Hindus only

In today's edition of The Hindu, V.R. Devika asks some pertinent questions: Why are non-Hindus not allowed into temples? Also, how do you recognize a Hindu?

I've been to many, many temples across South India and wasn't able to enter the sanctums of most. At the Jagannath temple in Puri, Orissa, non-Hindus are not even allowed to enter the temple complex!

However, I have non-Hindu friends who have entered Hindu temples which are supposed to be out of bounds for them. How is it that they were able to enter these holier-than-holy places and not I? Simply because they're Indian and therefore are assumed to be Hindu.

As V.R. Devika points out, the rule seems to only apply to "well known non-Hindus or white skinned people".

Read the article here.

Lepakshi temple

While Chantal was here we did a few road trips. We both love ancient temples so of course we had to go to Belur, Halebid and Sravanabelagola. We managed to squeeze them all in in one day.

The next trip was to Lepakshi, which is just over the border in Andhra Pradesh. Lepakshi has been on my ‘list’ for a while. It’s an important pilgrimage place because of its magnificent Veerabhadra temple.

We took the Bangalore-Hyderabad highway which must be the best highway I’ve taken in India. The road was in excellent condition, there was no traffic, and the scenery was beautiful. There was even a Kamat restaurant on the way where we could stop to have ragi dosas – a favourite with both of us. We reached Lepakshi quickly.

The Veerabhadra temple is perched on a rocky outcrop and was built in the 16th century during the Vijayanagar empire.

The pillared halls are covered with intricate sculptures of deities, dancers, musicians and animals.

One thing which is unique about this temples is the beautiful fresco paintings in vibrant colours which adorn the ceiling of the kalyan mantapa. This one depicts the marriage of Shiva and Parvati.

Take a walk through Veerabhadra temple…

Temple in Nandi Hills

Recently I wrote about the charming Rang Bagh temple on the outskirts of Hyderabad which I had visited in February. Last week I was telling a friend about the scenic Bhoganandishwara temple just outside Bangalore in Nandi village at the base of the Nandi Hills. I had a look through my photographs of the temple and decided to showcase some of them here. (Above: a statue of Nandi, the namesake of the village and the surrounding hills.)

This temple was built in 800 AD by the Cholas. It features typical architectural elements found in South India Dravidian temples: the temple sanctum or ‘vimanam’ has a pyramidal roof, there’s a covered and pillared ‘mandapam’ or hall, and the temple enclosure forms a quadrangle with towers or ‘gopurams’ on each side. There’s also a temple ‘tank’ or pond, in this case built in the form of a step well. (Above: one of the temple gopurams.)

One of the things I love about this temple is the beautiful, intricate sculptures adorning the pillars of the mandapam. Here are a few examples.

A beautiful sacred tulsi plant and statue of Naga, the snake god.

Through a gopuram leading to the step well...

The step well with the Nandi Hills in the background.

This temple is not only exceptionally scenic and full of architectural treasures, it's also a quiet and peaceful getaway from the city.

Temple life

A few weeks ago I spent three days in a temple on the outskirts of Hyderabad. I had gone there during the temple's Brahmotsavam (annual festivities). I was especially interested in seeing the dance rituals which are performed here during this time. This is something I'll be writing about in more detail in my other blog.

The temple was an oasis of calm in a once rural area which is quickly becoming a neighbourhood of glass buildings housing IT companies and upmarket apartment complexes. Entering the temple was like stepping into another world where time had stopped.

The temple priests were busy from dawn to dusk with various prayers and rituals. I felt completely at home here and enjoyed loitering around and observing the goings-on. The atmosphere was completely different to other temples I've visited. Maybe because it's a small family-run temple off the tourist circuit.

A priest chanting Sanskrit verses. (To hear what this sounds like, click on 'temple priests chanting' in the right sidebar under 'Listen to the sounds of India'.) His mobile phone becomes a page marker.

Morning breathing exercises.

I'm not sure what was up here, but I'd love to know!

Priest paraphernalia.

I came across this priest setting up for what looked like an elaborate puja. He was sitting facing a blank wall.

This was the result. An offering to Surya, the sun god. I understood why he performed the puja here: he was facing east. Another example of how art is ritual and ritual is art.

The temple deity, Lord Ranganathaswamy (reclining Vishnu) is seen here in the temple sanctum.

The temple musicians.

Lakshmi the elephant

One of the most popular tourist sights in Pondicherry is Lakshmi the elephant. Lakshmi stands outside the Ganesh temple on Manakula Vinayagar Koil Street for a few hours every morning and evening. A local celebrity, she gets many visitors who come to receive her blessings and feed her treats like fruit, bunches of grass and sugarcane they buy from the stalls outside the temple. If you offer her a coin, she’ll take it with her trunk, hand it to her mahout (keeper) and give you her blessing by lightly tapping you on the head.

I found this short article which tells Lakshmi’s story.

I took this picture of Lakshmi in early 2003, almost ten years ago.

Lakshmi was smaller then, and noticeably thinner. As you can see, the same mahout is with her (he seems to have changed less than Lakshmi).

Meet Lakshmi the elephant:

Bangalore goes peanuts

For the past few weeks I noticed that a lot of the pushcart vendors in my neighbourhood were selling peanuts. This obviously meant it was peanut season, so I knew the Peanut Fair was coming up. Usually by the time I hear about it, it’s already over because it only lasts for three days. I didn’t want to miss it this time.

