Through the Land of the Cholas - Part IV

Continued from Part III

The Chidambaram temple complex was huge and extensive; the evening crowds were just coming in, apart from tourists like us. Inside the temple it was so dark that you had to strain to see what was ahead of you. The floor was wet and slushy, as if it had rained inside. So one had to tread carefully on the slippery, disgustingly squelchy floor. This was just the beginning of the disappointments that were to follow. Whichever small shrine inside the temple we went to, there were priests falling over themselves trying to ingratiate themselves to us and asking for our address with a notebook thrust at us. It was the same story in all the shrines - they promised to send us prasadam for a fee. They would talk to us in English in spite of our answering them in Tamil and were annoyingly persistent. It totally distracted us from enjoying the architecture, and from offering prayers. Soon we found there were umpteen such shrines in the run up to the main temple and we skirted around most of them. We were saddened to find that the priests followed the same routine with foreign tourists, only they were much more ingratiating and persistent.

The main idol of Nataraja was a splendid sight and the aarthi in the sanctum sanctorum was the only part I enjoyed in the whole experience. With guidebook in hand, we took a tour of the outer complex of the temple, which had more disappointments for us. It seemed like the huge complex was being used by the public as a park and meeting place. We were shocked to find people even relieving themselves on the temple walls. In spite of this, we trudged around trying to place the architectural wonders described in the guidebook. The famous 1000-pillar hall or the Raja Sabha which is said to be witness to many historical events was kept locked - this in the festival month of Margazhi when the hall is supposed to be used extensively in the festivities. Upon enquiry, we learnt that the hall was not open to the public for the past few years because it was misused by "couples" for their escapades! However, I wonder how the same authorities failed to notice and curb the other misuse/abuse happening in the temple. Some of the other unique temples/sculptures mentioned in the guidebook we are unable to find, notable among them being the Nritya Sabha, the Dance Hall.

We left the temple totally disenchanted. Since it was still early evening, we decided to make a trip to the nearby Vaideeswaran Kovil, famous for its nadi josiyam, a type of astrology where one's past/future is read out from chuvadis or ancient palmyra leaves, which is supposed to be unique for each person. One just had to give one's name, date of birth and the exact time of birth, and they would find you your chuvadi. It was my mother's wish that I go there and we went merely out of curiosity.

To be concluded...