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| Photos: Jann Segal |
I recently took a tour
of Southern India, and one of the highlights was seeing the magnificent
temples. India is known for them, and while the southern Indian temples look
alike on the outside with a large base that gets steeper as the temple reaches
skyward, the experience inside the temples could not have been more unique. I
traveled alone for some of the trip, and the rest was the Overseas Adventure Travels trip, Soul of India. And this trip truly feeds your soul.
Before
I joined the group, I spent some extra time in Chennai. I had a private tuk-tuk
driver take me to the Thyagaraja Temple, also called Vadivudai Amman
Temple. This temple is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, and is located
in the town of Tiruvottiyur just north of Chennai. The temple is closely associated with 7th century
Tamil saint poets from the region, classified as Paadal Petra Sthalams and not part of any regularly scheduled
tourist activity. So I was delighted to be welcomed by locals selling
goods only to themselves, but still offering me blessings in their temple, even
though the priest had to instruct me not to use my left hand. The price for 4
hours of a private driver to two local temples was $11 for 4 hours through a
local hole in the wall travel agency. This temple is part of a small but
complete complex, and was worth the visit and stroll through the grounds.
Admittedly, walking around this very local village temple with the big history
after having taken my shoes off and walking past cows everywhere was a
challenge, but I managed.
Once I joined the OAT
group and we started seeing the major temples, the first we
saw was in Mahabalipuram, about 60 miles south of Chennai. It is a UNESCO World
Heritage site, with multiple temples which go back to the 7th and
8th Century (Common Era). The monuments found in Mahabalipuram
are mostly rock-cut and monolithic with Buddhist elements of design located
near the Bay of Bengal. This area also saw damage during the 2005 tsunami, but
the temples and monuments were mostly untouched except for one small area with a granite lion and elephant relief that was washed away.. One unique aspect of the area and
its temples is that it was used as a school for other sculptors, and is
therefore considered to be prototype design for other Hindu temples in Asia. In
fact, the Shore Temple and other elements of the monuments known as Five Rathas
(Five Chariots) looked a lot like what I had seen in Indonesia, primarily in
Bali. The most impressive of these is was Anjuna’s Penance, often called the
“Descent of the Ganges.” We were told this prototype area
apparently became an artistic template and set the stage for Angor Wat in
Cambodia as well as many other temples in Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Is the
word “Bali” in the name of this town a coincidence given the artistic
similarities to Hindu temples in Bali? Bali in fact means, “demon king defeated
by god Vishnu.” And the deity Vishnu is indeed the god they prayed to at these
temples. Other temples were for other deities, such as the one we visited next.
Kanchpuram is the most
famous temple city in Tamil Nadu, and is known as the “city with a
thousand temples.” It is also one of the seven holiest cities in India.
One of the temples we saw, Ekambaranathar Temple, was a glorious blend of everything Indian,
from Indian step wells on the outside, to a beautiful display of Hindu Pongal
celebration on the inside. The architecture of course, looked similar to the
rest, with a huge base that rose to the sky. This temple is dedicated to Shiva,
and covers 25 acres with multiple shrines, halls, and places for the devout to
worship.
With so many other
temples in the area we also visited a large outdoor complex, Kanchi Kailasanathar temple, the oldest
structure in Tamil Nadu. The outdoor animal sculptures are most striking at
this temple. However, when writing this article I noticed that the first two
towns our group visited to see the temples in Tamil Nadu had the word “Puram”
in their name. Puram as it turns out, is a genre of classical poetry with two
separate sub-genres. One deals with love affairs, the second with wars, kings,
and personal virtues. So while the history is long and complex, what is common
is that Puram speaks to the excellency of life of
different types of people. What a wonderful concept! I do not know if
this was really part of the meaning of these towns with such amazing temples,
but upon reflection, why shouldn’t it be? We all strive for excellency of life,
and in ancient Tamil Nadu they made this search through poetry. Hopefully a
little of that philosophy rubs off as we travel thought their history, culture
and religion.
Excellency continued on this trip,
as we reached the city of Tanjore. There we visited the BrihadishwaraTemple, also known as the
Big Temple, which stands 60 meters high, is over 1,000 years old, and is from
the Chola dynasty. The temple tower that reaches to the sky is one of the
largest in India, is one of the major tourist attraction in Southern India, and
a stone bull sits in the middle of the main temple. During my visit, it was
decorated for the fall Pongal festival, with fruits and vegetables for the
harvest festival, and priests giving blessings. The temple complex was huge,
beautiful and perfect in the glow of the afternoon light, with literally
thousands of people streaming in. But the real experience for me came when the
live music started. Typical Indian music with drums and stringed instruments
(not a sitar, but a veema, which sounds similar to the Western ear). I closed my
eyes and felt the magic of the temple complex as I have in other Hindu sites,
but the music literally transported me. I could have stayed for hours. Who knew
that India, a place I said I would never return, would impact me this much?
The last major temple we visited, Sri Meenaksi Temple inMadurai, is one of
the most famous of them all, and is dedicated to Pavrati and her consort
Shiva. Only Hindus are allowed in the inner sanctum to receive blessings, but
we saw plenty at night in the night market directly outside, and the following
day as well. It is known as the Grand Temple, and it looked like
a museum once we got inside. Although we could not enter to receive a blessing,
the large columns in the temple numbered 110 pillars. Another section of this
huge temple complex had over 1,000 pillars. The art work and over 33,000
sculpted pieces inside are as unique to Indian culture as the experiences we
had with the people outside. We were treated to real Hindu traditions there,
such as observing the family celebration for pregnancy, and a child
getting her head shaved for the first time (the latter a bit painful to watch
since she was crying so much). This temple was built in the 6th century
BC. People can purchase tickets on Viator.com ahead of time to witness the procession that takes place each night. Unfortunately, our group
missed it because we were told it was much like other processions we had
already witnessed for the Pongal harvest festival. Still, I would have
enjoyed seeing the color and vibrancy of that procession in this magnificent
temple, one of the most famous in all of Southern India, which draws a revenue of
60 million rupees per year from tourism.
Excellence in life, art, and
spirituality (if one I so inclined) are all part of the temple experience of
Southern India’s Tamil Nadu. I did in fact visit two temples in the state of
Kamataka when I was in Bangalore traveling solo at the end. The enormous Hare
Krishna Temple in Bangalore (Bengaluru) was an experience, as I chanted the
Hare Krishna verses along with devotees who were reciting it 108 times. The
Sandalwood Temple in Mysore was another unique experience, with sandalwood
incense everywhere, along with monkeys, cows, and traditional music playing at
the entrance of the temple. As a fitting reminder that many Indian devotees
feel truly blessed with their lives, I again experienced the very thing we long
for in travel, when I passed the Krishna Consciousness Center on the way to
Ponducherry. My driver had to slow down because the devotees were singing,
playing instruments and dancing on the side of the road in joyous celebration.
We long for the
culturally unique when we travel, a glimpse into the lives and spirits of
others. Soul of India provided this experience beyond measure. Our images of
the Indian people living on the Indian sub-continent are not those of excellence. Yet
ask them, and many in the south are happy and spiritually complete. You need
only to hear the music, see the dancing, and receive the blessings for yourself
to gain a better understanding. It is as complex a living situation as it is spiritually rich.
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