The absence of ancient Hindu structures in Kashi is something I have always lamented about. The shrines are certainly ancient, and that is something that has always attracted me to the city. However, I miss the beauty of the ancient structures that we see at other sites. This feeling is intensified when I see marble and concrete and tiles in temples that once would have been beautifully adorned with evocative sculptures, and worn by the passage of time, touched by the hands of seekers who came before. This time , this desire to see some remnants of an ancient Hindu structure in Kashi came true when I managed to visit the Kardameshwar Temple. The Kardameshwar temple is not one of the main temples in the city. It is part of the temples on the Pancha Kroshi yatra, a pilgrimage which takes one on a circumambulatory tour of the whole city. The temple is located on the outskirts of the city, on the western bank of a tank called the Kardama Kund. The Kardameshwar temple is one of the...
Taking a break from my regular posts, I am sharing today an article that was published in Rail Bandhu a while back, titled - A Hymn called the Cauvery We stand atop the mountain , and peer into a tank. Around us are the lush green mountains of the Western Ghats, and, it seems apt that a river as holy as the Cauvery should originate here, in the Brahmagiri Ranges of Coorg, Karnataka. She bubbles forth as a spring, in this tank, during the monsoon months, and then flows down as a river from the foothills, giving the place its name -‘Talacauvery’. It is at these foothills, at Bhagamandala, that we first see her as a river, and this is also where she meets the first of her many sisters. Here, she merges with the mountain stream Kannike, and the invisible (and maybe mythical) Sujyothi, to form the Cauvery, as we know her. A temple at Bhagamandala enshrines both, Vishnu and Shiva, and the Cauvery, when she is in full flow, washes the steps of the temple, as if paying obeisan...