[Reader-list] May Posting-Roadside Temples in Chennai

[kalpagam - umamaheswaran]

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Here is the posting for May a few days in advance
U.Kalpagam

Chennai's Roadside Temples

This time I will share with you the perceptions of women residing in slums and low income neighbourhoods about roadside temples in their localities. I had two rounds of discussions with the members of an NGO in Chennai called Working Women's Forum. My discussions with them revealed new facts and has given leads to what I should pursue in my fieldwork in June. Kalyani from Triplicane complained of two problems in her neighbourhood-metrowater distribution and the two roadside temples, one of Ganesh and the other Mariamman, both of which have given scope for rowdies to be active. She resented the annual vazool made by the rowdy elements from the neighbourhood people including the Muslim population towards temple expenses such as flower decoration and so on. Sometimes they extort money more frequently she noted. Anbarasi's mother was earlier working in a factory doing odd jobs and when she could no longer do that, she starting saying "kuri" or predictions in her temple near her house and for the last ten years has been solely dependent on her temple for her sustenance. She set up the Amman temple some twenty odd years before. She even recently spent 1.5 lakhs, more of it her own money with some collections added on to put up a construction. She apparently has faced police harassment with more than 25 policemen descending at her place in the night and threatening her over some property dispute and she was compelled to approach a lawyer to settle the issue. A few women told me that in the Amman temples in their localities they still had devotees who on occasions thrust needles in their throats  and other such feats. Muslims in their neighbourhood also had fire walking ceremonies.

The origin of most of the Mariamman temples are in some ways related to the appearance of snakes and snake pits in reality or in dreams. Saraswathi of Sharmanagar locality in North Chennai told me of the origin of a roadside temple in her locality. Apparently the lady who initiated the temple had a snake appear in her dream one night and told her to put up a temple there, the snake was followed by the neem tree and the arasam tree in the dream. So she put up the temple. A similar story was narrated by Mallika of Annanagar of an Amman temple now in the Meenambakkam airport. There was apparently a snake pit there and once a Rickshaw puller had a dream when a snake appeared in his dream and asked him to put up a temple there. He put up a small shrine. When the airport was going to be expanded they were about to demolish the shrine. It seems then a large number of snakes came out of the shrine and so they decided against its demolition and the shrine is now enclosed within the precincts of the airport. People hold a number of beliefs about Nagamma's powers and make a distinction between "divine snakes" and "ordinary snakes". In one temple they found the idol growing, in another they found the neem tree shedding milk, in yet another a school boy observed the temple shaking, in another the Amman came out of the earth. There are also such stories of the past in popular memory. In Koalvizhiamman temple in Mylapore that has existed for long, popular memory has recorded the incident of how a British officer tried to remove the idol and of how he subsequently became blind. In all these Amman temples the Tamil months of Aadhi and Panguni are festive months when neighbourhoods collectively celebrate many pujas and distribute porridge to all. 

I was surprised to hear of a number of women who not only initiated the setting up of temples but also served there as pujaris. Loganayaki of Vyasarpadi told me of how she became the pujari of the Angalaparameshwari temple there. The owner of the temple left the area and went away to Panmal. The previous caretaker of the temple who was a rowdy element wanted to buy it but the owner got angry and threw away the keys. The temple was locked for a while without any pujas being performed for the idol. Then one day the goddess appeared in Loganayaki's dream and told her the temple doors would soon open. The next morning she went to a flower seller nearby and told him of her dream the previous night. To their surprise the owner from Panmal appeared the very same days with the temple keys and gave it to Loganayaki and asked her to be the caretaker and perform the pujas everyday.

Apart from the Amman there are numerous Ganesh temples at every nook and corner. No such belief in snakes are associated with this. It was proposed to me that the number of Ganesh temples was on account of the widespread belief that worship of Ganesh signifies auspicious beginnings. Which is why I was told that these days as soon as an apartment block is constructed they put up a Ganesh temple there to facilitate convenient worship rather than have to walk long distances to a temple. Whereas Amman worship is associated with the non-Brahmin castes, Ganesh temples mobilize the faith of all Hindus. While I did see Christian images and figureines adjacent to compound walls in a few places, no such evidence was present for the Muslims so far.