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Mar 2002
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Please sit, they are chanting to the Gods
- by Roger
Aurovilians and
villagers come together at a festival in the Shiva temple at Irumbai
Small clusters of children - some dark skinned, some blonde -
were launching lit earthen lamps on lotus leaves from the steps
of the Irumbai temple pond, as I approached down the coconut-palm
fringed road at dusk. Elsewhere on the steps, a small group of
Aurovilians and villagers were quietly soaking wicks and filling
the earthen oil lamps that another Aurovilian was lighting, precariously
straddled on the upper reaches of the outer temple wall. Bundles
of bananas hung from an arch of banana stalks at the temple's
Southern entrance, with a garlanded stone Ganesh presiding, beneath
a gnarled neem tree, to the side. Outside, as well as within the
small temple's courtyard, colourful petal-strewn chalk 'kolam'
designs of floral and animal motifs decorated the pavement.
And as village women
sat in small groups stringing garlands for the Gods, dozens of
people wandered around examining, or paying tribute to the temple's
various niches and shrines to Ganesha, Murugan, Koil Amma (Goddess
of the Kuil bird-a local variant of Saraswati), the planets, and
Shiva in his form of the lord of Fire. Inside the temple the incense
hung thick midst soot and smoke stained walls as people sat or
prayed to the famous lingam of legend that exploded in answer
to Kaduvelli Siddha's prayer to Lord Shiva for a sign attesting
to his purity of intent after he had reattached a dancer's anklet
at a public performance hosted by the local king.
Suddenly a troupe of
musicians entered and in a crescendo of sounds: drumming, a temple
clarinet and the ringing of ritual bells, the sari-draped statues
of Lord Shiva and Parvati, placed on a palanquin, were hoisted
on sturdy shoulders and carried out of the temple into the courtyard.
The idols were then taken in slow procession around the outside
of the temple walls, the bearers swaying rhythmically as they
moved. At the East entrance the procession paused briefly as the
light of the rising moon lit the low lying clouds clustered on
the horizon.
Back in the temple compound
the statues were placed at the far end of the now crowded courtyard
facing the dais with its illumined AUM symbol. While I was talking
to Srimoyi, who had danced the role of the temptress in the Auroville
play of the Kaduvelli Siddha legend a few years back, a temple
attendant gestured to us "Please sit, they are chanting to
the Gods" pointing to the statues behind us. On the facing
dais, two Brahmins from Pondicherry then chanted slokas from the
Yajur Veda for half an hour, followed by an Ashram student who
recited hymns to Lord Shiva. The magical evening continued with
an inspired one-hour performance of Bharatnatyam dancing by Saroja
and Lakshmiprabha from Auroville, followed by a recitation by
Srimati Sivadi of the Tevaram, a seventh century tamil poem composed
by Thiru Jnanasambandar in praise of Irumbai temple.
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