#TempleCrawl begins - Friday May 29th

A quick explanation that sets the backstory for why we were visiting this temple: The caste system is still very prevalent throughout the Indian community. There are some “groups” that can be found throughout the entire country while other groups/communities that are unique to a particular state. My family belongs to what is called the Gounder community and is predominantly found in the state of Tamil Nadu. I don’t know how much of this is true or not but I find it interesting:

Kongu Vellala Gounders or Kongu Vellalars or simply Gounders are a Kshatriya, warrior clan of ancient Chera and Chola empires of Southern India. The Kshatriyas became Vellalars later, as it is allowed in Hindu dharma for Kshatriyas to become Vellalars under special circumstances, and took up agriculture. They are a land-owning and ancient feudal caste of Tamil Nadu. They moved to present Kongu Nadu after a conflict with the Imperial Cholas. The history of the Kongu Vellala Gounder caste is one of the most obscure along with the history of the Kongumadu region itself.

The Gounders have been credited by many as unique among the other caste groups of the region and southern India as a whole owing to their rich cultured tradition which reflects their lifestyle. The Kongu Vellalars are appreciated for their varied qualities like untiring hardwork, objective nature, high moderation, honesty, simple nature, loyalty, humanitarian spirit, commitment, philanthropy, strong bonding, innovative mind and reliability. They have been instrumental in the welfare of the Kongunadu which is predominantly rain-fed but blessed with a cooler tropical plateau climate. This prosperous region supports the Tamil Nadu state from economic collapse and single handedly manages its fame.

The Gounder community is the overarching umbrella and there are 64 sub-groups that are found within. Individuals belong to the group that they are born into. However once a woman marries, she becomes a part of her husband’s group. Each of these sub-groups has a temple that the people belong to. My sister and I belong to the temple that my dad’s family goes to and on Friday the temple was having a huge puja because they were opening the new temple that has been under construction for a number of years. The PonAzhagu Nachi Amman temple is the temple that 18 different groups/clans of the Gounder community, including my own, call their own.

The ceremony started at 6 in the morning which meant that we had to wake up at 2:30am to be on the road by 4am. What a vacation right?

The light up Ganesha as you walk towards the temple. Getting the gopuram ready 

Droves and droves of people coming

But we made it there in time for the puja and the highlight was having the chance to see my dad’s entire side of the family. Since this temple is the main temple for my dad’s family everyone traveled from all over the state to be there. I think we were only missing 3 individuals total including my dad. The crowd at the ceremony was crazy, there were thousands and thousands of people that were there, some who spent the night, and people were still coming as we were leaving.

I wish the gopuram wasn't covered. My sister getting blessed by the elephant. 

     My sister, nephew (Manesh),      All of the girl cousins and Manesh

 and I with our gradnfather                                                             

        My dad's oldest brother.             My grandfather, dad's second 

                                                          brother and his son Murugan.

My  sister with our two nephews (Manesh & Gugan)

My aunt (dad's 2nd sister)

We ended up spending most of the morning at this temple and another one close by. You can’t go to one without going to the other so both temples were crowded all day long. After “templing” for almost 8 hours we headed to my aunt’s (dad’s older sister) house where we were spending the night.

My aunt and uncle grow chillis, and sorgam among other things at their farm.