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Photographs
and Video Clips from South
India, Easter 2003
Video Clips
In a small village in Tamil Nadu, southern India, a
priest conducts the arti ceremony, offering fire, water, food, flowers and
incense in front of statues of the gods.
Video Clip 56k Dial
up / 300k
Broadband
In the early morning a fresh rangoli pattern is
created to welcome the day
Video Clip 56k
Dial up / 300k
Broadband
Photographs
| The Cochin Synagogue |
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The Paradesi synagogue in Cochin was
founded and built in 1568 and later enlarged in 1662. Paradesi
(foreigners) were exiles who settled there from Cranganore (Kodungallur),
further up the Malabar coast. They were later joined by Jews from Aleppo
(Syria), Holland and Germany. |
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Hundreds of old hand-painted porcelain
tiles brought from China pave the floor, no two of which are identical.
The synagogue keeps a rich collection of items: crystal chandeliers,
gold and silver decorated Torah-scrolls crowned with solid gold and set
with gems given as gifts by the rajahs, an oriental carpet in front of
the ark given as a gift by the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, and two
brass columns symbolizing the pillars of the Temple. |
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There were settlements of Jews in south
west India from at least the first century of the Christian era. Their
main centre was the seaport of Cranganore. From the fifth to the
fifteenth centuries the Jews in this area had virtually an independent
principality ruled over by a prince of their own tradition and choice.
The Jewish community was enriched by the arrival of Jews from Spain and
other European countries. In 1524, however, Jewish homes and synagogues
were destroyed by Moors, and survivors fled to Cochin (Kochi). |
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| Christians in India |
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The Apostle Thomas
is said to have arrived in India, at Cranganore on the Malabar coast, in
52CE. According to tradition he was welcomed by a Jewish flute girl. He
stayed in the Jewish quarter, and baptised some of the Jews there. He
finally settled at Mylapore, near Madras (Chennai) on the south east
coast, where he lived in a cave. He was martyred in 72CE and buried
beneath what is now the Basilica of St Thomas, built in 1898. A bone
from his hand remains in the crypt. |
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St. Francis Church
is the first church to have been built in India in the European style
and tradition. The original wooden building of 1510 was soon replaced by
the present building around 1546. Vasco da Gama died here in 1524 and
was originally buried in the church. Fourteen years later his body was
removed back to Portugal.
The Portuguese
were the first Europeans to discover the sea route to India when Vasco
da Gama landed further up the Malabar coast, at Calicut, in 1498.
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| Hindu traditions |
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The sacred thread
ceremony marks the passage to maturity for boys of the upper three
castes. This
initiation (upanayana) takes place between the ages of six and
twelve to mark the transition to greater religious awareness and
responsibility. At the ceremony itself, the family priest invests the
boy with a sacred thread to be worn always over the left shoulder, and
the parents instruct him in reciting the Gayatri Mantra*. The
initiation ceremony is seen as a new birth; those groups entitled to
wear the sacred thread are called the twice-born.
*
We meditate on the glory of the Creator;
Who has created the Universe;
Who is worthy of Worship;
Who is the embodiment of Knowledge and Light;
Who is the remover of all Sin and Ignorance;
May He enlighten our Intellect. |
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Rangoli is a
traditional art of decorating courtyards and walls of Indian houses and
places of worship. The powder of white stone, lime, rice flour and other
cheap paste is used to draw intricate and ritual designs. These are
friendly to the environment, often eaten by ants and other living
creatures, ready for a new creation the following day. They are freshly
created each morning to welcome the day and to please God. They have
been called ‘painted prayers’.
Women use their bare fingers or a brush to create
various designs from sandstone powder or grain-flour. Sometimes colours
and petals are used in addition to flour paste. Some women are so
skilled with their fingers that they can create figures of deities,
chariots, temples, etc. Most of the Rangoli designs are motifs of
animals and birds and plants, flowers, and leaves such as coconut,
lotus, and mango.
http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/art/rangoli.htm |
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Nandi is the sacred bull that Shiva rides. He is
symbolic of strength, faith, and constancy in belief. Here a worshipper
prays before Nandi in the Minakshi Temple at Madurai, South India. |
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One of the twelve soaring towers (gopuras)
which dominate the huge Minakshi Temple at Madurai. These are covered in
vividly painted figures of animals and deities. |
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Puja (worship) is the act of showing reverence to
a god or to aspects of the divine through prayers, songs, and rituals.
During puja an image or other symbol of the god serves as a means of
gaining access to the divine. This image is not the deity itself;
rather, it is believed to be a focal point for honouring and
communicating with the god. |
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At Mahabalipuram a huge,
natural boulder is perched precariously on a rocky slope. This is known
as Krishna’s butter ball. Krishna is well known among Hindus as the
Makhana-cora (butter thief). He used to steal butter from the houses of
neighbours at Vrindaban as a child, eating it himself or sharing it with
monkeys! |
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Carved into the stone on
this cliff face at Mahabalipuram (near Madras) is this wonderful image
of the river Ganges descending from the sky. In the monsoon season,
rainwater gushes down the crevice in the rock, watched by animals and
various divine beings.
The water of the Ganges
is considered to flow from the spiritual world. One story tells of how
a devout man, Bhagiratha, prayed for the sacred water to descend from
heaven. When his prayers were answered, the water came with such force
that the god Shiva had to hold out his matted hair to catch the river
and soften its fall to earth. |
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The ancient Hindu symbol
of the swastika is clearly visible in this window design in the
Airavateshvara temple at Darasuram in Tamil Nadu. This temple,
dedicated to Shiva, was built in the twelfth century. Airavata was a
white elephant who worshipped Shiva at this spot. |
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Thanjavur bronzes: |
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Krishna dancing,
Semangudi 12-13C |
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Chandikesvara, Muthepet
11C. Chandikesvara (one who maintains accounts) is a member of Siva’s
divine court, his chief servant and manager of his worldy property. |
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Bhikshatanar, Siva in
beggar form, Tiruvengadu, 1040. |
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| A Temple wedding |
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This page last
updated
10 March 2006
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