Colourful shops on the temple streets of Chidambaram

Most streets surrounding the temples of South India add a lot of variety, colour, spice and life to the temples themselves.


And the ones in Chidambaram are no different. A couple of weeks back I was at the streets leading to the South Gopuram entrance of the Natarajar Temple.

 
And it was during this visit that I was presented with a lot of colourful sights. These small shops were situated to either side of the small road leading to the temple. They were selling a variety of stuff from combs, idols of gods, Shiva Lingams, flowers, beads, rudaraksha  neck-bands to a lot of handcrafted goods.


The ones that stood out were the shops selling combs. This was a first experience for me. I have never seen such a shop in front of a temple. Am still wondering if combs have any significance here or was it one of those odd ones out. Any ideas?