INSIDE THE TEMPLE

This week J.VASANTHAN takes you to his favourite haunt, the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple.

AS A college student in the early 50s, I used to visit the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple with a group of friends almost every other day. It was our favourite haunt.

We used to walk across the Albert Victor Bridge, go past Sokkanathar Koil, and enter the temple on the eastern side. After spending a lot of time admiring the architecture and the sculptures, we would exit on the western side, go through West Tower Street to Town Hall Road, and then back to the hostel by city bus.

Fabulous sculpture


We never seemed to tire of this routine. The temple was full of surprises. Every day we discovered some new aspect or some small exquisite idol. The sculptural marvels like the musical pillars or the pebble in the simha's mouth fascinated us. We debated endlessly on how the sculptor would have carved the pebble. And sometimes, egged on by my friends, I played a tune on the musical pillars, usually Swarajathi, a remnant of my brief foray into Carnatic music during my school days.

Meeting Sivakkizhar


One day as we were roaming about inside the temple, we noticed that a religious discourse was just starting in one of the Adi streets. We sat down to lisen. The topic was `Karaikkal Ammaiyar', and the speaker was Sivakkizhar Thirunavukkarasu. We came to know that he was quite often a stand-in for Kripanandha Variar.

There was a certain arrogant self-assurance about Sivakkizhar, which was justifiable, we presumed, considering his mastery of the subject. Unlike most other speakers, he didn't sing, which was a good thing perhaps, since he had a hoarse, rasping voice. But he had a fund of anecdotes and a rollicking sense of humour. We enjoyed the discourse thoroughly.

After the talk we went over to meet him. He was a short, stocky, middle-aged man, with a lantern jaw and a thick mop of prematurely grey hair. He was surprised that youngsters like us had been a part of his audience; and even more surprised to know that we visited the temple often. He seemed to take a liking to us, and we to him. After some judicious questioning he came to realize that we didn't know much about the temple.

"I'll take you around and explain things to you," he said. "I will be back in Madurai next week. How about Thursday?"

A guided tour


We agreed to meet at six in the evening just outside the East Tower. Those days the gopurams were not multi-coloured like now. They were monochromatic, mainly a light yellow ochre with some dark patches here and there. Somehow we still prefer that to the present colour scheme. On Thursday we stood gazing at the eastern gopuram when Sivakkizhar appeared and took us on a grand tour of the temple. This was the first of several such excursions he took us on during the next two years.

He guided us through places we had never seen before. He took us right into the sanctum sanctorum, behind the main idol, ignoring a few priests who tried to object. He showed us the remains of the ancient tree under which the idol must have originally stood. And he had a novel explanation for every piece of sculpture in the temple.

He also told us about the principle on which the temple had been constructed. This theory may have been familiar to many, but for us it was new and fascinating.

The Dwara Balakas


"When you go into the temple you come across hundreds of idols," said Sivakkizhar. "Does that mean there are hundreds of Gods? Before you enter the temple you see these two small figures at the entrance. They are the Dwara Balakas. What do they say?" And we learnt what they said. One of the dwara balakas held out one finger. He was saying, "Yeham Yeva" (There is only one God). And the other balaka held out two fingers of one hand, and a negative gesture in the other. "Na dvaidam Brahmam" (There are no two Gods). So there might be thousands of manifestations of God; but there is only one God.

A fascinating theory


Sivakkizhar also explained to us the structure of the temple. "The temple is constructed in the form of a human being. Assume a person is lying down on his back. His feet will be pointing upwards. That is the gopuram. Count the kumbhas on the gopuram. There are ten, like the toes on one's feet." We enter the temple as if we were entering between the legs of the prone person. And we come to the lingam. If you go to the right, that is the left of the prone person, where the heart would be, is where the Sokkanathar shrine is. The tank (potramaraikulam) represents the human lungs and the flagstaff (kodimaram) stands for the vertebral column. The number of ridges on the kodimaram correspond exactly to the number of vertebrae a human being has. And finally the chief deity is in the position of the brain. And so on.

God is in man


"So what does this tell you?" Sivakkizhar asked, and proceeded to give the answer himself. "You go within the temple to find God, and then realize that God is within you."

We lost touch with Sivakkizhar after that. But what he told us about the temple still lingers on in our minds.

(The author can be contacted

at jvasanthan@sancharnet.in)





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