INDIA: GUWAHATI - MAA KAMAKHYA AND TIRUPATI BALAJI TEMPLES

 December 16, 2024

Our traveling companions were not going to arrive until late in the evening, so we had planned a tour of some of the religious sites in Guwahati, the largest city in the Indian state of Assam. Assam is a little finger of India that stretches to the east in between Bhutan and Bangladesh. Guwahati has a population of over a million people and is one of India's fastest-growing metropolises. In India, with population comes pollution, and that is definitely a problem in Guwahati. In fact, in 2023 it was ranked the second-most polluted city in the world (ahead of Delhi).

Here is the view from our hotel window:

At 3:30 in the afternoon, shortly after we checked into our hotel, we were picked up by our guide, Shyamol Gogoi, a young man working on a master's degree in Tourism Organization. I'll say right at the beginning that if you need a guide for Guwahati, he is an outstanding choice. 

It took just a few blocks of navigation by the expert driver that accompanied Shyamol to validate all the advice we had read that tourists should not drive in India. The traffic doesn't look bad here, but believe me, it was. Besides, as passengers we were free to marvel at the colors and designs that make India India. Take a look at these painted concrete pylons holding up the highway. 

Our first stop was the Hindu Maa Kamakhya Temple, perched in the hills above the city. I loved the markets that line the streets on the approach to the entrance. They were selling a few tourist items, but also items that are part of Hindu temple worship.

This was our first of a bazillion encounters with "the marigolds of India." These flowers, which are rather ordinary in the U.S., are highly revered in India and used extensively in religious rituals and festivals. What is interesting is that marigolds are likely not even native to India. Many scholars think they were brought by the Portuguese in the 16th century, and the Portuguese, in turn, got the flower from their conquered lands in South America. On the other hand, similar flowers show up in Indian art dating back to 300 BC, so who knows? In either case, the vibrant yellows, oranges, and reds of marigolds are dominant colors in India. Someday I would love to see the fields and/or greenhouses where massive quantities of this flower are being cultivated.

The Maa Kamakhya Temple is considered to be the home of the goddess Kamakhya, a Tantric (yoga tradition dating to the 1st century AD) deity who is the goddess of desire. (Maa, by the way, means "mother.") The biggest annual event here is a four-day celebration that marks Kamakhya's four-day menstrual period!

The main dome near the entrance was being cleaned or renovated, I'm not sure which, and was covered with bamboo scaffolding. The dome is called the shikhara ("mountain peak"), and the building the dome tops is the garbhagriha ("womb chamber"), the innermost sanctuary of the temple and the equivalent of the Holy of Holies. 

Parts of the temple date as far back as the 9th century, although archaeological remains on the site are as old as the 5th century.

Upon arrival, we were asked to take off our shoes. I also took off my socks, but Bob left his on and they got soaked. The ground was wet in many places, and we never knew if it was because of the many animals roaming around or because it got sprayed down occasionally. There were plenty of people constantly cleaning the ground, but it was still not exactly a sanitary experience. 

The Kamakhya Temple was our introduction to the bindi (A Sanskrit word meaning dot, drop, or point), the fingerprint of paint placed on the center of the forehead just above eyebrow level. Pretty much everyone in the temple was bindi-ed, including inanimate as well as animate folks.

Some got their bindi by association with others.

We headed into this building where visitors were lighting sticks of incense and candles. Note the strands of marigolds hanging from the eaves. 

Shyamol purchased incense sticks and candles and helped us light them and place them in the correct spots. As I understand it, this is a ritual similar to lighting candles in a Catholic church, a form of prayer and/or tribute to God. In addition, candles are a symbol of enlightenment, hope, and prosperity.

Of course, there is always more than one way to make an offering.

In one of the rooms we got in line to be blessed with our own forehead bindi, and then we went outside and sat on amphitheater-style stone steps while Shyamol taught us more about the temple.

We shared the space with lots of snoozing dogs . . .

. . . and some pet goats:

We had a good view of the building we had just been in . . .

. . . and of temple patrons. This was where I began to fall in love with the colorful saris that so many of the women wear.

We noted a covered area at the top of the steps with wall-to-wall people walking slowly through a very long, winding line. Shyamol said the line was for the garbhagriha, the domed temple we saw when we entered the complex and a pilgrimage site, and people start lining up at 4:00 AM for the early evening service. He said it is like this every day. How can you not be impressed by that level of devotion?

The sun was setting and it was time to move on to the next temple, so we took one last photo in front of the garbhagriha . . . 

. . . and Shyamol also took a selfie with us . . .

. . . before we worked our way down Vendor Alley to the car.

Our second stop was at the Purva Tirupati Balaji Temple, aka Venkateswara Temple, aka Tirumala Temple. It is situated in the hills of Tirumala just outside Guwahati in the Tirupati District and is dedicated to Venkateswara, one of Vishnu's avatars, so it has lots of names. With Brahma and Shiva, Vishnu is one of the three main deities of Hinduism, so this is another very important temple.  

Shyamol called it the Tirupati Balaji Temple, so that is what I will call it.

By the time we pulled into the parking lot for the complex, it was dark, but I think this temple is meant to be seen in the dark. In contrast to the Kamakhya Temple, all the buildings are white and lit with spotlights. Standing out against the black night sky, the towers create a heavenly vision-like experience.

This looks like two photos of the same tower, but they are different. Count the levels.

As we did at Kamakhya, we left our shoes in an outbuilding before we entered the grounds.

Unfortunately, once we passed through the first tower to enter the grounds, photos were no longer allowed. 

Although I don't have photo proof, I can tell you that this is the Beverly Hills version of  Hindu temples. It is much less crowded, spotlessly clean, and quite peaceful. No animals are wandering around, and the ground is covered with highly polished marble. There are five or six buildings, each dedicated to a Hindu god or goddess. Shyamol told us that the first temple we had visited, Kamakhya, was built to establish power, but this temple was built to establish peace. He said it was built in 1998 and modeled after an ancient temple, but everything I can find online says it is a very old temple. Maybe I misunderstood Shyamol and it was remodeled or restored in 1998.

There are several areas in the complex where visitors can walk up onto a landing and participate in some ritual, including lighting candles, pounding a drum, and receiving a bindi.  Since we already had a bindi, the priest added a vertical slash, which (unintentionally?) made it look like we were bleeding. 

Back out in the shoe reclamation area, we became quite popular as group after group of locals asked to take a photo with us. Surely they see a lot of Europeans/Americans who come here as tourists. It was bizarre.

Even Shyamol got in on the action, but I think his motivation was to promote his guide business on social media.

We returned to our hotel, and Chris and Stan, our traveling companions, walked in the door about a minute behind us. It is always fun to meet up with family and friends on the other side of the world! We had dinner in the hotel restaurant before heading to our rooms and crashing. It had been a long, long, long, long day--or make that three days.