Asia-Pacific, Headlines

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE: South India Promotes Temple as Living ‘Wonder’

Soma Basu

CHENNAI, Jul 4 2005 (IPS) - Hype is growing. Chances are slim. Yet the people of Tamil Nadu State’s oldest and culturally most active city – Madurai – are upbeat that their 16th-century Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple will be voted as one of the seven new wonders of the world.

It is still 18 months before the final list of the seven wonders goes public, but global voting is on to allow people to choose their favourite.

This first of its kind massive exercise was launched in Athens in December 2004. In May the first-round ranking of 77 nominees concluded, and Madurai’s ancient temple dedicated to the lovely consort of Lord Siva finished 25th.

This has galvanized the locals into an aggressive campaign. Prominent city hotels and institutions are offering their space, infrastructure and services to enable people to cast votes for the temple online, either free or for a nominal charge.

Posters, banners and media ads exhort the public to become “cultural ambassadors for the city”. Mementoes and emblems of the temple fill shops and public debates are held to discuss its prospects.

Yet hovering amongst the excitement is a pall of gloom – from shopkeepers, who feel threatened because they will be the first ones to be evicted from the temple area, if the temple’s status grows – and from local residents worried that they could lose easy access to a “wonder” that is part of their daily routine.

Zurich-based Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber launched the New Seven Wonders Foundation prior to the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics. His idea is not to replace the seven ancient man-made monumental wonders – all built between 2,500 BC and 200 BC and selected by Philon of Byzantium in 200 BC to serve as a travel guide for fellow Athenians.

All the stunning sites were located around the then Mediterranean Basin and only one, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, remains.

Rather, Weber says his objective is to create an awareness of historical landmarks and preserve Earth’s cultural heritage. “It is an exercise where not one man but millions of people will become the new millennium’s Philons,” he says on the foundation website, which is open for voting.

The preliminary round of voting will end this year with a shortlist of 21 sites. The campaign will move into its last and crucial phase of voting through 2006, and declare the final seven on Jan. 1, 2007.

Expectations in Madurai are soaring after the temple’s nomination was cleared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and from looking like a dark horse it has climbed into contention despite India’s wonder monument, the Taj Mahal, also figuring among the 77 nominees.

Six other sites from India are also on the seven wonders short list.

If another six months of intensive campaigning translate into votes, then Madurai’s splendour in stones will surely clear the first round and be among the top 21, feel many people here.

An important cultural and commercial centre as early as 550 AD, Madurai was the capital city of the Pandya kingdom until the 10th century, and traded with many countries, including China, Greece and Rome.

Situated by the banks of the Vaigai River, the city’s rich cultural heritage was passed on from the great Tamil era more than 2,600 years old.

Tamil and Greek documents record its existence from the 4th century BC. Often referred to as the “Athens of the East”, great chroniclers like Magasthenes (302 BC), Pliny (77 AD) and Ptolemy (140 AD) made reference to Madurai in their travelogues. Marco Polo visited the city in 1293 AD, followed by Ibn Batuta in 1333 AD.

The original Meenakshi Temple was built by Kulasekara Pandya as a modest structure based on agamic guidelines.

But the credit for its splendour today goes to the Nayakas who ruled Madurai from the 16th to the 18th centuries. They expanded and modified this temple with 12 towers (gopurams), which is a majestic imprint of their rule.

Undoubtedly the oldest and probably the largest temple in India, both in area (a complex of 6,039 sq metres) and in number of structures (33 million sculptures) within a single compound, Meenakshi Temple symbolizes all that being a Tamil means.

Madurai’s skyline is dominated by its gopurams, particularly the four outer towers, which rise 43-49 m and are a landmark from any direction. Each tower is adorned with numerous sculptures of gods and goddesses, people, animals and birds, which can be discerned from a distance of at least 18 feet without binoculars.

A hall inside the temple, ‘Ashta Shakti Mandapam’, depicts 64 scenes from the miracles of Siva. Another mandapam has 110 pillars, each carved in the figure of a Yalli, a mythical animal akin to a griffin, and a votive lamp holder with 1008 lamps that are lit on special occasions.

A 1,000-pillar hall called ‘Ayirakkal’ is a riot of sculptures. Viewed from any angle, these pillars appear in a straight line. In its outermost corridor are situated matchless musical stone pillars, each of which when tapped produces a different musical note.

Meenakshi temple is one of the holiest places of worship in South India, drawing thousands of devotees each day. And some of them are genuinely concerned about its nomination as a new “wonder”.

Says retired school teacher, Rama Subramaniam, the fourth-generation occupant of a 125-year-old house on one of the four streets that surrounds the temple: “Once the Archaeogical Survey of India takes over, I wonder whether the sanctity of the temple will remain?”

For the last five decades Subramaniam and his wife have been regular visitors to the temple at 4:30 am. Now they worry that if it becomes a tourist attraction, the timings will change and so will the process of invoking the Goddess and other temple rituals. Others, diehard religious people, are also uncomfortable with the thought.

There are other reservations being expressed. Textiles shop owner Ramji Lal echoes the voices of fellow traders who worry they will be displaced if the temple gets “wonder” status: “Will the administration give us a suitable alternate place to carry on business?”

“It is unfair to compare the Taj (Mahal), which is a white marble wonder tomb in memory of the dead, with Goddess Meenakshi’s abode. This is a vital living temple and we all are a part of it,” he asserts.

But Temple Trust Joint Commissioner P Bhaskaran assures devotees that the temple’s life will not substantially change. “The sanctum sanctorum will not be disturbed. Neither the devotees nor their rituals will be affected. Of course, there will be some regulations which will be in the larger interest of all,” he told IPS.

A leading travel agent, Shri Ram, agrees the nomination will have a positive impact. “If the Temple makes it to the final list, the city will get an immediate and much-needed facelift. Infrastructure and civic facilities will improve; the economy will get a boost.”

There are two other contenders for “wonder” status from Tamil Nadu: the Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur, an architectural marvel of the Chola kings and already a UNESCO heritage site; and the Mahabalipuram Shore Temple, the pride of Pallava architecture, with the world’s largest bas-relief engraved in its rocks.

But Meenakshi Temple – after the Taj Mahal – has polled the highest votes so far from India.