So I started asking around: ‘When is the Kadlekai Parishe (Peanut Fair)?’ Nobody knew. Some said it’s on the 21st of November. Others said the 29th. An Internet search revealed that it happens on the last Monday of the month of Kartika – but this didn’t help me much. I asked my Kannada teacher. Since she lives in South Bangalore and the fair happens in Basavanagudi, I thought she may know. She didn’t – but she said she would find out. On Sunday she sent me an sms saying the Kadlekai Parishe had started. A photo in the paper the next day confirmed this, so I headed to the area near the Bull Temple with my camera.

All the roads leading to the temple were closed to traffic. They were crowded with all kinds of vendors selling trinkets, bangles, pictures of Hindu gods, jewellery, toys, whistles, balloons, nimbu pani, chaat, cassava, cucumber, mosambi, jalebi, and of course, roasted peanuts!

As I got closer to the temple, I saw more and more peanuts. Piles and piles of peanuts still in their shells lined the sides of the road. These were being sold by farmers who had come to Bangalore from all over Karnataka and maybe further away, specially for the Peanut Fair.

This fair is dedicated to the ‘big bull’ (dodda basava) and has been taking place every year for the past 500 years. The story goes that farmers noticed that their crop was disappearing during the night. They wondered who could be the hungry thief. One night during the month of Kartika, a farmer discovered it was Nandi, Lord Shiva’s bull. This is why before offering their peanuts for sale, the farmers offer their first crop to the large statue of Nandi (or Basava as he’s known here) in the Bull Temple.

Here are some more of my shots of this peanut fest:

Jagannath’s day

While I was in Puri, I had another chance to experience the Rath Yatra. The last time I was here I had witnessed the first day of the Rath Yatra when Lord Jagannath leaves his home at the Jagannath Temple, along with his brother Lord Balabhadra and his sister Devi Subhadra, and makes the 3-kilometre journey to the Gundicha temple where they visit their aunt for nine days.

This time I arrived during the Bahuda Yatra, when they make the return journey home. On the last day, each of the three custom-made chariots were parked in front of the temple as throngs of Jagannath devotees swarmed the square for darshan before the gods went back into the temple. This is the only opportunity for non-Hindus to get a glimpse of the gods since only Hindus are allowed into the temple. Though I had a good look at the majestic, brightly-coloured chariots, I couldn’t see Jagannath or his siblings: they were too far, there were too many priests crowded on the chariots and the idols were covered with too many flowers.

The Jagannath Temple is Puri’s most famous landmark and an important pilgrimage site for Hindus. This temple is also famous for the very strict enforcement of its policy of allowing entry to Hindus only. Even Indira Gandhi was denied entry because she had married a Parsi! Then there was the case a few years ago of a foreigner who had somehow entered the temple and caused an uproar. The temple had to be ‘purified’ and all the ‘contaminated’ food buried.

The fact that I’m not allowed in this temple makes its more intriguing for me. I asked a friend to film the inside so I could see what I was missing. But apparently even that isn’t allowed. Another friend assured me that the temple is not really worth a visit: “It’s filthy and full of corrupt priests who show you around and then ask for money. You haven’t missed a thing,” she informed me.

I’m impressed with Jagannath’s annual vacation ritual and all the trouble and effort that’s taken to make it memorable for him and his siblings. When he’s not on holiday, he leads a quieter but pampered existence at the Jagannath temple.

I happened to meet one of the chief priests of the temple who described to me the temple’s and Lord Jagannath’s daily schedule in detail.

At 5am, the door to the sanctum where the idols of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are kept is opened. The devotees sing verses from the Gita Govinda to wake them up. Once they’re awake, they do arati (a fire ritual). The temple priests assigned to the task of dressing Jagannath get him ready for his bath. They brush his teeth and shave him. They fix his hair (this intrigues me because the idol is made of wood and has no ‘hair’ – unless they put a wig and crown on him?). Then they dress him. His clothes are changed every two hours throughout the day. A truck-full of flowers like champa, tulsi, marigolds, dayana, etc. is delivered daily. These are used to decorate him.

At 8am, Jagannath is ready for public darshan. The temple doors are opened and devotees stream in to pray and ask for his blessings. An hour later, it’s time to change his clothes, decorate him with jewellery and fresh flowers, and serve him breakfast. Breakfast is coconut, curd and bananas. While Jagannath is having his breakfast, the temple floors are swept and washed.

At 10am it’s time for sakala drupa – the morning food offering of different preparations of rice, dal and vegetables. Then the doors are closed for 5-10 minutes while devotional songs are sung before being opened again for public darshan.

Before the ‘big lunch’ or Chatrabhog, the temple sanctum is cleaned and Jagannath gets another change of clothes. For lunch he’s fed different preparations of rice, dal, curries and sweets. This lasts two hours. The temple kitchen cooks for 100,000 people each day. The food is cooked in pots made of earthenware on wood fires. After the food is offered to Jagannath, the rest becomes prasad for the devotees.

After the 'big lunch', the temple is tidied up and Jagannathan once again gets a change of clothes. From 4 to 5 o’clock, another meal is served, called madhyanadupa, with sweets, curd and cakes. This must be the equivalent to ‘tea time’ for Jagannath.

The doors are then closed and it’s time for some more singing for the god’s entertainment. The floors are washed again, his clothes are changed (yet) again, and then it’s time for evening puja and arati. Jagannath is decorated with flowers and anointed with sandalwood.

At night Jagannath is dressed in a sari covered with the words of the Gita Govinda. 40 years ago, temple dancers would dance in the inner sanctum during this time. Badasingharabhoga is the last meal of the day, consisting of curd rice, rice and dal. Then the temple is closed for the day. 3 beds are laid out in the sanctum for the idols and they’re put to sleep. After arati, the sanctum is closed. The devotees and priests sing songs from the Gita Govinda to put the gods to sleep. Jagannath falls asleep after a busy day.