Madurai, a city in the Indian state of TamilNadu, is commonly known as temple city as the Meenakshi Amman temple is situated there. The main deity of the temple is Meenakshi, the avatar of Goddess Parvati, spouse of Lord Shiva. The story behind the temple and Meenakshi is as follows. According to the legends, this avatar of Goddess Parvati was an answer to the devotion of King Malayadwaja Pandya and his wife Kanchanamalai, for their request for parenthood. They were granted a girl but she was three breasted. The worried king approached Parvati in prayer and a call from heaven answered that the third breast will disappear once she found her consort.

The girl was named Tadaatagai and her task was to defeat the three worlds named Sathyalogam, Vaikundam, and Kailasam being the adobes of Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh (Shiva) respectively. After succeeding in Sathyalogam and Vaikundam, when she proceeded to Kailasam she was unable to defeat Lord Shiva and her third breast disappeared. She realized that Lord Shiva was her consort and their marriage was blessed by all the goddess and gods. Here Lord Shiva was known as Sundareshwara  (Sundar-beautiful, Eshwar-god) and Lord Parvati as Meenakshi (Meen-fish, akshi-eyes). Today this temple is highly visited by her devotees, especially the Brahmins (Iyers) who call her as Ambal. Her marriage is celebrated grandly in the Tamil month of Chitra.