Work

Meenakshi Amman Temple

1655
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Largely rebuilt by the Nayak dynasty in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, its towering polychrome gopurams and concentric temple-city plan, ordered by the Shilpa Shastras, exemplify mature Dravidian architecture.

Ritual Settlement Fantasy

Details

Type
Building
Location
Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India

Classifications

Holder
Communal intergenerational
Source of authority
Revelation cosmology
Subject
Human centred
Cosmological orientation
MandalaAxis mundi
Degree of codification
Highly codified
Mode of transmission
ApprenticeshipText drawing
Knowledge type
Relational embodied
Epistemic cluster
South asian

Connections

Sources

  1. George Michell. The Hindu Temple: An Introduction to Its Meaning and Forms. University of Chicago Press, 1988.
  2. Crispin Branfoot. Gods on the Move: Architecture and Ritual in the South Indian Temple. British Academy, 2007.

Cite this entry

First published May 2026Last revised Jul 2026

CLAD. "Meenakshi Amman Temple." Atlas of Architectural Thought. CLAD, 2026. https://www.cl-ad.com.au/research/atlas/work/meenakshi-temple/. Accessed July 17, 2026.