South India 2008

Photos by Adam Jones

These photos were taken during two-and-a-half months in South India
(states of Karnataka, Goa, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala) from June to August 2008.

Gallery 23: Kumbakonam

Kumbakonam, six hours by bus southeast of Tiruvannamalai, "is believed by Hindus
to be the place where the water pot (kumba) of amrita, the ambrosial beverage of immortality,
was washed up by a great deluge from atop sacred Mount Meru in the Himalayas." (The Rough Guide to South India)

I.

II.

Exterior of the Nageshwara Swami Shiva Temple, the heart of which was
constructed in the late ninth and early tenth centuries.

III.

Princess Di shills for Indian bikes outside the Nageshwara temple.

IV.

V.

Inside the Nageshwara temple.

VI.

This photo and following: "Framed in the main niches around [the Nageshwara temple's]
sanctum wall are a series of exqisite stone figures, regarded as the finest surviving pieces of ancient
sculpture in South India. With their languid stance and mesmeric, half-smiling facial expressions, these
[are] modest-sized masterpieces ..." (Rough Guide).

VII.

VIII.

IX.

X.

This photo and following: people and street scenes from Kumbakonam -- here at the
Mahamakham sacred baths.

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XIII.

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