Bazaars of India - a listing

This is the start of a cumulative list of blogposts on Bazaars of India.

I’d like to thank fellow bloggers who have already shared their links or written guest posts:

Bazaar writings from Windy Skies by Anil Purohit
Fashion street in Mumbai  by Radha Vijay
Life in Colour  by Laura Mannering
Markets in Chennai by Rekha Vijayshankar
Market Diary: Sassoon docks in Mumbai Laura Mannering

If some of you would be able to share your memories of the markets you know and can write a guest post for Indian Bazaars, it would be very much appreciated.

For sharing links and suggestions, please do leave a comment on this blogpost or write an email to: kiranmkeswani(at)gmail(dot)com

The list continues here:
Before the malls, there were the markets (This is about the Old Madras markets, written by V.Sriram, a well-known historian of Chennai)
The Markets of Vadodara by Neha S.
Shoe, Shave and Key stalls at 'Street Vendors' (In this blog, every post tells us something really interesting about street vendors in India and elsewhere and also shares an interesting collection of vintage photographs of bazaars of old)
India's village markets with a tribal twist at 'Lonely Planet'
Creating Streets for Hawkers and Walkers at 'India lives in her cities too'
Hampi Part 5 - The Hampi Bazaar at 'A Wandering Mind'
Malli to Nalli at 'Le Monde'
French & Czech signs in Agra shops at 'Travel Tales from India'
Crawford market calling at 'Itchy Feet'
Hindi Cinema in Poster form, at a Mumbai shop at 'Intransit Blog - New York Times'
The Wholesale flower market at Dadar at 'Mumbai Magic'
Chor Bazaar again! at 'Mumbai Magic'
I visit the Wholesale market at Vashi at 'Mumbai Magic'

Related Post:
Marketplaces of the world - a listing

Fish market Mumbai

“Go to Sassoon Dock at break of day, and there before you are the two unchanging forces of Bombay – commerce and the sea – in jostling, clangorous, Technicolor profusion.” It is these words from Pico Iyer's essay on Bombay, in his book ‘Tropical Classical’ that keep coming back to me. I know that I have to go to Sassoon Docks someday. When I finally do, I wonder why inspite of growing up in Bombay, it has taken me so many years to come here.


I'm finally at the Sassoon Docks. I stand there for a moment watching the silhouettes of people and baskets in the first light of the morning. Sometimes, there is so much that one doesn't know about within one’s own city. I start to walk deeper into the market. The environment is changing rapidly - more people molecules and less space molecules. I try to be here without being noticed, try to not be in anyone’s way, which is so difficult to do, because there are so many koli men and women walking about and moving fast. You can’t afford to be in the way of a fisherwoman who is going past with an empty basket or a filled basket. In both cases, she is in a hurry and if you so much as fall within her path, she will either push you aside and move ahead or will swear at you.


The paths are not even defined, so you are always right in the middle of a path that you didn’t know would happen. This could be the only time you wished you wouldn’t understand even a bit of Marathi or had never heard any of these swear words to know their meaning. If they are flung at you, they sound worse than they ever did before. You sense your body mechanisms preparing their second and their third line of defense at this point. And later, as you think about it, you realise that you only like the fisherwomen for being themselves. That’s them and they don’t believe in packaging themselves in politeness.

This Fish Bazaar at Sassoon Docks is a place where the small boats and big boats arrive from the sea and the catch is sold at wholesale prices to fish vendors who then sell to customers all over the city. The fishermen in the small boats make one-day trips out to sea. The larger boats are out at sea for 7-10 days and there are 12-15 fishermen on each of these boats. The boats arrive at Sassoon docks by the evening or earlier in the day. They are offered for sale only the next morning. The smaller boats dock themselves on one side of the jetty and the larger boats on the other side. Baskets of fish are actually swung across to someone standing on the jetty, since the boats are not able to get closer than ten feet to the edge of the jetty when they dock.


The fish move through a series of people and locations, from small baskets that come off the boats to large baskets and plastic bags, from the fishermen who are still on their boats to the wholesalers who are stationed along both edges of the jetty. Along the centre of the jetty, there are roofed sheds and the space is primarily occupied by baskets that are waiting to be filled and taken into the city. Around this space and along the edges of the jetty is where the people movement is and where the bargains happen.


