After freshening up at the Lodge we had breakfast in a hotel. The first Ulundu vadai was awesome so I ordered another one which was a damp squib. We found out how to reach Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal and walked to the bustop. The place is full small shops which says "Anything for Rs 20". People are seen hurrying for Murugan Temple with Garlands and special packages in hand. After seeing the crowd in one bus we opted for Auto. Autos here does not have meters fitted.
We reached Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal and trust me there were just few locals taking rest under the trees. There was absolutely no crowd at all. We bought the tickets 10 Rs per Adult and 30 Rs for Camera. Once inside the enormity of the mahal struck us. It could definitely compete with some of the architectures in Europe but sadly its left to ruins. In few years nothing will be left to maintain.
The mahal is poorly maintained and is used as a godown for unwanted materials. If you walk with your eyes concentrating on the cieling (which has some good architecture) you will fall into one of the many pits dug.
Everywhere I found notices saying "Please dont write on the pillars" and without fail each pillar contained thousands of handwritings with some heart symbols.
The mahal is enormous in size it has a museum and the contents of the museum can definitly compete with British museum or New york Museum but our govt maintains it so bad that the whole musuem can be put inside a museum. If the same content was available with some other country this place would have become a hot tourist destination.
With a sad heart and anger over the govts attitude we finally came out of the mahal. Outside we had sliced mango, cucumber and pineapple with chilli powder. What a taste.
From there we enquired the way for Meenakshi Amman temple and started our walk.
Rest in next post. Here are some snaps of the mahal.
5 comments:
Welcome to Madurai. The Mahaal is a tourist symbol, but many people in & around Madurai never visited it in their lifetime.
In our minds, it is something only a tourister will see.
thanks viggie for the welcome and visiting the site.
same happens in many cities localites never visit places which is thronged by the tourists.
but our govt maintains it so bad that the whole musuem can be put inside a museum.
... :-)
Sad.
they filmed some memorable songs in this place.Guru, Bombay etc.
BTW nice photographs.
Dan,
It is shame to know the attitude of the Governments. Your post clearly depicts the present condition of the Mahal. I saw it recently in one of the clippings of a movie being shot with Vikram and Trisha. I believe your words, as you have seen the museums here and I could understand your concern over the way such historic places are maintained in Tamil Nadu. Is it not maintained by Archaelogical Department. It is really shocking to know the state of the Mahal. It will be great if you could highlight it to some media.
Hi Dan,
I'm a maduraite but i havent visited Mahal. But, it is one of the place which i always wanted to see. But, your post made me feel very sad. As Balaji says, it will be really great if you could highlight to some media.
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