The heavy rains that lashed Madurai on Wednesday evening did not even spare the Meenakshi Sundareshwarar temple. Devotees were taken back when the courtyard outside the sanctum sanctorum of Lord Sundareswarar was inundated in the wake of the downpour.

Madurai received 420.60 mm (42.06 cm) rainfall in just three hours between 6.30 pm and 9.30 pm on Wednesday. It was for the third time in the last one month, the temple city witnessed the same amount of rainfall on a single day, according to Revenue officials. The four Chithirai streets surrounding the temple also went under a thick sheet of water, which also intruded into the temple precincts, an unusual sight for those inside the courtyard. The temple authorities acted swiftly and started pumping out the water. But the curiosity got the better of many people who started video-graphing the courtyard flooding, where the ‘Kodimaram’ and various deities have been gracing and transmitting the visuals through social media.

While the temple authorities blamed the poor drainage system in the Chithirai streets for inundating of the courtyard, the city corporation commissioner Dr Aneesh Sekhar said that the drainage could not discharge the huge volume of rain water that accumulated in the streets during the short span of time..