{"id":124461,"date":"2026-09-14T13:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T08:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=124461"},"modified":"2026-09-14T13:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T08:16:08","slug":"meenakshi-sundareswarar-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/meenakshi-sundareswarar-temple\/","title":{"rendered":"Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hundreds of street vendors have been left struggling after being recently evicted from the roads surrounding the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple as part of measures to regulate traffic and pedestrian movement ahead of the temple\u2019s Maha Kumbabishekam. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, also called Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, is a historic Hindu temple located on the <\/span><b>southern bank of the Vaigai River<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the <\/span><b>temple city of<\/b> <b>Madurai<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>Tamil Nadu.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temple is dedicated to the <\/span><b>goddess Meenakshi, a form of Parvati; <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">her consort Sundareswarar, a form of Shiva; and her brother Alagar, a form of Vishnu.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temple is theologically significant, as it represents a <\/span><b>confluence of the Shaivism, Shaktism, and Vaishnavism denominations <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of Hinduism. <\/span><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple <\/b><b>History<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was <\/span><b>built <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">during the <\/span><b>Pandya reign by Kulasekarer Pandya.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to historical findings, the <\/span><b>creation <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of this temple can be traced back to <\/span><b>early A.D.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are <\/span><b>mentions <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of this temple in the <\/span><b>songs of the great Hindu Saint Thirugnanasambandar, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">who lived during the <\/span><b>7th century.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also said that during the <\/span><b>12th or 13th century,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at the time of <\/span><b>Islamic conquest, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this temple was <\/span><b>destroyed to an extent.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, <\/span><b>later it was restored<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to its present structure. It was later <\/span><b>expanded <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">during the rule of T<\/span><b>hirumalai Nayak (1623-55 AD). <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During this time, the <\/span><b>present structure <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the temple came into being.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple Architecture<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a finest example of the <\/span><b>Dravidian style <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of architecture.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spread over an area of 45 acres of land, it is a massive complex measuring 254 by 237 meters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temple is surrounded by<\/span><b> 14 towers,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>tallest of which,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the famous <\/span><b>Southern tower<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, rises to over 170 feet high, built in the year 1559.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The oldest gopuram is the eastern one, built by Maravarman Sundara Pandyan during 1216-1238.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>west tower (gopuram)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the temple is the <\/span><b>model on which the Tamil Nadu State Emblem is based.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temple has <\/span><b>four entrances,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> while the entrance on the Eastern side being the main temple entrance.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are<\/span><b> several corridors,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and halls such as <\/span><b>Aayirankaal (1000-pillared hall), <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kilikoondu-mandapam, Golu-mandapam, and Pudu-mandapam, and shrines inside the temple. The corridors and pillars are adorned with wonderful artwork.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Thousand Pillar Hall contains 985 (instead of 1000) carved pillars.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It was built by A<\/span><b>riyanatha Mudaliar in 1569<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and currently houses a museum with artifacts collected from Madurai from the 8th century onwards.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are the <\/span><b>Musical Pillars outside this hall<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> towards the west. <\/span><b>Each pillar produces a different musical note when struck.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temple is an architectural wonder with an estimated 33,000 sculptures in the temple.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/states\/tamil-nadu\/2026\/Sep\/14\/eviction-ahead-of-consecration-leaves-street-vendors-around-meenakshi-sundareswarar-temple-in-lurch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>NIE<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple is a historic Hindu temple located on the southern bank of the Vaigai River in the temple city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":124423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10243],"class_list":["post-124461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-meenakshi-sundareswarar-temple","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124461"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124473,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124461\/revisions\/124473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}