I begin to chat with one of the men who seems not in a haste. I'm sure that this man of quiet demeanour wouldn't mind telling me a bit about the bazaar and its flurry of activity. After all, he is not rushing like the others, with "no time to stand and stare". I learn that he is here to neither buy nor sell. He is a caretaker of fish baskets. While the fisherwomen are going about negotiating and buying the best fish for the best price, empty baskets and partially filled baskets are under scrutiny cover. The caretaker charges Rs.10 for each basket that he looks after. This man does not move from his place but his eyes are catching every movement around him. If there is a theft, he must take responsibility and he is expected to give back a fish-filled basket. He has only sixty seconds to speak to me. He then looks away. He has business to do. There are many such young caretakers all over the marketplace, minding the several baskets around them.


Perishability of the fish gives rise to another enterprise - the selling of ice. There are those who only sell ice to all the fisherwomen. The measure is a nine inch diameter basket, about 7 inches in height, which costs Rs.5 each. Fisherwomen buy the fish. It is put into their baskets and they immediately buy either one or two measures of crushed ice to cover the fish with. Outside the market gate, there are small ice factories, where these vendors buy the crushed ice for selling inside the market. It is a supply chain design strategy that interlinks various stakeholders who must each maximise efficiency to reach their peak values.


In the traditional shopping environments, bargaining has been an important communication channel. If one were to write a story about the art of bargaining in India, the best examples would perhaps come from a fish market. The fisherwomen are the masters of the art. If there are a hundred different ways to make a bargain, they are adept at all the hundred skillful nuances of the art. The words are sharp. The tone is sharp. It’s a completely no-nonsense interaction. On both sides of the bargaining divide, there is a fisherwoman. It’s like watching a sport, to see who will win and to silently rejoice in their victory and to move on to experience more.


I wonder about the marketing strategies. There are no publicity boards. Here, what works today is what worked years ago, when advertising was about how long you could walk and how loud you could shout. I see a young boy in a bargain with a few fisherwomen. He is trying to fix a price on a basket of fish that he wants to buy and must see who will give him a good price.


There are individual baskets that leave the marketplace, carried on the fisherwomen’s heads in which fish catch is moving out. Some baskets get loaded onto hand-carts which carry upto four large baskets each. You see these exit one after another once business is done. The hand carts go upto the gate onto the main road, where they are loaded onto tempos or trucks that travel as far as Andheri, Vakola and other suburban parts of Bombay. Some fish travel out by taxis, baskets are loaded into the back carrier and top carrier of the yellow and black cabs and are seen leaving the gates.

At Sassoon docks, I learn a little about the world of the fisherfolk community in Bombay – what they do, how they relate to one another, what is acceptable and what is not. The physical extent of the wholesale market is large, with no rigid boundaries. There seems to be a spatial organisation that is known to the daily visitors. It is undemarcated and unclear initially to a first-time visitor. But, as you stay here long enough, you begin to notice it. There are patterns of movement and patterns of behaviour that seem to govern the functioning of the marketplace.


There are some questions that arise as you try to understand the nature of the trading practices here. How is functionality achieved in this exchange amongst the vendors and the customers in a seemingly chaotic place? What establishes trust between the people? What is the history of interactions or what are the unstated, unwritten laws of relationships within a fisherfolk community? It is a long process from wholesale to retail vendoring. This is not an organised, systemised operation like that of a Fishing Corporation with its efficient trawlers and its iceboxes. And yet, there seems to be an intangible order influencing the commodity exchange that brings the fish from the sea through a series of stakeholders right upto its final consumption at a home or a hotel in Mumbai.


Even a partial experience of the marketplace is substantial experience for one morning – memories to cherish, sights to always remember in your mind’s eye. Once you are in there, you become an insignificant, irrelevant speck within this sea of people.

How to get there : Any bus going to Colaba bus stand would be ideal. If you are taking a taxi, you must say ‘Sassoon Docks’ but mention that you need to go to the Fish market there, because the market entrance is further down the road from the Sassoon dock main gate. The entrance is next to the Women’s Graduate Union or the Amy Rustomjee hall. The market is at its busiest from 5:30am to 7:30am. It is open until one in the afternoon.

