By: Bhushavali

When you say Central Tamil Nadu, the 2 urban centres that pop-out of the map, are Trichy and Madurai. We saw Trichy aka Tiruchirappalli in the last post. Now, let's see Madurai. Just like Trichy, Madurai is additionally a well noted stop across Indians and much less across non-Indians! The reason for it to be noted across Indians is for pilgrimage at Madurai Meenakshi Amman Place of worship. When the shrine is one of the favoured places to visit in Madurai, there are quite a few unusual, notable things to do as well!

Madurai is very key for those who are interested in the life and history of Mahatma Gandhi. Madurai is where he decided to stop wearing shirts, after seeing many peasants whose normal attire was just the loin cloth! Across the Indian Independence struggle, in 1920s, Gandhiji was fiercely promoting Khadi fabric are the livery of freedom! Residents all over India were encouraged to spin and weave their own fabrics! Here, in Gandhigram, situated between Madurai & Dindigul, the task was overtaken by the couple Dr. T.S. Soundram and Dr. G. Ramachandran. Gandhiji himself had visited here to deliver his speech and that's when he shed his shirt as well! This was in Sept 22, 1921.