Meenakshi temple, Madurai

Our purpose of going to Madurai was to visit this holy place. We relaxed for a while and then went to visit the Meenakshi temple. We are from our hotel around 4pm and reached the temple. The road leading to the parking was narrow and crowded. We got down near the temple to walk while our driver drive the car to the parking area. We removed our footwear at a shop near the temple. Mobile phones, bags and other such stuff is not allowed inside the temple and needs to be deposited in the locker room. The guards at the entrance all you to be fully covered (not really sure what it means). I was wearing a cut sleeves top and trousers, so she asked me for a stole/dupatta,etc and wrapped it around me like a shawl. There was too much of rush inside the temple. We got to know there was a free line (queue) and a paid queue. Such things are practiced only in places where Hindus worship. I haven't seen any such discrimination at places where any other religion worships. We paid ₹50 per entry to get into the paid queue and it took us nearly 3 hours to get to the idol only for a few seconds from a distance of may be 20-30 feet or so.

Meenakshi temple is known for its carvings and the beauty, but going by the rush and the practices followed, I'm not sure how many people would actually be looking at the beauty of the temple.



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