Skywatch Friday–a view of a town from atop a temple

In India, small towns and villages are often defined by their temples. The moment you walk into any town, your eyes turn upwards as you scan the height of the Gopura or the tower of the temple. Most photographs will show you the montage of sculptures carved on these tall Gopuras, but very rarely you see images of the town itself .  The temple in Suseendram is the nucleus of the town and as we climbed up the gopura, I saw a different perspective of the town with the Western Ghats bordering it. The town was getting ready for the temple festival and one could feel the energy .





Suseendram is one of the first places we visited in the Naanjil Naadu tour. For stories on Suseendram, click here. For posts on Naanjil Naadu, visit here.
For beautiful skies around the world, visit Skywatch

Heritage week special - Vandalised murals of Suseendram

Deep down South near Kanyakumari  is a temple dedicated to the Trinity - Brahma , Vishnu and Siva called Suseendram. A 18 feet tall Hanuman towers over the devotees, protecting them from all ills. However even he is unable to protect the precious heritage from getting vandalised from people. I was in Suseendram as a part of the Naanjil Naadu tour organised by INTACH Tamil Nadu.  The temple itself maybe over 1500 years old and the seven tier Gopura was built much later .

As you climb up the dark and dingy stairs up the Gopura, disturbing the bats with a flashlight, you chance upon some of the most beautiful murals..

 Unfortunately I discover that many people have been here before me and they chose to highlight their presence by vandalising these paintings.

 This heritage day, lets save and protect our heritage from us.. We have done precious little to add to our heritage for posterity ; so let us not deny them a chance to see what our forefathers had left for us..In the meantime, enjoy some of these paintings.

Read the entire story here in my column in The Hindu Metro Plus