Upon visiting the Meenakshi Temple, I removed my shoes, checked my bag at the door and proceeded my barefoot adventure through the eastern tower of the temple city. Maduri is known as temple city because of how vast the Meenakshi temple is. There are 12 towers, the four larger ones face each of the directions North, East, South, and West. We explored the 1000 pillar hall, the holy pond, and many other parts of the ancient temple.  It seemed like every corridor and wall had some sort of sacred art or story to it. The history of the temple is as vast as temple city itself. The temple dates back at least 2500 years. In 1310, the temple was almost completely destroyed by an Islamic conqueror and so many of the important sculptures were destroyed. It was restored in the 14th century though by Hindu kings who regained power.

 

Since being an intern for Raxa Collective, I’ve been learning about the conservation tourism industry. It seems that the whole point is to provide a way for locals to benefit from the preservation of something.  As sacred as the temple felt, it also felt commercialized. There were vendors in front of important historical statues. It felt like a tourist mall throughout the first corridors we walked through. The sacredness kind of felt degraded. When talking with my friend about that, he said Indians are caught in this balance of trying to preserve its historical and natural beauty and still make money off of it. It is sad that India has so much history but a lot of it doesn’t get preserved in a way that maintains its integrity.

Regardless, it was still a really beautiful experience. If you want to read more about the Hindu history of the temple you can check out Salim’s post.