A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.117

c21.117

Among the more important temples of this period may be named those of Madura, Śrīrangam and Jambukeśvara, Tiruvālūr, Rāmeśvaram, Chidambaram, Tinnevelly, Tiruvaṇṇāmalai and Śrīvilliputtūr. The temple of Madura is, perhaps, the most typical of them, most of it having been built at one time. It is a double temple, one dedicated to Sundareśvara and the other to his consort Mīnākshi. These two shrines take the largest space inside the main enclosure, an area 850 feet by 725 within a high wall, with four large gōpuras towards the centre of each of its four sides. The main entrance is on the east and communicates with a beautiful pillared avenue 200 feet long and nearly 100 feet wide. This leads to a smaller gōpura, the eastern entrance to the second prākāra—a rectangle 420 feet by 310, with a gōpura in the middle of each of its sides smaller than the outer gōpura. Most of this second enclosure is roofed in, while a part of the northern side is open. Within there is a smaller covered court, 250 feet by 160 feet, entered by only one gateway from the east. It is outside this entrance that a very elaborate grouping of pillars, in some ways the most impressive part of the scheme, is found. Within the last enclosure is the main temple with the usual three compartments, the cella being surmounted by a śikhara which projects above the flat roof covering the whole of this part of the temple. All the corridors and halls in these enclosures have long colonnades of pillars in the characteristic style of the period offering vistas in all directions. The sanctuary of Mīnākshi is an enclosure attached to the southern side of the main temple and somewhat to its rear, and is a smaller replica of the main temple, roughly half its size. It measures 225 feet by 150 feet and is entered by two gōpuras, a relatively small one on the east and a larger one on the west. As in the adjacent Śiva temple, the śikhara of the sanctum rises above the flat roof of the temple. In front of the temple of Mīnākshi is the Tank of Golden Lilies (Pl. XVII), a reservoir 165 feet by 120 feet, surrounded by steps and a pillared portico on the sides. Its picturesque appearance is enhanced by the background of the southern gōpura, over 150 feet high, which is reflected on its surface. Near the north-east corner of the tank, a fair-sized gōpura marks a processional passage from outside to the Mīnākshi temple, and constitutes an independent entrance to that shrine. The Hall of a Thousand Pillars in the north-east angle of the outer prākāra covers an area 240 feet by 250 feet, and its front which faces south lies alongside of the wide, pillared approach to the main temple. Its interior is symmetrical in the arrangement of the pillars and includes a central aisle leading up to a small shrine of Sabhāpati at its northern end. The sculptures on the pillars, says Fergusson, ‘surpass those of any other hall of its class I am acquainted with’. Outside the main enclosure but in axial alignment with the eastern gōpura and separated from it by a street, is the Pudumaṇḍapam known also as ‘Tirumalai’s choultry’. This is a large open hall 350 feet by 105 feet, divided longitudinally into a nave and two aisles by four rows of pillars, all very elaborately carved. The pillars towards the centre of the hall bear life-size statues of the Nāyak kings of Madura, the latest being that of Tirumalai, the builder of the maṇḍapa.