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On this joyous Diwali, Coz, with it comes Happy Diwali |
From an earlier visit to the magnificent Meenakshi temple in Madurai. It was a Friday night and as we entered, we saw this older gentleman patiently lighting oil lamps affixed to one of the outer doorways.
M helped out by lighting a few.
Felt like Diwali / Deepavali.
Previous Greetings and Related Posts:
Arun Shanbhag 
We are visiting Rameshwaram on 29th and Madurai on 30th (Deepawali). Any advise will be most appreciated.
We visited last month. Spent one day in Rameshwaram and one day in Madurai. It is good to hire a guide in Rameshwaram. He will speed you through variious thirthas (20+) and will help in getting special darshan. Make sure you negotiate price for guide service before hand, otherwise it will be a rip off.
In Madurai, you need a guide to highlight various art works in the temple. You have pay extra to get special darshan (short queue)
Thank you for these valuable tips.
A
Hi Arun I visited Meenaxi temple this October.I loved it.Can you send me the pictures.
Asha, sure. Hope you loved the beautiful temple. Where else did you guys go.
Best Wishes
Arun
I have a question for some body who knows Madurai so well,my parents had gone to Madurai in 1970,there, she told was a small lane which deals in semi precious stones . They were real good,are they still available,if yes then where can i get them,if you can help you will be fulfilling one of my oldest dream.
thanks
I’ve been to the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai two times but never for Diwali. In fact, one of my “Bucket List” things to do is to be in India for Diwali.
This temple gives you a very surreal feeling, especially if you visit the night ceremony when Shiva is put to sleep. And the artistry and architecture is unbelieveable. I hope to go back again in the future.
Thank you Preena.
Temples are my favorite places to visit in India. from early morning to late at night, all the different services are so spectacular. yes, it would take ages to even document and understand the art and architecture of some of these places.
you should definitely visit Tamil temples more – what joy!
Thank you
Arun
Namaskar Arun Maam…
I am not from Cochin (Kochi) not connected any with Kochikar family… we belong to Bhat family of Cochin… I have heard about the usage of Kochikar as a surname.. I am not sure whether they hail from Kochi or are migrants from Kochi…
Hope one day you will visit our Cochin Temple during the temple festival.. i am just mentioning two links which will throw light on the Temple and ” Amchigele ” History.
http://srikumar.com/tdtemplecochin/history_of_t_d_temple.htm
http://www.gosripuram.org.in
May be you will require a Konkani to Konkani Translator in Cochin as our Konkani is much different from Kodial(Mangalore) and Karwar Konkani… You will not where
our konkani will start and end.. it is a rapid fire konkani .. unlike the slow and steady Kodial and Karwar konkani…
For My wife (she is basically from Madikeri(Coorg) ) hearing our brand of Konkani was like Spanish and Greek at first…
but later on we understood each other konkani well… we substituted Malayalam words with Kannada and so on…
Our Kids speak a variant of both the Konkani…besides one more difficulty you might face in temples of Kerala are the sets of do’s and dont’s .
1. Temple Timings are strictly adhered.
2. Dress Code exists in all the temples.
3. Better to carry one set of Dhoti.
The advantages are :-
No VIP Darshans/Special Darshans..
No Ticket system (Our Tamil brothers are too obsessed with
movies in their life… they copy anything and everything from movies blindly)
Last May2010 I had been to famous Sri Krishna Temple in Guruvayoor … and nearly 4 to 5 Kms from was Punathoor Kota.. where the about 80 Temple elephants are looked after.. they move around… they eat.. they get trained…they are being bathed.. in the villages I have huge cowsheds … but this was really out of the world and amazing …
Will keep writing about other things from my place…
Hi Ajith:
I enjoy reading details of the various temples that you share. Fabulous!
and thanks for the tips about carrying extra dhoti! 🙂 In Goa (@ Ramnathi) even though the Bhatji gives a dhoti, I always carry my own ‘uNvaaLae’, essentially a silk dhoti.
I sent you a separate email asking if you would like to contribute to KonkaniKesari.com
Hope you can share your experiences with a wider audience.
Best Wishes
Arun
It is great that you had been to the Meenakshi Temple at Madurai, it might have taken you few hours to have a good look at the temple,I had been to the temple during july 2010, it took me atleast 3 hours to get a feel about the temple architecture,all the Gopurams are really wonderfull, it is amazing that in the olden times our Indian architects were able to built such temples without the help of computers and modern building tools.
