Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c27.17

c27.17

The other sanctuary of the Madura temple, that of the consort, or associate deity, Minakshi, the "fish eyed", so called as this form of eye is traditionally regarded as of surpassing beauty, is an enclosure attached to the south side of the foregoing, somewhat to the rear, and is a half-size reproduction having one compartment within another, of the adjacent Siva sanctuary. Its exterior measurements are 225 feet by 150, and it is entered by two gopurams, that on the east being comparatively small, but the western one is larger. Rising above the flat roof between the two is the cupola of the shrine, as in the Siva temple. Lying towards the front of the Minakshi sanctuary, in the angle made by that and the Siva enclosure, and forming an important feature of the temple as a whole is a rectangular sheet of water surrounded by steps and with a pillared portico on its four sides. This is the "Pool of the Golden Lilies," an artificial reservoir measuring 165 feet by 120 feet, its picturesque appearance being considerably enhanced by the great mass of the southern gopuram, over 150 feet high, as its background and reflected on its surface. (Plate LXXVII). Not far from the north-east corner of the tank in the outer enclosure is a fair sized gopuram placed across the line of approach to the Minakshi sanctuary, marking a processional passage to that shrine from the outside, and thus indicating an independent entrance. Large and small there are eleven gopurams to the Madura temple, the four outer ones being of the first class as they are all over 150 feet high. There is one other important and spacious structure in the temple scheme and that is the court of a thousand pillars, added about the year 1560 by Arianayakam Mudali, minister of the founder of the Nayak dynasty. This hypostyle hall occupies an appreciable portion of the north-east angle of the outer *prakaram*, covering a space of 240 feet by 250 feet. Its front, which faces south, lies alongside the wide pillared approach of the main entrance, and the doorway is also on the same side. Symmetrical in its arrangements the interior consists of central aisle with a double row of columns on either side, leading up to a small shrine at its northern end dedicated to Sabhapati; behind the colonnades forming the aisle are row upon row of pillars making up the total of 985 in all. As with the other halls forming this temple the hypostyle hall has no architectural exterior, it is merely a low flat-roofed structure, remarkable only for its interior with its unending range of grotesquely carved piers.