Pari's Blog

Picture of the Mariamman/Theppakulam Tank, next to the Mariamman kovil (temple) in Madurai, taken during the Thaipoosam festival. Just once a year, on this special day it is all lit up, awaiting the goddess Sri Meenakshi (Durga or Shakti) and her consort Sri Sundereswer (Siva) to arrive from the Madurai Meenakshi-Amman kovil. Once a year an elaborate network of underground conduits is opened up to fill this tank with water from the Vagai river. Sri Meenakshi and Sri Sundereswer (i.e. Siva-Sakti, the Male-Female Principles of the Cosmic Dance of the Universe) arrive as murtis (small statues that serve as portholes to God or Siva-Sakti) on a palenquin and are ferried across to the temple in the center of the tank.