Monsoon is the most celebrated season in India. It is romanticized through popular literature and movies and is a time of merriment and pure joy. The season is crucial for effective agricultural output and a huge respite from extreme summers. There are two places in India where a temple, in the North, predicts rain and another temple from the South where a rain goddess is worshipped- the two Monsoon Temples in India.
Before delving into a mysterious ancient temple from Uttar Pradesh that predicts rain and a southern temple dedicated to a rain goddess, it is essential to understand the Indian monsoon system is brief. The Indian monsoon is initiated during the cooler months from the northeast and blows from the southwest during the hottest months. As a result of this phenomenon, large amounts of rain lead to Indian monsoon during June and July. The former monsoon type comes into the picture with the creation of high pressure over the Tibetan and the Siberian Plateaus during winters. This type of monsoon is responsible for rainfall on the southeast coast of India (Tamil Nadu coast and Seemandhra’s southern coast). It affects Southern India majorly. The latter monsoon type is initiated when there is extreme heat on the Tibetan Plateau during the summer. The large air currents go through the warm ocean of the equatorial zone, leading to evaporation which causes the southwest monsoon. Upon crossing the Equator, the winds of the Southwestern direction branch into the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, due to the hitting of this monsoon type, the Western Ghats. This monsoon type brings heavy rains due to the inability to retain moisture when the air crosses its saturation point. Kerala is the first state to experience southwest monsoon rainfall. At this time, the southeastern coast of India (Tamil Nadu) is generally dry. Monsoon holds immense cultural significance for India and some bizarre rituals are performed to induce rains. For instance, there is a dance form in Andhra Pradesh called the Kappa Talli where two men are shouldering a pole horizontally and in the middle, a frog is tied. They go singing a folk song from home to home collecting uncooked rice and having them cooked. This is done to impress the rain god, Varuna to bless the people. The Indian monsoon culture also encapsulates the belief of Telangana villagers that if people leave their residences and spend a day in the forest, like an exile, the Gods would pay attention to their penance and make it rain. In addition to such rituals and practices, the overall Indian monsoon culture includes some monsoon temples in India- one where a rain goddess is worshipped and one where rains are predicted.
INDIAN MONSOON CULTURE
It is essential to comprehend the cultural significance of this beloved season to lay out the general context of the Monsoon Temples in India. The arrival of this season not only leads to better agricultural output but serves rather as a unifying bond that ties all the diverse cultures, traditions, and languages of the nation. It also fills everyone with so much joy and excitement that it unites everyone, transcending regional differences. Apart from its economic benefits, the monsoon is a part and parcel of India’s cultural fabric. Various festivities revolve around the season like Teej and Onam. These festivals involve rituals accompanied by music and dance that highlight the common reverence for the rains.
Monsoon has been romanticized through various literary mentions that go back to time. Vedic literature mentions the transition of nomadic pastoralists to settled agriculture, fed on rain. In early religious scriptures, rains were the divinities of Indra, Parjanya, Varun, and Maruts. The Varuna Sukta from the Yajur Veda, the Parjanya Sukta, and the Aap Sukta from the Rig Veda are recited even to this day to induce rains. The monsoons are a retreat period for Buddhist itinerant preachers, whose journey became difficult during monsoons. So, the Theravada practitioners enter a three-month-long retreat from the season, called the Vassa, also mentioned in the Vinaya Sukta, a part of the canonical literature of Theravada Buddhism. This practice was also prevalent among Jains and other sects like the Ajivikas. These monsoon retreats like the Bhaja, Karle, Ajanta, and Nashik stand tall today as a testament to the rich art and architecture. Even Kautilya’s Arthashastra mentions this season and gives proper instructions for establishing a rain gauge or Varshaman to measure rain. It also mentions the forecasting of rain according to the positioning and the motion of Jupiter and the rise and setting of Venus. It further mentions that the superintendent of agriculture should sow seeds, requiring more or less water depending on the rainfall.
Apart from literature and foreign accounts such as those of Megashtenes who attributed the prosperity of India to its monsoon, monsoon is also featured in poetry such as in the work of Kalidasa. In his poem Meghdootam, he describes the journey of the monsoon clouds from the Bay of Bengal, passing through central India, and reaching north Indian plains to the Himalayas. Moreover, the discovery of monsoon winds was attributed to a Greek navigator called Hippalus in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. He understood the monsoon phenomenon and navigated from the Red Sea to India. This furthered the trade relations with Southeast Asia. Interestingly, the term ‘monsoon’ comes from the Arabic word ‘mausam’ meaning seasons, coined by the 10th-century climatologist and scholar Al Masudi. It was the Arabs who put forward the concept of monsoon’s periodic nature first. These monsoon winds were instrumental in accelerating trade relations between India and the Arabs, from whom Roman traders would buy Indian goods and establish their monopolies. This led to the Europeans fixating their sight across the country and the discovery of a maritime passage by Vasco da Gama opened up a new chapter in colonialism, which had enjoyed state support. This understanding helps one to appreciate and celebrate monsoon even more, where it becomes exciting to plunge into the interesting aspects of the Monsoon Temples in India.
