India is very famous for its temples. Thousands and thousands of temples built and maintained since time immemorial. Sculptures and construction techniques will speak for themselves of the glory of the great tradition.
Madurai is located 462 kilometers south of Chennai (Madras, as it was known in earlier times). The famous Meenakshi Amman Temple is located in the center of the city. Inside the temple, there are famous rooms like Marriage Hall, Thousand Pillar Hall, etc.
The Hall of the Thousand Pillars is very famous for its beautiful construction.
The hall, despite being called the hall of a thousand pillars, has only 985 pillars. The pillars are erected in such a way that they align from any angle we see.
In 1983, a team of experts from the audiology department entered the room and carried out an extensive study. They have used the latest scientific devices and found that there is absolutely no echo anywhere in the temple, even with the whole crowd around, the sound level rarely exceeds 80 dB (decibels).
Naturally, the noise level in a quiet environment will be 40 dB, on a busy street around 80-85 dB, and at the airport, when a jet plane takes off, it will be around 100 dB.
According to the team led by Dr. Kameswaran, an ENT specialist, there appears to be a mechanism built into the Madurai temple precincts to contain the echo. The total noise does not exceed a specific level that would make it unpleasant for visitors.
The temple is an acoustic marvel, the experts observed. Near the road there is an Ashta Shakti Hall. There, the noise level is only 40 dB.
The team members said that with this ambient noise it is possible for a person to contemplate and meditate on the Divine.
Approximately 5,000 to 6,000 people visit the temple daily. And the sound level recorded during peak hours is of the order of 70 dB to 80 dB.
It implies that the craftsmen knew the basic principles of acoustics. The huge icons on the unpolished pillars, the distribution of the vents, the allocation of open spaces around, are all mechanisms to contain the noise level. The arrangements are made in such a way that it is not rough but there is an artistic planning that combines utility with beauty. This arrangement is in strange contrast to the arrangement made in certain modern buildings where instruments for breaking noise and absorbing sound are hung from the ceiling in a very clumsy and non-artistic way.
This room is a classic example of perfect sound engineering technique. The average height of each pillar is approximately 12 feet. The pillars represent four types of motifs, one consisting of molded squares, the other with a rampant dragon, the third with the figure of a deity, and the fourth with the figure of a donor or his family. Raw abutments of exactly the same size and shape are placed in mathematically precise positions. These aspects have made the room resistant to echoes.
In addition, the pillars have such a peculiar arrangement that anyone sitting in a specific place could see a central figure without any obstacles in any position. In any position within the room, as a consequence of the arrangement of the pillars, 16 colonnades of different widths and such lengths on each side open up around us that the perspective they provide is simply wonderful.
The team of experts correctly described the Hall of a Thousand Pillars as an acoustic marvel.
Thousands of such intricate wonders are hidden in these Indian temples.