Divine Watch

A temple scene

A priest waits for devotees at a small temple while the saints watch over him.

Kalmandapam, Royapuram.

The Chennai Photowalk. Retrowalk #77

Shot with Sony ILCE 6400 and E 18-135 – F3.5 – 5.6 OSS @ 24mm.

f/6.3 S.S 1/15 ISO 125 Handheld.

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Waiting with Vinayaka

Pillayar for company

From North Mada street , Mylapore

Prayers

Boy praying

“Lord give us uninterrupted supply of water”. The boy priest seems to be praying in West Mambalam. He was probably officiating for the senior priest.

West Mambalam, like most parts of Chennai, is notorious for shortage of piped water.

Rare Ganesha

On the Shree Shiva Shakthi Vinayagar koil gopuram at Sivapraksham St.

I had shared my album of post budget Pondy Bazaar with the IIMA- Chennai group. One of the alumni Mr Srikant pointed out that this Pillayar has a Shanku and Chakram, normally associated with Vishnu. Only after his response, I noticed this uniqueness.

I have no idea about how Pillayar came to have the Sangu and chakram, but I am aware that the masons and sculptors of gopurams take liberties with the terracotta or stucco figures that go on the gopuram, often deviating from the accepted norms of iconography.  If anybody has any other explanation, please do share it with the readers of this blog.

Vinayaka Chathurthi

Ganeshas for chaturthi  

Vinayaka Chaturhti (or Ganesh chathurthi or pillayar chathurthi) is around the corner. I am longing to see the array of clayey and colourful Ganeshas in the market. More exciting would be a visit to the place where they are made. In Trivandrum, I could easily locate and visit centres where the pillyars were made. Can someone give me some locations in Chennai? I heard someone say, ‘Kosappet’.

 

 

Pillayar strapped?

Ma Yashoda once tied Sri Krishna to an ‘ural’ (grindstone) for his naughty pranks like stealing butter. Click here to read the story.

Now the temple management of Sree Parthasarathy temple in Triplicane has strapped Lord Ganesha with a steel band around the legs. This is on the pillar in mandapam in the front. Ganesha and other images have all been strapped with a nice steel strap, probably to support some other structure or poles. Have they thought of the damage they are causing to the sculptures and to the sentiments of the devotees?