Other Bazaar tours in India :
Bazaar Tour 1 : Dadar Flower Market, Mumbai
Bazaar Tour 2 : Antique market, Mumbai
Bazaar Tour 3 : Varkala, Kerala
Bazaar Tour 4 : Gandhi Bazaar, Bangalore

Gandhi Bazaar

This post is part of the Bazaar Tour Series. You can read here about Gandhi Bazaar: Street Vendor Eviction and about Pedestrianising Gandhi Bazaar.


The Gandhi Bazaar is a part of Basavanagudi, one of the older localities of this IT metropolis. It is a Street Bazaar, so you can get down anywhere along the street and start walking and exploring. On a festival day, such as Sankranti or Pongal (14th January) or Ugadi (first week of April) or Diwali (October or beginning November) Gandhi Bazaar has more lively shopping interactions and is a place to be a part of. On any given day of the year, the Bazaar opens at six in the morning and closes at nine in the evening.

The paths that take you towards the bazaar are territorialized by the informal sector, the paths within the market itself are patterns of human interaction and movement that are generated only to disappear again in a little while, to be created once more in another way. The vendor displays are simple creations that are changing and transforming themselves to attract and to sell better.





Amongst the shops that are very unique to this Bazaar are the Granthige stores i.e. shops that sell Puja items. I stop by at Ashwini Stores at the Vidyarthi Bhavan Circle. Besides all puja items, they also have Ayurvedic items, Dry fruits, Country drugs, Plastic covers, etc.


The other shops to look out for are the ones that sell local Kannadiga dry snacks, such as Holige (which is similar to the Maharashtrian Puran Poli), Jaggery & Peanut balls and Pickles. These often have nameboards that say, ‘Dealers in Condiments, Dry fruits and General Home products’. There is one off the Gandhi Bazaar Main road, on D.V.Gundappa Road.

As you walk along the main Gandhi Bazaar road, you see vendors stringing flowers into garlands with their dexterous hands. The jasmines (mallige), tuberoses, marigolds, asters and roses are coupled with leaves to make garlands for the temple deity or for a wedding ceremony. If you are in this area early morning, i.e. anytime between 5:30am to 10:00am, you can also step into the 'Corporation market', which is on the main road and is primarily a flower market.



There are shops along the Gandhi Bazaar main road that also sell Silk sarees. There is the Kancheepuram Silk Weavers'Co-operative Society shop. There is also the private Kancheepuram Silk showroom with a shopfront that is more modern.


When it is time to eat, there are two places that can be a worthwhile experience at Gandhi Bazaar. One of them is Vidyarthi Bhavan, on the Gandhi Bazaar main road. It was started in 1938 as an eating place that served students. It is known for its Benne (butter) masala dosas. Since this is the most popular item on the menu, you often see the waiter balancing several plates of dosas in his hand. It is not a sight you see anywhere else. From Monday to Thursday, it is open from 6:30am to 11:30am and 2:00-8:00pm. On Saturday & Sunday, it is open from 6:30am to 12noon and 2:30-8:00pm. It is closed on Fridays.


The Brahmins Café is the other very popular eatery here. You can walk to it from Gandhi Bazaar. It is on Rangarao road near Shankar Mutt. The menu lists Idli, Vada, Khara Baath, Kesari Baath and Tea/Coffee. It is open from 7am to 12noon and 4pm to 7pm. It is closed on Sundays. There is also the Kamat Bugle Rock, a great restaurant for a North Karnataka thali, on Bull Temple Road.


Gandhi Bazaar sits on land that has been an important part of Bangalore’s history. In the vicinity is the Bull Temple. Here the Nandi (Bull) actually belongs to a centuries old temple almost 2 km away – the Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple. The book ‘Deccan Traverses – The Making of Bangalore’s Terrain’ by Anuradha Mathur & Dilip da Cunha says “The Nandi Bull is a celebration of the rock outcrop, a sculpted summit enclosed by a pavilion on eight columns and a circumambulatory” It further says “An inscription below the right foreleg of Nandi declares that the waters of the Vrishabhavati originate here. These waters join the Kaveri”.

You wonder if the Gandhi bazaar is a Temple Bazaar, because you realise that it is a bazaar for flowers and a bazaar for puja items. These are two important elements of a Temple bazaar anywhere in India. The Gandhi Bazaar is perhaps different from the Temple bazaar in Tiruvannamalai or the Temple Bazaar in Mylapore, Chennai where the bazaars are streets that lead right upto the Arunachaleswarar temple or the Kapaleeswarar temple respectively. However, from what it sells and from its geography, one could assume that it is a Temple Bazaar that is gradually being penetrated with modern-day consumerism.


