Thovalai Flower Market

தோவாளை பூச்சந்தை

Jasmine by the sack, sold before the day gets hot

Move across the photo, or drag it on a phone, to look around.

You arrive

It is barely light and you can already smell it. The scent of jasmine reaches you from the road, sweet and dense in the cool air, long before you see where it is coming from. Then the market appears: crowded, loud, and heaped with colour under bare electric bulbs. Flowers arrive in sacks and baskets. Everyone here is working, and fast. You step inside, keep out of the way, and let your eyes fill up.

Thovalai railway station · Photo: Praveen4lyf · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Into the heaps

Walk slowly down the rows between mounds of flowers. Malligai, the jasmine this area is known for, lies in white piles beside pitchi, a wild jasmine, along with vadamalli, roses and marigolds in deep oranges and yellows. Buyers lean in, handle the blooms, and call out prices. This is a wholesale market with real money moving, so step aside for anyone carrying a load and do not block the aisles to take photographs.

Thovalai Thirumalai Murugan Temple · Photo: Balurbala · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Watching the garlands

Look for the people stringing flowers, their fingers working faster than you can properly follow. Long ropes of blossom grow in their laps while they talk to each other without looking down. Stand back and watch for a while, and ask before you take a picture. By late morning the trade is winding down, the piles have shrunk, and the floor is carpeted with petals. Buy a small string for yourself before leaving.

Being here

You see

Mounds of white jasmine beside orange and yellow marigolds.

You hear

Traders calling prices across a crowded hall.

You smell

Jasmine so strong you carry it away on your clothes.

You feel

Cool early air, damp petals underfoot and the press of the crowd.

The story

Thovalai is a small village known across India for its flowers, above all jasmine. Its taluk was part of the princely state of Travancore and was transferred to the new Kanyakumari district of Madras State under the States Reorganisation Act of 1956. The market trades in malligai, pitchi, vadamalli, roses and marigolds, and it is especially important to Kerala at Onam, when demand is at its height. Prices swing sharply with the season and with festivals and weddings. The market is a wholesale operation, and it exists to serve the trade; visitors are welcome to look but are not the reason it opens.

Sources: Wikipedia: Thovalai · The Federal: flowers of Kanyakumari · Onmanorama: Onam flower markets · MakeMyTrip: Thovalai Flower Market

Close by

Fort

Aralvaimozhi Pass and Fort

The old gateway into Travancore, where the wind whispers

Heritage

Muppandal Wind Farm

Giant turbines turning where the hills let the wind through

Forest

Suchindram Theroor Wetlands

Winter water for birds at the end of their flyway

Heritage

Nagercoil Paddy Country

Green fields and palm lines at the foot of the Ghats

Photo: Sahaya Minu Anish · CC BY-SA 3.0

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