[Leica] Photos of a Temple

[leowesson at gmail.com (leo wesson)]

Love looking at the temple's snapshots!
http://www.maduraimeenakshi.org/photo_gallery.php

Leo Wesson
Photographer/Videographer
817.733.9157
www.leowesson.com


On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 9:13 PM, Jayanand Govindaraj <jayanand at 
gmail.com>wrote:

> Thanks to everyone for looking and commenting. The complex gets
> painted and repaired, and then reconsecrated every 12 years, which was
> just over in April 2009, so it will look a little less bright in a
> couple of years! To answer George's questions - these complexes get
> built over the centuries by the local rulers, and each one adds his
> bits and pieces. Although a temple on this spot is supposed to have
> existed for 2500-3000 years, elements of the present temple date from
> the 11th century, and primarily built from the 16-18th centuries, by a
> dynasty called the Nayaks. The old temple is supposed to have been
> sacked by Muslim invaders around 1310AD. This temple though is
> something special, both in the architecture and ambiance, which is as
> a part of a living town - the Eastern entrance has hundreds of local
> shops, artisans, etc. all working and trading within the temple
> complex, some of whose concessions date back a couple of centuries.
> This complex was recently chosen as one of the 'Seven Wonders of
> India'.
>
> Hardly any of the great Indian historical buildings are built with
> slave labour, most have been executed by highly skilled artisans,
> families of whom exist even today - temple building is a recession
> proof industry. The embellishments are sculptures carved out of
> granite. I did not have a long lens with me at Madurai, but they are
> similar to the following detail shots from Chennai, also from a temple
> from around the same period, also dedicated to Siva:
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/album254/Temple_Tower_1.jpg.html
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/album254/Temple_Tower_2.jpg.html
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/album254/7.jpg.html
>
> If you want more details, what is better than the temple's own site
> (signs of modernity!):
>
> http://www.maduraimeenakshi.org/
>
> Wikipedia:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Temple
>
> Cheers
> Jayanand
>
> On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 12:46 AM, Stasys Petravicius <stasys1 at cox.net>
> wrote:
> > Jayanand- Nice images. So much color- it looks unreal! Stasys
> > On May 3, 2009, at 8:34 AM, Jayanand Govindaraj wrote:
> >
> >> I was in the temple town of Madurai a few days ago, if you can call a
> >> place with  2 million inhabitants a mere town, with a few hours free
> >> so I went to the monumental Meenakshi Sundareshwar temple there  where
> >> the god Siva (Sundareswar) and the goddess Meenakshi (Parvathi) are
> >> said to have wed, and around which the whole city has evolved. It is
> >> at the pinnacle of South Indian temple architecture, and is supposed
> >> to be 2500-3000 years old, though most of the temple buildings
> >> existent today date from the 11th to the 18th century. The whole
> >> temple complex is huge, around 45 acres, with the main temple itself
> >> measuring 254 by 237 metres, and has 12 huge goparams (temple towers).
> >> It had just been freshly painted and was nice and colourful! It was a
> >> very auspicious day and it was  quite crowded, so I kept a little away
> >> from the holiest spots. Anyway, a few pictures:
> >>
> >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Madurai/
> >>
> >> Comments & criticism, as always, welcome.
> >>
> >> Cheers
> >> Jayanand
> >>
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> >>
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