the monumental MEENAKSHI temple, with its four
100-foot towers, at the center of the city. Here,
the festival lasts 12 full days, but it is the 10th
day, when the huge temple car carrying Minakshi
and her husband, Shiva, is pulled by devotees on
the streets that encircle the temple, that is most
dramatic. This temple car is elaborate and grand
with wheels about 10 feet high and a canopy over
the divinities that reaches to 40 feet. Devotees vie
to pull on the heavy one-foot-thick ropes to con-
vey the cart on a circumambulation of the temple.
This temple parade is carried out each year after
Minakshi and Sundereshvara (Shiva) are married.
The kings of Madurai were traditionally associ-
ated with the god Shiva. The festival’s marriage of the
god Shiva to Minakshi not only joins an indigenous,
non-Aryan goddess to an ARYAN and Brahmani-
cal divinity, but symbolizes a link in sovereignty
between Shiva/king and the local population.
The second part of the festival starts in the
mountains 70 miles west of Madurai. There the
god Alakar, a form of Vishnu, proceeds toward
Madurai and the Vaikai River as part of his annual
outing. As it happens, VISHNU is the brother of
Minakshi and is going to give the bride away to
Shiva. Unfortunately, when he reaches the Vaikai
River, in sight of the great temple of his sister, he
discovers that he has arrived late at the wedding
and must return. The Kallar community, relatively
low-caste devotees of Vishnu, play a prominent
role in this part of the festival, which lasts nine
days.
Further reading: D. Dennis Hudson, The Two Chitra
Festivals of Madurai in Religious Festivals in South India
and Sri Lanka. Edited by Guy R. Welbon and Glenn E.
Yocum (Delhi: Manohar, 1982); William P. Harman,
The Sacred Marriage of a Hindu Goddess (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1989).
Christian-Hindu relations
Christianity has existed in India for almost two
millennia. The Malakara Orthodox Church, head-
quartered in Kerala, has provided a Christian
presence within the larger world of Hindu life.
This Orthodox community has generally lived
a peaceful existence over the centuries, but one
largely cut off from the mainstream of the Chris-
tian world. The Roman Catholic nation of Portu-
gal claimed portions of India in 1498, and, once
a Catholic bishop was placed at the Portuguese
colony of Goa, an aggressive mission program
was initiated by the Jesuits. For a short time, the
Orthodox realigned with the Catholics but soon
saw their interests diverge and returned to an
independent status.Shantivanam, a Christian ashram, in Tiruchchirapalli,
Tamil Nadu, India (Constance A. Jones)Christian-Hindu relations 113 J