Tamilnadu has many such majestic temples, since I am a kochikar hailing from Kerala, I feel that many of the Kerala Temples look very enchanting when they are decorated with Oil lamps, the shape and structure of the Kerala Temples which are either in the form or square,rectangular or circular suits better for the oil lamp lighting.
In many of the temples there are even laksha deepams (One Lakh Oil Lamps) and they are lit during Temple festivals… the lighting of one lakh lamps is called Laksha Deepotsavam.
There is a place called Arrattupuzha which is near Trichur where 64 elephants are hired for temple festival, and the Thrichur Temple festival is well known for elephants, ornanmental umbrellas and fire works which lasts for hours together.
Have you ever heard about the Cochin Thrirumala Temple which I believe is one of the biggest GSB Temples . There two main festivals the Mahotsavam and Ratholsavam each of these festivals last for 8 days..these festivals will be conducted during either November/December or March/April depending on the astrological calculations.
The concluding day the 8th day is the most colourful day cwith Garuda Vahana pooja at night,
(Golden Garuda which is more than 125 years old) and the Golden palaki (palanquin) is famous, besides the temple is also having a huge temple which is believed to be one of the biggest temple bells in the country..
Hi Ajith:
Thank you for this wonderful information on the temples in Kerala. Sooo tempting! Perhaps we will make a trip to Kerala during our next india visit. soon.
Yes, Meenakshi temple was sooo fabulous, we fell in love and actually extended our stay there to three days! On the second day, we did make a trip to Palani to pay our respects to Subramanya Swami (kartikeya, correct?).
And all three days in Madurai, we visited the temples and side temples and took gazillion of pics. we also took special darshan all three days and that was one of the most amazing images imprinted in our minds. The priests were also so fabulous and did amazing pujas. WoW! We prayed that we are blessed to visit her again and get darshan anew. We will have to take Meera there.
In our native Kumta (northern Karnataka) we do have the Laksha Deepams in the temple, but unfortunately I have not attended. Will make every effort to participate in those wonderful.
BTW, I am familiar with the Kochikars. a couple of our good friends are Kochikar Pais.
And thank you for your enthusiastic comment. Please continue to visit.
Arun
Wish you and your family a very happy and prosperous Diwali.
Not sure if you know already we have a new addition to our family this year 🙂 Its a Boy! We have named him Aniketh
So fabulous Ujwal – I remember seeing your “gurvaari jevaN” pictures. I was not sure of the current status.
Congratulations! Amma and Aniketh! Will check out the pictures on FB.
What an amazing joy. Certainly, life altering!
And thank you for sharing this beautiful news.
Arun
gorgeous!!!
Thank you Jessie; our own Christmas!
Arun
Happy Deepavali A, M and m. The SV temple at PGH is celebrating it on Sat and we are looking forward to it.
How are things? Have I told you that Raja is from Madurai? Isn’t Meenakshi Amman kovil a splendor? I agree that all Indian temples are glorious in their own way. Thanks for posting it.
Viji
Viji:
What a fabulous temple that is! Loved it absolutely. We actually extended and stayed in Madurai for three days and everyday visited the temple. And what a fabulous darshan we got on all three days. We did some special pujas and the priests were so helpful! Cannot say it in word – one of the best experiences we had.
M&I both said then – we WILL have to come back!
BTW, I have some pics of art work from the walls there and I need help in interpreting the storyline. I think it is the story of meenakshi in art form. Will send it to you in a few days and see if you or Raja can interpret the images.
Best Wishes for Diwali to you all.
Arun
that brings a lot of memories. thank you for sharing- wish you happy diwali as well
Thank you Shylaja for your wishes;
Wishing you personally and your family the best!
Arun
Good pics.
As I am not in my madurai this diwali, I will miss this diwali a lot.
Felt like @home
Fortunate that you got to spend a lot of time in the shadow of the Meenakshi Amma Kovil.
Thank you for your wishes.
Arun
PS, have many more pics from the Meenakshi Temple which I will post in time.
Love your pics as usual.
Happy Diwali to you all!
Thank you Clelia for your wishes;
Wishing you and your family the very best.
Arun
BTW, where are you based?