On the trail of the divine
A reminder that faith and worship are omnipresent in India, part of a grand symphonic ensemble
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A wrestler prostrates himself before a shrine to the goddess Durga at a garadi mane (a traditional school of wrestling) in Mysuru. The patron deity is usually Hanuman, while Ayudha Puja, performed on the day before Dussehra, involves the consecration of weapons and instruments of trade to Durga. Pictures of other deities adorn the walls, and the mud shrine is decorated with turmeric and vermilion, with the wrestlers’ wooden maces and dumb-bells planted in the mud around the goddess.
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A man prays, facing eastwards towards Mecca, in one of the halls of the Bara Imambara in Lucknow. A structure peculiar to the Shia Muslim sect, the imambara is not a mosque, but a congregation hall usually used during the Muharram month of the Islamic calendar. Whereas the interiors of a mosque are devoid of ornamentation, an imambara is usually decorated, with sumptuous chandeliers, crystal candelabra, stained glass and silver alams — a handprint that is the insignia of the martyrs.
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A group of Kashmiri Muslim women near Saida Kadal, Dal Lake, head home after attending Muharram ceremonies. Shia Muslims observe ten days of mourning during the Muharram month. In Srinagar, only small Muharram processions are permitted and that too under heavy security due to Shia-Sunni sectarian hostility that tends to peak during this festival. The Shias comprise only about ten percent of Kashmir’s Muslim population.
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Like a flock of brilliantly coloured birds, a group of Rajput women wend their way across a black granite plateau to a 12th century Shiva temple at Menal in Rajasthan. Dramatically located on either side of a deep-wooded gorge with a seasonal waterfall that rushes over the rocks, a visit to the temple is an opportunity for a picnic for these women from a nearby village. They are usually entirely veiled and seldom get an opportunity to leave their homes.
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