Street Shrine

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to visit a friend at V.O.C. Nagar, which is a small colony at the side of Seshadri Ashram on Chengam Road. A couple of years ago this street was very rustic, with potholes on the road and surrounded by old fashioned, modest dwellings. As is the case throughout Tiruvannamalai, increased prosperity has improved the lot of ordinary people living in the community and many of the homes have been updated and enlarged.

At the other end of the street is a lovely Shakti Shrine dedicated to Adi Para-Shakti. Particulary like the beautiful tree at the back of the Shrine.

Below is a statue of the Goddess on top of the Shrine.




In front a small shrine with a representation of Ganesha.

The smiling lady below helps maintain the Shrines and also daily draws rangoli designs on the ground.

Below is her husband who is surrounded by a crowd of local kids who are eager to make sure they also get their photograph taken - a popular past-time of most of the kids in the area!

The girl in orange is putting henna on her friend's hand from a prepackaged metal funnel available at most local stores.

Lots of kids crowding below to get into the photo.

Outside the Shrine there is an iconic representation of Adi Para Shakti which the day before was taken around Arunachala in procession (in the back of a Jeep).

And in close-up.

Inside the Shrine is a statue of Adi Para Shakti which is permanently fixed to a platform. The Shrine statue is much older than that used in processions and reflects the rustic time of yesteryear when the street and community was only able to afford a simple statue. Compare this to the very beautiful (and expensive) statue of the recently made Adi Para Shakti statue used in processions - which reflects the increased prosperity of the area.

However, I rather like the one of yesteryear and particularly like the charming plastic parrots attached to three flower cones which were also part of the recent procession around the Hill.

Ravaged Murals

"Some exquisite mural paintings that adorned Tamil Nadu’s Temples are lost thanks to neglect and state-sponsored vandalism. These treasures, belonging mostly to the Vijayanagar and Nayaka periods (14th - 17th century), have been whitewashed or sandblasted in the name of Temple renovation or kumbhabhishekam (a consecration ritual). Officials of the State Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department have allowed the whitewashing or sandblasting of murals to present a clean surface to devotees, claiming that devotees do not like to see faded paintings."

For two earlier posts on sandblasting on Arunachala Grace, go to this link here and this one here. (Sandblasting is a process intended to remove oily substances or whitewash from statues and/or paintings. In the process sand is sprayed at high air pressure on sculptures, walls and pillars. It is now banned in many Temples in India.)

Mural depicting Nataraja, Kalakkad Temple

"In some cases, it is ignorance that has led to the neglect of these works of art. Soot from oil lamps settle over the murals; electrical cables and switchboards are installed over them; or cracked ceilings allow water and sunlight to seep in and spoil the murals.

In what conservationists describe as a classic example of ‘murder of art’, these paintings are reportedly repainted by signboard artists who merrily use modern poster-colours to re-create them. The State Archaeology Department use artists unfamiliar with the conservation or restoration of ancient murals to repaint murals found on the ceiling of some Temples wth the result, that the murals now dazzle in bright colours."

Modern artist's repainted mural

The Temples where the few surviving murals have been mindlessly whitewashed include the Arunachaleswarar Temple, Tiruvannamalai and the Meenakshi Temple, Madurai amongst others. Palaces, forts, colonial bungalows, monasteries and churches in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Goa face similar defacement.

Dr. David Shulman, an Indologist who has studied mural paintings of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, says: “The problem is very urgent. If action is not taken immediately treasures of Tamil Nadu, which are part of the National Heritage, will disappear.” Very often Mandapams housing mural treasures of South India paintings are being used as godowns (food storage), or filled with junk, logs, rusting nails and even dead rodents! Experts in Fine Arts suggest organisations such as the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage should consult tradition-oriented artists before taking up conservation of existing murals.

A four-day international seminar titled “Painting Narratives: Mural Painting Traditions in the 13th -19th centuries”, held near Chennai from January 23th to 27th, focussed on the magnitude of the problem. Attention was also drawn to the existence of hundreds of painted, wooden sculptures in Temples and Village deities (Ayyanars) and their Vahanas (mounts) being painted in garish rich colours.

Brightly Painted Vahanas at Pachaiamman Temple, Tiruvannamalai

Experts explain why it is important to preserve these paintings: “Mural paintings are not only great works of art but serve a historical purpose by throwing light on contemporary society through dresses, ornamentation, hairstyle, musical instruments, arms and armoury, and a host of other details depicted in them. Some of the murals are about actual historical events such as battles, trading and missionary activities, although the great majority of them deal with mythological themes, including the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, and the Bhagavatha. A comparative study of the styles and techniques in different periods can take us through the process of development of the art of mural painting at different stages in the past.”

