Temples are a place of worship for Hindus which typically house one or more deities. They have gained importance with time as a place for the community to come together to pray or celebrate. Allow me to take you into some of these beautiful works of architecture in South India, vibrant with culture and energy.
I started off my trip at the Lizard temple at Kanchipuram, also known quite famously as the Golden lizard temple. It is said that anyone who touches the Golden lizard here is freed of any lizard bestowed curse, past or future, for the rest of their lives. It might not be a place for people who are creeped out by lizards as here, there are one too many roaming around freely.
We then headed off to the Kanchi Kamakshi and a few other locally famous temples. The Kamakshi or Kamakshi Amman temple is the only one representing the female half of divine prowess in all of Kanchipuram, the others being dedicated to Shiva, the male counterpart. The Goddess, being initially full of anger and fury is said to have taken a calmer avatar after the installation and consecration of an important Chakra.
The next on our list was the Madurai meenakshi temple, at the centre of the ancient temple town of Madurai. Even after being plundered and looted in the past by a Commander of the Delhi Sultanate in the 17th century, the temple made a recovery and stands gloriously luring devotees from all over the world.
We then went to the Ramanathaswamy temple at Rameshwaram housing the deity of Shiva. Housing sixty-four Tīrthas, the holy water bodies, it is a place where most devotees come to bathe or take a dip and washed off sins and negative energy.
Deserving special mention is its well-known kavade (cowrie shell) shops that sell the shells of crustaceans used as dice in many Indian board games.
Kanyakumari, the southern tip of the Indian peninsula also is a temple- hub in the south, the most famous of which is the namesake Kanyakumari temple. Legend says that the light reflected off the diamond nose pin of the deity was mistaken for that from a lighthouse and caused many a shipwreck. Kanyakumari also offers the peaceful Vivekananda Rock Memorial, a tiny island off the coast which serves as a meditation centre.
I did my last and final stop on this trip at Guruvayur temple, dedicated to Guruvayurappan, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, situated in Kerala. It is one of the many strictly religious temples in the south with a dress code dictating that men, women and children enter only in traditional attire. Due to the widespread presence of Lord Krishna here, it is also called the “Dwaraka of the south". Located about two hours away at Kalady, is the famous Shankara tower, a famous tourist attraction and a memoir of the well known Shankaracharya, a religious pioneer.
Each of these temples and many such more in South India are famous not only for what’s inside them but also what’s around them. These are, as I said earlier on, centres for communal gathering. They have local produce markets, street food made fresh with local produce, small shops and stalls selling religious souvenirs, small toys and even clothes.
Be it the energy within the temples, the pious atmosphere,the flea markets selling religious paraphernalia outside or the street food, the temples of South India has something to offer everyone.