Spiritual South India ~ Tamil Nadu
Ekambareswarar Temple
India has two million gods, and worships them all. In religion all other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire. – Mark Twain
Towering temples, warm hearted people, spicy food are all the things that one gets to experience during a visit to the South of India. Born in Delhi, getting to adulthood in Kolkata and growing up in the USA, this was my first experience of the South of India. What an incredible journey this has been. I hope I can do it justice as I share all that I saw, heard, felt and experienced on this trip.
In answer to my grandson’s question: “What is the one thing that stands out in your mind Dadda mama” - I would have to answer the people especially the school children. I have never experienced the level of welcome and love and curiosity anywhere else.
After completing our personal pilgrimage at Shri Hazur Sahib, we flew to Chennai to meet our tour group. Our first day of sightseeing and first stop after leaving our hotel was at a small temple where people come for blessing of new vehicles or pray to safety for a long journey. We too joined the faithful and had our bus garlanded with flowers and the driver and his assistant blessed for the 14 days incredible journey that we were to undertake. Our tour manager @jaychandran, driver Ravi and assistant Iyapan were outstanding and a great support team during our entire journey.
An interesting side note that along with the more traditional offerings fo rice and flowers, people also offer beer and cigars at this temple.
Having spent a day sightseeing in Chennai and visiting the Santholme Basilica Church one of the holiest Christian sites in India and the Kapeelshwarar temple and excellent example of early Dravidian temple architecture we set off for Kanchipuram city of 1000 temples.
As we drove through the city, we craned our necks and tried to take photographs of the all the carved towers that we could see though the windows of the coach. We finally came to our first temple stop, the Ekambareswarar Temple with its 540 pillars. Once we shed our shoes, we walked through the temple complex to visit some of the shrines.
Then, a visit to what was one of my favorite temples. the stunning Kailasanathar Temple with its elaborate carvings. Little niches with carvings surrounded the center temple. Once colored with vegetable dyes some of whom have survived even today, we got to admire the beautiful carvings of the various gods and goddesses of the Hindu Pantheon.
In between visits to the temples and night fall in our resort of Mahabalipuram located on the Bay of Bengal we got to visit a weaving factory to see how the famous hand woven Kanjeevaram sarees are woven. Definitely not in the market for a saree but feeling totally nostalgic I indulged in a couple of silk scarves to commemorate the visit. Let’s not forget the fabulous sea food that satiated more than our hunger. More on this later.
Our spiritual journey continued to Pondicherry, the French city of India where citizens still retain dual citizenship except in Auroville where citizens renounce their citizen to all countries to become residents of this land granted to the foundation of the yogi Aurobindo.
Here in the city of dawn we got to visit and gaze upon the meditation center.
On to the city of Thanjavur with its own set of soaring temples, with intricate carvings. The inner sanctum was not open yet in front of which a long line of pilgrims awaited entrance. We strolled through the massive temple complex looking at some of the shrines built in the complex awestruck at the complexity of the carvings all around.
One of the things to appreciate is that these temples in India are commissioned by the ruling body who gets the credit while the artists who create such beauty get no recognition at all.
The Hindu religion is a combination of myth and religion. Every temple as a temple pool for the ritual bathing and cleansing prior to initiating prayer. In the famous Meenakshi temple of Madurai, no pictures allowed there is called the pool of the golden lotus. Legend has it that since all entrants to the temple had to bathe in the sacred pond before a visit to the Goddess shrine, a holy book was put into the water for the water test whereupon a golden lotus rose and kept the book from getting wet and destroyed in the water.
While flowers, fruit and other food offerings are made in the temple by the faithful, many come bearing prayers and dreams. Here on this tree in the temple complex you can see cradles with little dolls from people desiring children to other prayers.
This tree with its prayers reminds me of a visit to the native American tribal lands in the USA where prayers scarves are tied to trees carrying prayers and pleas from the faithful.
Flower shops selling garland or other temple paraphernalia cropped up frequently indicating how many small local temples exist all over the place. For many their day begins and ends with prayers offered in home temples or nearby local temples.
Some of the larger temples that we saw on this visit had long lines of faithful pilgrims who had journeyed from their homes from all over the South to see and be blessed.
Ponds full of lotuses can be found along with flower fields of Jasmine, Roses and Marigolds. These flowers are harvested early in the AM for sale to retailers and temples for the daily fresh flower offerings and garlands for the deities.
We visited the flower market in Madurai after the initial wholesale frenzy was over, but folks were still selling flowers to local retailers. Here a family weave lotus flower garlands.
The Nandi bull is the lord Shiva’s ride. In all the temples in the South which are primarily dedicated to Lord Shiva, a shrine of the bull can be found facing the sanctum where Shiva’s shrine is located.
The beautiful Meenakshi Temple in Madurai the granddaddy or should I say mommy of all the temples that we saw. Dedicated to the Goddess Meenakshi Lord Shiva’s human consort this temple consists of 14 towers beautifully made of bricks and mortar and beautifully painted three-dimensional figures formed from plaster of Paris.
In all the Hindu temples pilgrims and visitors enter and move clockwise as they pay respect to the various shrines in the temple. In this temple alone all visitors who enter regardless of where they enter from head towards the Devi Meenakshi’s shrine first before visiting any other shrine.
Back in Mahabalipuram one of my favorite temple complexes is the ancient Shore temple located on the coast. History has it that a tsunami originally swept this temple away but over time parts of it have been located and assembled.
To me it is a testament to endurance. There is so much more to this beautiful state, and I’ll share some of what I found significant and interesting as we continue our journey through this incredible part of India.