This is not the Meenakshi idol of Madurai's Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareshwarar Temple

Hyderabad: Social media users are sharing a video that reportedly shows the Madurai Meenakshi idol. They are claiming that the idol will be dressed in gold once a year at the Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareshwarar Temple in Madurai.

Click here to view the video.

Fact Check

The claim is misleading.

NewsMeter took screenshots of the video and conducted a reverse image search. We found a photo of the idol on Getty Images. According to the description, "Idol of Goddess Madurai Meenakshi Amman made from 210kg of pure gold and silver displayed at a jewellery shop near the historic Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple (Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareshwarar Temple) located in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India."

Further, we ran a keyword search on various social media platforms and found a video of the golden Meenakshi idol that was uploaded by Chemmanur International Jewellers Madurai on their Facebook page.

Chemmanur International Jewellers described it as a video by a customer and captioned it, "Blessing of Goddess Meenakshi Amman is Here. Idol carved with 210 Kg gold and silver and blessed in Madurai Meenakshi Amman Kovil." The description says the Meenakshi idol is displayed outside the Chemmanur International Jewellers showroom.

We also found a few photos of the Madurai Meenakshi idol displayed outside the Chemmanur International Jewellers Madurai. (Click here and here to see more photos.)

Meanwhile, we found that the idol of Goddess Meenakshi in the temple will be adorned with gold ornaments during festivals, Tirukalyanam, and other ceremonies. (Check here)

The photo in the post does not show the real Meenakshi idol inside the Madurai Meenakshi Temple.

The video shows the Meenakshi idol displayed at Chemmanur International Jewellers showroom in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. It does not show the actual idol inside the Madurai Meenakshi temple. Hence, the claim is misleading.