Repainted Mural at Varadarajaswamy Temple, Kancheepuram

Sometimes the vandalisation of murals take a different turn: first, they are copied, the walls whitewashed and then “artists” engaged to repaint the murals on the walls. At some Temples, ancient murals have been lost because of sandblasting for the purpose of cleaning the surface on which they were painted.

Officials of the Arunachaleswarar temple at Tiruvannamalai whitewashed exquisite paintings at Ezhuthu Mandapa depicting stories from the Ramayana and Kandapuranam, and whitewashed and sandblasted murals about Krishna Leela on the ceiling of a corridor.

How can ancient murals be preserved? Experts believe that the key to the solution lies in creating an awareness among Temple officials and the devotees on the value of these exquisite mural paintings.

[With thanks to T.S. Subramanian]

Temple Architecture

Historical details about Tiruvannamalai and the Arunachaleswarar temple are available to us through stone inscriptions on the prakaram walls and copper plates. These inscriptions refer to a period of about thousand years starting from 750 A.D. The earliest archaeological findings from these stone inscriptions point to the fact that the greatness of Arunachala was known to Kings from the spiritual works Thevaram and Thiruvasagam and that Tiruvannamalai was historically and spiritually famous even from those ancient times.

We have clues that the Temple was small during the visit of Appar, Manikavasagar, Sambandar and others. Kings who read about the great glory of Arunachaleswarar from the Thevaram and Thiruvasagam began to expand the temple and beautify it.

Look forward to posting more photographs of the Temple soon - especially Periyar Nandi (Big Nandi Bull) as requested by reader Grasshopper.

Ashram Library

A popular spot to spend time at Tiruvannamalai is Ramana Ashram library which is located in the Moorvi Compound across the road from Ramana Ashram. Lots of fascinating spiritual tomes as well as the usual collection of contemporary and classical literature - also several shelves filled with books in languages other than Tamil and English. Also a magazine-stocked reading section.

The photograph below is of J. Jayaram, the very learned and interesting Librarian of the Ashram, who is a writer, musician and an authority on lots of spiritual topics.

There is even a kiddie section at the library.


As well as lots of great books, another stand-out feature of the Library is its fantastic view of Arunachala. I took the below photograph from a library window - it just doesn't get much better than this.

Outside the library there is well maintained compound full of large, leafy trees and creepers. The below is a Rangoon Creeper, which has quickly climbed to the roof the Library building.

Quisqualis Indica (Combretaceae family) is an evergreen, branching climber which originates from tropical Africa, Indonesia and Malaysia. It has a quick growth and can easily reach 10’ – 40’. The climber is also known as Burma Creeper, Chinese Honeysuckle or Rangoon Creeper. The name Quisqualis comes from the Latin quis, "who", and qualis, "what" and was given by an early botanist (Rumphius) as an expression of his surprise at the variability of the plant’s growth and flower colour.

The plant which just loves hot, sunny days, is a freely branching perennial climber with lush lustrous green foliage and pendant clusters of pink, red or white flowers throughout much of the growing season. Rangoon Creeper has an overwhelming, sweet night-time fragrance, which is so captivating that writing this has prompted me to plan on planting it in my own garden.

Ramana Maharshi Stories

For those who missed the live interview broadcast on 'Touchstones' a spiritual programme on WCOM Radio, North Carolina, (U.S.), you can right click and 'save target as’ to download a mp3 recording of the interview with V.Ganeshan’s stories about the life and teachings of Ramana Maharshi.

http://www.wordtrade.com/essays/touchstones/audio/072208ganesan.mp3

To visit the archives of WCOM Touchstone Programmes please visit at:

http://www.wordtrade.com/essays/touchstones/touchstonesA.htm

Tiruvannamalai Rail

On Sunday (July 27th) I met with R. Venkatesan at his family home in a Tiruvannamalai suburb in order to learn about the development of Tiruvannamalai Railways. R. Venkatesan has been working as Station Master for Southern Railways since 1995 and is currently one of two Station Masters at Tiruvannamalai Station, at which the ticket booth for Indian Rail reservations is still open.

What will be the 'old' entrance to Tiruvannamalai Railway Station

Due to ongoing development work, Tiruvannamalai Railway Station closed to all train traffic on the 1st June, 2006. Current work entails converting the previous metre gauge tracks to broad gauge, thus substantially increasing the load bearing capacity of both passenger and goods trains. The cost of improvements is calculated at 3 crore per km (includes land acquisition). The new trains will be multi-unit diesel with an increased passenger capacity from 1,000 to 1,700 per train. The service will be increased from three pairs (Villupuram-Katpadi via Tiruvannamalai to and fro) to eight pairs of passenger trains daily.

Indian Railways booking office still open for business

The metre gauge Tiruvannamalai goods trains carried 950 tonnes and travelled at 40 k.p.h and once the broad gauge tracks have been laid, the goods trains will be able to carry 2,000 tonnes and travel at 75 k.p.h. One wagon on metre gauge carried 28 tonnes compared to the 45 tonnes load on broad gauge. Integral Coach Factory (ICF) located in Perambur, a suburb near Chennai, is manufacturing the coaches to run on the new broad gauge lines.

