The shower’s around back….
January 18, 2007
I was looking through my collection of old India photos from previous trips. This was from about 4-5 years ago when we were driving from Madras, north through Andhra Pradesh on our way to Simhachalam. In Simhachalam there is a wonderful Narasimha temple where the main deity is kept encased in Sandalwood for all but a few days each year.
Before making the trip I had looked at a map and determined it was something like 350 miles, and I figured that it would be a very long day, but tolerable. What I had not counted on was driving it at 35 miles an hour through endless construction zones and very small roads crowded with trucks like what you see above.
After driving most of the night we stopped at a roadside restaurant for breakfast. At that point we had been driving for about 14 hours and I was relieved to get out of the car for a while. A quick look around and the place seemed very nice. It was basically a huge thatched roof house with a kitchen and pot washing place (see below) out back.
No problem. And Narasimha asked me if i wanted to take a shower before breakfast. Oh yes. That sounded refreshing and absolutely delightful. “Where is it?” I asked. “Just go around the back of the building. Its right there.” Grabbed my towel and off I went. Rounding the corner this is what I saw. Four “showers” right in a row. I managed fine…but it was a cultural eye opener! (and there was a great view of the rice field).
Ganesha going to the US
January 15, 2007
In 2002 I made a trip to Tamil Nadu, India with my good friend Narasimha. We stopped, as we usually do, at the government supported traditional crafts shop in Swamimalai so that we could buy some murtis to take back to the US. In particular a couple of friends had asked me to buy them a nice Ganesha for their own puja rooms.
This area is famous for traditional craftsmanship particularly in brass/bronze castings. The deities are really great as you can see from the following photos below. After we purchased the Ganeshas, we left them there to be gold coated and returned after a couple hours to pick them up. When we did these two men were waiting for us and as it turns out they were the original artisans who made the murtis.
They were surprisingly eager to meet us and Narasimha asked them why. They told him that while they were making the Ganeshas, they had a very strong feeling that they would be going someplace far away and they wanted to meet the people who were going to end up with them!
It is very reminiscent of the story in which Brahma asks Vishnu if he really has creation well organized. Vishnu points to a nearby rice field and says to Brahma, “Do you see that rice field? I know exactly who will eat each and every grain of rice in it.”
So apparently Ganesha “knew” he was headed to the US…
A couple more photos from the Swamimalai store:
They have absolutely everything; big, small, and all different metals etc.
Hanumans ready to be of service. It is so difficult not to spend huge sums of money in this store. Everything is so beautifully made.
Suryanarayana temple history
January 12, 2007
During my last visit to the Suryanarayana temple, I brought back with me a small booklet with the history of the temple and the story of the gods who are worshipped there.
This particular temple is unique in that it is devoted entirely to the navagraha. Typically the navagraha are secondary deities, with Shiva being the primary deity; afterall he wears the Moon in his hair. But here there is the main temple for the Sun and each of the other planets has their own, smaller, temples as you see in the photo below.
A long time ago there was a saint by the name of Kalavar who lived on the slopes of the Vindyas. With his yogic vision, he could see that some malefic influences were due to be visited upon him through the navagraha. So he determined that by doing meditations and mantra japa to the navagraha, he could neutralize the influence of the planets.
Well, the planets were not used to all this attention from a human and were quite delighted. The appeared before him and asked him what he wanted. He said that he wanted for he and his descendants be free from affliction by the planets and only enjoy wealth and prosperity. Caught up in the moment, the navagraha eagerly agreed…even though, by the rules of heaven, they were not authorized to do so.
And when the Athi Devatas, or supervising deities of the navagraha found out, they were enranged. They pointed out to the hapless planets that according to Shiva and Kaladeva (another form of Shiva), their job is only to deliver the good and bad karmas to the humans according to their karma.
Well, as one might expect, the navagrahas got cursed and fell to earth where they became lepers and wandered around miserable. They begged and begged for forgiveness and finally the Athi Devatas relented. The Navagraha were told to go the sacred waters at Tirumangalakudi and do a ritual bathing at nine different places there.
Then they retired to do mediations and tapas, and the place they chose to do that is where the Suryanarayana temple is now. In the Mahabharata, King Parikshith is mentioned as worship here and others from that great story worshiped at various of the navagraha temples in the region.
Because the Sun is worshipped here, it is a temple where light is empahsised; thus making it ideal for counteracting the darkness of a prolonged Saturn period!
Suryanarayana temple
January 11, 2007
Suryanarayana kovil is the starting point for our annual Navagraha temple yagya series in the Kumbakonam region of southern Tamil Nadu. The surrounding area is lush and devoted primarily to agriculture, and more specifically to growing rice. Beautiful green rice paddys are everywhere.
I have been to this temple many times and it seems that each time we get lost. The roads in the surrounding area all look alike and the western tradition of route signs has not been implemented here! So there is lots of stopping and asking for directions; down one narrow road after another and then all of a sudden you are there.
Once you drive up, there are a series of stalls selling everything from flower malas and puja supplies, to brass god statues, and misc. spiritual souveniers. It is great for browsing and of course the bargaining is not to be missed!
Like most temples it can be a little like runing a gauntlet because everyone asks you to buy from them but you have to buy puja supplies for nine temples…and when you do, your purchases usually come with an assistant who walks with you carrying everything from temple to temple. The stalls are usually simple, much like this one where you buy lotus flowers, coconuts, fresh flower malas, and fruit offerings.
