INDIA:- MADURAI, TINNEVELLY,
Travanacore Mountains and Madras.
GEORGE BULLOUGH – WORLD TOUR 1892-1895
Written and
illustrated from first-hand research by George W. Randall. co-founder in July 1996 and former Vice Chairman Kinloch Castle Friends' Association.
Copyright © George
W. Randall Archive.
***
*** *** *** *** ***
*** *** *** *** ***
***
 |
MADURA TEMPLES Album: I Ceylon / India * Image: 30 * Size: 11 x 9 inches. Copyright © George W. Randall Archive. George Bullough and Robert Mitchell arrive at Madura (Madurai), known as “Temple City”, by train on 11 November 1892 and visit the magnificent temple complex. Two days later, Sunday 13 November, they continue by train to Tinnevelly before proceeding by bullock cart the remaining twenty-three miles through bandit country
to their destination overlooking the Travanacore Mountains.
Copyright © George W. Randall Archive.
The description of Madura at the time of
Bullough and Mitchell’s visit was “a city and district of British India in the Madras Presidency situated on the right bank of the River Valgai” 345 miles by rail from Madras on the South Indian Railway, with a population of almost 100,000.
Its great Meenakshi Sundareshwarar Temple
complex forming a parallelogram, 847 feet by 729 feet surrounded by nine gopuras of which the largest is 152 feet high. These ornamental pyramids begin with doorposts of single stone sixty feet in height and rise, course upon course with magnificent coloured carvings. |
 |
| IMAGE
OF MAUAAR SWAMY, MADRAS Album: I Ceylon / India * Image: 29 * Size: 11½ x 9 inches. Copyright © George W. Randall Archive |
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
*** *** ****** *** ***
 | ||
| THE GREAT GOPHURUM, MADURA. Album: II Ceylon / India * Image: 1 * Size: 11½ x 9½ inches. Copyright © George W. Randall Archive.
At a height of 152 feet the Great
Gophurum is, like the other eight, adorned with rows of carved gods
and goddesses, peacocks, bulls, elephants, horses, lions and a bewildering
entanglement of symbolic ornament all coloured and gilded. The very top stone
is called the trisul. The temple which contains some of the finest
carving in Southern India is reputed to have been built in the reign of Viswanath, the first ruler of the Nayak Dynastyin the
16th century.
*** *** ****** *** ***
|
*** *** ****** *** ***
*** *** ****** *** ***        |
 |
TEPPA TANK,
MADURA.
Album: II Ceylon
/ India * Image: 2 * Full Size: 11½ x 9½ inches. (Only
half depicted.)
Original photograph
taken by Higginbotham & Co., Madras & Bangalore.
The Vandiyur Marianmman
Teppakulam Tank at Madura was commissioned
by King Tirumala
Nayaka, a great patron of architecture and art, who ruled from 1623 to 1659.
Measuring 1,000
by 950 feet, the largest tank of its kind in Tamil Nadu, it was completed
in 1645.
Fed by water
from the Vagai river through an ingenious system of underground channels. The temple on the artificial island in the centre has an idol of Lord Vigneshwara. *** *** ****** *** ***
|
REVIEWED BY AUTHOR 29 JANUARY 2024
No comments:
Post a Comment