United States or Greece ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Madura has a wonderful old temple of immense size, surrounded by gopuras of pyramidal form, in whose construction huge stones of enormous dimensions were utilized; the temple also has much fine carving, etc. The old palace is of great beauty and interest.
Although Madura is a large place, the temples, gopuras, and palaces are the chief attraction. There is a fine view from the roof of the great temple. The nine gopuras are tall, massive, and barbaric in their decorations, which consist of horses, lions, elephants, gods and goddesses.
The ride to Tanjore was through a lovely country with beautiful palms, groves of vari-hued trees, and occasionally a tangle of vines. TANJORE: On our arrival at Tanjore in the afternoon we went directly to the forts which enclose the temple, palace, and gopuras. The temple is in the little fort. The gopuras claim first attention. They are really gateways, a feature peculiar to Southern India.
The Madura temple is only the third in size; but in its upkeep and architectural beauty it far surpasses the other two, which are larger. It covers an area of fifteen acres, and its many Gopuras, or towers, furnish the landmark of the country for miles around. It is erected almost entirely of granite blocks, some of which are sixty feet long.
It consists of a series of courts, in the midst of which are two tremendous towers or gopuras, as the technical term should be.
It was as though a painter with two strokes of a mighty brush had smeared the square before the temple with a great moving stain. Only one narrow white line reached up to the temple doorway. On either side, right up to the gopuras and stretching far away down the branching paths, a living mass stood and waited, their faces turned toward him.
"Most terrible," he assented earnestly. "Yet you also, Your Highness, you have also the same reasons for anger. My intrusion, innocent though it was, must have been equally offensive to you." "No," he said. "That is quite different." He offered no further explanation, and together they passed out of the two immense gopuras into the evening sunshine.
The view from the top of the rock was far-reaching, gopuras and temples gleaming through the green foliage. There were sacred elephants here, as at Tanjore, standing in the usual receptive attitude; for them small coins were more acceptable than food, showing how adroitly they had been trained. MADURA: Another very early arrival at Madura, and the programme of the day before was repeated.
They had come to the end of the path and stood before a square opening, on the other side of which the two massive gopuras of the temple rose in their monumental splendor two hundred feet above them. They were still alone. None of the sightseers seemed to have found the sacred spot, and for a moment she stood still, awed in spite of herself.
Word Of The Day