Sree Varadendra Kalyana Mandapan is a huge golden colored solid walled structure that covers 6 square blocks of any major city. Handmade brass ornaments and fittings from the 1500's follow the roof line. This is "upper caste Brahmin" says Rahim. "Four doors. Only for upper Brahmin's," and he points to the "hindus only" sign. Even within the Brahmin caste, there seems to be levels; are these castes as well? I need to study more.
The lower Brahmin's attend an older and much smaller Hindu Temple across the street. And the poorest of the poor attend a temple, down a back alley, so dilapidated I assumed it was rubble. The oil lamps in the upper Hindu temple are 10 -12 feet tall and polished nightly to remove the drippings from the devotional oil burning. The four doors, one on each side of this mini-village are open to the world, so we can peek in but never enter. The everyday people's oil lamp across the street is 7 feet and obviously used but is protected within the smaller temple that is open only in the mornings and the evenings. The oil lamp at the poorest temple is outside the temple and is crusted with years of monsoons and intense heat as well as the black oil used to honor and to request favors.
Rasheed definitely has a take. His voice lowers to a whisper when he shows us the wooden hovels built inbetween spaces once used as gardening sheds for the upper Brahmins and now used as homes for a family. We stand at the west door of the Brahmin's Temple and he reads the poster announcing dance classes for young children while well-dressed young girls show up with their fathers for these classes. The fathers nod as I say hello but quickly dismiss us; this is their private sanctuary and we will never belong. The Brahmin's elephant is chained and housed in quarters not far from the north gate in a stable with 500 year old teak beams. The upper caste Brahmin's private nursery school with 9 classrooms are across the street from a private park and fountain used only once a year and only by the Brahmins. This is absolute luxury in an area of extreme poverty. Men selling handfuls of wood outside a vegetable stand is the norm. Buying a school notebook and uniform for the average citizen is weighed against eating well for a week. But the Brahmin's flaunt what they have. They literally walk over not around street vendors.
It's an interesting phenomenom, for I am obviously new to this sitatuion. Altars with gods and oil lamps are scattered and worshipped throughout this area, but the large imposing building is used by just a few. It's almost like they keep their doors open to let others see what they cannot have - quiet shadded sanctuary to read a newspaper or pass time chitchatting, classes, a gym, a clean temple, even small concession stands.)
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