alt Hacker NewsFascinating. Is there something specific about those temples that draws the crowds, like something akin to a famous cathedral? Must worship take place in a temple? I don't know how the religion works but did get to visit a local temple once with some coworkers and enjoyed the atmosphere.
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maybe they are considered direct link between heaven and earth :)
Yeah each temple has its speciality.
Every family has a "kuladeivam" which is basically a temple for that (patrilineal) lineage. Every family has one. Every temple has few families.
Then it's special for people in the same town as the temple. Modern migration makes this a different set from the one above.
Then each temple has special events on specific days/week/month/year.
And then on top of that some few hundred temples are special in general and are crowded 365 days of the year with people from all over.
Adds up.
> Must worship take place in a temple?
Just my understanding. You can worship anywhere even in your head, but temples are one thing which improve "quality" of worship by a lot. The logic roughly goes - since most people aren't capable of high (enuf) quality worship in their head or at home, temples help them. More of a magnitude thing rather than a binary thing.
Status symbols among certain tribes. I went to <x> place. Most (all?) religions don’t prevent the poor from salvation, but humans like to make up hurdles to see who can overcome them.
The status isn’t even necessarily money related, but can just be to see who is more “devoted”.