RAIN GODDESSES OF INDIA- GODDESS MARIAMMAN AND MONSOON
In Ooty, in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, there is a small temple, dedicated to Mariamman, the Goddess of Rain. The worshipping of this cult goes back to 4,000 years according to some scholars. These goddesses are worshipped in the villages of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and the temple in Ooty is one such testament to the popularity of this cult worship. This cult worship is attributed to the idea in the village of a “our-very-own” God who would take cognizance of the local concerns of the village and provide them with some relief. This would have been the underlying idea behind the worship of this rain goddess. Mari means ‘rain’ in Tamil, while amman denotes ‘mother goddess’. The most common concern of an agrarian village was too little or too much rain, and either of them could affect
(Source- Wikimedia Commons, Goddess Mariamman)
the agricultural output. What was needed was a regulator of rain and this led to the popularizing of the cult of Mariamman.
As for this temple at Ooty, there is a popular legend associated with it, that points to its origins. Legend has it that once two sisters from the area approached traders and merchants, who visited this area in Ooty every Tuesday for commercial purposes, requesting them for shelter. They directed the sisters to go to a tree but they disappeared quickly. People believed that the two sisters were in fact, the Goddesses Kaliamman and Mariamman in the form of a mortal being. And now stands this temple, that displays the Dravidian style of architecture such as a gopuram or a pyramidal tower.
(Source- Tamil Nadu Tourism Blogspot, Devotees praying to Goddesses Mariamman and Kaliamman)
Apart from revering the Goddess for a good monsoon, devotees are also blessed with fertility and pregnant women offer bangles made of glass to the Goddess, marking their prayers for safe childbirth. Another concern of the villagers was the contraction of contagious diseases such as smallpox, measles, and chickenpox. So, the worship of Mariamman was also popular for protection and immunity from these diseases. With the eventual growth of Vedic Hinduism, this cult easily adapted itself, and to this day Mariamman is considered the incarnation of Goddess Parvati and Durga of the Hindu pantheon. In some traditions, she is the sister of Vishnu. The Goddess is also referred to as Seethala Gowri or Mahamaayi. An interesting story relates to her in the epic Mahabharata where Draupadi was considered a
(Source- Triadvisor, Mariamman Temple at Ooty)
manifestation of Kali, but she chose to live as an ordinary being, the wife of the five Pandavas. It is believed that during the day, she was an ordinary person but at night she traveled to some Tamil Nadu villages and protected them.
Coming back to one of the Monsoon Temples in India, Ooty, the Ooty Mariamman Temple Festival is celebrated in April, where one of the important events is when devotees walk barefoot over burning coal to showcase their religious fervor to the goddess. During this festival, oil lamps are made from grounded rice and are offered to the Mariamman. This is the region’s major car festival of the region where this Rain Goddess of India is taken in procession, known by her various forms such as Parvati, Kamakshi, Durga, Meenakshi, Rajarajeshwari, Bhagavathi and Heddhai Amman.
Mariamman is also a traveling goddess, as she went with Her followers, wherever the Tamil diaspora settled in other parts of the world. The Goddess had to guard her devotees who traveled internationally. That is why we see temples dedicated to the Mariamman cult outside India such as in Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
(Source- Tripadvisor, Sri Muthumariamman Temple, Sri Lanka)
MONSOON TEMPLE OF INDIA- KANPUR’S JAGANNATH TEMPLE THAT PREDICTS RAIN
It is quite established that this beloved season is deeply ingrained in the overall cultural milieu of the country. The Indian monsoon culture encompasses a variety of rituals and practices as well as worshipping rain goddesses such as Mariamman that are invoked to
(Source- Wikimedia Commons, Jagannath Temple at Bujurg Behta, Kanpur)
induce rain for better agricultural output. But, as engaging as it might be, there is a temple in the Bujurg Behta village in the Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, that predicts rain!
Well, this is true as the villagers and farmers, who sow kharif crops based on its prediction, visit this monsoon temple, dedicated to Lord Jagannath (a form of Lord Vishnu) to check the annual rainfall that would be reflected in their agricultural decisions. This is an extraordinary aspect of the temple and has surprised agricultural scientists and scholars too and one might think how a temple can predict rainfall. The legend has it that based on the size of the droplets of water on the stone slab in the ceiling of its sanctum sanctorum, the temple makes its rainfall prediction seven days (where the slab gets dampened) before the downpour. It is said that if the droplets are big, the rainfall is going to be favorable otherwise a drought-like situation might crop up in that year.
Believed to have stood there since ancient times and the latest restoration work was done by the 11th century, its structure is strikingly different as it has a parabolic dome that is similarly found in the temples of Odisha and West Bengal but the Head Priest of the temple, KP Shukla has to say that this temple design is unique in the state.
It is situated about five kilometers from the oldest surviving brick temple in India, the temple of Bhitargaon, and this ‘rain temple’ was first mentioned by British archaeologist and founder of
(Source- Jagran.com, Ceiling of the Temple that is known to predict rains)
the Archaeological Survey of India, Alexander Cunnigham, in 1876-77 when he visited this region, and while writing on the Bhitargaon Temple, he mentions this Behta temple dates much later than the 5th century Bhitargaon Temple.
