Pilgrim Nation

Published on 19th March, 2017, in Mumbai Mirror. The most powerful pilgrim spot is the roadside shrine. Across India, in villages and towns, in the heart of cities, next to railway stations, in the middle of slums, we find shrines dedicated to various gods and goddesses. It may be a simple vermillion smeared rock, or a photo of Durga riding on a tiger, or an image of Ganesha, or Sai Baba, or the dramatic saffron coloured image of Hanuman with garlands of leaves and flowers. It may be the Christian crucifix with candles before it, or a dargah, replicating the shrine of a Sufi Saint, ..

Published on 5th March, 2017, in Mumbai Mirror. Every day, as I pass the houses of Bollywood superstars, in the suburbs of Mumbai, I see vast crowds of tourists waiting to have a glimpse of them. Excited families pose for selfies. On certain days, they emerge and wave out to fans, like the Pope granting audience to the faithful, or the Queen to her people. They cheer. They cry. They click photographs. They return home, nourished. Are these tourists or pilgrims? In South India, temples are built for heroes and heroines, by their fans. Some stars belong to totally different leagues: milk being poured on ..

Published on 8th January, 2017, in Mumbai Mirror. It stands on top of a hill and looks like a fort, until you notice the temple-like structures on top, the lamp-pillars on the arches on the steps. Located about 50 km from Pune, this is Jejuri, the main centre of worship of Khandoba, also known as Malhari Martanda, clan deity of many warrior, farming, herding and priest families of Maharashtra and the Deccan region. For most the English-speaking world, Jejuri is known through the poetry of the same name by one of India’s foremost English poets, Arun Kolhatkar, that won the Commonwealth prize in 1977. He ..

Published on 25th December, 2016, in Mumbai Mirror. It has in the last few years become an iconic symbol of Delhi, the lotus shaped Bahai house of worship. Built in 1986, an architectural marvel that attracts millions of tourists, this building has three rings of nine petals each: the inner most ring is of closed petals, the second ring of opening petals and the third ring of opened petals. Within is a place where 2,500 people can sit and pray in any way they like, silently, without disturbing others. There is no congregational leader or speech from the pulpit, or no ceremonies. Just silence, and ..

Published on 11th December, 2016, in Mumbai Mirror. Bejewelled women once lived in Hindu temples, immersed themselves in art, danced and sang and made music in temples, had multiple lovers, were bound to the deity, not to any one man, and their beauty was captured in the sensuous images on temple walls. Unable to fathom such matriarchal structures, British rulers of India deemed these free women as prostitutes. Social reformers supported this move, convinced these women were exploited and could not possibly have agency over their bodies. Freedom fighters offered no support, as women, for them, could only be mothers and daughters and sisters, not ..

Published on 27th November, 2016, in Mumbai Mirror. We have all heard the story of Ram, a prince from North India, who went to the southern tip of India. But when was the last time you heard of a queen who travelled from Madurai in the south to Kailasa in the North to find herself a groom. That princess was called Tadaatagai, more popularly known as Meenakshi, she whose eyes are as shapely as the contours of a fish. The Pandya king of Madurai was childless and the gods blessed him with a daughter who was born from a pit of fire. She had three ..

Published on 13th November, 2016, in Mumbai Mirror. In the state of Karnataka, about 150 km from Bengaluru, in the district of Hassan, stands Shravanabelagola, where there is a lake, known as white (bili) lake (gola), that gives the settlement its name, and two stone mountains, Chandragiri and Vindhyagiri, associated with the founder of the ancient Mauryan dynasty, Chandragupta. Most people have heard stories of how the shrewd brahmin, Chanakya, enabled Chandragupta to raise an army, overthrow Nanda, establish the Mauryan empire with its capital in Pataliputra and kept Alexander’s Greek army at bay. But not many have heard of Chandragupta’s spiritual guru, a Jain ..

Published on 30th October, 2016, in Mumbai Mirror. This is one temple we cannot visit. Actually, it is not a temple any more. It is a ruin. And it is located across the Line of Control (LOC) in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK), near the Kishenganga river, now renamed the allegedly more Islamic-sounding Neelam river. This is Sharada-peeth, said to be where the right hand of Sati’s corpse fell. It was once a temple of Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, and renowned as a centre of learning. From here came the Sharada script, that was once very popular in north India, and which eventually gave rise ..

Published on 16th October, 2016, in Mumbai Mirror. There are two gates in the temple of Dwarkadhish in Dwarka that stands in the Jamnagar district of Gujarat: the main northern one is called the Moksha dwara, or liberation gateway, and the southern one is called Swarga dwara, the paradise gateway. Why are they located in opposite directions? Is it a code of Hindu wisdom? In the Puranas, north indicates permanence as it is the direction of the Pole Star, and south indicates, the opposite, impermanence or mortality, the realm of Yama. The two gates direct pilgrims to the two goals of human life: liberation from ..