Tuesday Rituals

Temple Detail



Temple Facade



Shiva Temple at Mylapore


 



St. Thomas Basilica

Tuesday was a big day for worship. In the evening we visited the Shiva Temple at Mylapore in Chennai (formerly Madras). We happened to arrive just as a major ritual was going on. Worshippers processed clockwise around the inner temple carrying a figure of a bull festooned with flowers and garlands while a great crowd of Shatrias (Brahmin priests) chanted in unison. The sound reverberated around us and through us in waves that we experienced as physical sensations as well as sounds. Men prostrated themselves to kiss the stone. Inside the temple, a Shatria bathed the Shiva Lingham (stone pillar) in milk.

Our next stop was the St. Thomas Basilica. The Apostle Thomas came to India to spread the gospel after Jesus' death, and he was martyred here in what is now Chennai. There is a big catholic church in  his honor and his tomb is there for people to visit. In the antechamber to his tomb there is a life-sized diarama of Thomas about to be speared by a primitive-looking Indian while he prays--it looks like something from a low-rent natural history museum. Inside the tomb itself a life-sized carving of the Apostle lies in repose in a glass case, and the sandy earth which presumably contains his bones is visible under a layer of glass. You can buy a card with some of that sand laminated to it for fifteen rupees. It looks just like a credit card. Inside the Basilica itself, a mass was underway in both Tamil and English, but the sound system was poorly synced, so the effect was something akin to speaking in tongues. In a grotto outside, worshippers were dressing a figure of Mary in a Sari.

For dinner we went to place called the Copper Chimney where I must confess that I ate a chicken dish of Persian influence that was absolutely delicious. But I am still mostly eating vegetarian.