Re: [Gujarati Club] Amazing Indian Temples::

 

thank you dost for your knowledgeful message. --- On Thu, 10/29/09, rakesh15 <no_reply@yahoogroups.com> wrote: From: rakesh15 <no_reply@yahoogroups.com> Subject: [Gujarati Club] Amazing Indian Temples:: To: gujaraticlub@yahoogroups.com Date: Thursday, October 29, 2009, 4:35 PM   Amazing Indian temples!! Come inside. You won't regret. Sri Ranganathar Temple, Trichy, Tamilnadu ( Please be little patient until the pictures load) I have no faith in god. But I am very proud of our ancient Hindu temples. I am mesmerized by the historic, artistic, architectural and cultural values of these temples. They have survived for more than one thousand years withstanding the natural calamities, invasions and changing weather. Other than the Pyramids, I wonder if there are any other architectural marvels in the world comparable to our temples. Thinking of our temples, I could only laugh when statute of liberty was nominated for `wonders of the world'. I am going to post information and pictures about few temples I know and admire. All of them are more or less one thousand years old. I showed the pictures of an ancient temple to a white American colleague. I told him it was built exactly 1000 years ago in 1010 AD and explained him a brief history of the temple. He was speechless and said "my nation is just 500 years old but your temples are 1000 years old". I will post information and pictures about this temple shortly. India can attract billions of dollars from tourism alone if our nature, history and culture are effectively promoted oversees. But the government is useless and the politicians are busy promoting themselves and their families. At least let me promote these historical and religious wonders to my fellow Indians in this forum. When living in India, Manhattan looks attractive. When living in Manhattan, our temples look attractive. I would be very happy if few people come to know about these temples by reading this thread. These pictures are not mine. I have collected these pictures from the internet. The credit goes to the respective photographers. Most of them are not copyrighted or commercial in nature. I extend my sincere thanks to them.   Nellaiappar Temple, Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu. Tirunelveli Tirunelveli is located 85 km north of Kanyakumari (southern most tip of India) on NH 7. It is well connected by road and rail. The nearest airports are: Tuticorin – 40km, Madurai – 150km and Trivandrum – 160km. There are trains and buses everyday from Chennai. Decent hotels and restaurants are available. Tirunelveli is also popular for Halwa ( a popular sweet in TN). Highlights of Nellaiappar Temple The main temple was built in 700 AD (appr. 1300 years ago) during Pandya kingdom for Nellaiappar (Shiva) and Gandhimathi (Parvathi) and later expanded. The temple measures 850 feet in length and 750 feet in width. This temple is bigger than Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple. There is a hall with 1000 carved stone pillars. The temple corridor is adorned with life size sculptures. Musical pillars in the Mani Mandapam are another speciality. When tapped, the musical stone pillars produce various sounds (musical notes). The temple car weighs 400 tons with beautiful wooden carvings and is 80 feet tall. People say there is a tunnel (behind Ravana sculpture) that connects this temple with Madurai for the secret use of Pandya king. A muslim queen built a shiva lingam in the name of Anavaratha Khan in the south-eastern corner of the temple thanking the god for curing her illness and bless her with a son. The muslim prince was also named Anavarata Khan. My visit I visited this temple during my last vacation with my family. The temple looks very ancient, historical, giant, magnificent and majestic. I had the following questions as soon as I entered the temple. Who conceived the idea of this giant structure? Who did the planning? How many people worked in this project? What did they eat, what did they wear and where did they live? How did they build this gigantic structure just with primitive tools, horses and bullock carts? There is a huge Nandhi carved out of single stone weighing at least 50-100 tons. How did they transport such a massive stone? Each pillar in the corridor looks at least 30 foot tall. How did they lift the pillar after carving? How did they carry the massive stone slabs to the ceiling? We walked through the long corridor wondering, touching and feeling the marvelous sculptures. I imagined for a moment as if the sculptor mystically comes alive from the pillar, introduces him to me and I fall in his feet to take his blessings. We saw 1000 pillar hall, musical pillars in the Mani Mandapam, Vasantha Mandapam and Tamira Sabha (with lots of intricate wood work). At one point, we reached the sanctum. One thousand years ago, king Pandya too would have worshipped lord Shiva from the same spot where I was standing. The thought made me shiver for a moment. In the last 1300 years, hundreds of kings would have visited this temple and millions of people would have worshipped the god. This temple would have witnessed thousands of monsoons, hundreds of droughts, few earthquakes and even few Tsunamis. What a great historical journey? It was a great experience visiting such an ancient temple. IMO, this temple is bigger and better than Madurai Meenakshi temple. Madurai temple is very popular because of the historical importance of Madurai. Madurai was the headquarters of Pandya kingdom. Entrance of the temple One of the 4 corridors Courtesy: Sankar Salvady@flickr A portion of 1000 pillar hall Nandhi Musical Pillar     Sri Subramaniar Temple, Tiruchendur, Tamilnadu Tiruchendur Tiruchendur is located on the shores of Bay of Bengal 60 km east of Tirunelveli and 40km south of Tuticorin. It is well connected by road and rail. The nearest airports are: Tuticorin – 40km and Madurai – 170km. There are trains and buses everyday from Chennai to Tuticorin. Decent hotels and restaurants are available. Tiruchendur is in Tuticorin district. Great freedom fighters V.O.Chidambaram Pillai and Maha Kavi Subramanya Barathi belong to this district. Highlights of Sri Subramaniar Temple The temple was built for Lord Subramaniya (aka Lord Muruga), the son of Lord Shiva. The temple is very ancient and mentioned in several of ancient mythical literatures. Inscriptions from 9th century indicate that Pandya king Varaguna Maran contributed gold to the maintenance of the temple in 875 AD. These inscriptions can be seen in the southeastern corner of the temple. The Dutch, after a brief invasion of this place in the 17th century, took the idol of Lord Muruga with them when leaving the country. Tirumalai Naicker, the then king of this region, sent ambassadors to recover the idol. The idol was returned by the Dutch in 1651 and reinstalled. The temple sits right on the shores of Bay of Bengal just few hundred feet away from the waves with a majestic and astonishing view. The tower is 137 feet tall with nine stoopis at the top indicating the nine towers.

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