Take September 2013 in Bangalore.
This was my first experience inside a Hindu Temple, so I was completely out of my element. Fortunately, it was easy enough to follow the crowd through the procedure. (As opposed to the multi-deity temples where many disparate and complex practices may be being carried out at once.) First, one leaves one’s shoes outside, as one would at a Buddhist temple. One then walks down a corridor toward the bull. When one gets to the front of the bull, one turns to one’s left and circles the bull in a clockwise fashion, passing by a Hindu priest. There is a Hindu priest at both the head and the tail end of the idol. There’s an opportunity to make a monetary offering at both. When one gets back around to the front, the priest puts a tilaka mark on one’s forehead with bright red tikka powder. This is made in the same place one sees Hindu women wearing bindi ornamentation.
Tags: Bangalore, Bengaluru, Bull Temple, Dodda Ganeshana Gudi, Hindu, Hinduism, India, photographs, photos, pictures, tourism, travel
By B Gourley in India, photographs, Photos, pictures, Religion, Tourism, travel on September 18, 2013.