How to reach there : It is an area well-known and can be reached by bus or by taxi or by an auto-rickshaw. If you ask a cab-driver or an auto-rickshawdriver to take you to ‘Gandhi Bazaar’, he will bring you there. You will know when you are there as you spot flower garland and banana leaf sellers all over.

More about Gandhi Bazaar:
Gandhi Bazaar: Street vendor Eviction
Pedestrianising Gandhi Bazaar
A Street Bazaar and the City (a film)
An afternoon in Festive Dussehra

Other Bazaars in Bangalore :
How "green" is our Bazaar?
Urban Structure-City Market & Russell Market

Bazaar tours in India :
Bazaar Tour 1 : Dadar Flower Market, Mumbai
Bazaar Tour 2 : Antique market, Mumbai
Bazaar Tour 3 : Varkala, Kerala

Bazaar Tour 3 : Varkala, Kerala

This post is a part of the series on Bazaar Tours in India. For those travelling to Varkala, in Kerala, soaking in the experiences at the Cliff Bazaar overlooking the sea makes up a large part of one's stay at Varkala. You can walk along the cliff in the morning and lounge at a breakfast cafe, you can meander into its many craft shops in the afternoon and you can stroll there in the evening again and leave only after a sumptuous dinner.

If Varkala were to have a daily tabloid – a newspaper for only its Cliff Bazaar visitors, what would it say to its readers? "The Varkala of Tourist Times" would need to carry news about the beach – the groups that conducted yoga that day, the fishermen and the catch of the day! It would be nice to sit at a Café, buy the Cliff daily and read about the happenings of the day. Who baked the best bread? Which restaurant bought the best catch from what fishermen? How many people attended the Kathakali dance performance – a daily event on the cliff during the “season”. Who won the beach volleyball match? The real estate market in Varkala Cliff zone. The Kashmiri takeover on the Tibetan market and so on.

For this newspaper to be viable, it would need to carry advertisements. So, there would be half-page and full-page ads from restaurants, from Arts emporia and from Massage Centers. That brings us to the question : What does an advertisment do and what does signage do?

Advertisements today are in our newspapers, our magazines, our televisions and on our hoardings. Signage takes two forms or rather two locations. It is immediately next to where the commodity or service is, asserting its presence and it is sometimes and often at an important junction elsewhere, with an arrow leading us to its actual place of existence. The shops at the Bazaar would then begin to offer discounts. The newspaper would carry ads announcing festival discounts and season discounts. It would be an unusual and exciting daily - a newspaper of the town, of the tourists and of the bazaar.

I came back from Varkala and what came back with me were memories of the lovely moments with Puppu, a Tibetan woman at the Cliff Bazaar, at whose shop I had spent a part of my afternoon. You can read here about the Tibetan market at Varkala

Other Varkala posts :
Signage in Cliff Bazaar
Once upon a time, there were no signs
Signages at Varkala, Signages anywhere
To the Cliff
and
Cafe Italiano & the Badam tree

Other Bazaar tours in India :
Bazaar Tour 1 : Dadar Flower Market, Mumbai
Bazaar Tour 2 : Antique market, Mumbai
Bazaar Tour 4 : Gandhi Bazaar, Bangalore

Bazaar Tour 2 : Antiques Mumbai

In India, when you travel to small towns, many traditional houses have antique furniture, brass items, paintings and artefacts that would fetch a high price at an antique market. These are family heirlooms and seem most appropriate within the houses where they belong. Often, a conversation with an older member of the family brings out a story of the wooden chest which goes back to three generations or more. Here, the number of years matter less and the number of generations matter so much more. The characters in the story have lived in this very house and sat in the same stone-floored verandah where you chat now with the old lady who is head of the household.

The experience of being in an antique market in the city of Bombay is completely different. I plan to visit the Chor Bazaar (literally translated as Thieves market) in Bombay. It is a central part of old Bombay and there are many buses from all over Bombay that can take you there. It is in the vicinity of Bhendi Bazaar. You can also get there by train from Masjid Road station, on the Central Railway line or Sandhurst Road station. On the Western Railway line, you can go upto Grant Road station and take a bus or a taxi from there.

