Meenakshi Temple

The acres and acres of tea shown like a giant, emerald carpet. With the worker girl’s colourful shirts shining in the morning dew like jems scattered carelessly. It was beautiful. These were my thoughts when i went to Munnar, A small town in Tamil Nadu (South of India), this summer. We drove up the hills in the cool morning air, my lips freezing because my brother insists on keeping the window open. The sight, were stunning. At the top of a hill, we find this tiny chai shop, which provides hot, strong cups of tea for travelers with brothers addicted to fresh air. All five us, sit on the hood of the car and watch the sun climbing up the hills, warming first the tea leaves picking women, then gently us. In that moment of peace I forgot the troubles of the world, the violence, the discrimination, I even forgot the existence of a certain relative of mine who aims to freeze my nose…almost.

From Munnar, we drove to….. Madurai!!! To see the Meenakshi Temple. Now Meenakshi Temple is an ancient Hindu temple located in the temple-city of Madurai. Madurai is a temple-city pretty much because it has enough temples to satisfy ALL the gods of Hinduism. That is about thirty three million. Basically the bloody place is full of temples. 

The Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, Tiru-aalavaa,or the Meenakshi Amman Temple, is a temple to honour goddess Parvati and her consort the great destroyer god, Shiva. (Destroying may seem bad, however it also indicates a new beginning or birth, therefor it is actually a good thing.) This temple is the heart and life line of this 2500 year old city. According to the stories, the second king of the Pandyas, King Malayadwaja Pandya and his wife Kanchanamalai performed a puja for a child and heir. So Godess Parvati comes and gives them a girl child known as Tadaatagai. She had three breasts. However the King and Queen were told to not worry about it as it would disappear when she meets her future husband.

Tadaatagai was actually an avatar of Pravati herself. So when Tadaatagai, grew up and became the heir to the throne she had to fight battles in the three worlds, through eight directions. She fought through Brahama’s world, Sathyaloka. Then our badass princess moved on to her own divine brother’s abode, the Vaikunta, then she captured the Deva’s home, Amaravati. From there she advanced to the almighty Shiva’s abode, the Kailasha. Here she defeats Shiva’s army as well as his sacred bull, Nandi. She then travels to defeat Shiva himself. However, when she sees Shiva, her third breast vanishes. She had met her mysterious husband.

 

From their Tadaatagai, realises that she is infact an avatar of Parvati. And Shiva and her get married and happily rule the land of Madurai, as  Meenakshi and Sundareswaran

I liked this story because Parvati is so badass… Actually most Hindu goddesses are. I wish they hadn’t been corrupted and forgotten so much through history

bye…