A woman praying to the monkey god Hanuman inside the magnificent Meenakshi temple in Madurai.
The enormous temple complex is dedicated to Shiva, known here as Sundareshvara and his consort Parvati, or Meenakshi. The original temple was built by Kulasekara Pandya, but the entire credit for making it as splendid as it is today goes to the Nayaks. The Nayaks ruled Madurai from the 16th to the 18th century and left a majestic imprint of their rule in the Meenakshi - Sundareswarar Temple.
