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Did Guinness World Records Make a Mistake in Judging the World’s Largest Hindu Temple?

Recently the Guinness World Records had certified BAPS Akshardham temple in Delhi as the world’s largest Hindu temple. But is it really the largest temple in the world? The doubt arises when the large temple complexes in Tamil Nadu are taken into account.

Akshardham is 356 ft long and 316 ft wide, its grounds covers 86,342 sq ft. The total area of the temple complex is 32 acres of land.

Madurai Meenakshi Temple is 850 ft long and 800 ft wide. The total area of the complex is 17 acres.

Other temples in Tamil Nadu that might challenge the Guinness World Records are the Thiruvannamalai Shiva Temple, Srirangam Sri Ranganthaswamy Temple complex and Thiruvarur Temple.

The above picture is of the Thiruvannamalai Shiva Temple.

Hindustan Times reports

When informed that the entire Akshardham complex was spread over 30 acres, said B Raja, joint commissioner of the Meenakshi Temple, said, ‘A temple is a place for prayer. It is incorrect to include facilities for non-religious activities such as restaurants or boating arrangements as the Akshardham complex has, as part of a temple, just because they happen to be in the vicinity.’

‘Srirangam, surrounded by the waters of river Kaveri, is a 600-acre island-town enclosed within the seven walls of the gigantic Sri Ranganathaswami Temple. There are 21 gopurams, among which the Rajagopuram (on the left) is the tallest in South India — it is 72 metres (about 220 ft) in height, and dates to the 17th century, although it was fully completed in 1987. The temple complex measures 950 metres by 816 metres (about half a square mile) along its outer perimeter,’ writes Prof VS Seshadri, a noted historian.

State Temple Administration officials, however, said they have no immediate plan to challenge the Guinness classification of Akshardham.

‘But we are curious to know if their officials visited our large temples like Srirangam, Madurai Meenakshi, Thiruvannamalai and Thiruvarur temples before arriving at this verdict,’ said a senior official of the Temple Administration Department. (via)

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