotel close to the Madurai railway station as we were taking a train back that night. We found a decent hotel called Hotel Supreme. It was good enough for a single night. They also have a roof top restaurant which gave us a nice view of the Meenakshi Amman temple. The food was pretty average though so if you want to taste outside food, there are many restaurants close by.

We wanted to keep the last day a little less hectic as we had some important temples to cover. The first temple that we visited was the Koodalazhagar temple. Thirumangaiazhwar has sung a pasuram in praise of this Perumal. It is a magnificent temple where Perumal is in three different forms in a three tiered architecture. Perumal is in nindra (standing), amarntha (sitting) and kedantha (reclining) thirukolams. The name of Thaayar is Mathuravalli Thaayar. The amarntha thirukolam is huge and is at a height of around 6ft. There is a Swami Desikan Sannidhi situated very close to the Koodalazhagar temple but before we could finish our darshan and go there, it was closed for the morning. We were told that the Desikan Sannidhi is open only till 10am in the morning so anybody planning to go there, kindly plan accordingly.

The next temple holds a great degree of significance for all Vaishnavities and especially the residents of Madurai. The very mention of the name “Azhagar Koil” can give goosebumps to any Madurai native. The perumal is known by many names, the most famous being Azhagar. His other names include Paramaswami, Sundararajan, Sundaratholudayaan, Maalirum Solai Nambi etc.. Thaayar is known as Sundaravalli Thaayar. It is said that if Periyaperumal (The Lord of Srirangam) is the most beautiful in sayana kolam (reclining posture), then Azhagar, symbolic of his name is the most beautiful form of Perumal in ninra kolam (standing posture). This temple is a part of the 108 Divya Desams and there are many Azhwars who have sung in the praise of the Perumal of this temple. There are a totally 128 pasurams that reference the lord of this beautiful and divine Divya Desam. Boothathazhwar has sung 3 pasurams, Peyazhwar has sung 1 pasuram, Nammazhwar has sung about 46 pasurams, Periyazhwar has sung about 34 pasurams, Andal has sung 11 pasurams and Thirumangai azhwar has sung 33 pasurams. Apart from Azhwars, many acharyans have graced this beautiful temple. Sri Koorathazhwan, who was the right-hand of Swami Ramanujar, and who stayed in this Divya Desam for a long time when Swami Ramanuja had to go to Melkote due to the harassment at the hands of the Chozha king, has composed the beautiful SundarabAhu Sthavam in praise of Swami Kallazhagar. The image of Kallazhagar getting in to the Vaigai during the Chithirai festival is now a well-known phenomenon not only for the people of Madurai, but also for many devotees around the world who throng Madurai in lakhs to watch this spectacle. I also hope to watch it one day :).

Very close to Azhagarkovil is the beautiful Pazhamudhircholai Murugan temple which is one of the aaru padai veedu of Lord Murugan. This temple is supposed to be the last of the 6 temples in the Aaru padai veedu. There is a very famous story associated with this temple which all of us might have seen in the “Avvaiyar” movie or read about. It is said that Avvaiyar once visited Pazhamudhircholai and since it was very hot took refuge under the shadow of a fruit tree (Naaval pazham tree). A young boy sitting on the branches called out to her and inquired if she was tired and wanted some fruits. Avvaiyar said she would gladly accept them. The boy then asked her if she wanted “hot” or “cold” fruits. Avvaiyar for a second dismissed this statement by the boy as childish and asked him to just give her the fruits. The boy gently shook the branches and the fruits fell on the ground right below the tree. To blow the dust away, Avvaiyar blew on them. Seeing this, the boy asked her if the fruits were indeed hot and she was blowing them to cool them down. Avvaiyar then realized her folly of dismissing a young boy for his lack of knowledge and requested the boy to reveal his true identity. The boy revealed his true from as Lord Murugan with Valli and Devayanai. We had an excellent darshan here. The temple in itself is a very small temple but keep a watchout for the monkeys 🙂 There are plenty of them around.

For the grand finale, how could we leave Madurai without seeing Goddess Meenakshi Amman. The magnificence of this temple is better seen than told because there are actually no words to describe its beauty. I have wondered many times as to why this temple has not been included in the 7 wonders of the world. This has to be the grandest jewel on the crown of the Pandya Kings who created this wonderful temple. We should bow our head not only to King Kulesakara Pandyan who built this wonderful temple and then to his lineage of Pandya Kings who not only maintained this beautiful temple but also to the Nayakars and the kings of the Vijayanagara empire who had to rebuild this beautiful temple after it was plundered by the evil Mughal king Malik Kafur. We owe a debt of gratitude and thanks to all these wonderful kings, many of whom gave up their lives to save some of these wonderful temples in South India even after they were plundered and looted to no end by the Mughal Sultanate and ensure future generations live to see these magnificent structures and pieces of art and architecture. Unfortunately, the current generation is yet to learn to appreciate the effort and sacrifices our great kings had to make while building these temples. As I always say, we do not need to build any more new temples. We have enough temples, many in dilapidated conditions which need our help. Let us also ensure we do not dirty these beautiful houses of god. We cannot even dream to dedicate one stone to these temples. The least we can do is to help maintain them through the little things we do like not throwing garbage in temples, writing dirty messages on temple walls etc.. Not to get too emotional but it pains to see that just like in life, we will never know the worth of something unless we lose it. Moving on, we had a wonderful darshan of Meenakshi Amman in her raja alankaram. We took a VIP darshan which costs around INR 500/person but it is absolutely worth it. Since this temple has faced multiple threats even in recent times, security is absolutely tight. You are not allowed to take your mobile phones inside the temple and have to deposit it outside. Due to lack of time, we just had a darshan of Meenakshi Amman, Chockanathan and the Meenakshi-Sundareshwarar wedding shrine. There is also a sannidhi dedicated to a Siddhar in the prakaram right next to the Durga sannidhi called “Yellam valla Siddhar”. The place was literally throbbing with high energy. Please do visit and if possible do light a lamp.

With that, our Madurai-Tirunelveli trip which was all of 2 nights and 3 days came to and end and we got on to our train (Pandian express again) at the Madurai station. It leaves Madurai at 8:40 pm IST and reaches Chennai Egmore at around 4:30am the next day morning. Finally, my long-term dream of going to Madurai was fulfilled. The next time I plan to spend some more time also trying to flavor some of the local delicacies which Madurai is famous for.

Till my next travel.. cya all soon 🙂