The City of a Thousand Temples

Kanchipuram was the capitol of the Indian Pallava Dynasty and today is known as the City of a Thousand Temples. Though we only visited two of those temples, our day in Kanchipuram was the most difficult day of the trip for me so far. Of course I still greatly appreciated the experiences I had visiting two incredible temples, this day was the first time I had an emotional, physical, and internal struggle in India.

Like every day in India, it began auspiciously. We arrived in Kanchipuram after driving through substantial rain, but the weather was perfect when we got to the first temple of the day, Kailasanath temple. It was drizzling just enough to where our scarves could keep our heads dry and the temperature outside was the most comfortable I’ve experienced in the whole trip- a refreshing mix of breezes and warmth. Archana immediately began opening up her incredible wealth of knowledge before we even had a chance to take off our shoes to step inside the temple. Honestly, how that woman knows so much never ceases to amaze me. She says everything with such enthusiasm and excitement that I personally can’t help but reciprocate those emotions whenever she begins to speak about something (even though I can only ever fully grasp around 70 percent of what she is saying at any given moment).

We’d done a bit of reading about this specific temple but hadn’t yet talked about it. I had come with opinions and confusions about the place but the temple began to explain itself to me as we walked around it. I realized not only how much physical exertion was required in the building of a temple, but also the tremendous amount of thought and attention that must go into it’s development. This specific temple, Kailasanath, remains my favorite probably because of how I came to understand it and it’s many dynamics.

The architecture of Kailasanath was something that I found to be really unique and brilliantly symbolic: a yoni (a shape that symbolizes feminine sexual energy and a literal vagina) and a linga (a phallic shape that symbolizes male sexual energy). The temple was built in a way that the outer structure was in the form of a yoni and the inner structure was in the form of a Linga- the former provided walled protection of the temple and the later an authoritative towering shrine. We walked clockwise, simultaneously within the walls of the yoni temple and around the Siva linga temple.  The walls consisted of 64 ornate mini shrines to the goddess and to Siva, each shrine was so full of meaning that they seemed as if they were talking to each other; balancing the reputations of the gods by revealing their many forms and interdependencies. It was really a beautiful place.

It took us quite a while to even make it half way around the temple because there was so much to be said for each stone. By the time we did make it all the way around the temple, I started to feel a little overwhelmed and a bit lost. I felt like we had been in the temple for ages and had forgotten about the crazy world that existed outside its walls. We left for breakfast but a few of the kids really wanted to return to see the temple service so we loaded up the van and headed back. The service was brief but took place in a small dark room located in the middle of the Siva temple tower. All 17 of us piled in to witness the priest illuminate Siva before our eyes. It was beautiful and really cool but I could feel my mind begin to race the second I crossed the threshold into the shrine. After we left the service Archana decided to give everyone 15 minutes to do their own thing and go meditate in one of the 64 shrines around the walls of the temple, but going from the dark small room to the bright white granite boxed enclosure around the Siva temple really disorientated me. I walked around the temple alone trying to find some spiritual connection to anything that could distract me from how I was feeling, but I’m just not that type of person I guess. All I could think of was that India was around me, with all it’s chaos, noise, smells, faces, and strangeness and I was trapped in a quiet, bright, sterile box that was forcing me to make acquaintance with Gods I had just met.

By the time we left Kailasanath I was ready to just get in the car and go on the road, I had hoped that the worst of that anxiety was over with. Apparently not, because the next temple we visited is a complete daze to me. I remember walking around this new temple and thinking to myself that everything was going to be fine and if I could just concentrate on Archana’s voice I would be distracted from my anxieties. Sri Vaikuntha Perumal Temple is a Visnu temple, its architectural brilliance was that the temple itself signifies the body of Visnu. Each of it’s three stories depicts one of three positions of Visnu: in the first he is seated, on the second he is laying, and on the third he is standing. As you climb the temple stories it is supposedly as if you are climbing through the body of Visnu.

Our class experienced two temple services here, one on the first floor in another tiny dark room and then again on the second floor after climbing very narrow steps that wrapped around the shrine tower. My body felt weak and my mind almost drunk at this point, the world would move around me seconds after I did. Standing became difficult and all I wanted to do was to keep my head still. Archana must have seen me because she made me sit down with a bottle of water and suck on a ginger candy. I was so embarrassed, especially because I couldn’t explain what I was feeling to anyone and I knew inside it was a form of anxiety. I’m sure dehydration, exhaustion and slight claustrophobia created the issue, but the temple architecture and ambiance definitely made everything I was feeling more defined.

Maybe the state of being completely disorientated and isolated is efficacious for religious activity- especially devotion. And maybe it is my lack of devotional tendencies, or my inability to just zen out and be swept away by the supposed spirituality of a place that caused me to just shut down. It took me until the next morning to finally feel like the same person, I actually woke up on Monday feeling fantastically refreshed and even more excited to be where I was… in India!