Those who have visited the temple will admire.
Those who have not visited will wonder
This
enormous temple complex in Madurai is dedicated to Lord Shiva, known
here as Sundareshvara, and his consort Parvati or Meenakshi. The
original temple was built by Kulasekara Pandya, but the entire credit
for making the temple as splendid as it is today goes to the Nayaks. The
Nayaks ruled Madurai from the 16th to the 18th century and left a
majestic imprint of their rule in the Meenakshi – Sundareswarar Temple.
It
is said that the temple was plundered in the 14th century by the Muslim
raider Malik Kafur who looted the temple of its valuables. Restoration
was undertaken by the Nayak ruler Vishwanatha Nayakar around the 16th
century. It was Vishwanatha Nayak who rebuilt the temple in accordance
to shilpa shastra .
The
temple complex is within a high-walled enclosure, at the core of which
are the two sanctums for Meenakshi and Sundareshwara, surrounded by a
number of smaller shrines and grand pillared halls. Especially
impressive are the 12 gopurams . Their soaring towers rise from solid
granite bases, and are covered with stucco figures of deities, mythical
animals and monsters painted in vivid colours .
The
purpose of Krishna Lila Park is to present, preserve and promote the
cultural heritage of India as described in the ancient Indian classics,
to the contemporary society, in an interesting and captivating
presentation. We want to impress upon the younger generation the
glorious pastimes of our vedic heroes like Krishna, Rama and Hanuman.
Today, our children’s minds are obsessed with Superman, Spiderman and
such other characters and legends coming from the West. We want to
introduce the great characters of our Indian epics and instill in the
minds of our children the deep values they represent. This is an
unprecedented and historical project being attempted for the first time
in our country.
The
narrative strategy used known as technology assisted multi-sensory
immersive and experiential story telling. This is the kind of
communication strategy that the worlds best Theme Parks like Disney
World, EPCOT and Universal Studios use.
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