Warangal Pilgrimage

A Sacred Journey Paying Omage to the Cow for entrance into the Thousand Pillar Temple

Sharpening my thousand year old knives at Warangal Fort-Ruins Warangal Thousand Pillar Temple (Only 600 pillars stand here)

Practicing Yoga at the Kali Temple, Warangal India

Go several thousand years back in time and these ruins would have boasted of the grand splendor of Hindu Architecture. While the Taj Mahal is persian in design and built by a Muslim King, the temples in Warangwal are selectively only Hindu architecture.
Another Day long excursion started off at 6:30 a.m. when we all got up to hop the train a few hours to this place. When we got there, we were greeted with the smell of the morning and other less desirable smells of pollution and sewage. The smells here were a bit more potent than in the city of Hyderabad, because Warangal is a much smaller city and more rural in many places.
But along with the rural communities, one can uncover the beauty of ages past. First is the thousand pillar temple set in front of a breathtaking landscape of mountains. Next was the Kali (Female God of destruction, war, protection) Temple where one could also see Gods Vishnu, Shiva, and Rama. Upon entering this temple sitting on the edge of a large lotus lake, the guardians Rama and Sati gazed at you with the knowing look of the divine. The story behind Rama and Sati is a very interesting one. I will not go into detail, but basically Rama was the perfect king, man, and husband. His marriage with Sati is the ideal of a loving Hindu marriage and one all Indians aspire to attain. Going a bit further, and you are immediately greeted by the smells of incense and spice being offered around the different altars that are supposed to represent worship places for the different deities.
The location, with the lake and mountains in the background provided such a serene peaceful environment; most likely not coincidental.
My favorite part was the DJ. On the main platform of the temple were shops and a music stand that played Hindi Worship music, but the bass was turned all the way up and it had an epic rhythym to it that made you just want to dance all your worries away.