Bangalore Meenakshi Temple

Site Name: Meenakshi Temple
Site Type: Hindu temple
Location:  Bannerghatta Main Road, Hulimavu area, Bangalore, Karnataka state, India
Highlights: An important temple of Bangalore city
Nearest Railway Station: Bangalore
Nearest Airport: Bangalore
How to reach: Well connected by road, rail and air
Hotel: A lot of options including luxurious and budget hotels all over the city
Restaurants: A lot of options across the entire city

Bangalore, officially known as Bengaluru, is the capital city of Karnataka state of India. It is called as the 'Silicon Valley of India' as all IT majors have presence in the city. Bangalore is known for its pleasant climate has a lot of tourist attractions which include parks, gardens, temples, etc. Meenakshi Sundareshwarar temple which is located at Bannerghatta Main Road in Hulimavu area has become an important temple of the city in the recent past. Let us explore this site in this article.






Temple Layout:

Meenakshi Sundareshwarar temple is one of the most popular temples in India. It is located in Madurai city in Tamil Nadu and is very ancient. In memory of that Madurai temple, this temple of Meenakshi Sundareshwarar was built in the recent times by the Tamil community who live in Bangalore city. The temple, which has an elegant four tiered tower, is built as per the temple architecture style followed in Tamil Nadu state.

The temple has two entrances; the main entrance faces the east direction whereas the other one faces the south direction.

The temple which occupies a vast areas has Sundareshwarar (Lord Shiva) in the Shiva Linga form as the main deity. He is found in the main shrine which faces the east direction. Adjacent to his shrine, there is a separate shrine dedicated to the extremely beautiful Meenakshi holding parrot on her right arm. This shrine faces the south direction. Both the shrines are located on a raised platform with a big pillared mandapa in the front side. The sculptures in the pillars are not so attractive. However, the stucco images found in the tower and the vimanas are colorful and look beautiful.

Facing the shrine of Sundareshwara, the flag staff, bali petha and Nandi are found. Another Nandi and bali peetha are located facing the Meenakshi shrine.

The wall around the main shrine has Ganesha, Dakshinamurti, Lingodbhava, Brahma and Vishnu Durga as the niche idols. The wall around the shrine of Meenakshi has Ganesha, Durga and three other Goddesses as the niche idols.

The sub-shrines of Ganesha, Subramanya, Ayyappa, Padmavati (very beautiful idol), Venkateshwara, Gaja Lakshmi, Bhairava, Chandikeshwara, Anjaneya, Surya and Chandra are located in the prakara.

The Navagraha in this temple is unique. All of them are found along with their respective consorts and seated on their respective mounts.

The details of planets and their consorts and mounts are given below.


Surya - Usha and Chaya - seated on a chariot pulled by seven horses and driven by Aruna
Chandra - Rohini - seated on antelope
Mangal (Sevvai) - Shakti - seated on ram
Budha - Ila - seated on eagle
Guru - Tara - seated on elephant
Shukra - Sukirti - seated on horse
Shani - Neela - seated on crow
Rahu - Simhi - seated on dragon
Ketu - Chitralekha - seated on a bird

Happy travelling.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Tallest Murugan of Chennai

Little known Nimishamba Temple of Chennai

A 17th century Dargah with healing power - Mount Road Dargah, Chennai, India