Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal - Madurai

Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal is one of the key attractions in Madurai and is a tribute to the glorious rule by its original occupier - King Thirumalai Nayakar. 

The Nayaks ruled areas of Madurai, Trichy, Gingee, Mysore, Tanjore for around 200 years from 1540s to 1740s. Thirumalai Nayakar's predecessor had Trichy as its royal residence and there are different stories on why it was moved to Madurai by Thirmalai Nayakar.

a. It is said he had a dream one night and then he consulted with his priests and brahmins who adviced him to move to Madurai

b. The king was affected by a disease which was not getting cured. So Lord Sundareshwara and Meenakshi are said to have come in his dream and advised him to move to Madurai to cure himself. 

c. The most logical explanation in my seems to be from an enemy attack point of view, Madurai was better placed as compared to Trichy. 

In any case the king decided to move his royal residence to Madurai and decided to construct a palace of such splendor which was unseen and unheard in the area around that time. Of all the Nayakar kings, Thirumalai Nayakar is said to be one of the greatest and ruled from 1623 to 1659. He is credited with constructing several great buildings during his regime included Tellakulam Perumal temple, one of the towers of the Meenakshi amman temple and also excavation of the temple pond of the Meenakshi amman temple. An interesting legend around the king is that, he was an ardent devotee of Srivilliputtur Andal. So he used to have food only after the Pujas at the temple were completed. The temple is at a distance of 75 kms from Madurai. So he constructed smaller temples / mandaps at 5 km intervals who would ring the bell to relay the message to Madurai :) 

The palace is a wonderful piece of architecture and has a high European influence obviously since it was conceived by an Italian architect. 

The temple had 2 parts - Ranga Vilasam comprising of the main residence and Svarga Vilasam which is the palace courtyard, royal auditorium and dance hall. Only the latter is open to public today. The construction was completed in 1636. The Kings grandson - Sokkanadha Nayakarn dismantled a significant portion of the palace when he wanted to construct his palace in Trichy. Later Lord Napier during 1860s did a lot of restoration work on the palace and restored some portion of the glory. 

What strikes anyone on entering the palace is the huge pillars each measuring 89 ft by 19ft and the wonderful symmetry they exhibit. 

During various times of the day, the sun provides you with an absolute jugalbandi of lights especially with its striking white and yellow colored pillow colors.

Also of note is the magnificent stucco work, octagonal domes in the royal hall.

To the right of the entry, there is also the dance hall which is now converted into sort of a museum and houses some exquisite paintings of the chola times, sittanavasal paintings etc. The hall by itself is rich in architecture. 

A touch of Islamic architecture may be in the below snap ?

Sittanavasal paintings

Chola period paintings from Thanjavur

For the people who are keen on visiting, there is a light show every night at the place which also explains the history of the place. We skipped that due to paucity of time. Also for people keen on the camera, evening time may be the best here. 

For the movie buffs who are thinking where have I seen this place before - Santosh Sivan and Maniratnam have immortalised it with their songs in Bombay and Guru. 

Kailasanathar Temple - Kanchipuram

Pushpeshu Jati, Purusheshu Vishnu, Nareshu Rambha, Nagareshu Kanchi is what the great Kalidasa wrote several hundred years back meaning if its flower its Jasmine, if its a man its Vishnu, if its a lady its Rambha and if its a city its Kanchi. 

Kanchipuram as the city is known today is considered as one of the holiest cities in India and was a flourishing location of not only Hinduism but also Buddhism and Jainism. The place is home to some 150 Shiva and Vishnu temples with majority of them being the former. Kanchipuram is actually demarcated into Shiva Kanchi, Vishnu Kanchi and Jain Kanchi. Kanchipuram acted as the capital city during the early Chola period but the city actually rose into prominence when the Pallavas made it into their capital city. 

The place is just 75 kms ffrom Chennai and the roads are extremely good to drive on. We were actually on a 3 day road trip and arrived at Kanchipuram from Tiruvannamalai. We decided we were leaving Kanchi by noon which gave us time to visit 3 temples. Of the 3 Kailasanathar was the one we visited last but it comes up first in the blog because such is the beauty of the place. The temple is the oldest one in Kanchipuram and said to be built around 700 AD by Narasimhavarman II of the Pallavas. The temple is built of sandstone and has an unique 16 sided Shiva Lingam. 

The temple has the main deity at the centre and the inner walls of the temple has 58 small shrines or sculptures depicting Shiva 's various forms / actions. The outer walls of the main pragara has sculptures of other lords as well. Across the temple you find several sculptures of the lions which were the symbol of the Pallava dynasty. The city was later taken over by the Cholas and hence is said to have some influence of the Chola style of architecture as well in the later additions made. I am no history expert. So cant comment on that. It is also said that the Cholas got their inspiration for construction of the Brihadeeswarar temple after seeing the Kailasanathar temple only. There are striking similarities especially in the main gopuram pattern between the 2 temples. 

The place is an ASI protected monument and maintained pretty well. However you can see in places the damage that the restoration works have caused to the beautiful sculptures with shoddy plastering and some paintings defaced. Its not considered a very 'powerful' deity and hence the crowds are thankfully lower which helps in you allowing the location to sink in into you without a constant interruption. A guide would have been really helpful but we couldnt find any. 

Some photos from the visit.