Madurai is the second largest city of the state of Tamil Nadu after Chennai. It is one of the oldest cities in India and its beginnings can be traced back to at least two thousand years. Madurai was flourishing as a centre of trade during the time of ancient Egypt and Greece and it is mentioned in the works of the Greek geographer Ptolemy and the historian Strabo. The Greek ambassador Megasthenes who visited the court of the Mauryan king Chandragupta in the 3rd century BCE mentioned it in his writings. He had heard of the city famous for its trade and culture while living in far off Pataliputra in the north.

Madurai was an international metropolis as it stood on the terminus of the Spice Route and was the centre of the world trade in pepper, silk, ivory and pearls. The trade took the Tamil merchants to the Far East and Europe and they came back with the finest perfumes, silver and Italian wines. Roman coins have been found in excavations around the city and it is said that an embassy from Madurai was received at the court of the Roman Emperor Nero.

Madurai was the capital of the kingdom of the Pandyan dynasty from the sixth to the fourteenth century CE. The city faced an invasion by the Muslim general Malik Kafur leading the army of Allaudin Khalji, the sultan of Delhi. The city was destroyed and the Meenakshi Amman temple was badly damaged. Then in the fourteenth century when the kingdom of Vijayanagar rose in the Karnataka region Madurai was reclaimed from the sultans, annexed and provincial governors called Nayakas were appointed to rule here.

When the Vijayanagar Empire declined in the sixteenth century, the Nayaka dynasty continued to rule the city. The finest architecture of the present city and much of the Meenakshi Temple are the creations of the rulers of Vijayanagar and later the Nayaka kings. Some of the finest architectural creations rose during the reign of King Tirumala Nayaka. Later in the 18th century when the English East India Company built the city of Madras nearby they also occupied Madurai and it remained in British hands till the independence of India.

With the patronage of its kings Madurai became a great cultural centre of literature, dance and music. Here, during Pandyan times, great literary conferences were held called Sangama and even today the Sangama literature especially its poetry is considered classics of Tamil literature.