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“The temple is the concrete shape (murti) of the Essence; as such it is the residence and vesture of God. The masonry is the sheath (kosa) and body. The temple is the monument of manifestation. The devotee who comes to the temple, to look at it, does so as a seer, not as a spectator” – Stella Kramrisch The Early Chalukyan or the Badami, Western Chalukyan cave and temple architecture has been a subject of deep and long drawn research since the times of James Fergusson. Yet in the popular discourse and historical narratives the development in the South gets overshadowed by the study of either the glorious Gupta art in the North or the magnificent caves of Western India. The Early Chalukyan temple territory is small if we consider the core of their construction in the Malaprabha valley (Mahakuta, Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal set in a 25 kilometers long Malaprabha river valley) in the present day northern Karnataka, though their overall footprint was large, spread acros...

July 27, 2015 Yesterday’s expedition to watch Bahubali at a theatre unknown to me all these days brought back memories of all the strange movie going / watching experiences one has had over the years. From the time I can remember I have been watching movies – despite being an orthodox family, my father, his mother and her sister were all great movie buffs. It was very selective, the kind of movies we would be taken to as kids. Grandmother had taken us as elementary school kids to watch some of the Russian circus movies, African Safari and likes. She was my long time movie watching buddy. Sridhar was a preferred director, of course of the era when I started watching movies, while there mixed reactions to K.B at home. Dad hated Bharatiraja, in fact the only time I remember he lost his cool on me for watching a movie was when I accompanied someone to watch Kizhakke Pogum Rail for a second time. He watched Sigappu Rojakkal with his friend at Kutralam and that sealed his d...

Ineffable mass of grace who dwells on the peak of Elephant Hill, dark blue flame in the altar of the Lotus-Born's horse sacrifice wish-granting tree hugged by a slender creeper, the milk ocean's daughter: May he make us prosper!  (Verse from Varadaraja Pancasat of  Swami Vedanta Desikan translated by Steven Paul Hopkins)  The year 2019 is eventful for the devotees of Kanchi Perarulalan. Athi Varadar Vaibhavam, the darshan of original deity who resides inside the Ananta Saras Pushkarini happens once in 40-years, and 2019 July  – August  is going to be when He will be giving His darshan again. By the time you read perhaps the Darshan would have started. Those of us who have had His darshan in 1979 remember the devotion and excitement, and wait with same devotion now. But, for those of us who were too young to understand the history and circumstances of His Jala Sayanam, 2019 is different. The eagerness to see Him, to dwell into His Mahatmiyam is diffic...

Silent revolutionaries - Sowbhagyalakshmi Srirama Bharati It was May 2017, and that trip to Chennai was not just a routine stopover on the way to Kanchipuram. In April I had won the Justice Telang Fellowship in Indology - with just no more than a love for Alwars and their verses and a deep interest in traditional performing arts I had chosen the topic 'Araiyar Cevai - Millennial Retrospective'. I didn't know where to begin. Someone told me Kalakshetra had archived 'Araiyar Cevai' and I thought I will begin there. That is when a friend told me how she was part of the team that worked on that archiving, archiving works of Srirama Bharati, the man who took Araiyar Cevai from its traditional practitioners and setting to a secular stage. I had heard about his moving, devotion soaked Cevai but just around the time I got to know about him he passed away. Too young and too early - in 2000 when he was just 50. In May ‘17 when I searched for his videos on...

“Kannan ennum karum deivam” “karumanikkam en kannuladaagume’ “Roopa saavala sundara” “Saavale sundara roopa manohara” The Alvar poetry, very many verses, time and again dwell on the beauty of the “black God”, the beautiful black Krishna. The idea of looking at the Gods housed in the south Indian temples as black Gods never occurred till one saw the flawless white marble idols in the north. Then came the Panduranga Vittala, a black God who again gets specifically invoked as the beautiful black deity. Many have gone into analysis of the “white” and “black” and the colours of our Gods.  Coming from where I am the black God was just what He or She was, there was no big thought process behind the worship. The familiarity with the granite or the saligrama moolavar murtis, and the bronze utsavar murtis were something not “researched” upon. Very few moolavr murtis one sees, the “sudhai” stucco creations painted in vibrant colours like the Tiruthankal Appan or the Vatap...

I thought life as a work from home professional would give me lot of time and enable reading and writing on my favourite subjects, religion, history, heritage etc., So, with great enthusiasm in 2010 I thought I will attempt blogging live my experience reading Mahipati's 'Bhakta Vijaya'. Neither did I complete reading the book nor could continue blogging. Here is a compilation of the few days of jotting down on blog what I felt as I read through a few chapters. May be some day, I will complete reading as well writing on it. Till then .... Bhaktavijayam I remember reading Mahabhaktavijaya in Tamil published by Lifco with stories of Saint poets of India, especially the Maharashtrian Saints Jnaneshwar, Tukaram and Namdev when I was still in school. I gave the book to my maternal grandmother with whom I was spending my vacation at that time as she was interested in reading it and forgot all about it. At the time I had no clue about the greatness of the work and i...

Visnuchitta goes to Dakshina Mathura ….and others carried arisalu and other sweets in a kavadi for the king, Visnuchitta proceeded towards Mathura in great pomp and gaiety! Out of affection, his devoted wife packed in a sack, Porivilangayas ……. -             Krishnadevaraya’s Amuktamalyada Krishnadevaraya must have been a hardcore foodie. Not only did he write extensive grants to Tirupati temple for various prasadams, he writes many a culinary details in his epic ‘Amuktamalyada’. One of the interesting references therein is a porivilangaya. As interesting as the item mentioned is the debate it gets into while being translated from the original Telugu text to English. Srinivas Sistla who has translated the text into English in his introduction talks a little about the confusion over the word  porivilangaya which is identified as a Tamil word, and on the other explained as wood apple. Luckily for the tra...