As I chat with Imran, one of the antique dealers on Mutton street, he points out that the name ‘chor bazaar’ is actually from ‘shor bazaar’. Shor is the Hindi word for noise and he believes that the bazaar got its name from the noisy auctions of textile and wood that this area was known for. He says that these auctions continue to happen even today, but they are fewer compared to the past. Most antique dealers have warehouses where they are able to store much of their merchandise and wait until they are able to sell directly to clients. There is now also an export market and many dealers have a network that brings more business from high-end clients, who may never have physically come to chor bazaar. The outlet in Chor bazaar is only a very small part in the big money business. Imran’s own shop ‘Art Centre’ sells colonial and antique furniture and chandeliers. He is at shop no.13 on Mutton street and can be reached on 022-2347 4834

Imran continues to talk about the auctions. They are meant only for the dealers from Bombay. This auction market is not open to anyone else, although it is an auction that is held in the open marketplace. Within the shops here at Chor bazaar, you may often find a piece that has been acquired through an exchange with an antique dealer in Bangalore or Delhi. A growing antique market other than Bombay and Delhi is now in the cities of Jaipur and Jodhpur in Rajasthan. There are some beautifully polished pieces of Teakwood and Rosewood furniture in Imran’s shop that are not too ornate and would look elegant in a contemporary Indian home.

At another shop in Chor Bazaar – Mughal Art Gallery, there is a large collection of old wrist watches, pocket watches, clocks and nauticals. The owner, Rashid explains that he is in the third generation that runs this shop. He says that it is possible to service a watch if a customer insists on a working piece. However, a true collector would want an old watch without it being serviced so that all its original parts are intact and its value as an antique is high.

Rashid says that many of his special customers and regular buyers like Bollywood stars come to his shop at ten in the night. Chor Bazaar closes at 9pm and there is quiet and privacy at ten that allows a film star or his family member to visit and choose what they like for themselves. Rashid can be reached at mughal_artgallery@yahoo.com or 022-2345 4718. Within the Chor Bazaar or Antique market is the Bazaar for Bollywood posters, which I hope to put up as a blogpost soon!

Mutton street is lined with many other antique shops other than the ones I mention here. There is much to explore when you are here.

Other Bazaar Tours in Indiaa :
Bazaar Tour 1 : Dadar Flower market, Mumbai
Bazaar Tour 3 : Varkala, Kerala
Bazaar Tour 4 : Gandhi Bazaar, Bangalore

Bazaar Tour 1 : Dadar Flower market, Mumbai

This is the first part of a series on Bazaar Tours in India - some Bazaars that you may want to explore on your own. I relate here how it was for us to visit a bazaar in Mumbai.

We set out on a Sunday morning to visit the Dadar flower market. It is Bombay's largest wholesale flower market. We were staying at Colaba. So, we walked to Churchgate station, going past the early morning cricket players at the maidan. At the station, we asked for two tickets "Dadar return" since we wanted to head back to Churchgate also by train. At 6.45am, the train was almost empty. Dadar is the stop just after Elphinstone road on the Western Railway line. If you are travelling from V.T.station (or CST, as it is now called) you need to be ready to get off the train after Parel station has gone past.

On reaching Dadar station, we looked around to see where most people were going - it is usually a good way to know where the exit to the main road is. We didnot have to take the overbridge since the train had stopped at Platform no.1. As soon as we came out of the station, we were inside the flower bazaar - flowers on either side, marigolds in bamboo baskets, there were flower sellers all over the place!

I had travelled to Dadar station many times in all the years that I had studied there, but had never seen it at this hour in the morning. There was commotion, there was colour, there was filth and yet there was fragrance! You enter the underside of the flyover and there was brisk business there already. If we stopped for a few minutes, we were asked to move aside since we were blocking the visibility of some of the women who were selling flowers. There was a small shop that sold only satin ribbons, thread, cellophane paper, etc. in wholesale for florist shops.

Beyond we could see the yellow and black taxis being loaded with cut flowers. They would get loaded and leave immediately. These were on their way to florist shops in different parts of the city. They seemed to be the last taxis carrying flowers, making their departure from Dadar. Later, I bought a bunch of pink chrysanthemums for Rs.10! It was only a rupee each. The next day when I was at colaba, a florist was selling one chrysanthemum for Rs.10. A bunch of roses was selling at Rs.100. I had bought a bunch of roses for Rs.15 at the Dadar bazaar. Makes you wonder how long the chain of middlemen is and how much the farmer who grows the flowers gets for his efforts. How fair can trade be?

