Day 13 - Guided tour of Madurai
We take a guided tour of Madurai which includes the impressive
17th century Thirumalai Nayak Palace and the Gandhi Memorial
Museum. A frenetic yet ancient city located on the Vaigai River in
Tamil Nadu, Madurai's skyline is dominated by 14 colourful
gopurams, or gateway towers, of the Meenakshi Amman Temple. Covered
in bright carvings of Hindu gods, this Dravidian-style temple has
been a major pilgrimage site for centuries, here we watch the
'puja', a traditional Hindu ritual of offering prayers. Each day
the priests symbolically bathe, dress and feed an idol of God
Shiva, and we witness the final puja of the day as Shiva is put to
bed alongside his wife, Goddess Meenakshi, to whom the temple is
dedicated.