Madurai Majestic and Magnificent

Even though I had seen the Madurai Meenakshi temple several times as a child this was my first visit as an adult and I wanted to see it in its entirety. A magnificent temple, where the goddess Meenakshi (meaning fish-eyed one,

one of Goddess Parvathi's many forms) and her consort Sundareswar (a form of Shiva) are the presiding deities, this lies at the heart of Madurai, and was originally built as the city's nerve centre with the main streets spreading out and around it as concentric squares.

The temple city of Tamil Nadu is a major pilgrimage site in south India and millions attend the ceremonies and procession at the majestic Dravidian-style temple – Meenakshi Amman Temple. Madurai's south-Indian vegetarian food is among the best you can get in the State and its non-vegetarian fare is not lesser-known

The temple famed for its architectural splendour and exquisite sculptures have 14 gopurams, and four entrances one on each geographical direction. Every inch of the gopurams we saw was covered with colourful, stucco figures of gods, goddesses and devas (heavenly or celestial beings).

Within the temple are thousands of beautiful sculptures and many mural paintings with label inscriptions in Tamil and Telugu. We also saw the Vinayaka statue, the gigantic Nandi at the entrance of the Pudhu Mandapam shopping centre,

the sacred Golden Lotus Temple Tank and the Hall of 1000 pillars or Meenakshi Nayakkar Mandapam. We paused at the famous sculpture of Goddess Meenakshi's wedding to Sundareswar, which is widely reproduced in Kalyana Mandapams (marriage halls) in south India.

We then made our way to the other big draw of Madurai, the Thirumala Nayak Palace. It took our breath away with its gigantic pillars; vast courtyard; beautiful arches; latticed windows; and enormous gold-covered inner dome. The splendid Dancing Hall was where we lingered for nearly an hour.

The 17th-century palace was built by the then-king Thirumala Nayak of the Nayak dynasty. Madurai was ruled by several dynasties over the centuries like the Nayaks, Cholas and Pandyas. It was also under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate and Vijayanagar Empire at different points in time.

Stepping out of the Madurai Meenakshi temple, on a searing hot April afternoon, I was looking for a bottle of chilled mineral water when my friend suggested I try jigarthanda, the famed local drink. Even before I could protest that I did not like sweets or sweet drinks, she drove off to a nearby ice-cream and cold drinks parlour and five minutes later returned with two glasses of jigarthanda.

I found it milky and cloyingly sweet. But I drained off the glass anyway, given that it was comfortingly ice-cold. Also, now I could say I was truly getting to know Madurai. After all, jigarthanda like paniyaram or podi idlis is the thing to have if you want to experience the best in food and drink that Madurai has to offer.

Literally meaning heart cooler, it is made of sarsaparilla syrup, china grass, milk, badam pisin or jelly, cream, ice-cream, and of course loads of sugar. Sometimes, there is a garnish of almond and pista. We followed this up with a visit to a nearby restaurant to have some more local specialities like koothu paratha (I had the vegetarian version,

while my friend had the one with meat), idiyappam or string hoppers, a bit of kuzhambu (a spicy stew), and keerai dosa. We were really very hungry after that three-hour visit to the Madurai Meenakshi Temple and we had gone there without breakfast.

Dinner was all about street food. My friend went for the local biryani, which had coconut milk and she told me that it tasted very different from Hyderabadi dum biryani. My vote went for the puliyodharai and dosas. We had our dinner at small eateries near the Meenakshi Temple.

The food was superb – pure, authentic, south Indian fare. For long, Madurai was an agrarian society and rice paddies were the main crops. Even now rice figures in most of the local food varieties whether the idlis, dosas, idiyappams or lemon rice, tamarind rice, biryani, etc.

I gathered that though Madurai's south-Indian vegetarian food is among the best you can get in the state, the city had a strong non-vegetarian food culture with meat dishes figuring prominently on menus. Dishes with chicken, mutton, rabbit, quail, crab, prawns, etc are popular.

Madurai is known as thoonga nagaram or the city which never sleeps – the pushcarts selling food were busy till midnight and even after that. Next morning, driving out of town, we reached Elephant Hill, which is around 30 km from the city centre.

The hilltop offers a stunning view of the city. There is a cave here with beautiful, ancient Jain inscriptions, which is just one example of the multicultural influences that have made Madurai what it is today. Getting back to town we made a visit to Gandhi Museum, which is one of the five Gandhi Sanghralayas in the country.

Among its exhibits is a part of the blood-stained garment, which was worn by Gandhi when he was assassinated. There are photos, paintings and sculptures beside several letters written by Mahatma Gandhi as well as some of his personal items. We then went to Velacherry, which is a renowned centre for stone and terracotta sculptures.

We saw hundreds of stone and mud statues, as also several made of plaster-of-Paris, all in different stages of completion. Since this area has workshops as well as retail sections, you can buy products or just watch the artists at work. The area was hot and dusty but we enjoyed the visit.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at a couple of markets to pick up a few Madurai Sungudi sarees. The city and surrounds are known for these bright-coloured, cotton sarees, with a distinct print, which is made by the Sourashtrian community, which migrated here from Gujarat, centuries ago. We also bought a few Tamil books for friends back home, who had made requests for these. Madurai has a long and rich history in the arts – three Tamil Sangams or assemblies of scholars were held here.

Late evening saw us heading to the Alagir Koyil, another well-known temple. This one has Vishnu as the presiding deity and his consorts Sridevi and Bhudevi are worshipped alongside. The temple also has large images of Lord Narasimha, Hanuman and Garuda.

We saw hundreds of other small and big temples across the city. This is the reason Madurai is also known as Kovil or Koil Nagar meaning the City of Temples. Its other epithet, City of Jasmines, was evident everywhere with mounds of jasmine buds and flowers being sold in general markets, street corners of residential areas, and especially on the roads leading to temples. The wonderful fragrance of jasmine which hung in the air is one of my most enduring memories of this beautiful city.

By: Aruna Chandaraju