Madurai Meenakshi Amman The paintings on the walls of Meenakshi temple will illustrate the story of Goddess Meenakshi as the princess of Madurai. The legend in paint takes the viewer back to the days of Malayadwaja Pandya.The king was childless for long. To win the favour of the gods in order to ensure an heir to the throne, he performed an elaborate yagna (sacrificial rites before a scared fire).
To the wonder of all, a three-year-old girl emerged from the fire, ran to Queen Kanchanamala and sat on her lap. The king and queen were happy, although the girl’s abnormality – she had three nipples – puzzled them. A divine voice assured the king that deformity would disappear as soon as she met her consort.
The girl grew into a beautiful princess, heroic on the battlefield as well. Setting out on a digvijayam (career on conquest) she overcame all adversaries and, after a sequence of victories, proceeded towards Himalayas. In Kailash, when she met Lord Shiva on the battlefield, her third breast disappeared.

The princess was Parvathi, Shiva’s heavenly consort. Kanachanamala, as Vidyavathi in a previous birth, had received for her penance a boon from the goddess whereby Parvathi would one day be brought up as her daughter. The goddess thus fulfilled Vidyavathi’s wish.

After their marriage, Shiva and Parvathi rules over Madurai for a while and later settled in the Madurai temple as Meenakshi and Sundareswarar.