Heaven on Earth via Temples

I am going to take you around temples I visited in different cities. I am calling it heaven on earth because they are all deities outside temples. In South India, they usually don’t allow you to carry your camera inside the temple and take pictures of the main deity in the sanctum sanctorum.

Why temples this week? I was just going through my photo albums for something when I got this idea of choosing a few and posting them here. I enjoy, particularly, the roadside statues of deities because I admire how they are made so meticulously with such attention to detail. What’s more, most of these open-air statues seem practically immune to weathering. Ah, Faith! No dearth of that here. So here we go. A brief temple trip through my camera.

Temples – can we call them heaven on earth?

This is quite close to our house in Bangalore and called the Circle Maramma temple. Believed to be quite powerful. This statue is outside the temple and quite massive.

This picture is of an incarnation of Goddess Durga in South India (Tamil Nadu) – we passed through this place en route to Govindawadi. She is “Pachaiyamman”

This is also near Govindawadi (Tamil Nadu) – and these are the guarding deities.See the bright colors – we were quite stunned when we suddenly came upon them while driving through a narrow road across fields on a hot summer Sunday.

This deity is “Amriteshwari” I forget the story, but we were quite fascinated by this statue. It is in South Karnataka

This is Maha Prathyangira Devi at a place called Morattaandi in Pondicherry. Wow. It looked amazing. I had to sneak and take pictures when the priest went off to get something.  Sri Prathyangira Devi Temple is located in a place called Moratandi which falls in Vanur Taluk of Tamil Nadu but in reality the Temple is located on the border of Tamil Nadu and very close to Puducherry. The statue is 72 feet tall and depicted with a lion head, human skin tone, and is seated on a lion.

This is Shiva – in Murudeshwara, Karnataka. This place is by the seashore of the Arabian Sea on a small hill called Kanduka Giri. The outdoor sculptures are amazing. I couldn’t get enough of photographing these. This statue seems to rise and rise – see the people crowded at the bottom. Yes, it is huge! Reputed to be one of the tallest statues of Lord Shiva in the world, it is approximately 123 feet.

The temple complex also features a 20-story-tall Gopuram (entrance tower) from which visitors can get a panoramic view of the massive statue. The site is a major pilgrimage destination and tourist attraction, surrounded by water on three sides.

This statue is of Thiru-Vakrakaali, en route to Pondicherry. We were looking for another temple when we took the wrong route and stumbled upon this one…and then realized this was also on our list. When one goes on temple trips by car, it is very easy to get distracted by the multitude of famous temples on the way, because we don’t want to miss anything.

Considered one of the most powerful “Amman” or Kali temples in South India, the twelfth-century Thiruvakkarai Vakra Kaliamman Devi Temple is unique in many aspects. The main idol of Kali is slightly bent to one side with eight hands. She wears a small baby as an ornament in one ear and the skull of a dead person as her crown.

Vakrasura, a demon, did penance for Lord Shiva. Pleased, Shiva granted him the boon of immortality. Naturally, the arrogant Vakrasura, armed with his boon, ganged up with his equally obnoxious sister Dhurmukhi to pester the sh*t out of all the gods and sages.

Gods approached Shiva, who delegated Vishnu to slay the demon, and Goddess Parvati to kill Dhurmukhi. Dhurmuki was pregnant. Killing a pregnant woman is a sin per Vedas, so Goddess Parvati took the form of “Vakra” Kali, rescued the fetus, and wore it as her earring, then killed the demoness. And thus, she came to be known as Vakrakali.

On full moon days, Vakrakali’s idol is covered in sandal paste, and special prayers are offered.

The temple itself is unusual in many ways. It is a Shiva temple but better known as Vakrakali temple, and besides Kali, it also has Vishnu and Brahma sanctums. There is so much more to say — maybe I’ll write a post about this temple.

The stunning idol of Vakkrakali is HUGE inside the sanctum, and the 3D wall art around the temple, as you can see above, is amazing. And just for context: the reference to families in the six words — Shiva is Parvati’s husband. Vishnu is Parvati’s brother. As for Shiva’s and Parvati’s connection with Brahma and Vishnu, too many stories, too little space.

Okay, that’s it for now!