Two Goddess Temples in Northern Germany

One place - two worlds. Tamil Hindu life in Germany went largely unnoticed by the locals until the consecration of the "Hindu Shankarar Shri Kamadchi Ampal temple". Now this site has become a tourist attraction. The top picture shows the temple one week after its consecration: the scaffolding for Mahakumbhabhisheka has not yet been removed, but the temple is already a popular destination for weekend excursions by car or bicycle (top picture). At the same time, the temple is a place for Sri Lankan refugees to continue their traditional religious life far away from home. The Kamadchi temple was the first German Hindu temple to organize splendid processions at the temple festival. Just like temples in Sri Lanka (and South India), now it, too, owns variously decorated carts and litters for each of the fourteen festival days and tries to maintain strict orthodoxy in many ways, e.g. males drawing the cart or carrying the litter with the utsava-murti must keep the upper part of their bodies naked (picture below), and women should not visit the temple when they are menstruating. Top photo: 28.7.2002; bottom photo: 7.6.2004.

"Ohm Navacakti Nayaki Ampal Alayam", Albersloher Weg 587, MŸnster. This goddess temple illustrates why many of the German Tamil Hindu temples have gone unnoticed by the German locals. In striking contrast to the Kamadchi temple (plates 1-14), this temple is "invisible". Whereas the Kamadchi temple moved out of a basement, the Navacakti Nayaki temple is still located in the basement of a typical Westfalian brick house (top picture). The yellow sign with the black arrow in the foreground does not indicate the temple, but the baker's shop on the ground floor of the house. The picture below shows the unspectacular staircase leading down to the basement shrine, the staircase being hardly visible behind the two big containers for waste disposal. The shrine was established in 1994-95 by Tirucelvam Rama Natan, an ardent devotee of the goddess, who lives on the upper floor of the house and still acts as priest today (see plate 15). For two years now there have been plans to get a larger property and extend the priestly office to a regular service, similar to the one in the Kamadchi temple, Hamm-Uentrop. Top photo and bottom photo: 20.7.2004.

Interior of the Navacakti Nayaki temple: The pictures show the main altar with the goddess Navacakti Nayaki and the priest Tirucelvam Rama Natan, whom the devotees respectfully call "cami" ("Swami"). Like most priests of the German Hindu temples, over the years he was not a full-time priest (although he wished to be), but earned his living in a poorly paid job - in his case in a restaurant. In spite of the humble location, much care is being taken to render the temple and its deities beautiful. Although the room is small and simple, goddess and altar are generally richly decorated and the other temple deities are cared for lovingly also. Even on normal days fresh bunches of flowers adorn the main altar (top picture). All pujas include extensive light ceremonies, incense and flower offerings, Sanskrit and Tevaram recitals, and sometimes cooked food offerings. On Fridays there are additional special attendances (upacara) like chowry waving etc. All major Hindu Tamil festivals are celebrated: the bottom picture was taken during the tenth day of Navaratri in 2004. The opening hours of the temple have increased significantly lately. In previous years regular public pujas took place on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6 p.m. only, but in 2004 they were extended to the weekends. Since September 2004 they have been taking place three times a day due to the fact that Tirucelvam Rama Natan is unable to carry out his regular job because of health problems and acts at present as a full-time priest. Top photo: 5.1.2003; bottom photo: 23.10.2004.

Close-up: main murti Sri Navacakti Nayaki, adorned with the red marks and ornaments of a married women, and a large trident (trishula) on which a cooling lemon is pierced. The priest had the metal icon made in South India based on a poster of the goddess Mariyamman of Samayapuram (Tamil Nadu, South India). Matching the model on the poster found on the rear wall facing the altar, Sri Navacakti Nayaki has a flaming crown and a snake hood above her head, eight hands, and three severed heads beneath her feet, which are covered by the silken dress. The "weapons" in her hands are drum (damaru), lotus, trident, dagger and noose, goat, bell, and blood vessel (kapala) - or rather: a vessel of kunkuma (vermilion) as the priest holds. Both the priest and the regular temple visitors point out that the metal murti is not the (fearsome) Mariyamman (sometimes found in a group of nine goddesses known as Navashakti/Navacakti), but instead the Great Goddess Navacakti Nayaki who incorporates all gods, both male and female. The two yantras at her feet symbolize Great Goddess features, too: there is a shricakra engraved on a copper plate (representing the female Great Goddess, according to the priest) and a three-dimensional shricakra-like figure which he calls "yantra-ketu" or "mahashakti-yantra" (representing Shiva at the top and Shakti at the bottom). The three-dimensional symbol is worshipped with red vermilion, but no proper shricakra rites (avarana-puju) are performed, in contrast to the Kamadchi temple of Hamm-Uentrop. The pujas include Tantric seed syllables and Sanskrit litanies of thousand or one hundred and eight names, taken from a booklet of the Shringeri Shankaracarya. Photo: 5.1.2003.

Despite its smallness, the Navacakti Nayaki temple too, has been improved and enlarged. The top picture was taken in January 2003 and shows (from left to right): the Vishnu-Narayana altar with a large icon of Lakshmi (see close-up on plate 21), the Ganesha altar, the Navacakti Nayaki altar, and part of the Murukan altar. The picture below shows new bronzes that were installed on 21st of March 2003: a bronze of Vishnu-Narayana along with Shri(-Lakshmi) and Bhu(-Devi), and a bronze of the goddess Durga in the corner niche of the Ganesha altar (see also close-up on plate 19). The deities form a semicircle and end with a Shiva altar which was also renewed (see plate 20). On the table in front of the main shrine there is a metal lion watching the goddess, a bali-pitha, and three small goddess bronzes (see the close-up on plate 18) which indicate again the Great Goddess theology followed by the temple. Top photo: 5.1.2003; bottom photo: 15.4.2003.

