Religion News Service
RIVERDALE, GEORGIA, May 19, 2004: Builders of the first traditional Hindu temple in the southeastern United States devoted primarily to the Deity Siva are working quickly and hoping for continued dry weather. They are hustling to finish the basic structure in time for consecration of the temple on May 29, at which Hinduism Today and HPI publisher Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami will be chief guest.
In the Hindu tradition, the weeks before the summer solstice are an auspicious time for temple consecration. When completed, the new $1 million Siva temple of the Hindu Temple of Atlanta will be one of a growing number in the United States built according to ancient Indian architectural specifications, and one of the few with an accompanying traditional temple to the Deity Balaji, also known as Vishnu, right beside it. “It’s giving more choice to people,” said Dr. B. Krishna Mohan, who cofounded the Hindu Temple of Atlanta in 1984 and chairs the Siva temple’s construction committee. He expects many devotees will worship in both temples, depending on their needs and interests.
Many devotees in the Hindu Temple of Atlanta are from south India. This sense of identification spurred temple leaders toward traditional architecture. “Home is supposed to be like a home,” said Raghu, “And when you are brought up from childhood imagining a temple to have this particular structure, naturally you feel a sense of devotion, and safe feelings, in a temple which is built beautifully according (to tradition), instead of just four walls of a modern structure.” For both the Balaji and Siva temples, organizers consulted renowned temple architect Padmasri S. Muthiah, who designed temples in India and the United States, including Nashville, Tenn., and Livermore, Calif. The goal, said Mohan, is to build a temple “totally according to the style of temples back home … without any compromises.” Narayanan said temples in the United States appear in a wide range of architectural forms: from a converted gym in Jacksonville, Fla., to a modified airport hangar in Allentown, Pa., to a large community hall with a simple tower in Orlando, Fla.
“But very soon the devotees start to have a need for what they call a ‘real’ temple,” she said. “This is a search for the authentic. That authenticity is seen in terms of architecture, ritual, space, and time — all of which combine to produce the feeling of joy and belonging.” At the Hindu Temple of Atlanta, organizers have looked to a distinctively south Indian architectural style, characterized by a large tower in the front called a raja goporam and multiple towers over each shrine. The earliest experiments in this style, said Narayanan, began in Tamilnadu, a southeast state of India, in the 6th century and flourished during the 11th century. Mohan, who has practiced cardiology in Riverdale for 26 years, notes that organizers have faced some hurdles in getting the job done right. Non-Hindu construction companies can handle the basic structure of a traditional Hindu temple. But “Indianization,” or the creation of ornately carved facades and icons according to ancient styles, is the domain of specially trained artisans from India called silpis. The silpis often belong to families whose work, over many generations, is exclusively devoted to traditional temple building. Silpis worked on the indianization of the Balaji Temple for two years.
The temple invited six priests from India to supervise rituals at the May 29 consecration, but their visa applications were denied. Temple organizers are currently appealing the decision in hopes that both the priests and the silpis can make the journey. “I hope we will hear good news,” Raghu says.