Got into Madurai Friday afternoon after a grueling six-hour bus ride (no trains from Kanyakumari). The place is mad all right; it’s a city teeming with beggars, touts, bullock carts, and rickshaws; not to mention the ten thousand pilgrims who might flock here on any one day. They had come, along with me, to see the awe-inspiring Sri Meenakshi Temple. This temple, covering six hectares, dominates the city. With its four giant gopurams (towers), it has to be seen to be believed. These towers, along with some minor ones, stand at the four corners of the temple and are a riot of Dravidian architecture, Fantasy creatures, gods of all kinds, goblins, monsters, serpents all leap from the towers in a spectacular pastiche. The temple inside is a city within its own walls. After leaving my shoes
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