Rough Ideas

The temple. It’s huge! There are 4 towers, courtyards, shrines, more shrines, cattle barriers everywhere to control the crowds, places to sit in the shade, dogs, cats, monkeys and birds in the towers, and an elephant. It’s also heaving with people, usually in their finery.

The working hours of the elephant have been reduced in accordance to the new law, so she’s not out in the evening usually, but she was there on one occasion. She takes a coin from you with her trunk and blesses you with a tap on the head.

One evening, walking round the mountain with 2 companions, an auto rickshaw stopped by to offer us transportation. But it was already full with a family, so I jokingly said, yes, shall I sit on the canopy? And mimicked climbing on top. You have to use all sorts of jokes to deal with people wanting your money, I got used to it now. And we walked on.

But next they went passed again, and everybody got off so we could sit at the back. We negotiated the price to the temple, and squeezed on the back seat. Then the family piled in again, Amma (grandmother) on the driver’s seat, and the other two either side of the driver and grandma.

I was in awe walking inside the temple at night, and was glad Laxman could guide us, since he’d been living here for some years. We were allowed right in, for a coin each time, got blessed in various shrines, including the main Siva shrine, the core of the temple.

There’s a long queue to get in, even at this time at night, but it goes really quick. Once inside, the priest blesses you for a donation, hands out a little holy ash to smear on your forehead. It’s a little intimidating for a non-Hindu, because eventhough the whole thing is about ritual, but everyone seems to do something different.
The whole thing is so fast, there is no time to look or think, and you’re out again, off to the next shrine. The pace is brisk here, unlike everywhere else!

We were at the right time to see the closing ritual of putting Siva and Parvathi to bed, in a special shrine in the Siva temple, all gold and sparkling, and closed with heavy doors with many bells hanging.

Parvathi is briskly carried on a palanquin, fanned, chanted for, all the way to the shrine. A little procession follows. She is made comfortable, then it’s Siva’s turn. They are offered a meal, tea, and gifts from the devotees, as far as I can see, and after a final chant, the doors are closed.

Although I felt privileged to witness these rituals, I must say the whole thing baffles me. I am sure these experiences will lay there somewhere at the back of my mind and do their work slowly, but for now, I’m wide-eyed and just taking it in as best as I can…!