South India trip continues to Madurai

January 24 – Friday

Today we left Tanjore (Thanjavar)after breakfast, which was hastily moved from the buffet room to the bar next door – we were sent there to eat, only to find no food, chairs, dishes etc. Five minutes later a wave of waiters and breakfast rolled in.

En route to Madurai, the 2nd largest city in Tamil Nadu, we saw more rice – Tamil Nadu is the rice bowl of India, and many other crops are grown here, too, including peanuts and sugarcane. We saw the latter today. We also saw many people shelling and prepping cashews for market, even stopping to watch as they heated the nuts to get the outer coating off, then roasted and bagged them to sell.

We also stopped at a forested temple (my term – no doubt they have a formal name for it). It was in a very peaceful setting – a remote area of the village with lots of trees and greenery around, the walkway to the temple lined with plaster horse statues. Many were missing heads and in a state of disrepair, while mingled throughout were recent colorful statues. Apparently each year for festival new horses are created and added to the mix and the others are left to decompose.

Priests were doing special blessings or ceremonies as we wandered through and many villagers were on hand as it was some kind of festival or holiday.

A group of kids followed us in and out, pressing close, curious to learn more about us -- as is often the case here – too close for my children. As we departed we watched a family working on separating rice from chaff by hand and with the help of oxen.

Another stop we made was at a bird sanctuary. Ramu said normally many more birds can be seen in the water there. I can’t imagine the places with more than what we saw – hundreds in the trees and swooping across the river, where a few locals were fishing. Most white and gray, chirping in the trees.

A little further down the road we climbed a fort for a fabulous view of the area. It was a steep climb up age old rocks, with the fort wall making a jagged path down the steep slopes around it. Several Indian families also made the climb, perching on rocks to visit and enjoy the view. The rocks were HUGE and looked like they might tumble down the hill at any minute.

At midday we reached Madurai and ate at a favorite local spot of our driver. He ate with us as everyone spoke Hindu and I somehow doubt they get many tourist customers. We were served on banana leaves, no utensils. Messy but delicious mutton biryani over rice, as well as some kind of vegetable over rice and fried fish. The mutton was wonderful; I later learned it was goat, which is often served in this area.

I tried a little shrimp curry, too, which was very good – kids ate rice and I was able to track down spoons for them. Let me just say rice is not easy to eat with fingers. Thankfully a sink was close by, as napkins aren’t the norm in this restaurant, either.

Incredibly good food and the rice was fluffy and white (later we had rice with a red streak in it, another time it was a more yellowed color – many different varieties throughout Tamil Nadu and Kerala).

That food experience was delicious, authentic and memorable – and inexpensive. Can’t beat that.

Ramu said Madurai never sleeps and that people here celebrate food. Most are non-veg, he added.

We met up with our guide after checking into the hotel and headed to the Thirumalai Nayak Palace, which was built in 1636 by King Thirumalai Nayak.

It was the main palace where the king lived, the original complex was four times bigger than the present structure. (Much of it was destroyed by the great grandson of the king who had it built, as he’d been told by his astrologer that it was bad luck to live there.)

The Palace is a classic example of the Indo-Saracenic style of architecture, divided into two major parts: Swargavilasa and Rangavilasa. The royal residence, theatre, shrine, apartments, armory, palanquin place, royal bandstand, quarters, pond and garden were situated in these two portions. A total of 1,000 huge pillars were used in the complex. High walls running 300 m from the east to the west, 200 m from the north to the south and 12 mt high enclosed the complex. These walls are called the Pari Madil and are said to have survived till a hundred years ago.

Today what remains is a courtyard and the theatre used for dance entertainment for the royals.

All was under renovation so we could see bursts of fresh color amidst the scaffolding, along with gorgeous detailed ceilings, lovely arches and immense pillars. Apparently the structure has appeared in several Ballywood films.
We walked around the dance theatre, where statues were exhibited. (They're normally kept in the center, which was also full of scaffolding made from local trees.) The statues were mostly gods uncovered during excavation and building of the Palace, according to our guide.

From the palace we went to the most important temple in the region, the Meenakshi Temple (also called the Great Temple) which is visited by thousands each day. Much of it was being restored; every 12 years everything is repainted. It takes 9 mos to complete (it’s important to follow this specific timeframe as it has to do with important numbers in astrology and Hinduism).

Because of the holiness of this temple I had to put on a long sleeved shirt and my Capri pants were too short so I had to wrap a dhoti (cloth that is wrapped around and tied to be held in place) around my legs. (BTW in South India I’ve seen the majority of men dressed in dhotis. There are various ways of wearing this garment – wrapped around and up between the legs, more like shorts, or long and wrapped up in the middle, a bit more like baggy pants, or as a sarong. Common sight to see men rearranging the dhoti regularly. The garment was most often paired with long sleeved shirt. Ramu said it's the ideal garment to deal with the intense heat/humidity in summer.