Taking one more perspective into consideration, Albert Henry Longhurst, a British archaeologist and art historian, who paid a visit to the area in 1909, remarked that this temple had remains of another temple, dating to ancient times, which is made up of brick and stone, concealed behind the unexciting exterior. This inference was based on the idea that modern temples are constructed partly of building materials from ancient times or have sculptures taken from some ancient temples. And then he observed this temple where he describes the richly carved stonework in the 1908-09 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India. This temple has an ancient pillar and Longhurst found a door jamb lying in the compound of the temple. He mentions that he also found remnants of a carved sculpture of Shiva with Parvati seated on the vahana Nandi. A representation of Padmanabha, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, reclining on the serpent Sesha, thereby reflecting the birth of Brahma, was also observed by Longhurst. It is a beautiful sandstone carved work. He terms these findings as ‘neglected’ as these were lying on the ground. Additionally, he observes two carved sculptures of Lakshman and Ganesh, in the opposite cell. These findings made Longhurst believe that this Behta temple had remnants from other temples (s) in the area. He believed that these sculptures must have been removed from other ruined shrines in the vicinity and would have then been brought to Behta when the exterior of the temple was repaired. He was sure in his report that these door jambs and lintels were remnants of the Bhitargaon temple, which was the nearest to the Behta temple.
His theory was criticized by historian Mohammad Zaheer in his ‘The Temple of Bhitargaon’ (1980), where he wrote that this temple is a later monument attributed to its architectural elements such as ridged columns and a cuspidal arch, which is commonly observed in the architectural style of the later Mughal period that also includes the utilization of stone for construction. He argued that by the time this temple, which is among the Monsoon Temples of India, was eventually rebuilt, the usage of stone for constructing the temple had become widespread which explains no reason to assume the stone remnants were taken from the Bhitargaon temple. Due to such contradictions, there is no confirmation among the scholars .
(Source- Wikimedia Commons, Sheshashayi Vishnu Sculpture)
regarding its antiquity but there is a reason to believe that the outer wall of the temple is a faux exterior that is 14 feet away from the sanctum, most probably to protect the deity and its divinity from invasions.
The temple boasts of a pillar column with motifs, different from other columns, which are similar to the ones built in the Gupta era. The temple houses Lord Jagannath with Subhadra and Balabhadra. The temple also houses a white stone idol of the Sun God. A peacock motif as well as a chakra adorns the outer wall of the temple.
It is a matter of curiosity that this temple also celebrates a Rath Yatra festival annually that coincides with the grand festival at Puri. This is the time when the villagers gather and celebrate their common devotion to the deity.
(Source- Wikimedia Commons, The chief deity Lord Jagannath)
Whether it is literature, poetry, cinema, art, or rituals, monsoons are an inseparable part of the subcontinent. It is a shared emotion of every Indian and serves as a unifying bond, transcending barriers and boundaries altogether. Delving into riveting aspects of its cultural significance, the Monsoon Temples of India– the Mariamman Temple in Ooty and the Jagannath Temple in Kanpur- signify how Indian monsoon culture involves the village cult worshipping rain for relief and prosperity and relying on a village temple’s prediction for future agricultural productivity. These two structures, distinct on their own, are a testament to a common reverence for monsoon, that holds paramount importance in determining and defining the socio-economic and cultural contours of various regions across India.
REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Siddiqui F.R (2024): Kanpur’s ‘monsoon temple’ has spoken: Good rainfall this year, Times of India
https://storytrails.in/culture/mariamman-the-village-goddess-who-travelled/
Ladage R (2016): This Temple Can Actually Predict How Good or Bad The Rainfall Will Be This Year Just By the Water Collected On It’s Ceiling!, India.com
Bhattacharya B (2021): Archaeological Site Visit: Bhitargaon Temple, IIT Kanpur
https://www.iitk.ac.in/smss/post/bhitargaon/
“Ooty-Festivals”. Ooty.com.
“Ooty Mariamman Temple Festival”. Mapsofindia.com. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011.
Dimri AP, Roxy M, Sharma A, Pokharia AK, Gayathri ChR, Sanwal J, Sharma A, Tandon SK, Pattanaik DR & Mohanty UC 2022. Monsoon in history and present. Journal of Palaeosciences 71(1): 45–74.
https://www.climate.rocksea.org/images/climate/dimri_monsoon_history_JoPalaeo_2022.pdf
https://zeelretail.com/blogs/news/why-monsoon-season-is-crucial-for-india
Madhava Vibha (2019), Bizarre Indian practices to attract rain, Deccan Herald
https://www.deccanherald.com/specials/bizarre-indian-practices-to-attract-rain-739743.html
https://byjusexamprep.com/upsc-exam/monsoon-in-india
A Ashok (2024), Kanpur’s Jagannath temple that predicts rain, Times of India
https://www.xafari.in/poi/ooty-mariamman-temple
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IMAGE REFERENCES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariamman#/media/File:Mariamman.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Behta_Bujurg_temple
https://tamilnadu-favtourism.blogspot.com/2020/01/mariamman-temple-ooty-nilgiris.html
