< gateway to the Minaskshi temple, Madurai, mainly 1336-1736. The gateways are repainted every 12 years >

A to B - Varkala to Madurai:
We are only on the reservation list for the 8 hour sleeper train to Madurai. The train is full, and we have to share a bunk and endure a fitful night , hunched in a space for one with the smell from the toilets stinging our nostrils. In this endless night, the sound of the train on the track meditated repeatedly "------TAMIL---NADU, ----------TAMIL ---NADU------". Arrive so early that we had to seek refuge in the temple - the only place open.

-----
Madurai, and suddenly its Disneyland.

The temple dominates the city with its towering gateways (gopurams) marking the entrances to the hotbed of activity inside.

Each gopuram was covered in cartoon like sculpted figures clambering atop each other, scaling the tower in a mass of flailing limbs. Lurid cartoon like colours are used in their decoration contrasting with the grey concrete town.

The interior in contrast was a dark labyrinth infused with perfume and mystery. We stayed a full day observing the amazing activities and rituals around us.

The temple elephant blessing all those who deposited a coin in its trunk.
Devotees laying prostrate before lingams.
Old men chatting the day away around the striped bath and shaven headed widows begging by the entrance.
Golden icons of Shiva and his wife being fanned then carried in noisy ceremony into each others bedrooms at night.
Custered stalls energetically touting novelty temple goods.
The temple as the heartbeat of the town is never better experienced than here.

-------------
And in the midle of town, the most sci-fi bar ever seen, the APOLLO 96, with star treck doors, thousands of LED covering walls and ceiling, blasting pop....

"A persistent feature of the skyline of the densily populated Tamil country is the pyramidal gopuram gateway, whose height is anything between 20 and 60 m. They give access to expansive walled temple complexes, usually comprising four concentric enclosures. The outmost enclosure, open to the sky and entered through gopurams on each of its four sides, contains halls and shrines, as well as large, step-lined water tanks. The next, more compact, walled enclosure, entered through smaller gopurams, is also open to the sky, with a similar array of halls and shrines. The third enclosure, generally covered with a roof, has one or two compact gopurams. Finally a single, small gopuram, leads to the innermost roofed area which houses the sanctum."

Indian Art, Vidya Dehejia, Art & Idea, Phaidon

< hall of a thousand pillars, Minakshi temple, Madurai, 1569 >