Temples of Tamil Nadu

NOTE: Please see photo albums to the right for photos related to this post.

   I'm writing this from the airport in Chennai where we are changing planes between Madurai, our last stop in Tamil Nadu, and Kochin, in Kerala. Originally we were to have a short layover here, but a couple of weeks ago the airline canceled our flight from Chennai to Kochin, rebooking us on a flight that gave us a six hour layover in Chennai. But no problem, we dodged that long wait in the airport by having our flight from Madurai to Chenni called off at the last minute because when it landed to pick us up the engine gobbled up a peacock. A peacock. The national bird. When I boarded I noticed a guy had crawled up in the engine and was sweeping it up with a hand broom and dust pan. Turned out to be what was left of the peacock. We sat on the plane longer than the flight would have taken, then were marched off again, sent to the terminal, issued new boarding passes, rerouted back through security and onto our plane again, with the same seats. By the time we arrived in Chennai we only had time for a long lunch. So much for the six hour layover, and it appears we'll make our way to Kerala on time. Tomorrow we board two houseboats for a tropical cruise through backwater canals, visiting villages and just hanging out.

   We spent the last few days visiting two of the most important temple towns in Tamil Nadu, Thanjavur and Maduri. These two cities were historically part of the Chola empire, which dominated this part of South India from about the 12^th through the 15^th centuries. During this time period they built massive Hindu temples, hewn from stone with intricately decorated towers reaching five to six stories. These are huge sites, many with large open plazas surrounding the central temple buildings. People come not only to worship but to picnic and lounge in the shade. These are social as well as devotional spaces, and on the days we visited were packed with people. In Thanjuvar we visited the Brihadeeshwarar Temple and the Nayak Place Art Museum. The museum contains some of the most stunning Chola bronze sculptures to be found in the world, indeed, some of the most stunning bronze sculptures period. These bronzes were originally kept in the temples and had been buried during the Muslim invasion from the north. Most laid buried for centuries before being discovered. I've posted some photos from the museum collection in the Photo Albums menu to the right. They are just stunning.

   The temple itself is a sprawling space, acres in size (again, please see the Photo Albums to the right). One enters the walled temple grounds through an arch which opens up into the grounds itself, with the temple set in the center. The central temple is massive, the figures decorating it unpainted (painting the figures on these temples, which illustrate episodes from sacred Hindu texts like the Ramayana, apparently began only in the 19^th century). All of the pillars at the base contain carvings of the gods reminiscent of the figures we saw in the bronze museum. Surrounding the central temple are plazas (paved and planted with grasses) and raised walk ways. Where this temple is designed as an outdoor space, primarily, the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple in Madurai, which we visited yesterday, is a massive indoor space. The crowds enter an arched door and move directly into a labryinth of highly decorated walkways lined with souvenier shops and others selling devotional objects. Where the walls are uncolored carved stone, the ceilings are a riot of colors. People flow through these innter walkways of the temples, moving under its giant towers, as they make there way through the various devotional spots where they stop to pray or receive a blessing from priest. The Photo Album menu to the left contains a link to the photos I took both inside and outside this temple.

   The striking thing about these temples is the way they mix devotion and spectacle. The crowds who flow into these temples have come to commune with Shiva or Ganesha or Vishnu, to venerate them and to seek their blessings, so there is no denying the spirituality of these places and the way in which theyt function as devotional sites. Yet there's no denying, too, the carnival atmosphere of the place, its link to social spaces like Coney Island or an arcade-filled boardwalk. Commerce and kitsch abound, and Meenakshi Sundareswarar in particular is a riot of color. In Meenakshi bare-chested priests wearing beads and loin cloths and painted with ash mix with women in colorful sarees, others in wester clothes, and screeching children. Devotional oil lamps and candles burn everywhere and add their colors to the stone carvings smeared with tumeric and decorated with flowers left to honor them. As I noted earlier, the other striking thing about these two temples is that the temple at Thanjuvar is an outside space, while the one at Madurai is an inside space. At Thanjuvar your go into the santuaries under the temple towers, but all of the strolling, socializing, and moving about takes place outside in the sweeping courtyards, while the temple at Madurai is a web of interior spaces that unfolds like a labryinth underneath the temple towers. This one is like a huge indoor mall, while the one at Thanjuvar is an outdoor public space, more like Millenneum Park than, say, the Vatican. You'll see the difference in the two sets of pictures I've posted.