We walked along the flyover where there were more cut flowers - stalks of chrysanthemums, gladioli, carnations and so on. And, there were orchids too. The vendors mentioned that the main market was a 10 minute walk away. So, we headed southwards along the main road.

Started to notice trucks parked on the left side of the road and noticed a few vendors carrying loaded baskets on their heads and walking back towards the Dadar railway station. We were nearing the main market. We were surprised to see how big this bazaar was. It has 542 stalls and is a covered market of 13,000 sq.ft.area. Heaps of marigolds being sold.

We finally entered the Meenatai Thackeray Phool Bazaar or Flower market. You could buy a basketful measure of marigolds for Rs.20. Of course, the wholesale price. This bazaar opens at 4am everyday. So, its actually a good idea to get there early if you want to see truckloads of marigolds being emptied and distributed. The flowers come from Satara, Nagpur and other places. Its a 4-6 hour journey and the wholesalers are already at the market from midnight to be there when the flowers arrive. The market opens for the public at 4am.

It was one fun-filled morning for us. All the vendors wanted to pose for us as we took pictures. They thought we were from the Press. I told them we were not from the Press and that their pictures were not going to appear in the newspaper tomorrow. They simply shrugged, smiled and posed for another picture.

Other Bazaar Tours in India at :
Bazaar Tour 2 : Antique Market, Mumbai
Bazaar Tour 3 : Varkala, Kerala
Bazaar Tour 4 : Gandhi Bazaar, Bangalore

More on Dadar Flower market at:
www.trivialmatters.blogspot.com
www.intransit.blogs.nytimes.com
and the article in The Hindu about the flower markets in Mumbai, Srinagar & Bangalore at www.thehindu.com

Bazaar in a Temple town

I think that trade in present-day temple towns is as much for international tourists as for the local or domestic pilgrims who come from nearby towns or neighbouring states. As you walk along the Chengam road in Tiruvannamalai, the temple town which is 185 km from Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and 210 km from Bangalore (Karnataka) you see the ‘Tibetan Gifts Store - Manufacturer & Wholesaler for Tibetan Jewellery, Pashmina shawls, Carpets, Cloths, etc’. There is also the ‘Authorised Forex Money Changers-Indian Boutique’ that sells postcards and cotton blouses that foreigners visiting India often buy. This is on one side of the Chengam road.

Sandalwood paste and other puja items for sale near the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai

On the other side, you see Muggulu or Kolam – freshly done floral motifs in rice powder on earth that has been settled with sprinkling of water by the lady of the house. There is the shack of the local paan-shop that continues to exist, outside one of the community water tanks or the shop ‘Manjula Coffee bar’ with the traditional copper container for the filter coffee – a container that is smeared with ash and red kumkum. The acrylic board above the shop entrance advertises ‘Brooke Bond 3 Roses Tea’.

There’s the Tailor shop and the Ironing shop inside a remnant of a stone pillared pavilion along the roadside. Further down, another tailoring shop called the ‘Swiss’ Tailor next to the ‘Ellora Hair Style’ housed in a concrete structure, its frontage protected by the shade of a peepal tree. Under this tree, a stone ganesha idol with turmeric powder all over it. Its only one of the many little shrines that one would find if one walked the Arunagiri path around the mountain in this temple town.

Bazaar on a Temple street

At the street junction, a signboard that says ‘Thiru Annamalaiyar Thirukkoyil – Thiru Manjana Gopuram (South)’. The street to the right where the board points leads to the South Gopuram of the Arunachaleswarar Temple. This is what one may call the Temple Street. It has its own bazaar. There are push carts that sell plastic toys for children, for families who visit Tiruvannamalai to worship the Lord but also to rest and to enjoy a vacation. There are pushcarts with dates and halwa. There is the three feet diameter shallow bamboo basket that is balanced on the backseat of a stationery bicycle – the Indian shop that is customary of many small towns in India. It has on sale garlands of jasmine and garlands of rosepetals. There is the idli stall by the side of the plaintain bhajji stall and lungis on sale balanced on the more sturdy TVS motorcycle.

