1-15-09

Today, we traveled, again by bus, from Tanjavur to Madurai. Our hotel is rather upscale, which is a relief after the string of budget rooms we’ve been staying in. However, there is a catch; the chief minister of something or another is visiting and there is a loudspeaker playing an odd cross between modern and traditional music outside our room to welcome him. There is no escaping. Hopefully, it will get turned off suring the night! e is a huge line to get into the inner sanctum. We gave it a pass – it did not seem
The music is off, thank goodness!!!
We visited the Meenakshi temple. It is both enormous and crowded. Ther worth the two hour wait since it is not even our religion. The main part of the temple seemed to me to be more comparable to the Grand Bazaar in Turkey than any of the temples we visited previously. There is also a sort of museum attached which we visited. I was, in a sense, glad to have to pay because it thinned the crowd considerably. The selection of statues is incredible – there were hundreds of them. There was one painting I found particularly interesting because it bears testimony to the considerable western (Portuguese) influence. It shows the wedding of Shiva and Meenakshi, but the faces look more European than Indian and there are two cupids flying in the upper corners.
We considered staying another night here in Madurai, but decided against it. While it is nice to rest in the cool comfort of the hotel, Dad predicted that this would be all we would do. He’s probably right – we would not have ventured out into the crowded streets. On to Kumaly!