A wonderful town with a wonderful temple, a town within the town
1 Sri-Meenakshi-Sundareshwarar Temple seen from our hotel terrace. Meenakshi is another name for Parvati; Sundareshwarar, for Shiva.
2 Closer up
3 Street vendor
4 Technical books, mostly in English, for sale
5 I guess the glass was half full; the gopurams were not all entirely covered by scaffolding for the every-12-yearly renovation ...
6 ... but the Golden Lotus Tank was empty too
7 Skinny cat near the empty tank -- no fish, kitty
8 The empty tank with gopurams in various stages of scaffolding
9 Marriage party
10 Another marriage party
11 That instrument is a variety of clarinet, which he happily showed off
12 A yalli, or chimera
13 Colors on uneven beams
14 Hall in the temple
15 Gold-plated horse ...
16 ... and silver-plated elephant
17 The nine planets (including the sun and the moon)
18 Shiva stomping an enemy
19 Nataraja -- dancing Shiva
20 The marriage of Shiva and Parvati
21 Nandi with incense
22 It sounds like a sackbut -- it's loud
23 Muruga, second son of Shiva, riding on his vehicle, which is a peacock; Muruga is particularly popular in Tamil Nadu
24 The beautiful Hall of a Thousand Pillars
25 Yalli (chimera)
26 Elephant lover
27 The Hall of a Thousand Pillars
28 The Hall of a Thousand Pillars houses a museum of bronzes and other things
29 Porters in the street
30 A friendly hi-fi salesman
31 A little girl sleeps near her mother
32 This woman piled 12 bricks on her head to carry into the construction site
33 Gopuram and wires
34 Top of the west gopuram of the Meenakshi Temple
35 Friendly young men in the street
36 Children playing in the outer court of the Meenakshi Temple
37 Of course they wanted their pictures taken
38 Happy kids
39 This little girl hefted up her little brother (we suppose) to have their picture taken
40 Top of one of the inner gopurams with monster's head at the top
41 In a corner of the Meenakshi Temple, worshippers before a statue of Hanuman
42 Ladies worshipping with butter lamps
43 Butter lamps before a statue of ... who is buried under those garlands?
44 Part of a door which has 1008 butter candles on it. Like 108, 1008 is a holy number (adds up to 9)
45 The sign says "Wearing of socks inside the temple are not allowed". Ok...
46 The evening ceremony of taking Shiva in to bed with Parvati is particularly flamboyant. Here, the gates to the Shiva shrine have not yet been opened.
47 Priests literally run through the temple, carrying the image of Shiva in a silver chariot to the shrine (and bedroom) of Parvati
48 Here they come, with lots of incense, candles and smoke.
49 The chariot arrives before Parvati's bedroom door.
50 The chariot
51 An image of dancing Shiva appears on the silver-covered chariot.
52 The priests, standing in symbolically for Parvati, make Shiva comfortable by washing his feet, which appear on the gold stool.
53 Drying Shiva's feet
54 Lotuses and other flowers
55 And warming with a butter lamp
56 The Thirumalali Nayak Palace of Madurai
57 Royal Palace
58 Royal Palace
59 Royal Palace -- Durbar (Council) Chamber
60 Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam Tank
61 The Pudumandapa, just to the east of the Meenakshi Temple, is full of tailors and sari wallahs
62 Shopping for scarves (and pashminas)
63 A seller of huge Indian padlocks
64 A tailor working on Siv's salwar kameez
65 Another tailor at work; all the sewing machines are treadle models.
66 Irons for sale, the kind you put hot coals in
67 Cookware salesman
68 Cookware row in the Pudumandapa
69 Another cookware wallah
70 Reflection of the east gopuram
71 Knife sharpener
72 A street procession
73 This is how Indians construct a building
74 Closeup of north gopuram of the Meenakshi Temple
75 Assembling the scaffolding for the temple renovation
76 Another log for the scaffolding
77 Working on the scaffolding. No hard hats; hell, no shoes!
78 Nice-looking boys
79 Temple musicians
80 Evening light on steps and columns next to the Golden Lotus Tank
81 A monkey on the scaffolding
82 The temple elephant...
83 ... rests his trunk on a silly tourist's head (For tourists, that cost 10 Rps)
84 Wiring
85 Our Madurai driver at a small temple dedicated to the Tamil god Aiyanar (or Ayyanar)
86 Hanuman, the monkey god
87 The statues here resemble those of the guardians outside the town limits
88 The Tamil god Ayyanar on his horse
89 The tourist doesn't have a moustache (or, for that matter, hair) like the statue
90 We don't know what the offerings are here, but they stank; it seemed primitive.
