Pongal festival

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Today was a very early start at 5.45am. This was for a walking tour in the old town in Madurai before the traffic and crowds arrive. We joined six other Indian Panorama travellers. The first part of the walk focused on the houses and particuladrawing the coloured drawings outside the door of each house. These drawings are made twice a day in the early morning and again in the evening. They are made of white and coloured powders that are sprinkled to create patterns. Today the drawings were particularly elaborate because of the Pongal harvest festival. They included representations of the rice cooking pot and the sugar cane palms that are used to decorate homes. We saw a lady cooking various breakfast food for sale and then tasted her cooking- a little like the inside part of a do-nut but less sweet and with a slightly crisp coating. We walked through various markets selling fruit, coconuts, onions, vegetables and a huge collection of bananas. The bananas are smaller and there is also a red variety which apparently has special properties. The final part of the tour was a climb up for a view of the temple. On this tour the town had a festival holiday feel with lots of people sayin Happy Pongal.

After a late breakfast at the hotel we returned to the temple. The temple has ancient foundations and was the centre of the old city of Madurai 1600 BC. This is the old part of the city where our walking tour took place. The temple is a mixture of old and new. It was built over a period of 500 years up to C19. The new within the temple highlighted by our guide includes the ceiling painting which is regularly repainted and an optical illusion Shiva ligngam which turns to face you as you change direction. The temple is based on the story of Meenakshi. There are representations of the marriage of Shiva and Meenashi. From the temple tank there was a very impressive view across to one of the towers. It was also possible to see the two anctums covered in gold. Although these are lower then the painted towers, they stand out because of the gold. The 1,000 pillar hall is a highlight. This is the museum area and has better lighting than some areas of the temple. I enjoyed the Yali with a crocodile sculpture and one of a female goddess who looked so fierce she could have been Amazonian. The ivories were interesting, but not well displayed.

After a thali lunch at the hotel we explored the local area. The hotel is in the financial district and it is also a residential area for doctors, lawyersand other professionals. The houses were luxury modern. Most shops were closed for Pongal, but we found a supermarket. In one of the residential streets a temple elephant was wandering with her mahout. We sawhere eatfruit and sugar cane presented by a man in one of the houses and receive a blessing from the elephant - a sort of trunk raising over the head. We paid 20 rupees for our blessing. The elephant received the note in her trunk exactly the same as food and passed it up to the Mahoot.

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