Close-up of the trinity of goddesses in front of the bali-pitha: (Maha-)Lakshmi, (Maha-)Kali (in the form of Rajarajeshvari), and (Maha-)Sarasvati. The yellow and white cloth strung around the central Rajarajeshvari figure represents vows that have been performed by female devotees to obtain a child. Nowadays the goddess trinity is kept in a closet in the temple kitchen in order to protect it from the oil and ghee of the lamps. The three goddesses are only taken out during Navaratri for special puja. Photo: 5.1.2003.

Close-up: the Durga icon which was added in March 2003 and Lord Ganesha (Vinayakar). The Durga image was ordered from South India with the hope of getting a larger temple space where it will have its own shrine. Like all Hindu places of worship in Germany, the Navacakti Nayaki Alayam is entirely funded by devotees with poorly paid jobs, and it is amazing to see how much effort is being made to establish and improve the sacred sites. Photo: 20.7.2004.

The left-hand picture shows the former altar of Lord Shiva with several representations of the god (January 2003): a poster of Shiva as an ascetic yogi and a second color print depicting the divine pair Shiva-Shakti (Shiva lovingly caressing his spouse Parvati), one metal and two black stone lingas, and a metal icon of the dancing Shiva-Nataraja. The trident in front of the altar represents Bhairava(-Shiva). It is usually kept in the corner niche next to Murukan. The new Shiva altar in the photo to the right was installed in March 2003. While the stone Shiva-lingas have been retained, the colorful "dharmic pictures" have been removed to make space for the new metal icon of Shiva and his spouse. Note that the Shiva-Shakti image has been selected from all Shiva representations. Photo left: 5.1.2003; photo right: 20.7.2004.

The top photo shows the former altar of Vishnu-Narayana (Jan. 2003) which included a "dharmic picture" of the cosmic Vishvarupa form of Lord Krishna (Bhagavad-Gita 11), a blue-painted child Krishna with a peacock-feather crown (visible behind the Vishvarupa poster), and a slightly damaged paper-mache icon of the goddess Lakshmi. This Lakshmi image, bought in Germany, was the very first icon in the temple. Originally, it was this Lakshmi who was being worshipped as Navacakti Nayaki whereas the other gods were only respresented by posters. In March 2003 she was removed from the shrine as well as the two Krishna representations. In their place the Vaishnava group of deities in the photo below was installed: a metal Vishnu-Narayana flanked by Lakshmi and Bhudevi. Top photo: 5.1.2003; bottom photo: 15.4.2003.

The planets (Navagraha) are still respresented only by a framed poster (on a table to the left of the Vishnu-Narayana altar), but a set of black stone Navagraha has been ordered in anticipation of a larger location. As usual in Sri Lankan and South Indian temple services, the group of planets is worshipped towards the end of each puja, before worshipping the fearsome guardian god (Shiva-)Bhairava (in this temple represented by a movable trident), and Candeshvara (in this temple only verbally invoked, but not represented by a physical icon). The pictures on the wall above the Navagraha poster depict two further goddess forms, namely Kamakshi and Minakshi, who are part of an ensemble of (mainly goddess) posters decorating the free temple walls. Whereas these additional pictures have no ritual function, the variously shaped candelabra on the table in front of the Navagraha play an important role in the temple ritual: a major action in the puja is the waving of light to the goddess Navacakti Nayaki with each candelabrum, whereas only two candelabra are used in the worship of the other temple deities (Ganesha, Murukan, Shiva, Vishnu-Narayana, Navagraha, Bhairava). Photo: 20.7.2004.

A devotee acting as "assistant priest": he prepares the Tuesday puja in front of the main shrine still covered by a curtain. The picture on the curtain represents once more the goddess Mariyamman. Besides this male devotee, two elderly female devotees regularly help in preparing the pujas. Generally, one of the women also leads the bhajan singing which takes place after the Friday pujas: for each of the temple deities there is a special Tamil song in a fixed order. While these three persons form the "core" devotees who are regularly present, the number of other temple visitors fluctuates. On Tuesdays there is usually a small crowd of five to twelve persons, whereas the Friday pujas often attract twenty or more. Even this number is critical, since the temple is so small that there is hardly enough space for twenty persons. Particularly on festival days there is not enough space for everyone. Photo: 20.7.2004.

The priest Tirucelvam Rama Natan and Mister Satyakumaran who frequently assists - be it in cleaning the shrine or dealing with the municipal authorities - in discussion in the temple kitchen after the puja. The lemons cut in half have served as lamps (see plate 25). The kitchen is used for preparing the meals for the gods and for playing the tapes of South Indian temple music during worship. Photo: 15.4.2003.

A young mother applying pottu (tika) before the puja, along with her little son. The Navacakti Nayaki Alayam is first and foremost a "family temple". A large proportion of devotees coming for worship are Sri Lankan families living in the city of Muenster, particularly young couples and mothers with small children. There are also some elderly single people. The lemons cut in half with wigs are regularly prepared by the two elderly women who belong to the "core" devotees. Since most of the temple visitors do not own a car, they have little opportunity to visit the much larger Kamakshi temple in Hamm-Uentrop (plate 1-14) which is hard to reach by public transport. Many people even prefer the Navacakti Nayaki temple for its simplicity, piety and home like atmosphere. Top photo and bottom photo: 20.7.2004.