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Temples of Kashi - The Tilbhandeshwar Temple

The city of Kashi is filled with temples, big and small, old and new. There are temples at every corner, and you never know where you will stumble upon a small shrine. There are idols beneath what remains of trees (there are hardly any trees any more within the core area of the city), there are saffron covered forms resembling deities which seem attached to walls, an especially incongruous sight when the idol itself appears to be old, while the wall is evidently new…. And there are surprisingly large temples rising from what appear to be a bunch of houses. The city is sometimes colloquially said to be as old as time, and some of the shrines and temples are said to date back to times unknown, at least the deity itself, if not the structure. Not much remains of the ancient structures anyway. The city has seen more than its fair share of good and bad times. It has seen the heights of grandeur, and the lows brought about by destruction. The city that exists today has grown so haphaza...
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Karthikai -2009 - A variety of lamps


With the advent of Karthikai, out come the old brass lamps, some of which are family heirlooms…. At our place, we still prefer using the clay lamps, simply ‘cause they look so beautiful, and we can leave them outside without any fear of them being carried away!!! However, our neighbours regularly take out their special brass lamps, and I decided to capture some of the interesting types of lamps on my camera…..

This is the typical Kerala type of lamp…. surrounded by the smaller lamps which are unique to Karthikai.




Here is an assortment of lamps, the central one being the typical Kuttu Vilakku, a lamp all of us Tamilians possess.




Around it is the Kamakshi Vilakku, which has an image of the goddess Kamakshi behind the area where the flame is lit. But the most interesting of the lot is this one……..





This is called the ‘Aikya Vilakku’ (Aikyam – meaning attainment). The lamp is so-called since it is a representation of the trinity – the base representing Brahma, and the upright part representing a Shiva Lingam, with the Namam (the three vertical lines) representing Vishnu.


Here’s another interesting lamp from another neighbour’s house – this one is a different shape with the top bulging out – apparently, this part can be opened and filled with oil so that it trickles down to replenish the stock of oil near the flame, and the lamp burns for a much longer time!




An interesting assortment of lamps, aren’t they?? I am sure there are many more such interesting lamps from all over India….. And I am trying to collect information about them. if you know of any, please do send me a mail, or leave a comment on this post.



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Comments

  1. Tarun MitraDecember 4, 2009 at 11:54 AM

    Nice and informative...If I get to any lamps in my database will surely get u know

    ReplyDelete
  2. MridulaDecember 4, 2009 at 12:02 PM

    It is people with interest who would notice it. To me unless pointed out, all of them would have looked the same, which is a pity.

    Lovely lamps.

    ReplyDelete
  3. sriDecember 4, 2009 at 3:14 PM

    Nice collection and I learnt a good deal about couple of lamps :) Great! nd I voted for u already :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anuradha ShankarDecember 5, 2009 at 1:08 PM

    @ Tarun : thanks a lot!!! lets see if i get hold of a lot more pics of lamps, maybe i can do another detailed post on them!!!

    @ Mridula : lamps have always interested me.... before i got married, i used to spend hours putting the rangoli and getting the lamps ready.. used to even draw the rangolis like the different lamps..... now theres no time for all that....

    @ Sri : thanks a lot!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. indicaspeciesDecember 5, 2009 at 11:11 PM

    What an interesting post, thanks for sharing the info. I have, of course, nothing to add, but will be dropping in again to check if there is anything else new on this.

    ReplyDelete
  6. chitraDecember 7, 2009 at 6:21 PM

    I liked the aikya lamp. haven't seen such a lamp.

    ReplyDelete
  7. RajeshDecember 7, 2009 at 10:48 PM

    Beautiful. Loved the variety in these lamps. We still have some of them and to polish them and keep them shining is an interesting activity.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anuradha ShankarDecember 10, 2009 at 10:19 AM

    @ Celine: thanks a lot....i shall certainly update the post as soon as i get some more pics....

    @Chitra: neither had I!! this is a neighbour;s and she says it is a speciality of thirunelveli!!

    @Rajesh: yes, polishing them is an arduous task indeed!!! and here in bombay, they really become jet black in colour thanks to the moisture!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousNovember 29, 2012 at 3:06 AM

    Thank you for your blog. I have been following your blog for a very long time. Just a quick point. Aikiyam would mean integration (or unity) rather than attainment. This is also more in line with your elaboration about Siva and Vishnu. Thanks.
    Kris

    ReplyDelete

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