Re: painted gopurams
From the Bhakti List Archives
• August 10, 1999
--- Mani Varadarajanwrote: > > Dear Friends, > > One good example is the Tiruvallikkeni gopuram. > What in ancient days was a beautiful white/gray > gopuram is now blue, green, and red, looking more > like a gopuram of a small Amman or Murugan > kOvil than our traditional Vaishnava ones. I may be wrong but it appears to me that your idea of "traditional Vaishnava" temple towers seem to be based on those which are badly in need of a coat of paint aka jIrNoddhAraNam ;-))) Dear Mani, use of primary colors appears to have been sanctioned by tradition. You may want to read K. Zvelebil ("The Smile of Murugan"), Michael Wood (same title) or even EM Forster (Passage to India). They relate it to the heat and dust of the subcontinent!! >I understand that > after the recent samprokshaNam Sri Sarnga Pani > Swami's gopurams > have also been painted in this fashion. I was there two weeks ago. From my childhood, I'm used to seeing the temple tower in a dull unwashed brown. The coat of paint looks nice for a change. To understand what I mean, you should take a look at the Nageswaran Sannidhi next door or the Chakrapaniswamy Sannidhi down by the river. What made some elders of my family sad was however something else: we stayed back for the sevakalam on an ordinary day and found that all the gentlemen who did the Prabandham chanting (save one), did it out of a handy text. They were not chanting anything rare, it was just vADinEn vADi varuntinEn (Periya Tirumoli 1.1), ArAvamudE etc among other things. I'm sure the explanation is to be found in people having left for Madras or elsewhere. Retired people out of their community spirit were participating in the sevakalam etc etc. Wonder what the Astikas of this group think? Thanks and Warm Regards, LS _____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com
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