But it was neither the awesomeness of the towers nor the gorgeous complexity of the carvings that accorded the Madurai Meenakshi Sundareswara Temple its uniqueness. It was the idea. Among the multitude of Hindu shrines, it was the only one dedicated to Shiva and Parvati, not in their familiar forms as the destroyer-restorer and his ever-present consort, but as the romantic god Sundareswara and the fish-eyed beauty Meenakshi.
