Childhood memories of a Public space: Birla Temple, Bhopal

Since I was a small kid I have remembered spending a few days of every summer vacation at my maternal grandparents’ home in Bhopal. My home being in a smaller town, Bhopal with its capital city stature used to fascinate me. Every trip to Bhopal used to be incomplete without paying customary visit to the famous Birla temple. Dedicated to God Lakshmi-Narayan and his incarnations, this temple was styled like old stone temples, but was a fairly modern building. Like many of the city’s attractions, this temple was situated on the top of a hill. I clearly remember the auto ride up a roadway to the temple, which was surrounded by trees only. The huge impressive entrance to the temple premises, in red and yellow used to be surrounded by shops and flogged by devotees. It used to completely hide the large staircase which would lay beyond. Reaching on top, I would be awe-struck gazing at the beautiful building, like a crown on hill’s head. it had several ‘shikharas’ but the largest one, in centre, was most decorated one. Its windows were in red stone, intricately carved and each one with an ornate shade. The walls were thick and strong, all yellow, made of stone blocks. Going up the marble steps, we would enter the large temple hall. At the farthest end of the hall was where God and Goddess Lakshmi-Narayan were idolised in a small chamber. Near that main chamber there were smaller such chambers dedicated to other deities in Hindu religion. We would bow in front of every deity and circumambulate the main shrine. The fat priest would give us ‘prasad’ and put ‘tilak’ on our foreheads. After this when the elders usually sat in the great hall to meditate or to pray, I would get myself busy in the explorations of the place. I would run and slide across on the granite floor, while running count the ornamented pillars on each side of the hall. To gaze properly at the vast ceiling I sometimes had to lie down on my back. It had glittering chandeliers, and glazed tile patterns which I was sure I could have stared all night. Then we would come outside to explore the rest of temple premises. A wide stepped  water channel with many fountains, would run in the centre of the premises. At its end near the temple, there was a large shankha replica in stone, almost the size of four footballs. The pathways along it were in stone, and lead to Birla museum and art collection gallery. But apart from the giant ‘shankha’ I was only interested in something away from the stone pathways and water channels. It was the wide unpaved unvegetated space at the back of the temple, which offered breath-taking view of the whole city of Bhopal. Our visit to the Temple always ended there on a few scattered stone pieces munching popcorn and peanuts, feasting our eyes with a grand sunset.