A rather genteel sign
The new Tiruvannamalai Station is scheduled to be running from May, 2009, and will comprise a parking area, garden, 2 footbridges, 3 platforms and 4 railways tracks (for passengers and goods). The front entrance of the Railway Station will be a mock Raja Gopuram (same as Arunachaleswarar Temple).

At this time there are two further proposals in regards to the development of Tiruvannamalai Rail. The first proposal i.e. electrification of the line has run into a delay. The second proposal concerns the development of a direct Chennai route. In this respect land has already been acquired and currently four proposals are being considered regarding possible routes. One of those four proposals is anticipated to be accepted.

It is projected at today’s price, the cost of a new Tiruvannamalai Line connecting to Chennai via Tindivanam Station will cost 195 crores (includes land purchase). Currently in use is a roundabout route to Chennai through Tindivanam via Villupuram. The new direct rail route to Chennai will be 40 kms shorter and it is anticipated that tickets will cost approximately Rs.20/-

A sea of gravel

View of Arunachala from outside Railway Station
There will be more in-depth information on the above in this month’s Arunachala Grace News which will be sent out direct to subscriber’s email inboxes within the next few days. If you wish to receive this monthly Newsletter please fill out the facility at the left margin of this page for your free subscription.

Durga's Silver Dress

Here is the Ganesha idol at the Mother's Shrine at Ramana Ashram today.

And here is a very special statue of Durga, which is a big favourite for alot of devotees

And in close up.

A devotee is arranging to have a silver dress and ornaments made for the Goddess, and in this respect a couple of gents have travelled from Salem in order to take a wax impression of the idol. Below in one cauldron is a large quantity of pure beeswax and in the other cauldron, lots of hot water.

The wax is slowly softening up in the hot water.

And now it is being crushed, kneaded and further softened.

An Ashram priest already cleaned and washed the idol and now one of the Brahmin experts from Salem is covering the idol with the softened wax.

Its now completely covered, including the buffalo head underneath Durga's feet which was visible in the second photograph of this series.

After a short time the wax has hardened enough to give a good impression for the experts and they gently take the covering off the idol and examine it carefully. They are satisfied with the impression and after taking several smaller individual impressions of Mother's hand etc., they leave to return to their place and within 40 days will return with the silver dress and ornaments.

To get an idea of what the silver dress and ornaments will look like, I am posting the gold dress recently made for Sri Rajarajeshwari at one of my favourite Mother Temples at Arunachala i.e. Sri Rajarajeshwari Koil, located off the GiriValam roadway just before Adi Annamalai. She looks absolutely exquisite. Just hope Sri Durga ends up with an equally gorgeous dress, albeit a silver one.

Click on this photograph for enlargement

Samudram Village Puja

The following is an extract from Richard Clarke's posting entitled: Indian Village Life - Samuthiram Village Prays for Rain:

"This week we were invited to another Indian Village function–an annual ceremony where they ask the gods to bring rain. This is always held on the same day of the year. So on June 23, 2008 we went into Samuthiram Village to see the ceremony.

The rain is particularly needed this year. There are two monsoons that bring the bulk of the rain to the area. The Northeast Monsoon in October and November, and the Southwest Monsoon in the summer. The Northeast Monsoon failed to come last fall, and so far the Southwest Monsoon has failed to arrive as well.

Tamil Nadu has vast agricultural areas, much of which are rice fields farmed as small plots by village farming families. The rice fields can grow three crops each year, but they use lots of water. The English, when they came to India, said that these South Indian fields were the most productive in the world. They depend each year on the monsoons. Now we may have had two monsoon failures in a row." To read the rest of the post and view photographs, please click on this link here.

Villagers gathered at the small Shrine


Man carrying decorated puja item

Tiruvannamalai Rail Work

Tomorrow have arranged to meet a retired Railway Station Master to get information about gauge conversion and electrification work being undertaken at Tiruvannamalai Railway Station and hopefully some interesting historical railway anecdotes. There will be information on this in the upcoming Arunachala Grace Newsletter (August, 2008) due to be sent out within the week. If you wish to receive a copy of this monthly newsletter please go to the facility at the left column of this page in order to sign up for a free subscription sent direct to your email inbox.

Idyllic railway station before work


First view of Arunachala coming out of railway station


Gauge work undertaken at Tiruvannamalai station last year

To get an idea of rail travel during another era, when it was the primary source of transportation in India, am posting a fascinating extract from Mahatma Gandhi's book, 'Third Class in Indian Railways' written in 1917, which revealed his experiences with the rail journey he took from Mumbai to Madras.

