The temple of Meenakshi at Madurai in Tamil Nadu is famous for its size and architectural excellence. While the generally the Dravidian temples have but four Gopurams (soaring gateways with exuberant sculptures), the Meenakshi temple has eleven. Madurai is an ancient city and was the capital of the Pandya and Nayaka dynasties. The present temple was built in the 17th century. The Cittirai festival is a ten-day festival, which celebrates the marriage of Goddess Meenakshi, queen of Madurai and of Sundareshwar (beautiful god) who is a form of Shiva.

Legend has it that the emperor Kulasekhara Pandyan was the founder of the ancient city of Madurai and Malayadwaja Pandyan succeeded him. Malayadwaja Pandyan and his consort Kanchanamala who did not have any children of their own, worshipped with the desire of obtaining progeny. During the course of their ceremonial prayer, a baby girl appeared in the sacrificial altar miraculously. The Royal couple brought up this child as their own and named her Tataatakai. An odd feature about the baby was that it had three breasts instead of two and that a divine prophecy announced that the third one would miraculously disappear, when the would be consort of the princess would sight her.

Tataatakai grew up to be a valorous queen; she was also known as Meenakshi, the one endowed with eyes like the fish. Tataatakai embarked upon a Dig Vijaya or a tour of victory, across the length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent. In the course of her travels, she came to Mount Kailash where she encountered Shiva; upon standing in front of Shiva her third breast disappeared and a valorous warrior princess transformed into a blushing bride. Shiva directed Meenakshi to return to Madurai, and promised her that he would join her in eight days as her groom. Accordingly Meenakshi returned to Madurai, and at the appointed time, the divine wedding was celebrated with pomp and splendour.

The main feast of the temple is the annual celebration of the marriage of the goddess with Shiva. Meenaskhi Kalyanam is the wedding festival of Goddess Meenakshi and Lord Sundareshwar, it is celebrated for ten days from the second day of the lunar month (i.e. two days after the new moon).

After the marriage ceremony is over, the two idols of Lord Shiva and Goddess Meenakshi are taken out in colourful procession around the outskirts of the city. The procession is characterized with royal decorated umbrellas, fans and traditional instrumental music. The devotees accompanying the deities are dressed in yellow and red, both highly auspicious colours. They sing devotional songs on the way and splash coloured water on the passersby. The priests and servants of Alagar Koil and Meenakshi temples enact the scenes of the drama relating to these myths. Thousands of devotees from all over the country gather in the city of Madurai on this occasion.

The second part of the Cittirai Festival is, more popularly, known as Vaigai River Festival. According to Hindu tradition, the brother of the bride plays a significant role during the marriage celebrations of his sister. Meenakshi, a manifestation of Parvati, is the sister of Vishnu in his form of Krishna who is known as Alagar and has his own special shrine at Alagar Koil about 21 kms from Madurai.

According to a tradition perpetuated since the 17th century, the journey of Vishnu, i.e., the procession carrying the brother to his sister`s marriage celebrations at Madurai, is held here. All the same, the image of Vishnu giving his sister Meenakshi in marriage to Shiva (Sundareswarar) is there in the marriage scene depicted at the Meenakshi temple. The journey of Alagar to the Vaigai river is said to be for the benefit of his devotees and to commemorate his promise of giving darshan to Rishi Mandukaso that he may be released from the cycle of re-birth. However, in this story Alagar missed out to be present on his sister`s wedding time due to some misunderstanding and hence even though he send his wedding gift to Meenakshi, he had refused to enter the city.