The morning conversations between the old-time traders and the old-time residents on a street in Madurai in the Meenakshi Temple zone. Conversations of this kind may have been more frequent and at the heart of bazaar culture when a bazaar was a place co-developed by the users. Today, the social distance has increased between the buyer and the seller and the bazaar is seen as a noisy, chaotic place to which the user has no sense of belonging.

I have walked the entire length of the temple walls at Tiruvannamalai. As I go past the south gopuram and towards the East-facing Rajagopuram, there are more permanent shops with corrugated asbestos roofs. Some of these sell framed pictures of deities and stone statues of nandi and ganesha. Other shops that you come across are the ones that sell brass puja items and steel utensils and shops with glass bangles. There are wholesale banana dealers in shelters with bamboo and banana leaf roof. Some shops are smaller and have on sale kumkum, turmeric powder and sandalwood. There are agarbathi or incense stick vendors and shops with aluminium pots and pans.

A Rajasthani Bhojanalaya or Eating place in the vicinity of Meenakshi Temple which is visited by both domestic tourists from all over India as well as by large numbers of international tourists. Here is a restaurant that serves north indian food in a predominantly south indian locality catering to the local people, the traders or shop owners, many of who are from gujarat and rajasthan and also to those who visit the temple as pilgrims from north india. Bazaars in temple streets in contemporary India have eating places that include the Indian chinese and the Italian Pizzeria.

I am curious to see what sells just outside the main gopuram. The most important place is the shop where you keep your footwear for a token amount while you go inside the temple barefeet. This is a shop you see in every temple street. In Tiruvannamalai, just outside the main entrance to the Arunachaleswara temple, there are two main shopping lanes – one that sells copper and brass and another that sells coconuts and flowers. I look up to read the name of a shop : ‘Gandhimati Metal Store P.V.R.S.Velliyan Chettiar & Brother – Copper, Brass vessels manufacturers & merchants and Stainless steel merchants, Sannathi St., Tiruvannamalai’. This is the main bazaar which is always full of people who come to the temple. The shop itself is constructed with metal I-sections for columns and rafters with wooden fascia board in a simple but slightly ornamental motif.

This is a bazaar on a temple street just like any other bazaar on a temple street, like the one in Mylapore in Chennai or the one adjoining the walls of the Meenakshi temple in Madurai, because it is also dotted by the Guest houses and the Lodges. Here, in Tiruvannamalai, there is the Hotel Arunachala, the Annamalai Guest house Lodge and the Abbirami hotel offering a place to rest for all those pilgrims and shoppers who are part of the temple and bazaar environment for those few days of the year.

Bazaar within an Indian temple

You read this board “Arulmigu Sri Arunachaleshwarar Temple – Devasthana Abisheka Special Panchamirtham Naivetya Prasadam available here”. Devotees gather around the shop inside the Arunachaleswara temple in Tiruvannamalai to buy pre-packed prasadam. Inside the temple at Tiruvannamalai as also at the Meenakshi temple in Madurai or in other temples in South India, there is a Bazaar that lives in different pockets within the stone walls of the temple. This sometimes includes a shop that sells prasadam; a shop that sells little baskets with flowers and coconut; a shop that sells bead necklaces or malas and sometimes a shop offering religious books for sale.


At the Meenakshi temple in Madurai, there is a flower bazaar within the temple itself

Often devotees buy the prasadam and sit with their families just outside the shop on the old stone floor to eat the prasadam before they move on. Some buy prasadam to take back home for sharing with extended family and neighbours. You can buy individual packets of laddus and individual packets of the three other items on sale. You can also buy the Nivethiya Prasadam set for Rs.100 that comes packed in a saffron cloth bag. Every once in a while, there is a coolie or helper who takes empty bamboo baskets from the prasadam shop to bring back filled baskets of bottles of Panchamrutham which are put for sale at the shop.


The Prasadam shop at the Meenakshi temple in Madurai

At another corner of the temple in Tiruvannamalai, you can also buy little oil lamps that you offer to the God. Right next to where these are sold, few women sit on the floor preparing the oil lamps for use – pouring the oil or ghee (home-made butter) into one-inch diameter clay crucibles and then putting into them cotton wicks, laying each of these now ready-to-use lamps onto large aluminium trays that are similar to the ones used for pouring indian sweets for sale. These trays are stacked one on top of another and sent to the counter nearby that sells the lamps to the devotees; there is a table nearby where the oils are lit. They are lit, they burn, they die out and are taken away by temple staff.

