Pudhu Mandapa of Tirumal Nayak (r. 1623–59), Minakshi Sundareshvara Temple, Madurai (1858): Art, History and Details

Pudhu Mandapa of Tirumal Nayak (r. 1623–59), Minakshi Sundareshvara Temple, Madurai (1858) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Captain Linnaeus Tripe (British, 1822–1902).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The temple complex that contains this open, pillared hall is dedicated to Minakshi, a form of Parvati, and her consort, Sundareshvara, a form of Shiva. The central column depicts Shiva feeding sugarcane to an elephant. Because Linnaeus Tripe respected the Hindu temples as places of religious, historical, and artistic value, he strove to document the carvings decorating the temples, even when they were hidden in shadow.

Object facts

• Title: Pudhu Mandapa of Tirumal Nayak (r. 1623–59), Minakshi Sundareshvara Temple, Madurai
• Date: 1858
• Creator attribution: Captain Linnaeus Tripe (British, 1822–1902)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print
• Dimensions: Image: 35.7 x 27.3 cm (14 1/16 x 10 3/4 in.); Paper: 35.7 x 27.3 cm (14 1/16 x 10 3/4 in.); Mounted: 57.4 x 45.4 cm (22 5/8 x 17 7/8 in.)
• Collection: PH - British 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2020.211

A detail from the museum

This hall was built to serve as a summer house for the gods to whom the temple is dedicated.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Dewan, Janet, and Linnaeus Tripe. The Photographs of Linnaeus Tripe: A Catalogue Raisonné. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2003.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.