The members of these families should have changed their profession after the entry of photography.” “But there was only one painter family left, when I visited the street in 1981 for my thesis on Madurai street names. “Around 300 painter families flourished under the patronage of Naick rulers,” says J. Today, the long, narrow stretch is filled with wholesale jaggery merchants and there's nothing left of its glory. Sulaimaan, retired Assistant Director, Regional Centre for Art and Culture, painters of Madurai were well known for their expertise.
Tucked between East Marret and East Masi Streets, the Chithirakkara Street was once the home of portrait painters and those specialising in temple art. Chithirakkara Theru (Painters' Street) has one such incident to narrate – that Raja Ravi Varma learned the nuances of traditional Indian water colour portrait painting from Ramaswamy Naicker, a known painter of that time in the city. Like the statuettes of dancing nymphs that narrated tales to King Vikramaditya, the poetic street names unfold the history behind them as you look closer. Around the imposing palace, numerous streets branch out into the other parts of the town – all named after different communities and their trades. With renewed enthusiasm and an added dose of curiosity, we set out on our second trip down the cramped lanes of the city, this time in the southern part, where once the royal families lived.
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