Perhaps i have been lucky. It was not my choice to be born in a Shrivaishnava family. While Vaishnavism refers to all the creeds that consider Vishnu or one of his incarnations as the Supreme, Shrivaishnavism sees the Supreme as a two-as-one, Shri, Lakshmi and Vishnu. My natal home has always given importance to certain external ways of behaviour and action associated with the practice of the religion. Being brought up in the tiny village of Kodakanallur on the banks of the Tambraparni river for the first few years of my life, I imbibed certain elements of body language from my grandmother. Whenever she took me to the temple I had to prostrate and offer salutations at the entrance, at the flagstaff, and the image of Garuda before entering the mukha-mandapa, the front hall.

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Prema Nandakumar is a literary critic, translator, author, and researcher from Srirangam, Tamil Nadu.

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