Madurai
Textile and spiritual hub of Tamil Nadu
In the S. West corner of Tamil Nadu lies the ancient city of Madurai. This is one of the oldest cities in India - and has been on the same spot since 3000 years. Madurai is famous for the gigantic and awe inspiring Meenakshi temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati. The temple was built around 1600.
 The Meenakshi temple features four huge towers on all sides of the complex, the highest being about 170 feet. Many smaller towers fill the temple, which is arranged around a beautiful central tank. The interior is like a maze, with hundreds of small shrines to visit, all fantatically colored and ornamented.
Pilgrims flock here for the special blessing of darshan at the temple, hence the city is buzzing with beggars hoping to get a handout from pious pilgrims. Many foreign tourists also come to see the temple, so the touts are also out en force. This is the first time we've ever got hounded by tailors, who in the guise of making small talk follow you down the street and then try to lure you into their shops with cheap stitching offers. One man offered to stich a complete suit for only 50 cents. I wonder what kind of quality work he does? We had to keep moving or would get surrounded by people either begging or directing us to go to places where we didn't want to go.
 The south tower of the temple. 170 feet high and covered with colorful and ornature figures. There is so much colorful figure work in the temple, that it's under constant renovation. They get one tower painted fresh and it's time to do the next one!
Madurai has many weavers in the city and surrounding villages. The classic Madurai handloom is woven from very shiney, highly mercerized cotton with glistening silky borders, which used to be made of silk, but are now mostly polyester or shiney cotton. The cloth is airy and lightweight, perfect for the very hot climate. It was about 95 degrees here while we visited, so we avoided going out between 11 and 3pm.
Madurai also produces very beautiful block printed sarees called "Sungudi". They are usually printed on fine cotton cloth and feature small printing on the field in simple one or two color motifs. They are affordable and durable for every day wear and you see many women wearing this style on the street.
 A village woman wearing the delightful "pinkosu" style sari, with the pleats in the back. She's also wearing a typical south cotton handloom with plain field, woven border and simple striped pallu.
Tamil Sari Styles
This fruit seller woman, who comes to the city every day to sell a basket full of fruit earns a mere 50 rupees per day. (a little more than a dollar!) She stands on the busy street all day hoping to sell a few grapes and apples for a profit. She's wearing the typical village wrap with the pleats in the back. In her case, she's fanned the pleats flat in the back. Working women tend to tuck the pallu into the waistband on their right hips. This keeps the whole thing stablized and allows them to adjust the folds for more or less ventilation.
If you are interested in trying to wrap this style sari then I highly recommend Chantal Boulanger's wonderful book illustrating this and a hundred other ways to wrap a sari. You can buy her book on line by going to her website.
 Buying sarees at a great family owned shop in Madurai. We were generally flabbergasted with the lack of knowledge we encountered while shopping for particular things. Even in the large shops, where you expect people to know what they are selling, we were constantly told that Coimbatore, Mangalagiri and Kanchpuram cotton pieces were all Madurai cottons! In this shop I was able to buy a bunch of wonderful Gadwal style sarees, Sungari block prints, and magnificent Tamil Brahmin sarees in 9 yard lengths, all which you can now buy in the
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