Spirituality · The Journal
What the Meenakshi Bazaar Sees
A morning in the lanes around the east gopuram, where every tin of kumkum carries a small ritual.
The Meenakshi Amman temple has eight gopurams. The east tower, the tallest, looks down on a warren of streets where pilgrims have stopped on their way in and out for at least four centuries.
Most of the kumkum sold in those streets is mass-produced, dyed with chemical pigments, packed in plastic. A small number of women — fewer every year — still grind their own from turmeric, slaked lime, and a sandalwood-attar finish, the way it was done before chemistry happened.
Lakshmi Ammal is one of them. We carry her tins.