The Suryanarayana temple itself is unique in that it is focused on the Sun as Narayana, the unversal god of all. Walking in through the main gates (top photo) you enter a courtyard. The main temple is straight head and is rather narrow and long inside with Naryana in a small sanctum. The temple, like many, has very little ventilation, so it always has the intense smell of burning ghee from the little ghee lamps that people light and the amazing sweet smell of fresh jasmine from the malas. More than anything else this is the smell of India.
If you are having all nine pujas, then you have your own priest who takes you from temple to temple performing pujas for you. Usually you end up with quite an entourage with your priest, the puja basket carrier, yourself, and usually a crowd of people who want to see and enjoy the pujas.
The priest chants some mantras, breaks the coconut and offers it along with any fruits and a length of flower mala. Then he lights some camphor for aarti and sings another short sloka. Next it is off to the next temple to repeat the process again for a total of nine times; once for each planet.
At the end of all nine temple pujas, time permitting, the tradition is to walk around all the temples in a clockwise direction. This is called pradakshina, and is a traditional way to show respect to the deities. It is actually a lot of fun particularly because the temple is over 800 years old and you think how many people must have walked on these same stones in all those years.
Kumbakonam Navagraha yagyas starting
January 4, 2007
The January yagya series that takes place in Kumbakonam each year is beginning on Sunday. First there will be two days of really big navagraha yagyas held in one of the patasalas there. As a part of the preparation for the yagya a large yantra is made. First colored cloth is laid down and then a layer of grain is placed on top. Each planet has its own color, grain, shape and position.
In spite of the blurry photo you can see the Sun in the center, to the right with the yellow cloth is Jupiter and to the left of the Sun is Mars. In the row behind the Sun the cetner position is black for Saturn. To the right is multicolored Ketu and on the left is dark blue for Rahu. In the first row the center position is Venus next to green Mercury on the right and white for the Moon on the left.
It looks great once it is all assembled with kalasa pots with coconuts on top, fresh yellow malas on top and white and colored malas in between the squares, and offerings of fruit as well.
Ready for the pujas to begin!
Rama’s bridge to Sri Lanka
January 4, 2007
When I was working on yesterday’s post, I thought it was very interesting to zoom in on the area between Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka. It was here that Rama with help from all the animals built a bridge to Sri Lanka so he could get himself and all his army across.
Sri Lanka is on the lower right, with India on the left.
A closer look shows that it indeed may have been possible…and particularly because sea levels were a lot lower in the past. One of the consequences of the tsunami in Mahabalipuram up the coast near Chennai, was that a lot of sand was moved near the shore. About 200 yards off-shore a very large temple became visible. The on-land temples there now are at least 1,200 years old. So the temple that is now underwater off-shore, must have been considerably older and sea levels considerably lower.
Possible? Who knows? At the present time it is 18 miles between the two pieces of land. Even if we assume that it was closer in “those days”, it would be too long for a suspension type of bridge like we have now. The longest currently is about 1.2 miles. So, you’d build a causeway..basically creating a road by piling up rocks and dirt, (which according to the Ramayana is what they did). The longest causeway in the world crosses Lake Ponchatrain to New Orleans at a length of 23 miles. So it could be possible to do something less than 18 miles and it isn’t terribly sophisticated engineering-wise…a big job though.
Tiruchendur, temple on the shore
January 3, 2007
One last note of interest about Tiruchendur. It is located, as you can see, right on the ocean. The reason is that here, on this beach, Shiva’s son Subramanyam defeated a demon who interestingly enough started off the attack by taking the form of a mango tree! Probably a good strategy for strength, but a little slow in the midst of battle!
In any case to defeat the demon, who couldn’t be killed during the day or night, nor on land or sea. Well, Subramanyam managed to attack and win the battle at dusk, and on the beach. So the temple is here.
There was a time when the temple was slipping into the water and the erosion of the beach had threatened the foundations of the temple. But the English who were ruling India at the time, shored up the foundations and saved the temple. In one of the main corridors there are a series of images commemorating the event. It is unusual to see images of the English in their 1800’s dress conferring with the temple priests about the repairs.
The recent tsunami caused great destruction up and down this coast of India from Madras all the way to the southern most tip of India at Kanyakumari. But the Tiruchendur temple was undamaged. On scene reports said that the water went out…but never came back in with any degree of force.
Of course the temple history says that Subramanyam made a bargain with the ocean god not to harm his temple. And since it has survived for so long, there may be some truth to that. But I figured let’s take a look at maps.google.com to see what it would look like from space and to see if indeed it was a miracle or…just the fortunate protection of Sri Lanka.
Here is the big view….Thailand on the right and the south-east coast of India on the left. You can see the vast stretch of ocean where the tsunami traveled unstopped. In this view Tiruchendur is unlabeled, but is just south of Madurai. Chennai (Madras) is obviously unprotected and there was a lot of destruction along the coast there.
When you zoom in a bit you can see Sri Lanka, the island on the right. Tiruchendur is on the left the first labeled area up the coast from the southern tip of India, Kanyakumari, at the bottom left.
A closer view shows the city, labeled clearly in the lower left with the coast of SriLanka off to the right. The protection that Sri Lanka offers is pretty obvious!
And one last view, just to see how close to the water the temple is. The temple complex is in the center of the image.
