Meenakshi kalyaaNam

[N. Ganesan]

An American couple are visiting Madurai. The flight is on
Wednesday. Can a kind soul type few words from a book
I am seeking? They will be in the right place to attend
a festival that may be 2500 years old & where millions
still participate which is happening on Chitra Paurnami day.

1) Megasthenes, the Grecian ambassador of Alexander,
refers to the marriage of the goddess of Methora.

Few lines of what William Harman says in his
Sacred marriage of a Hindu Goddess, please.
OR, it may be found in K. A. N. Sastri, Foreign
notices of South India too.

Million thanks for the helper in advance.

2) K. Zcelebil, 1992, p. 23, Companion studies to the
history of tamil literature,
"The first flourish of an attested Dravidian civilization
on Indian soil - that of the early Tamils - appeared in the
area of the Indo-Ceylon straits, in the Gulf of Mannar. This
earliest Indo-Dravidian civilisation, the beginning of which
can possibly be dated between ca. 600-300 BCE, is connected with
the dynasty of the Pandyas. The "Pandya connexion" attain
additional attraction in the light of Romila Thapar's
and R. Champakalakshmi's suggest that the reference in
Ashurbanipal's (668-631 BCE) inscription to Pad'e, the
King of Quad'e, may in fact be to Pandya, King of KuuDal,
one of the early capitals of the Pandya kingdom.
(cf. Asoka's 2nd major rock edict, Girnar verson,
where Pa.de' = Pandya)".

3) John J. Banninga, The marriage of the gods,
National Geographic, 24, p. 1314-1330, 1913.
(A nonessntial svayapuraaNic anecdote:
This reference I found out.
About this 85 year old article full of
a century old photographs, Bill was pleased to know in 1987)

Regards,
N. Ganesan