Around Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai: A Photo Story

Most everything in the town of Madurai revolves around the famous Meenakshi Amman temple. Most tourists are in the town to visit the world-famous Meenakshi Amman temple. There is an entire ecosystem built around the temple – there are shops selling everything from eatables and fruits and vegetables and vessels and flowers to clothes and wigs and cosmetics and jewellery here, for this very reason. Directions to tourists here are often given in terms of the temple – a place is almost always located straight ahead from, right or left from, or just around the Meenakshi Amman temple. The temple is the heart of the town, it’s heartbeat, rather. Walk around the roads and bylanes of Madurai, like we did on our holiday, and you will, more often than not, end up at the Meenakshi Amman temple.

The temple surroundings buzz with activity, frenetic with the comings and goings of locals and tourists alike. The place wears the look of a fair ground, especially so on the days of Indian festivals. Today, I present to you some sights we captured from around the famed Meenakshi Amman temple, on our camera.

A shop selling a variety of snacks, at the very entrance to the Meenakshi Amman temple

A short walk away from the temple is a little market, where you can spot the freshest of vegetables, among other things. We found these beautiful, beautiful little bittergourds there.

Panneer drakshe, Indian Gulabi or rose-flavoured grapes, for sale outside the Meenakshi Amman temple. Simply gorgeous, these are!

A row of tailors operating in the Pudhu Mantapam, adjacent to the Meenakshi Amman temple. These tailors stitch garments that adorn deities in temples as well as dance costumes, I believe.

There are several Muslim-owned shops around the temple that sell a variety of pooja paraphernalia. Some of these stores offer excellent freshly ground sandal.

Mounds of karupatti or palm jaggery for sale on the streets outside the Meenakshi Amman temple

A busy thoroughfare in Madurai with the Meenakshi Amman temple’s gopuram rising up majestically

Colourful, colourful bangles on offer at the shops in Pudhu Mantapam, near the temple. You get an excellent selection of colours, shapes, types and materials of bangles here!

Cast iron and iron utensils on sale at a shop inside Pudhu Mantapam. I treasure the mini idli maker and the dosa pan that I picked up here!

A tree near the temple, considered sacred and being worshipped

The famed Madurai mallige aka jasmine, being sold outside the temple by weight

Colourful old-fashioned trunks being sold in the marketplace near the Meenakshi Amman temple

This kind of shops are everywhere around the temple – they sell a variety of knick-knacks, most of them priced at just INR 10!

I hope you enjoyed this virtual journey with me! Do let me know, in your comments!

PS: The Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple was in the news earlier this month because of a fire that caught hold of some of the shops around it. A short circuit in one of the shops is believed to have caused the fire, which gutted over 50 shops. Read details here.

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