Photos: Temple scenes

Photos by KO Isaac. ©All rights reserved.

Click to enlarge.

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Ashtalakshmi Temple, Chennai

Ashtalakshmi Temple, Chennai

Goddess Mahalakshmi
Painting by Raja Ravi Varma.
Public Domain, from Wikimedia Commons.

Recently I went to lunch at a flat on Elliot’s Beach, Besant Nagar, Chennai. A soothing sea breeze was blowing in from the Bay of Bengal. I walked up to the balcony and looked out, and saw a stunning temple right on the beach.

The Ashtalakshmi Temple, I was told.

I was fascinated by the structure which highlighted several features of the Dravidian temple architecture. It is a comparatively new temple, built in 1976. Within the short span of three decades this shrine has become a tourist attraction in Chennai.

At that time, the Ashtalakshmi Temple was the only one to house Goddess Mahalakshmi’s eight manifestations – Adilakshmi (The First manifestation of Lakshmi), Dhanyalakshmi (Granary wealth), Dhairyalakshmi (Wealth of courage), Gajalakshmi (Elephants, symbols of wealth), Santanalakshmi (Wealth of continuity, progeny), Vijayalakshmi (Wealth of victory), Vidyalakshmi (Wealth of knowledge and education), and Dhanalakshmi (Monetary wealth). [Source: Wikipedia.]

Also worshipped here are Sri Hanuman, Sri Guruvayoorappan and Sri Ganesha. The Deepavali, Navaratri and Pongal festivals are celebrated with fervor

The Ashtalakshmi Temple has four levels on which the deities are installed. This is something rare.

Chennai Ashtalakshmi Temple’s claim to uniqueness as the lone location where all the eight forms of Goddess Mahalakshmi are displayed was lost in 1996. That year an Ashtalakshmi Temple was built in Hyderabad.

I was about to take some photos of the Ashtalakshmi Temple from the balcony when KO Isaac, President of the Madras Photographic Society, who was there with me offered to do that. Some of the pictures he captured on his camera are given below:

Click on photos to enlarge. Copyright Reserved.

Related post:

A Queen Visits Her Lord.

Also see about Star of Lakshmi at:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/StarofLakshmi.html

Karnataka: Two places of worship

Srirangapatna (Srirangapattana) is about 13kms from Mysore City. In modern history the town is mostly known as the former capital of Hyder Ali and and his son Tippu Sultan. Tippu was killed there during the Forth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799.

Sriranganathaswamy Temple

The place is named after the Sriranganathaswamy (Lord Vishnu) temple which is believed to have been built by the Ganga Dynasty in the 9th century CE. Subsequently the Hoysala and Vijayanagara rulers made improvements to this famous Vaishnavite shrine.

Carvings on the temple rath.

Maharaja Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar had built a church for his Catholic subjects in 1843. As the congregation grew with the passage of time the need for a larger building was felt. Therefore, it was decided to construct a new church at the same location.

The foundation stone for the present St. Philomena’s Church was laid by the then Maharaja of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, on October 28th, 1933. The church was consecrated in 1936.

St. Philomena's Church

This shrine is believed to be the only one in the world which has the relic of St. Philomena. It was obtained for the church by Thambu Chetty, Secretary to the Maharaja of Mysore.

The photographs were taken by Binita Kuruvilla last month. Copyright reserved.

An addenda:
The image below is Temple near Bangalore (Mysore), with Savandrug in the distance. – a pencil, wash, and water-colour drawing by Thomas (1749-1840) and William (1769-1837) Daniell. Source: The British Library, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections, reproduced from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

All the pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Also see:

Vedas, Syrian Christians