Mylapore, Chennai, India

Chennai, formerly known as Madras, is one of India’s four first-tier cities and the only one in the southern half of the country. It, in turn, is made up of many smaller towns, all built together - like New Jersey. One of the oldest parts of the city, the commercial and cultural core, is Mylapore.

Mylapore is built around the Kapaleeswarar (Shiva) Temple, the largest Hindu temple in the city. The first time I became aware of it was back in the late 60’s when I saw “Phantom India”, the late Louis Malle’s groundbreaking seven-part documentary about the subcontinent. Almost an entire hour was given to showing a heaving mass of wildly celebrating people, all surging around a huge, hand drawn, wooden chariot used to carry the primary idol of the temple around the town’s streets on auspicious days.

On some level, I must have been impressed by what I was seeing even back then (I had just entered college) because, obviously, I ended up here. The temple itself is a spectacular example of Dravidian architecture. Tamil Nadu (the dominant South Indian state of which Chennai is the capital) is the only place in India where the carved figures adorning the temple towers (gopuram) are painted in brilliant colors.

Kapaleeswarar Temple is one of the most spectacular Chennai sites. It is here that cruise ship tourists are taken first after docking in Chennai’s harbor, one of the stops on their Asia or ‘round-the-world’ cruises.

Kapaleeswarar Temple is the center of Braminic Hindu culture in Chennai. As such it is the site of numerous dance and music festivals throughout the year. These are usually casual affairs where people stroll in and out at their pleasure. Mylapore also hosts professional classical music events involving top artists, many of them living in the city itself, at more formal venues apart from the temple.


The narrow streets (madas) around the Temple are crowded with small shops and tea stalls. These sell anything from household goods to offerings to the deities. Along the southern parameter of the compound are vegetable and fruit stalls. To the west, just behind the Kapaleeswarar Temple compound, there is a huge water tank that is simply teeming with ravenous fish. Packets of fish food (puffed rice) can be bought in vendor stalls in the vicinity of the tank. The fish heave in a single black mass at the thrown food. It is not dissimilar to the surge of humanity that greets their idol, Shiva, on the chariot on the days when he is allowed to leave the temple grounds.

Peter Koelliker; pkoelliker8@yahoo.com