Jenakai Mariamman Temple, Sholavandan

Deity

Mariamman (swayambhu)

Timings

6 AM to 12 noon, 4 PM to 9 PM

Main festival

Vaikasi festival (about 15 days, May to June)

Distance from Madurai

About 20 km (about 45 minutes)

River

Vaigai

Faith and healing

Mariamman has long been worshipped in Tamil Nadu as a goddess who protects against fever and pox. Here, people who were suffering from smallpox would bathe in the temple well, pray in wet clothes and drink the holy water made with turmeric and neem leaves. Today devotees come to pray for health, marriage, children, good harvests, success in business and education, and protection from evil.

• Couples hoping for a child tie a small cradle with a doll to the temple tree, and later return to walk around the shrine with the baby
• Farmers offer grain from their harvest
• Some devotees walk on the fire pit, shave their heads or offer hens and roosters
• Others give annadhanam, light maavilakku lamps of rice flour and ghee, or offer pots pierced with many small holes

Festivals

The biggest event is the Vaikasi festival, held for around 15 days in the Tamil month of Vaikasi (May to June). The goddess is taken out in procession on a lion mount. Fire pots are carried on the eighth day, and the ninth brings milk pots, a flower palanquin and the fire walk. Thai Pongal in January, Tamil New Year in April and Navarathri in September or October are also celebrated. On Vijayadasami an arrow ceremony is held by the river, and locals say it has never failed to rain on that day.

Timings and how to reach

You can visit between 6 AM and noon, and again from 4 PM until 9 PM. Wear modest clothes that cover shoulders and knees. Sholavandan is roughly 20 km from Madurai, a drive of about 45 minutes, with frequent buses, and it also has its own small railway station on the Madurai to Dindigul line. We can add it to a Madurai temple tour.

Also nearby