A Trip down South - Part 2

Link to the first part: A Trip down South - Part 1

We started from Rameswaram to Madurai in a bus. It was a 180k transit, which owing to the tremendous quality of the bus and the heat, that jaded us out. There are two things about Madurai

• It hot there. When a Telugu dude tells you it is hot, it is hot! 
• It is hard to survive there if you don't know Tamil. You'll be robbed by every fellow there. 

It is one of the oldest cities in India dating back to at-least 2-3 BC. I went there to visit the famous Meenakshi temple, which has been around for about a couple of millennia now. The best part of the temple were the sculptures in it. Luckily, I was allowed to carry my camera inside and hence was able to click a few pictures.

The temple complex was again gigantic, though not as big as the Rameswaram one. When I went there in the evening, there was an evening ritual going on. There were lots of people attending it and with all the lights on, I was able to click these  pictures of the corridor. 

                                                                                                        

The detailing of the works of arts there was something that astounded me.  There were several hundred dainty carvings.  One other spectacle in the temple was the thousand pillared hall, of which about 980 remain. On each of these pillars are carvings of delicate details. 

One of the doors that has been dismantled

The famed musical pillars

One of the pillars in the 1000 pillared hall

Inside the hall of thousand pillars itself, are exhibited some old albeit beautiful carvings of various gods and goddesses. The usual Nataraja ( form of dancing Siva) standing on the right foot with his left foot in the air (like the one below). But in here, there is a form in which Nataraja stands on his left foot with his right foot in the air. 

Something else that is rather special to this temple is the Gopurams. 

The North Gopuram

I think this is the East Gopuram

From Madurai, we went to a small place called Thirupparakundram, which is about 10k from Madurai.  It has a temple of Lord Subramanya and the story goes that he wed Indra's daughter in that place. It is situated right at the foot of a small hillock on top of which is an another temple which I didn't visit. I was robbed in the most debonair of fashions here. There was a small shrine and next to it was a person who was giving some white balls that looked like butter. I, in all my naivety, thought that someone was distributing some prasadam. I was taken aback when he asked for 10 Rs. On inquiring the reason, he said that he was selling that butter for a ritual there. He wouldn't take it back because it was for "God" and I've touched it. Never been robbed in a better fashion. The main temple in that place is a rather dungeonous place, pitch dark save the few lights they had in place. This temple, like the others, was also very crowded and packed. I came back to Madurai after this expedition and the left for Palani in the evening.

Palani, again, was the abode of Subramanya. This time, the shrine was on the temple. In the town of Palani was a large Malayali population influence to the level that almost all the shops had their names written both in Tamil and Malayalam. The hill-station of Kodaikanal is very vicinal to this place. The level of crime (I like to call it that) was very high here too. One had to pay 50 more bucks after buying the actual 10Rs ticket. The tonsurer (!) was very much ready to pick-up a fight over that money. 

There are three ways to get to the top of the hill, to where the temple was. The first one was the usual take the stairs. There was also a winch and a rope-way. I didn't take the rope-way because the alighting point for it was a bit far from the town. The winch moves at a snail's place that at a point I thought I would be faster taking the stairs. I went to the temple twice, once the evening I got there and once the next morning. I took the stairs while coming down in the evening and both ways the next morning. 

Saw these guys while climbing down.

View of the Palani town from the top of the hill

I would like to make some general observations about that trip and the place. These are not intended to  be racist or regionalist. It was very very hot even in the mid of September. If you like idlis and sambar, you are gonna have a gala time. The bus transport there has to be avoided as much as possible as it is very tough to travel in that heat in those buses. 

That is all that I can recall about that trip. 

Cheers