Abode of the Goddess

Steeped in legend and jasmine aroma, Madurai draws the bulk of its tourists with ornate temples. But go deeper and you’ll discover that the city holds a unique allure for everyone.

- DEVANSHI MODY

IT BEGAN A DECADE AGO, our family’s love affair with Madurai. It was January 2011. My brother, Samir, and I had relocated to Chennai from the UK and wanted to discover Tamil Nadu. Madurai was recommended to us. Taking mum along, we embarked. An eight-hour journey became 14 hours because the driver stopped for an inordinate dinner break and got waylaid after one too many vadais. It ended at 2 am, with imprecations heaped on the driver and our resolve never to return to Madurai. Little did we realise that Madurai’s presiding deity, Goddess Meenakshi, wields the might of destiny in her enigmatic smile. Or that there’s a story in every pillar of Madurai’s temples and every quivering petal of its jasmines that would keep luring us back.

Our first glimpse of Madurai was unforgettable. Hawkers selling onions, people standing around eating street food—at 2 am! Trudging through labyrinthine streets we reached our hotel, Heritage Madurai, created by legendary architect Geoffrey Bawa. It was nearing 3 am, but the staff received us as if we were divinity. Even our drooping eyes appreciated quintessential Bawa manifested in clean lines, spare interiors, vast open spaces, pillared pavillions, and stretches of garden encrusted with a monumental sprawl of a pool replicating a temple tank. We would bring in the New Year at this retreat again and again. As on our latest visit. Anu Abraham (aka Abi), a brisk young Malayali, now runs the hotel ensconced in acres of landscaped gardens swooning under an ancient banyan tree.