THE MADURA TEMPLES 



By J. S. Chandler, Auburndale, Massachusetts 



THE last Hindu dynasty that 

 reigned in South India was the 

 Nayaka line of rulers ; and the 

 greatest of the Nayakars was Tirumala, 

 who reigned from 1623 to 1659. Al- 

 though frequently engaged in wars and 

 expeditions, he found time to erect a vast 

 palace, construct an immense tank or 

 reservoir, and add great buildings to the 

 temple of Siva that was the center of the 

 city. 



The temple had its shrines for the god 

 and goddess and was especially extended 

 on the god's side by a porch of a thou- 

 sand pillars, built by one of Tirumala's 

 ancestors. 



The worship of the temple combined 

 that of the two gods, Siva and Vishnu, 

 symbolized in the marriage of Vishnu's 

 sister to Siva. The goddess then was 

 a representative of Vishnu. Now the 

 Nayaka rulers were worshippers of 

 Vishnu, so when Tirumala enlarged the 

 temple he strengthened the Vishnu ele- 

 ment by enlarging the goddess' side of 

 the temple and making it equal to the 

 god's portion. 



Among other buildings, he constructed 

 the "golden lily tank" and surrounded it 

 by pillared colonnades. The walls are 

 covered with paintings of local legends, 

 including the 64 miracles that Siva is said 

 to have worked in the region of Madura. 

 These miracles are represented as sports, 

 all the god's acts being play to him. 



Between the tank and the shrine of the 

 goddess stands the Porch of the Parrots, 

 so called from the screeching caged par- 

 rots always kept in it. The pillars of this 

 porch are monolithic statues, of which 

 five represent the five Pandava heroes of 

 the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. These 

 heroes are connected with Vishnu wor- 

 ship, another indication of Tirumala's 

 connection with it. 



The great wall surrounding the temple 

 incloses nearly 14 acres. Outside the 

 wall and opposite to the great pagoda of 



the god's portion, he constructed the 

 choultry, or porch, that bears his name. 

 It is 333 feet long and 105 feet wide,, 

 roofed with long slabs of granite, which 

 are supported by four parallel rows of 

 124 sculptured stone pillars 20 feet high. 



He also commenced, but left unfinished, 

 a royal pagoda that was intended to be 

 the finest tower in southern India. The 

 door posts of the gateway through the 

 completed story are formed of monoliths 

 over 50 feet high and 3 feet wide, carved 

 with exquisite scrolls of foliage. 



His second structure was the raft tank, 

 or Teppakulam, a reservoir measuring 

 i/DOO feet on the north and south and 

 950 on the east and west, faced all round 

 the sides with cut granite and surmounted 

 by a handsome parapet and inside walk 

 of the same material. In the middle of 

 the reservoir is a square island, also faced 

 with cut granite, on which, among green 

 palms and flowering trees and jessamine 

 gardens, is a small white temple with a 

 pagoda tower, flanked at the four corners 

 of the island with graceful miniature 

 pagodas. 



Every January the birthday of Tiru- 

 mala is celebrated by a feast of lights, in 

 which the whole tank is illuminated by 

 thousands of little lamps on the inside of 

 the parapet, while the images of the god 

 and goddess are floated around the island 

 on rafts built up like pagodas. 



The third great work of Tirumala was 

 the vast palace, an arched and domed 

 structure with Saracenic features, in 

 strong contrast to the rectangular forms 

 of the temple buildings. 



One courtyard indicates the magnifi- 

 cence of the whole. It is 252 feet long 

 and 151 feet wide, round which runs a 

 roofed arcade of great beauty supported 

 on tall stone pillars 40 feet in height, 

 connected by foliated brick arches. 

 Round three sides of this court, at the 

 back of the arcade, runs a very handsome 

 line of lofty cloisters 43 feet wide and 



