Introduction
Out of numerous temples present in the Temple city of Madurai, the most important and famous one is the ‘Madurai Meenakshi Temple’ . If you have searched the word ‘Madurai Temple’ on Google, you probably did that to know more details of ‘Madurai Meenakshi Temple’ aka ‘Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareshwarar Temple’.In that case, you have reached the right place to gather everything you need about this holy destination. Without further ado, Let’s delve deep!
Where is located?
Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareshwarar Temple is located in the Temple city of Madurai. It is located exactly in the central part of Temple City. The ancient city of Madurai was built around this temple making it the center point. Here is the distance to the Temple from other parts of India City Distance New Delhi 2613 km, Kolkata2130 km, Mumbai1425 km, Ahemadabad1934 km, Bangalore 436 km, Goa1026 km, Hyderabad1004 km, Chennai463 km, Thiruvananthapuram 314 km, Kochi270 km, Kozhikode 359 km, Dindigul 64 km, Palani122 km, Tirupati 525 km, Coimbatore 210 km, Munnar154 km.
Who constructed ?
King Kulasekhara Pandya of the Pandya Dynasty built this temple from 1190 through 1216 CE. However, the structure as we see it today wasn’t built by this King. The temple underwent several renovations and reconstructions. At a particular point in time in history, the temple was destroyed. On another occasion, everything in the temple was looted by armies from the Delhi Sultanate. To be precise, this plunder happened in the 14th century AD. Anyway, I’m not going deep into those details as it isn’t the main focus of this article.
History of Madurai
If you are willing to read more about the history of Madurai and this Temple,
You can consider reading the following books.
Meenakshi Temple, Madurai by K. Thiagarajan (PDF)
Meenakshi Temple has a lot to reveal and it rightly points to one of the oldest civilizations in the world which existed in Tamilnadu. The temple and the archeological things associated with this temple speak volumes of the history of the then Tamilnadu.
The city Literature and several other ancient works of literature point to this ancient city and this holy temple which is exclusively dedicated to the Lordess Parvathy and the Lord Siva.
The architecture, Paintings, and Constructions present in and around the Meenakshi temple are evidence of the fact that the then elites of the society gave imminent importance to these things. They actively encouraged the Art and Artisans. It is very rare to find an ancient civilization that actively encouraged Art and social progressiveness. As mentioned in this post, the Meenakshi temple is one of the important monuments in the history of India as well as that of Tamilnadu.
Other Important Places Near Meenakshi Temple is a place of utmost importance, it is also important that you don’t miss out on places near this temple. There are several tourist attractions near Madurai temple.
Must visit places in Madurai
Here, I have handpicked five must-visit places if you are roaming around Meenakshi Temple: Thirumalai Nayak Mahal, Vaigai Dam, Meghamalai, Alagar Koil, and Gandhi Museum. Also, I have written a comprehensive article including a few of the must-visit places around Dindigul, which is located within 100 kilometers of Madurai. Do read that article from here. Do let me know in the comments what other things you would like me to cover regarding Madurai Temple. Cheers!
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