Golden Lily Tank, Madurai

Most photographs of colonial India were taken in northern India, since there was a larger European presence there. Southern India has its own rich architectural history, however, even if less well documented.

The great temple city of Madurai (in what is now Tamil Nadu state) is noted for its towering gateways. Dating mostly to the 1600s, the Minakshi Temple is actually a double temple, with main shrines to the goddess Minakshi and the god Sundareshvara, a form of Shiva. The Golden Lily Tank, the largest water tank in the complex, is located to the side, in front of the goddess temple. The gateway seen to the right leads toward the Shiva Temple, and the gateways in the center leads directly into the goddess shrine. The inclusion in this photograph of devotees bathing at the tank gives a sense of the immense scale of the pond.