Meenakshi Amman Temple

 

Lord Shiva (Left) and Ganesh (Right) South tower, Meenakshi Amman Temple (6th Century B.C.E.,). Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Temples are structures designed for religious or spiritual activities such as prayer, worship, meditation,   To understand the importance of each temple, we must understand the history behind the creation of each temple. This temple, in particular, is named Meenakshi Amman. Meenakshi Amman is a temple built in the 6th-century B.C.E., in Madurai, a major historic city in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. According to Hindu legend, the royal couple King Malayadwaja Pandya and his wife, Queen Kanchanamalai prayed to Lord Shiva for a son to pass their throne down to. Instead of a son, Lord Shiva sent them the Hindu Goddess Parvati (goddess of fertility, love, beauty, harmony, marriage, children, devotion, divine strength, and power) in the form of a three-year-old, three-breasted girl whom the couple then named Meenakshi. The royal couple was told by a divine voice that the daughter's third breast would disappear when she would meet her husband. Later on in life, Meenakshi met Lord Shiva, and her third breast went away. Knowing that this was her destined husband, the two married in the temple now known as Meenakshi Amman Temple. 

Meenakshi Amman Temple, 6th Century B.C.E., Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India

Because this temple is known as the marriage site for Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, the temple is very sacred. It is one of the oldest and most important temples in India, not only providing religious insight but cultural insight with the structure itself. Temples in the Hindu religion, like temples of other religions, hold great cultural importance. Designed to look like mountains, the temples are believed to be the linkage of heaven and earth, for mountains are believed to be the top of the world's axis. The symbolism in their structure designed to bring humans and gods together. The art decorating the temples are designed to not only tell the stories surrounding the Hindu religion but to reinstall the beliefs and ideas of Hinduism to the followers of the said religion. The way the structure was created and the materials used provides insight into the daily lives of the people of the past, how they thought to use certain items and how they learned to craft things in such a way to last a long time. 

Temples hold various reasons for importance, whether it be a place of religious significance such as a wedding between to gods or a place where a god was believed to descend from, they all hold cultural importance to the society where the temples remain in. Decorated with art that re-instill the beliefs of this culture, the temples from years ago reinforce a sense of connection to the past, their religion, and their culture. 

Sources: 

“Meenakshi Amman Temple Madurai - History, Architecture, Timings.” Cultural India. Cultural India. Accessed October 6, 2020. https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-temples/meenakshi-temple.html.

Asian Art Museum, "Beliefs made visible: Hindu art in South Asia," in Smarthistory, January 27, 2016, accessed October 5, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/beliefs-made-visible-hindu-art-in-south-asia/.