Malleshwaram

Entrance to Nandi Theertha Temple

I have been busy for a while, and hence haven’t written much. Work wise I am free as a bird as we have some of our systems down lately; which is not at all fun! Personally, my mother visited me; I didn’t really take any vacation to spend time with her because I am still new at my work place. One day I went home early to go out with her. We went to Malleshwaram, a rich cultural part of Bangalore with many Hindu temples, schools and large Tamil Brahmin population; a place with great history!

There are numerous famous old temples in the area. We visited 3 of them which were right in front of each other, on the same street. Frankly we drove down to visit the new Tirupathi temple which is supposed to be equivalent to the original Tirupathi temple in Andhra Pradesh. But we were unaware of the temple schedule of rituals; we reached at 5.30pm when they close the temple for an hour of “Naivedya” (offering food to gods, which is distributed to devotees later). Hence we thought of visiting other temples in the vicinity. 

At entrance of the temple - Nandi Theertha temple

The first temple we went to was NandiTheertha Temple. The attraction of this temple is that the Nandi (Bull) performs continuous abhisheka of Shiva Lingam. As I studied more about this temple online, I learnt that this old Dravidian architecture temple built in 17^th century was buried for about 7000 years and was discovered only recently in 1999 when the old residents resisted the land from being sold out and stated it was holy in some way. The temple is made out of ancient stone and it’s more like an underground temple; we have to step down to see a small pool of water behind which resides the Shiva Lingam. There is a floor above the Lingam where the Nandi sits and the water falls from the Nandi’s mouth onto the Lingam through a copper pot. As I read more about it, they say no one knows where the water comes to the Nandi’s mouth to fall on the Lingam.

Water flowing through Nandi mouth onto the Lingam (notice pipe in the mouth :) )

Frankly, I have clicked pictures of a pipe visible in the mouth of the Nandi that drops the water. And I also saw water pipes going in and out of the water pool. And my understanding was that it was a setup to have the water fall from the Nandi’s mouth onto the lingam and the pipes in the pool were to recycle it. Oh I forgot to mention, the pool has more than 30-40 tortoises of different sizes. Very cool attraction for everyone. Behind the Nandi is the big golden plate with engraved family of Lord Shiva – Lord Ganesha, Shiva & Parvati and Lord Karthik.  



Lord Shiva-Parvati, Lord Ganesha and Lord Karthik carvings

I am not so sure about the myth of the mystery of the water falling from the Nandi’s mouth, but it was a good experience like any other temple in India. It was very calm and the surrounding is very green with huge trees including those of Jackfruit J.

Temple

After this we visited the temple across the street, Gangamma Devi Temple-Goddess Ganga (River Ganga) that flows from Shiva’s head, mythological story! The best part of this temple was the idol of Ganga which is stored for display; it is used for the festival procession. The statue is painted & decorated so beautifully, it embodies the ideal Indian woman image, ideal in the sense with respect to mythology. Amazing piece of art! Looks very divine! 

Goddess Ganga statue



Divine looking statue



And the third temple on the street we went to was that of Lakshmi Narshimha Temple, we all know the story of Narsimha!



After 6.30pm we came back to the new Tirupathi temple. As it’s a new setup, the place is very clean, still a bit under construction, less crowded! As per usual boards, you see no photography, switch off mobile phones boards; some of the boards said to drop the donations ONLY in the Hundi (donation box). As the priest came with the Aarti to each person, some did give money to him and he accepted. I had two questions in my mind – why do people not follow what is mentioned and secondly why don’t the priests act honest and refuse to accept it saying it should be dropped into the Hundi only? As a matter of fact, I was very curious, where does the priest put the money after going back into the ‘dark, dim-lighted’ sanctum! I also saw one of the priests tuck in something in his robe and walk out hurriedly. Of course I didn’t question him, as it would be enormously inappropriate! 

Colorful garlands outside the temples

I read the wiki on Goddess Ganga before drafting this post. I knew the stories of Ganga in bits; reading the whole wiki is like some drama. Whoever wrote our mythological stories is the pioneer of all the bollywood, drama and crazy family drama TV shows. Even the gods get angry, jealous etc! Sigh!