Tremal Naig's Choultry, Madura - 1798

Plate18 from the second set of Thomas and William Daniell's 'Oriental Scenery'. The Pudu Mandapa is outside the east gate of the Minakshi temple at Madurai. Built by Tirumala Nayak in 1635 as a choultry or reception hall for pilgrims, it is a long hall with piers carved with magnificent yalis (mythical animals), and portrait sculptures of the Nayaka rulers and their ministers. The projecting brackets supporting the ceiling are carved in the form of seated lions.The figures in the centre are paying 'divine honours', as Daniell calls it, to the carved images of Tirumala Nayaka and three of his wives.

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