How it was before any of it

This is how the path to the temple looked before the bridge was built. People used this route for many years.

I want you to see it the way it was, because nothing after this means much otherwise.

There was no road. There was a track one person wide, stone the whole way, and you watched your feet instead of looking up. The hill you climb on steps now was bare rock. Where Rama Lingeshwara Swamy stands there were trees. Where Kamakshi Amma stands the ground was six or seven feet lower than it is now, and nobody had a reason to walk on it.

From my own archive

This is what the hill looked like before we built the cement steps. Climbing was much harder back then.

This is how the area looked before the Rama Lingeshwara Temple was built. It was very different from what you see today.

This was the original path to the temple, where people walked on uneven stones to reach the sacred site.

This is how the area looked before the Kamakshi Amma Temple was built. It was a simple, untouched space.

During the monsoon, the path would often get blocked by heavy water flow, making it difficult to reach the temple.

Then the monsoon, every year. The path is the lowest line on that hillside, so it is where the water goes. For months the way in would simply close.

That is the place. Everything below is us trying to make it reachable.

Film of this work

The way in as it was before any road work, filmed walking it. — The way in, before we touched the road. The steps and the trees were already there.

Write to me

If any of this is something you can help with, or you think I have got it wrong, write and tell me. I read them all myself.

Dhanunjaya M

tvsdhanan009@gmail.com →

One address, no form, no list to join. I am not asking for money, and there is nothing set up here that could take any.