Sacred Kerala: A Spiritual Pilgrimage

‘The prime minister to the Cochin maharaja had built his residence in the centre of a square so that there would be a shrine at each of its corners. Thus would the royal power assume protection of the four great religions that were represented in Kerala.’

Kerala, touted by the tourism industry as ‘God’s own country’, is indeed a corner of India where religious life is intense, vibrant and varied. Kerala’s history is replete with examples of rulers patronizing different religious communities. And in spite of insidious efforts by some to erect sectarian boundaries, Malayalis have stubbornly held on to many of their old traditions of shared spaces. Devotees of different communities continue to take part in each other’s festivals—on the first day of the annual Chandanakudam festival, for instance, devotees of all faiths gather at a Catholic church, proceed to a Bhagavati temple and finally congregate at a mosque, where the festivities officially begin—and there are numerous occasions and sacred spaces where Hindus, Muslims, Christians and even a handful of Jews keep meeting.

Embarking on a kind of personal and intellectual pilgrimage to discover ‘sacred’ Kerala, Dominique-Sila Khan encounters on her way an array of picturesque characters and many a fascinating shrine. These encounters often challenge our usual assumptions about what it is to be Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Jew. The author’s general mood alternates between gravity and humour, her descriptive style often making space for colourful anecdotes that allow the reader to go beyond the sights, sounds and tastes of Kerala and experience the spiritual consciousness of a land.