A third shop, which is closer to the first mantapam with carved temple pillar and near the elephant whom devotees feed bananas, is the shop that sells flowers and camphor and bead necklaces. These shops do not build a roof for themselves, only small side walls to create a sense of enclosure and a sense of “shop”. There is a stone roof up above, almost 14 feet high resting on the carved stone pillars between which the shop dwells. The main attraction here is the elephant who has a continuous stream of worshippers. It is a belief that feeding the elephant and seeking his blessings is a way to propitiate Lord Ganesha, the elephant God. In the gopuram itself, a shop that sells framed pictures of gods and goddesses – a board just above the main door in the gopuram that says ‘Sri Balaji Coconut Traders, no.108, Ayyenkulam street, Tiruvannamalai’

The steps to the Thousand Pillar Mantapam has an open-to-sky shop that has come up only this morning – a shop guarded on either side by two carved stone elephants. This is a part of the temple bazaar that sells books for the religious visitor and the sight-seeing visitor. There is yet another bookseller at the festival bazaar. He has books and prints of deities hung by plastic clips onto the coconut coir rope that ties itself to bamboo that supports the woven coconut leaf shelter or pandal. This is the bazaar within the temple that is typical of a festival day at the temple.

There is the official and more permanent devasthanam bookshop that highlights its most important two books by a large signboard that describes the books – ‘The Light of Arunachaleswarar’ – about how the small shrine by the side of the holy mountain grew into the large temple it is today and the ‘Arunagiri Valam’ – about the path around the holy hill of Arunachala and why saints have lived here and about the shrines that one will come across during the giripradakshina.

This blogpost has a description of the temple at Tiruvannamalai and photographs of the temple at Madurai, only because I had more time in Tiruvannamalai but was not carrying a camera on the trip!

As you walk a bazaar for the first time, memories of an experience of a bazaar elsewhere keep coming back. There is always so much that is not so different and yet what you go through is an experience you have not had before. Its like this gust of wind that you feel on your face, the same wind but never the same feeling.

Indian Bazaars Review - Feb 2009

"These paper boats of mine are meant to dance on the ripples of hours,
and not to reach any destination"

- Rabindranath Tagore

This blog has been primarily about markets from South India - the Street bazaars and Vegetable bazaars in the cities of Visakhapatnam and Chennai and within a few towns in Kerala. Craft and Spice Bazaars of rural India have often fascinated tourists from the western countries. However, I have been writing mostly about the simple selling spaces in urban India that people frequent for their day-to-day needs - whether it is vegetables, or flowers, or clothes or puja items. It is only because these are the bazaars I see more often. More recently, I have also started to observe and write about the contemporary malls in India.

The reason that the blog has more questions than answers is that the spontaneity of the bazaar environment, its response to the changing seasons or festivals and its ability to exude charm amidst chaos, threw up so many questions in my mind.

I do hope to be able to put down the answers to at least some of the questions that i have asked. And, I would be delighted if Readers helped with the answers and we worked along this together. So, please do add your comments!!

The more I look at these bazaars, the more I see a simultaneous complexity and commonality embedded within them. In so many places, there are the colourful flowers entering the market with every break of dawn; the flower vendor spaces are inextricably woven with the vegetable vendor spaces, street corners become either a confluence of both or the receding of one; there is the emergence of an entire streetful of kite makers a month before Sankranti or the rising crescendo of firecracker sales as diwali draws near. The layout of the bazaars have similarities in their spatial clustering and in their randomness. The efficiency of the market system depends often on the same issues. The decline of the bazaar and its replacement by modern shopping spaces shows the same patterns.

To sum up the nature of bazaar thoughts & experiences thus far, there was Bazaars - a beginning; few posts about Art is a way of Life in an Indian bazaar; a bazaar in Alleppey in Kerala where there is a relationship between the canal and the bazaar; the fish bazaar at Murud Janjira; the Signages at the Cliff Bazaar at Varkala beach and lastly, the increasing number of malls in the country.

More recently, i have begun to study the Russell market in Bangalore - its history, the vendors, the parking options for visitors, the garbage disposal, the Shivaji Nagar bus stand nearby and its relation to the market and eventually, what will bring about the revitalisation of Russell Market.