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Rang

City of painted temple towers

Madurai

The towers of the Meenakshi temple carry thousands of painted figures; jasmine sellers add white below.

Madurai and view of the gopurams of Meenakshi temple, State of Tamil Nadu, India
Photo: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Madurai is gopuram colours

Madurai, in Tamil Nadu, is built around the Meenakshi Amman temple. Its gateway towers, called gopurams, rise in tiers covered with thousands of stucco gods, demons and animals. Each figure is painted in strong blues, greens, pinks and yellows. The paint weathers in the sun and rain, so the towers are repainted at a renewal ceremony held roughly every twelve years. The present temple dates mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries under the Nayak rulers. Madurai is also known for a white flower. Madurai malli, a local jasmine with a strong scent, is strung into garlands and worn in the hair. The town's Sungudi saris are cotton tie-dyed with rows of tiny dots.

Gopuram colours#2E9CA6Stucco pink#E07A8BJasmine white#FAF7EETurmeric yellow#E9B824Parrot green#4CA64C

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Madurai" on Wikipedia. If you know Madurai and we have it wrong, tell us.

More colour cities

All colour cities
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The Blue CityJodhpurOld-city houses washed in blue crowd the foot of Mehrangarh Fort, on the edge of the Thar Desert.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The Pink CityJaipurThe walled city wears a dusty terracotta pink, first painted on for a royal visit in 1876 and kept ever since.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The White CityUdaipurWhite palaces and whitewashed houses stand around lakes in the Aravalli hills of southern Rajasthan.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The Golden CityJaisalmerA fort and town built of yellow sandstone that glows like honey at sunset, deep in the Thar Desert.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ City of saffron and lightVaranasiSaffron robes, marigold garlands and oil lamps colour the river steps of one of the oldest living cities.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Town of Holi coloursVrindavanFor Holi the temple town of Krishna's childhood fills with clouds of pink, yellow and green powder.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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