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Madurai's
Meenakshi-Sundareswarar
temple, which stands
today as one of the
India's greatest
cultural and
architectural landmarks,
was originally built by
the early Pandya King
Kulasekara. It is also
one of the greatest
Shiva Temples of Tamil
NaduThe labyrinthine
Meenakshi Temple,
celebrating the love of
the Meenakshi and her
groom Sundareswarar(The
Handsome Eswaran) is
renown.[3] The ancient
city of Madurai was
supposedly laid out in a
lotus-like formation,
with the temple at the
center and the streets
and main thoroughfares
layered one after the
other concentrically,
outward from the center.
One legend says that on
the day the city was to
be named, Shiva blessed
the land and its people
while divine nectar
showered on the city
from his matted locks.
The city hence came to
be known as Madhurapuri
meaning The City of
Divine Nectar. The
legend is likely a late
tale attempting to
Sanskritise the
otherwise-Dravidian
derivative of Madurai.
This is the place where
Natarajar performed the
dance raising his right
leg. (Kal maariya Aadiya
natarajar). Shiva was
very happy with the
temple construction and
performed a different
dance. This is the
temple which is believed
to be survived after
Kannagi burnt the
complete city. All of
the towers are currently
draped in scaffolding
and opaque coverings
obscuring the sculptures
at least until the end
of 2009.The
sthalaviriksham is the
kadambu tree,few temple
in tamilnadu is having
the same tree as
sthalavriksham are
kadambandurai,
Melakadambur and
kadambathur. Other
important temples in
madurai are Koodal
Azhagar Perumal Temple,
Madhana Gopala Swamy
Temple, Immayilum Nanmai
Taruvar Temple.
Courtesy : wikipedia.org/wiki/Madurai
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