“On the 12th instant I booked at Bombay for Madras by the mail train and paid Rs. 13.9. It was labelled to carry 22 passengers. These could only have seating accommodation. There were no bunks in this carriage whereon passengers could lie with any degree of safety or comfort. There were during this night as many as 35 passengers in the carriage during the greater part of it. Some lay on the floor in the midst of dirt and some had to keep standing. There were two nights to be passed in this train before reaching Madras.

After reaching Raichur the pressure became unbearable. The rush of passengers could not be stayed. The fighters among us found the task almost beyond them. The guards or other Railway servants came in only to push in more passengers. On the way passengers got for tea tannin water with filthy sugar and a whitish looking liquid so-called milk, which gave this water a muddy appearance. I can vouch for the appearance, but I cite the testimony of the passengers as to the taste.

Not during the entire journey was the compartment once swept or cleaned. The result was that every time you walked on the floor or rather cut your way through the passengers seated on the floor, you waded through dirt. The closet was also not cleaned during the journey and there was no water in the water tank. Refreshments sold to the passengers were dirty-looking, handed by dirtier hands, coming out of filthy receptacles and weighed in equally unattractive scales. These were previously sampled by millions of flies.

On reaching the station I found that the 'ghari-wala' would not take me unless I paid the fare he wanted. I mildly protested and told him I would pay him the authorised fare. I had to turn passive resister before I could be taken. I simply told him he would have to pull me out of the 'ghari' or call the policeman. One of the Punjabis had already travelled three nights and was weary and fatigued. But he could not stretch himself. He said he had sat the whole day at the Central Station watching passengers giving bribe to procure their tickets. Another said he had himself to pay Rs 5 before he could get his ticket and his seat.

I have got down at Raichur, Dhond, Sonepur, Chakradharpur, Purulia, Asansol and other junction stations and been at the 'mosafirkhanas' attached to these stations. They are discreditable-looking places where there is no order, no cleanliness but utter confusion and horrible din and noise. Passengers have no benches or not enough to sit on. They squat on dirty floors and eat dirty food. They are permitted to throw the leavings of their food and spit where they like, sit how they like and smoke everywhere. The closets attached to these places defy description. I have not the power adequately to describe them without committing a breach of the laws of decent speech. Disinfecting powder, ashes, or disinfecting fluids are unknown. The army of flies buzzing about them warns you against their use. But a third-class traveller is dumb and helpless.

Compare the lot of the first class passengers with that of the third class. In the Madras case the first class fare is over five times as much as the third class fare. Does the third class passenger get one-fifth, even one-tenth, of the comforts of his first class fellow? It is but simple justice to claim that some relative proportion be observed between the cost and comfort.”

Ganapati Muni Day

Tomorrow, July 25th, Ramana Ashram celebrates Kavya Kanta Ganapati Muni Day. Ramana Maharshi’s prominent devotee, Ganapati Muni, popularly addressed as Nayana, was a mighty spiritual personality in his own right and had a large following of illustrious disciples.

One day assailed by troubles and doubts, Ganapati Muni climbed Arunachala and found the young sage sitting outside Virupaksha cave. Ganapati Muni prostrated and said, "All the scriptures that have to be read, I have read. All the mantras and japa that have to be done, I have done. Still I have no peace. Please save me." The young Swami silently gazed at him and then said:

"If one watches whence the notion 'I' arises, the mind is absorbed in That; that is tapas. When you recite a mantra, watch where the sound is coming from, within you; when you sing a song or prayer, watch where it is emanating from: your Heart. Put your attention on That. That is tyaga, that is Tapasya, that is all.”

Sri Ramana and Ganapati Muni

It was Ganapati Muni that renamed the young sage, whose former name was Venkataraman as Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.

About a year after his first meeting with Sri Bhagavan, while sitting in meditation in Ganapati Temple of Ganapati at Tiruvottiyur, Ganapati Muni longed intensely for the presence of Bhagavan. At that moment Sri Ramana entered the Temple. Ganapati prostrated himself before him and, as he was about to rise, felt the Maharshi's hand upon his head and a force coursing through his body from the touch. Confirming the astral incident in later years, Sri Ramana Maharshi said:



"One day, some years ago, I was lying down and awake when I distinctly felt my body rise higher and higher. I could see the physical objects below growing smaller and smaller until they disappeared and all around me was a limitless expanse of dazzling light. After some time I felt the body slowly descend and the physical objects below began to appear. I was so fully aware of this incident that I finally concluded that it must be by such means that Sages using the powers of siddhis travel over vast distances in a short time and appear and disappear in such a mysterious manner. While the body thus descended to the ground it occurred to me that I was at Tiruvottiyur though I had never seen the place before. I found myself on a highroad and walked along it. At some distance from the roadside was a temple of Ganapati and I entered it."

To read more about Ganapati Muni go to this link here.