Visiting the Shrines of Madurai....

               The objective today was to cover of the central part of the 2500 year old city of Madurai, population 1.8 million, the home of the largest of several Hindu temples in the city area. Only knowing the general direction and working off the cardinal points of my trusty boy-scout magnetic compass I located the Meenakshi Amman Temple complex, through a series of narrow streets, realising that I must be approaching, as the number of gift shops increased.  Meenakshi Amman temple complex consists of 14 separate towers constructed between 1200 and 1600AD ranging from 45 to 50 metres high, truly magnificent structures, whatever ones beliefs. The Meenakshi is adorned with more than 25000 (trust me) brightly painted statues of gods, animals and demons on 14 different levels. If interested, for a lot more information on this shrine and the symbolisms attached to it, try Wikipedia.

Courtesy Wikipedia.               An areial view of the temple complex.

                 I had been pre-warned about the necessity of long trousers for modesty and as usual the complex has to be viewed (uncomfortably) barefoot per Hindu religious customs. Once inside, some temple shrine halls were off limits to non-Hindus. Always one to get hot and bothered at perceived unfairness, my camera was impounded at the entry. OK, no problemo. Inside however, Indian visitors had carte blanche and no complaints from all the security guards on patrol, on their flagrant cell phones use for photographs. Pity, as

And the winner of the best fruit stand display is.........

the temple was highly photogenic and had some very interesting natural lighting possibilities. I saw many newborn babies ranged on the floors in the shrines for blessing by the gods. Obviously a very intense experience for some visitors as several female pilgrims indulged in screaming and violently gyrating. Apparently 15000 visitors visit the complex each day up to 25000 on Fridays. Unfortunately, the many signs of explanation and interpretation on the Temple property walls were in Tamil & Hindi only—one more example of India not yet being ready for a large international tourist influx.
                 Emerged from the Temples with the urge to feed the inner man, but unable to stomach a meal of hot spices, settled for an ice-cream (butterscotch?) and a bottle of Fanta. Back to the Moskva Hotel, to nurse the onset of another head cold.
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          Prior to visiting India it was my  conception that this would be a country of abundant flowers, big tropical flowers as in the Caribbean. Not so: very few blossoms around to appreciate, even in park settings, although the Indians do seem to enjoy flowers for female hair, especially of young women and garlanded for religious purposes. In the country- side as observed from my railway carriage seat and in smaller towns like Pondicherry, I was struck by the almost total lack of flowers.       

          My second observation could be tied into to the lack of flowers and that is the few insects evident, including bees, wasps, dragon flies, butterflies and yes, thank goodness, to this point on my travels any way, mosquitoes. Again, it was my pre-travel judgement that there would be clouds of flies, especially with the open sewer system operated here, animal excrement and the wilful scattering of refuse in the streets.

     Of course, the two go along inter-dependently, especially flowers that rely on insect cross-pollination.

             Not sure of the reasons for the above, but could be a result of massive pollution, pesticides and chemicals that likely prevail.