After a delightful travel to South India and enjoying a great vacation, you will start wondering about the shopping items, to take as souvenirs from this wonderful land to gift to your dear ones.

Shopping in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu, the cradle of Dravidian culture offers great shopping opportunities for tourists.

The arts and craft articles of Tamil Nadu are world famous.

• Fine South Indian silk and embroidered silk sarees, hand-woven garments and handicrafts items from Chennai
• Kanchipuram Silk saris
• The beautiful mats of Pattamara
• Handicrafts made from palm leaves and Palmyra fibers in Tirunellveli
• Exquisite jewelry and brass and bronze castings of Kumbakonam
• Metal works of Tanjore
• Sculptures made of stone from Mahabalipuram
• Seashell items and decorative items made of wood and bamboo from Kanyakumari
• Conventional souvenirs and handicrafts made of rosewood, sandalwood, ivory, bronze and silver.
• Leather goods, silk and hand-woven fabrics, saris and jewelry are available at most of the upmarket shopping centers.

Some of the Government emporia are Poompuhar, Tamil Nadu Emporium, and Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan.

Popular places for shopping in Chennai are -

Ranganatha Street in T. Nagar, and

Anna Salai in Mount Road.

Shopping in Karnataka

When you are in Karnataka, another southern State of India, for your holidays, there are also a large number of items available for you to take along with you, on your return from this heritage land.

Handicraft items - Karnataka has a rich tradition of handicrafts, and is popular for silk, sandalwood articles and ivory crafts. Bangalore and Mysore are well-known for their shimmering silks. Some of the notable ones are -

• Silk fabrics from Mysore, woven in a unique assortment of rich colors and delicate gold threads.
• Sandalwood carvings
• Mysore paintings
• Sandalwood Incense sticks (agarbathis)
• Sandalwood oil
• Perfumes
• Metalware,
• Stone carving,
• Bidri ware with inlaying of gold or silver on a base of an alloy of zinc and copper.
• Bell metal in Mangalore
• Metal crafts in Bidar and Shravanabelagola
• Hand woven Ilkal saris, jewelry, handlooms, Lambani jewelry and Kinnara paintings from North Karnataka
• Colorful Gokak toys, silver and gold jewelry, and pottery from Belgaum District

These items are available in the numerous Government Emporia and exclusive private shops all over Karnataka.

Shopping in Andhra Pradesh

Shopping in Andhra Pradesh, a southern State of India, is a thrilling experience.

Andhra Pradesh has many specialties for shopping, such as

• Pearls of Hyderabad
• Extremely intricate designs of silver polished items known as Silver Filigiri.
• Eye catching Banjara mirror works on the clothes done by the local Banjara gypsies
• Aatar, the world famous exotic perfumes of Hyderabad
• Exotic designs of hand-woven carpets
• Kalamkari, the Pen-painted fabric from Machilipatnam embellished with mythological depictions on clothing
• Brightly colored life like replicas of vegetables, fruits, animals, dolls carved out from locally available soft wood known as Nirmal Toys.

Popular places for shopping -

Laad Bazar, Hyderabad, Shilparamam The Arts & Crafts Village

Shopping in Kerala

Here are some suggestions -

• Since Kerala is a land of coconuts you will be delighted to buy crafts made out of coconut shells. A variety of colorful items are available on this category, to satisfy your dear ones.
• Coir products are also very attractive which come in the forms of carpet, mat, bags etc.
• Paintings
• Wood carving
• Metal ware
• Horn carving
• Bamboo mat paintings
• Kathakali masks. Kathakali is a renowned dance of Kerala.
• For centuries, Kerala is famous for spices, such as black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla etc.
• Cashew nuts
• Ayurveda and Herbal oil
• Sandalwood oil extract

These items are available in Government Emporia and in private shops in all tourist destinations.

Some popular places are -

MG Road, Kochi

Station Road, Trivandrum

If you are looking for cheap rates, road side vendors are the best and they are plenty in number in every tourist spot.

Photo courtesy: flickr.com