15th Cross, Malleshwaram
Showing posts with label temple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label temple. Show all posts
December 22, 2017
February 27, 2017
January 12, 2016
Nagashettyhalli
Naga stones of Nagashettyhalli.
When you visit a temple or stand next to a shrine in urban India, it sometimes helps to imagine what the place looked like a few decades or centuries back. That would mean erasing the buildings and roads, bringing back to life the green, rolling surface of the land and water bodies that have been drained or coloured by our civilization secretions.
These are the serpent stones of an agricultural village called Nagashettyhalli gobbled up by the expanding city of Bengaluru. They are found under Ashwattha or Peepal trees in the village and next to fields and farms.
These serpent stones are under a tree was struck by lightning a few years back and the stump is sprouting leaves once again. This tree was surrounded by farms growing potatoes and greens on one side and humble village homes on the other side.
Over the last three decades, the farms got divided into plots for suburban homes. The graves (the better off landowners in this village preferred to be buried in their own farms) have homes above them. The wells are covered and bore wells have dug deeper.
There are no snakes to protect the farms that have disappeared and the rodents run about wild like people on their bikes and in their cars.
Before there was Wikipedia there was Kamat's potpourri for answers in English for questions about little known things in Karnataka (and India). You can check it out at Kamat.com (Trivia lovers, and desktop travellers will love the resource).
According to the grand old lady at Kamat, the serpent stones are closely associated with fertility and not just the for crops. Many couples and families say thanks for having a child by installing these serpent stones and giving their children names like Nagraj for boys and Nagaratha for girls. This tree in Dollar's Colony which was next to the paddy fields fed by the Nagashettyhalli lake had several serpent stones installed under it.
These worshipped stones in the middle of the city, surrounded by upmarket housing and a transformed village suggests that some people still prefer the shrines of an agricultural past to the luck and fortune based pop urban gods, pilgrimage circuit and babas that are popular today.
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| They look like snakes at my feet. |
August 31, 2009
August 30, 2009
Gavipuram Guttahalli (Kempegowda Nagar)
4-engined jets and spears adorn the Harihareshwara Temple that stands atop the hillock at Gavipuram. The temple was rebuilt in 1976.
And the flying children of Namoora Patahshallay.
August 25, 2009
Chord Road
August 15, 2009
Dr Rajkumar (80ft) Road
Hey! Isn't that Vishnu's bed?
Star Signs.
I've very little idea about Western and Indian astrology but I thought that these stone carvings of star signs on the walls of the Shaneeshwara Temple were different from what we usually see in Deccan temples. It stands out like the stained glass work at the Mangeshi Temple in Goa. Something different. This temple seems to be new, very popular and prosperous too. Shaneeshwara or Saturn is supposed to be one of the most powerful gods in Indian mythology.
After Ganesha, Shani is probably the most popular Hindu deity in the city. Even though there aren't many large temples dedicated to him, he's everywhere on Benglur streets, especially in the crowded market areas. If you have seen small shrines with bright painting of a God sitting on a crow, you have spotted him.
July 31, 2009
Sajjan Rao Circle
Climbing all over the little gopuram of one among many temples that ring Sajjan Rao Circle are little boys created out of cement, like advertisement for couples who seek to have a baby boy.
Bangalore stat: For children under 6, there were only 961 girls for every 1000 boys in 1991. It came down to 937 in the 2001 census.
June 19, 2009
June 18, 2009
Dickenson Road
There are said to be 330,000,000 Hindu Gods. Adding 2 more from the Levant will not make much of a difference. However, I'm not so sure if the Pope would approve of the Virgin Mother(in a saree) and her Infant son (in a frock) and the mandatory dots on their foreheads adorning the wall of the roadside Ganapathy Shrine opposite RBANM School on Dickenson Road.
June 11, 2009
Susheela Road, Chickamavalli
Oora Habba, Chickamavalli.
The people of Chickamavalli, that borders Lalbagh, near the West Gate, prefer to retain the social structure of the village that it has been for centuries. They have a small and well-knit community surrounded by the urban jungle called Bangalore. And this week, they are celebrating their togetherness with The Chickamavalli Oora Habba or the Chickamavalli Village Festival.
All the men have taken the day off from work to lend a hand in arranging the festivities. To cook, to manage the various pujas, decorations and crowd at the little shrines that dot the clean, narrow lanes of the 'village'. The children have skipped school and are waiting to play on the swing next to the main shrine. The women have pulled out their best clothes and are doing the rounds of the different shrines with thaali-full of offerings. And more than a few women are parading their daughter-in-laws wrapped in silk sarees and covered in gold, while policemen on duty snore in their patrol vans.
Each Galli in the village seems to have its own character. The Grama Devate Road (Village Goddess Street) is cordoned off with pandals and spicy chicken curry is being prepared. The Venkataswamy lane is where the rice and the vegetable dishes are being cooked. And at the central Susheela Road, the tables have been laid out for the big lunch where the entire village will be served.
The most popular shrine seems to be the one dedicated to Bisilu (Sunshine) Maramma that's on the main road, opposite the Kempe Gowda statue. And can there be a better time than now to have the habba, now that summer is over?
Chicken being prepared for the feast.
Dressed in fresh flowers, silk, gold and stones, the Bisilu Maramma on her chariot.
The protectors.
June 3, 2009
Platform Road / Vatal Nagaraj Road
The Power Lines under which the Venus Circus tent was erected.
The only memories I have of the first circus I visited are that of its charred remains that I saw in the newspapers in the following days. It erased everything that I remembered of the first circus experience and replaced it with imagined screams of children trying to flee the inferno. About 60 (0fficially) of them, most of the them children, were killed in the fire and the stampede that followed at the Venus Circus, in February 1981. That was because the tent was erected under the power lines shown above.
It took years for Bangalore to recover from that tragedy. No circuses were allowed to perform in the city for a long time. And the place where the Venus Circus stood is silent and barren to this day, as if mourning for all the little lives that perished on that Black Day in February, 1981.
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Next to where the Venus Circus tent stood is an old Lutheran Church, which does not seem to have enough people attending these days. It was probably built for railway employees from an earlier age, who lived in the Railway Colony, a short walk away. The people who live closest to the church today are the residents of a tiny slum, behind the Church.The doors and windows of the homes in the slums are turned away from the open area where the Circus tent once stood.
However, the residents of the slum prefer to pray at the many little shrines that surround the Chruch. Even those who pray at the Church seem to prefer the small shrine with Bibles in Kannada, Tamil and English placed outside. Together, they form the unoffical memorial for the people who died in the fire.
May 28, 2009
K R Road, Basavanagudi
Curtains up! Finishing touches are being given to the new Jain temple in Basavanagudi, close to the Post Office.
The Which Main? What Cross? The Exhibition - Is on until May 31st.
F&B Restaurant, Papanna Street, St Marks Road (on the right, soon after SBI).
Ph: 080 - 40 333 888
April 27, 2009
Yellamma Temple Cross, Akkipet
And I had a camera in my hands. The Karaga season is still on in Bangalore. Here's the annual ceremony at the small roadside shrine dedicated to Goddess Yellamma in Akkipet, just off Cottonpet Main Road. That's the flagbearer followed by the band going around the shrine. Since the tiny shrine is surrounded by houses on two sides, the procession around the shrine involved walking around an entire block!
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