Meenakshi Amman Temple

One Of The Principal Shakti Temples Of South India; The Heart Of The Ancient City Of Madurai · Madurai, Tamil Nadu

The great temple of Madurai, one of the oldest cities in south India, dedicated to the goddess Meenakshi and her consort Sundareswarar, a form of Shiva. It is less a single building than a walled city within the city: fourteen gopurams, gateway towers covered from base to tip in thousands of brightly painted figures of gods, demons and animals, rise over courtyards, pillared halls and a sacred tank called the Golden Lotus. The present complex dates mostly from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries under the Nayak rulers, on a far older site. It is fully alive: tens of thousands of worshippers come every day, and every night Sundareswarar is carried in a procession to Meenakshi's chamber. The Hall of a Thousand Pillars holds a museum. Non-Hindus may enter the complex but not the two inner sanctums. The Chithirai festival in April and May, which re-enacts the divine wedding, draws huge crowds. Phones and cameras are banned inside, and dress rules are enforced. Madurai is also a good base for Chettinad and the temples of Tamil Nadu.

Madurai Main, East Chitrai Street, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, 625001, India

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED AND ALL TIMES MUST BE CONFIRMED. The typical pattern: the temple opens early, around five in the morning, closes through the early afternoon, roughly half past twelve to four, and reopens until the night procession, around nine to half past nine, after which the gates close. The Thousand Pillar Hall museum keeps shorter daytime hours. Phones and cameras are banned at every gate. Festival days, especially Chithirai in April and May, change the schedule, gates and routes. The traps: arriving in the early-afternoon closure, being turned away for shorts, and bringing a phone with nowhere to leave it.

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