Dravidian Kanchipuram

Our tour bus drove us off two hours or so away today to Kanchipuram, an important center of Dravidian culure, capital of the ancient Pallava kingdom and one of the seven most important Hindu sacred cities in India. Once home to a thousand temples, the modern city still hosts more than fifty, including the two we visited over the course of the morning hours after arriving in town.

Ekambareshvara, built in the sixteenth century, is the largest temple in the city. Here Srini, our guide, walked us through both the temple and various myths, practices and beliefs found within the Hindu fold.

We then bused a short distance away to Kailasanathau, built in the eighth century (roughly at the same time as the Shore Temple we toured yesterday in Mamallapuram), a truly stunning architectural and religious treasure where we examined more sacred stories and a bit more architectural history.

We learned why Brahma (along with Shiva and Vishnu, one of Hinduism's central religious figures) is worshiped only at a single temple in far-off Pushkar; what proked Pavarti, Shiva's consort, to turn into a menacing and dangerous devil; how to differentiate some of the major identifying characteristics associated with each of the most major Hindu deities; why Vishnu and Shiva are always competing; and a host of other interesting bits and pieces.

We now know, too, more about the evolution of Hindu temple architectural styles than we did a day or two ago, learning how the two "models" we saw evidence of yesterday in Mamallapuram came to be incorporated into the design of both temple gates and the temple's main sanctuary and how the once prominent inner sanctuary tower gradually gave away pride of place and size to what came to be called the gopura, the towering gateways guarding access to he now-walled compounds surrounding the sanctum sanctorum at its center.

Had all this taken place in a classroom setting, it likely would have seemed dull and difficult to understand. But being in these two sacred spaces, experiencing it all directly, made all the difference.

We also stopped along the way to and from Kanchipuram to see a snake shrine built around a termite mound in which cobras nest and are worshipped by local women seeking to become pregnant, a silk dying operation and a silk cloth weaving workshop (with a nicely stocked shop right there on the premises - imagine that ...).