I was in Bangalore recently and had the great good fortune to take a guided cultural tour of the city arranged by Kaveri Sinhji at Bluefoot Cultural Consulting. My guide Laila has lived in Bangalore for 10 years, and provided an excellent and thought provoking experience. This is the first of several blogs posts capturing my experiences from the tour.
The first stop on our tour was an old cemetery, where there is a temple to the Hindu goddess Kali, and where many followers of Kali are buried. The graveyard is quite large, spanning the distance between CMH Road and Old Madras Road in central Bangalore. In spite of its size, I have found getting an accurate name for the cemetery to be challenging. Laila said I should just just search for the CMH Road Cemetery. In looking at the maps, it appeared (see below) that the proper name is the Lakshmipuram Graveyard. When I asked Kaveri she immediately said it was the Ulsoor Burial Ground. There are very few references on Google under any of these names. The only article I found which links the two names is actually about using a portion of the burial ground as a cricket pitch!
Grave Markers
I have to say that what I learned during my cemetery tour and my research since has left me with a lot of questions. For example, most Hindus are cremated when they die, and I understand their ashes are often spread on a river. If so, why the grave markers? Do some people have their ashes buried?
All of the grave markers have triangular openings. Why? Are these vents of some kind? I thought I was being observant and asking good questions, but I obviously have a lot more reading to do.
I visited the Ulsoor Burial Ground soon after a festival celebrating Kali. As shown below, and visible above, many family members of the dead had recently visited the ceremony to perform pujas (religious rituals) and make offerings of food and flowers to their departed relatives. I think this is a wonderful way to maintain spiritual connections to departed family. I remember having picnics in the cemetery where my paternal grandparents are buried, and have only come to learn as an adult that this is unusual for Christians.
Grave Marker with Offerings
While I found some references on Google to the Ulsoor Burial Ground, I found no references to the Kali Temple located in the center of the cemetery. As seen from the photo below, the site, called Smashana Kali Temple according to Kaveri, is large and distinctive and I was surprised not to find more information about it and its history.
Statue of the Hindu Goddess Kali
The statute of Kali is pretty classic (based on my research), painted blue with a red tongue and eight arms. She is usually shown standing with her foot on Lord Shiva.
Laila took me to the cemetery explaining that is was a place where black magic is practiced. While that appears to be one manifestation of Kali worship, she is a very complex goddess and very important in Hinduism. I read the Wikipedia entry on Kali a couple of times, and it is interesting. It starts out describing Kali as the "Hindu goddess associated with empowerment" but as you read further, a more violent persona emerges.
“In her most famous pose as Daksinakali, popular legends say that Kali, becoming drunk on the blood of her victims on the battlefield, dances with destructive frenzy. In her fury she fails to see the body of Shiva, who lies among the corpses on the battlefield and steps on his chest. Realizing Shiva to lie beneath her feet, her anger is pacified and she calms her fury.”
Further reading amplifies the complexity of Kali and her importance. Interestingly though, I did not see much discussion of the link to black magic. I did not learn why her followers still practice blood sacrifice, nor why their rituals are considered 'black' magic. While I am not sure the definition of black magic, there certainly appear to be powerful rituals associated with the worship of Kali.
In the photo below, this group had just sacrificed a chicken and placed it beside the figure of the goddess. There seems to be a set sequence in praying to the goddess. Making an offering, purifying yourself in the fire, kneeling and saying a prayer and then taking the red powder to mark your forehead. I did my best to follow the same routine, minus the chicken.
Worshiping Kali
Locks Signifying Requests of the Goddess
This reclining figure is also the goddess Kali. Each lock was placed by a worshipper and represents a request for assistance from the goddess. It was explained to me that if the request is granted, Kali unlocks the lock. I saw a few unlocked locks and wish I could follow up with whoever placed them to find out if their request was in fact granted.
At the end of my visit to the cemetery and temple I had a ceremony performed to rid my body of negative energy. A holy woman (I am not sure the correct term) took an egg and waved it over me, then tapped my forehead, shoulders and side with the egg. After this, she threw the egg away in a field of trash. The egg had captured the negative energy from my body and (I think) it was carried away and destroyed when the egg was broken.
Egg Ceremony
I can't say whether or not the ceremony worked, but I had a wonderful day with Laila, and my trip to India was very successful. This is one of those situations where I am willing to try the magic, I will take any help I can get.
