MADURA – The Temple City, by J.P. Lasrado Shenoy, ICS, is a book on Madurai printed in 1937.
The book opens with a preface by the author who has divided the contents into the following sections: Part I – History and Antiquity, Part II – The Meenakshi Temple, Sundareswar’s Shrine and the Hall of Thousand Pillars, Part III – Other Places of Interest, and Part IV – The Modern City.
Shenoy opens his book stating the Temple City’s two major claims to fame: Madura as “the oldest city in South India”, and Madura as the focal centre of Dravidian culture and civilization for the last 2000 years. Its ready adaptability to changes of time and circumstance has enabled the town to retain its premier position, both in the past and in the present.
Saddened by the neglect and indifference towards the beauty of old masterpieces, Shenoy says in the Preface, that the aim of the book is to help build appreciation of the great art treasures of the city of Madura, to educate the public to a realisation of artistic standards, and to a more intimate understanding of ancient traditions. This holds good even today!
Well known historian and writer Dr. Chithra Madhavan (also a member of the executive committee of the Music Academy) shares her views about this rare old book:
“Madura – The Temple City, authored by J.P.L. Shenoy and published in 1937, is one of the pioneering publications highlighting the antiquity of the ancient city of Madurai and also the grand Meenakshi-Sundareswarar temple.
The author has given a fairly detailed history of the dynasties which ruled over Madurai, in particular the Nayaks who were feudatories of the Imperial Vijayanagara dynasty. The grand Madurai temple whose stone architecture dates back to the time of the Pandyan dynasty, was badly desecrated in the 14th century and later rebuilt by the Nayaks. The splendid contribution of this dynasty, especially Thirumalai Nayak, to the art and architecture of Madurai are evident even today. The eye-catching gopurams along with some stories associated with them; the numerous mandapams, in particular the Kambattadi mandapam, the thousand-pillar hall and Pudumandapam; the famous pushkarini known as the Potramarai Kulam and the traditional stories connected with it; the spacious corridors around the tank with their beautiful murals; the outstanding sculptures on the pillars along with the Puranic stories, have all been well described. A separate section is about the exquisite jewellery collection, many pieces of which were donated by the Maharajas of Mysore, Travancore and Nepal as well as by many Zamindars and also by the English.
There are also detailed write-ups on the Kudal Azhagar temple, the Mariamman Teppakulam, the Muruga temple in Thirupparankunram, Azhagarkovil, Anamalai, Nagamalai and the Thirumalai Nayak Mahal.
This book is profusely illustrated with photographs of different structures inside the temple, numerous sculptures and also maps.
`Madura – The Temple City’ may be one of the earliest books in English on the Meenakshi-Sundareswarar temple, but it still holds its ground amidst the spate of publications on this famous shrine in recent times.”
To add to Chithra Madhavan’s comment, Shenoy says the Madura temple is “almost an encyclopedia of the dancing poses depicted both in stone and wood”. He describes the hall of 1000 pillars as “a marvel of engineering skill, for the pillars are seen to be in a straight line when viewed from any angle.” J.P.L. Shenoy, was a very capable ICS officer and Shenoy Nagar in Chennai commemorates him. He has maintained a candid and forthright style in his writing which makes for interesting reading. The pages of ‘Madura’ are liberally peppered with illustrations — there are 55 pictures and a map.
As it is a rare vintage guide to the ancient city of Madurai, the slim book is safely tucked away in the library of the Madras Music Academy. You can take a quick look at the old print copy, and then browse leisurely through the digitised copy of the 138-page book on the computer in the Academy’s library.
S. JANAKI
