We were of course not allowed to take pictures in the temple, but later I found this tiny laminated postcard with the Devi in my pocket. How it ended up there - I have no idea. I did not even realize who it was until I started to understand more about Hindu visual culture later in grad school... After the Devi manifested herself in my pocket, we started having much better luck in general. I managed to finally reach Biju, my contact in Trivandrum, who promised to take us to another Goddess temple for a possession ceremony.

   From: Anya Bernstein
Subject: Fieldnotes on the go
   Date: August 8, 2005 1:22:04 PM CEST
     To: Undisclosed recipients

The land's end is technically in Tamil Nadu, not Kerala, so we were finally able to enter an important Goddess temple there. (In Kerala, non-Hindus are banned from entering most temples). Kanyakumari is a major place of pilgrimage to the Devi Kanya, the Virgin Goddess. It was our lucky day (my birthday!), because we entered right at the time of a puja. I have seen many Buddhist pujas before, but never really a proper Hindu one. One of the pujaris grabbed us at the entrance, making W. take off his shirt (men must enter temples bare-chested), walked us through all the rituals in proper sequence, and pushed us into the inner sanctum just in time when they opened the image of the Devi. She was offered some camphor flame, incense and wavings of a fan. It was visually quite impressive - a dark blackened temple with an obscure idol opened just for a few minutes to be encirled by camphor flames - that even I felt some kind of "presence". Having led us to the dark temple courtyard, the priest of course tried to extort money from us, which quickly brought me back to earth. Still, it was worth it - my first Hindu puja - and in a very special place.

Devi Kanyakumari
 


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