I'm RajPandyan joining this group recently.. My Heartiest congratulations to this Group authors and the Varalaaru.com authors.. Very Fantastic work...
I'm curios to learn little about the art of "kalvattu" reading and knowing about the history..Currently started going thro' Varalaaru.com
Hope to pick up the art soon.. Meanwhile I'm looking for some details on: 1. What is the History of Madurai Meenkashi temple? 2. Is MM temple is older than RajaRajeswaram(Tanjore)? 3. Any "kalvattu" news related to MM temple?
Friends..do inform me on any site where I can find such details and a historical map of tamilnadu..
This cannot be more than 2500 years old, as Nediyon, Great Pandya, King belived to have survived the attack on earth by 'Meteor'. This attack is believed to have submerged the Kumarikandam. The Historians state, two such attacks, one is nearly around 2500 BC, the next one was around 400BC. May be I can get back to you on dates, more precisely.
Madurai, should have been made capital after the last attack. So, we can be sure that the temple is not less than 2500 years old.
As per legends, the core ( I dont know how to call it in English ) of the temple, was built during the Sankam era. There is one story that the Sundareswarar shrine ( it is a beautiful structure that is holded by massive elephants on all sides - there is one more story that during Malikafur's ruthless regime in Madurai, he wanted to verify the authenticity of hindu gods. One saint promised him that one of the stone elephant that guards the shrine will eat a sugarcane and it happened ) was built by the great shirpi the Mayan himself.
Later Pandya kings built the massive towers that surround the temple. Many complexes and halls were constructed by Nayaks.
On the the temple pond, the "sankappalakai" ( sankam float ) was floating which gave seat to qualified poets. Even today lots of poetic people gather there to discuss literature etc., This was the place where "Thirukkural" was released to the public.
It is a temple that holds nearly 2000 years of history ( which nobody cared to record properlty )
It is a massive temple complex with several ancient engineering marvels...