Ramu says white dhotis are worn by men for important occasions – meetings, events, etc.

The temple is huge, covers something like 60-65 hectares. Lots of halls, shrines, etc. 108 is an auspicious number for Hindus, we were told, so for example we saw a big oil lamp holder in one of the temple entrances – it holds 108 oil lamps.

This temple is the only “twin” temple. The temple in the southern side is dedicated to Sri Meenakshi, the consort of lord Sundareswarar (Shiva), and the other to lord Sundareswarar. This is one of the biggest temple complexes of India. The temple is about 258 meters in length and about 241.4 meters in breadth. Of the five Gopuras (towers) that surround the 48.8 meters high southern tower is the tallest. The towers are noted for stuccowork.

Below is what I understood from our guide; I apologize if I’m relaying conjecture:

The twin representation came about when the temple was being rebuilt after its destruction by Moghuls. Both types of worshippers wanted to be represented, so a legend was improvised to incorporate both (hence the twin piece). Carvings relaying this story can be seen on the walls.

Temples in general feature carvings that relay stories/messages. Hymns and stories are etched or written, along with pictures. Our guide said many of them represent fables from the gods’ lives and carry messages about life in general – sex, marriage, family, work, community. He said figures carved in stone share information about procreation (examples of the process) so people over the years “know how to do it” (though he hastened to say they don’t practice at the temple).

We sat near the temple tank, which is used during festival time, learning more about the religion. Our guide talked about the important of the 5 elements in the Hindu religion, enabling people to clear their minds and relate to gods/goddesses. Earth, water, fire, air and space. So for example people walk barefoot in temples to experience the acupressure from the uneven ground, a healthful experience that can aid in connecting w/ the gods.

He said there are 30,000 Hindu gods – think of a person in different roles – father, brother, husband, student, boss, employee, etc. and relate that to gods being depicted in a wide array of roles.

From the temple we went to a “tower” – top of a government controlled shop that the tour company has a contract with. Guides brings tourists to the shops for fleecing. Nice things, though, and bargaining is an option. This time we just skipped up to the top, enjoyed the sunset over a vast array of rooftops haphazardly laid out around the city. Reminded me of Florence with its rooftops of various shapes, sizes and colors, with a haze of pollution and an orange red sunset. We also had a nice view of the vast temple area.

The rooftop would be a lovely spot for a small outdoor café but the owner said it would soon be way to hot to sit outside.

Thereafter, miracle of miracles, my Citibank card came through with cash (biggest challenge in India: our banking).

Now to fulfill an ice cream quest (temple exploration has its excitement limitations for the 3 and 7 year old crowd, who are not into taking off shoes and have cheeks pinched by half the temple attendees).

Now how is it that when you don’t want ice cream the shops are everywhere and when you NEED the stuff it’s no where to be found? We ended up at a vegetable market/quasi small supermarket and got the pre-packaged cones – seemed a bit healthier than the stuff out of tubs – those looked like they’d thawed and re-frozen a few times. Refrigeration is a little shaky here due to power outages.

In homes, our driver said, refrigerators are a rarity – for his family included. So every day women buy fresh food from the market and prepare it soon after bringing it home. (I love the market but have no plans to relinquish my fridge and Harris Teeter card any time soon.)

After dinner at the hotel we headed back to that mammoth temple again, this time to meet our guide for the nightly ceremony of putting Shiva to bed with his wife (no doubt it carries more significance than my Catholic lay person’s explanation). A crowd was hovering – mix of Hindus and tourists. First was a procession of a different god via palanquin, carried by 4 Brahmin priests (highest caste; priesthood runs in the family, and even positions at temples are passed down. Later we passed through a very nice neighborhood near the temple. That area is largely inhabited by Brahmin priests, we were told).

The priests doing the bedtime rituals were shirtless and wore special dhotis and paint/symbols on their faces and bodies. They held candles, sang and were accompanied by music. Apparently their prayers are all in the Sanskrit language (the basis of today's Hindi and other languages spoken througout India, such as Latin is root of French, Spanish, etc.).

Our procession started at 9:30 (time changes slightly for this ceremony each day due to moon, I think). First Shiva’s shoes were removed, then he was paraded around on palanquin to say goodnight to his 2 sons en route. Our guide, who was great w/ the kids, whisked Claire around and I held Ava for a better view.

The ceremony happened quickly and we only saw the palanquin with curtains on it and shoes being removed as Shiva doesn’t appear until inside the chamber, where non-Hinds are not allowed.

About our guide here: the youngest of 7 children, he is studying business and speaks several languages. His brother was getting married in a few days and he gave us an invitation – alas we’ll be in Kerala while the event takes place.

The brother’s marriage was arranged; I asked the guide about his status and he said his case is different. He fell in love and his parents are “ok with it.” She’s from a different caste and her parents are not ok with it. He didn’t elaborate further, nor did I ask. How sad for all parties, I think.