Tag Archives: Worship
Devarayanadurga – The hill in our backyard
As darkness falls upon the earth, a few feeble little sun rays struggle to stay alive. But they too slowly fade away, following the sun to the other side of the world. It is dusk, a no -man’s land between day and night when anything can happen. Somewhere in time and space, a pillar splits into […]
Churches of the Cantonment – Come all Ye Faithful
A month ago, I walked into Fatima Bakery on Hosur Road and found it filled with eggs in baskets, eggs in chocolate, marzipan stuffed eggs, eggs with silver icing. There were more than enough eggs on display to confuse the hens across the road in Johnson Market who could not lay claim to even one of them. […]
Gavipuram – Blessed by the Sun
In the dark days before science pushed its way into the minds of men, ancient pagan cultures believed that the sun either went to sleep or died during winter resulting in the ensuing cold and darkness. Plants would not grow so one would face hunger. It meant vulnerability to cold, enemies, predators and unseen threats. It made man feel fear. […]
The Bangalore Karaga – The Sons of Draupadi
It’s 1.30 am and I am eating basmati pulao under a malai coloured full moon that hovers above the multi-coloured twinkling lights of the Dharmarayaswamy Temple. Loudspeakers crackle with stories from the Karaga Puranas while over 50,000 people mill about anxiously, waiting for the Karaga bearer to arrive. I suspect that this temple, the only one dedicated to the Pandavas and Draupadi (Yudhishtra […]
Nandigrama- The site of a Celestial Wedding
The bride is wide-eyed and beautiful but unadorned because she is marrying against her mighty father’s wishes. But who needs jewels when there is love? She has spent the night preparing herself for this morning. Her long hair is scented, her body gleaming with aromatic oils. Her large eyes are lined with kohl and her skin is […]
Someshwara Temple – Building a way to Shiva
Man’s relationship with the cosmos, the seen and the unseen ( no matter what we choose to call it ) has always been marked by an overwhelming urge to seek oneness with this force, to have it respond to us in our lifetime and to merge with it in the hereafter. This inspired the creation of obvious physical […]
>The Jamia Masjid. A portrait in Sepia
The Jamia Masjid stands at the end of the Silver Jubilee Park, a little before Avenue Road, near the Mysore Road Flyover. It is an imposing five storied building. When I say imposing, I do not mean intimidating. No, it is anything but that. With its delicatee jaliwork, white Rajasthan marble exterior, proportionate arches and fragile minarets, it soars into the […]
>In search of a Sacred Space
> The gate is open I’m planning to see Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace this weekend and decided to do some reading up on it before I get there. Of course all the usual information is available, and then I came upon this really interesting story about the birth of Tipu Sultan. A little more probing online […]
Placing Bengaluru 