Indian Temples & Iconography

Gingee fort, enroute Thiruvannamallai: I happened to stop by at Gingee fort, before i drove on to Thriuvannamallai. This time i chose not to...

I remember the first time I heard of this ritual. It was a glorified act of a Great king flaunting his superiority by letting loose a well b...

Rahu and Ketu appear to be the most unwanted souls in anyones life. They are neither here nor there, neither alive nor dead or maybe they ar...

Lakshmi and I had a serious conversation today. It was about the game of dice and the state our mind is in when we play the game. This is ...

Tanjore, Tamil Nadu: Sembiyan Mahadevi: A chola queen, widowed but enterprising, wanted to make the temple a prime center in everyone's ...

Thiruvannamallai, 3 hours from Chennai: Its a bright sunny morning, the air fresh as ever as i walked up the stairs to a wayside Shiva shrin...

This is the journey of the seeker, the seeker in me. I have been going from pillar to post, trying to dig up my roots, understand my past, f...

Kalahasti, 43 kms from Thirupati: Abode of Shiva The Lord has strange ways of displaying his presence, here he does it with wind. I will not...

Tirupati: This is the richest temple in the Indian subcontinent, and truly, you know it when you are there. Getting a glimpse of Lord Venka...

Declared as the most hygienic meal in the world, this is a spread to be seen, tasted and enjoyed. Authentically speaking, the dishes are ser...

Excuse my attempts at Tamil here but i shall try to make it sound as authentic as Iyer athu tamil. Strategy, fun and one of the few things t...

On the roads, Tamil Nadu country side: Coiled serpents on a stelae, sounds like something out of a fantasy in the middle ages. Well, not exa...

The real Hinduism, is something of much debate. What is our culture, our real culture i mean. Culture is a good word, sounds great, everyone...

We sat back having lunch, thinking about all the good old days when we were young, living the typical orthodox lifestyle as administered bac...

Girivalam, Thiruvannamallai (3 hours from Chennai), is a 14km stretch that circles the imposing hill, believed to be Lord Shiva himself. Wha...

I have been studying a lot of art history and it has led me into a lot of other fields, made me ask questions, try and find answers which i ...

The misconception to Tantrik cults in India is that it appears to be an orgy of sorts. The other biased opinion is that sex is wrong or bad....

The Nataraja: The origin of this sculture in its prototype can be taken right back to the Indus valley civilization with the seal that depic...

Kiratarjuniya panel, Mahabalipuram: I would wonder whether this panel is a tribute to Lord Shiva or a tribute to the beautiful verses of Bha...

Mahabalipuram: Few people would imagine that an entire dynasty looked at plain rock surfaces as a canvas to depict mythology, and fewer woul...