After a long trans-pacific flight from the US in January 2006, unwind I did when I stopped over at Singapore and travelled to the Malaysian capital. I was told that a grand temple along the sungai batu, the rocky river, needed to be visited. I missed the grand event at the sungai batu temple where the world’s largest Hindu idol of Karthikeya would be installed and consecrated. However much I looked forward to attending the divine event at the cave temple, I had an itinerary of further travel towards Thailand, and it was just a peek that I could afford, promising to visit this spot soon.
 Towering idol shines in the setting sun Every following year, Kuala Lumpur was on my pit stop, but the visit to the temple along the “rocky river” did not somehow materialise. However, resolving to make it during a recent tour of Asia, we hit the road to the cave temple. As we arrived, in front of us was the gleaming, golden 130-foot statue rising to the sky and seeming to rival the green canopy of the rocky hill behind.
Climbing the 272 steps leading to the inner sanctum of the temple, I take another flight of stairs below; The six abodes of Muruga are well-depicted along the cave walls, while stalacites and limestone suspended from the top act as “thoranam”, decorative pieces. The Palani “winch” to the right vies for a tasteful depiction with other images of pilgrims with “kavadi” on their shoulders. I walk up another flight of stairs beyond, when I hear descriptive superlatives from other visitors, one, a group of tired and puffing Russians who exclaim “beautiful, beautiful” when I ask them about the place. Another Malaysian couple look obviously Mohammedan, and say they are making it to here from distant Kota Kinabalu to see Balasubramanya and be blessed with a child. As we go further up to the grand sanctum of the Lord with his consorts, Valli and Devasena, the childless couple open their bottle of milk and hand it over to the priest for bathing the holy images with the milk, later. Prayer pooja time is between 8 A.M and 1 PM, and again between 4 PM & 8 PM, the priest informs us, also going to the history of the shrine, set up un 1891 by a devoted Thambuswami Pillai, a Tamil trader who noticed that the cave entrance was shaped like a spear, the divine weapon of his Lord Muruga. Pillai went on to find a magnificent abode for the divine. As the history is narrated, sunlight streaks through the top opening in the cave, lighting up our area.
When we climb down, the Russian lady walks down stiffly in pain, helped by her friend to balance her in the steep flight of steps below. .She smiles nevertheless and says that this trek is definitely worth the strain. Another lady briefly stops when an entrepreneur with a golden python offers to place his pet around her; there is some trepidation, but she goes on to wear the reptile around her and boldly kisses the reptile’s mouth when asked to do so. “Great”, she squeals.
It is evening and the towering idol shines in the setting sun. The temple photographer, Murugan, is equipped with a Nikon D 70 digital camera to take pics of desirous visitors. Murugan is from Chennai, India and loves working here, though he laments that almost every visitor has a camera or a cellphone-cam and so only shoots 10-20 portraits of pilgrim customers. Murugan also informs that the towering idol is coated with a special golden paint from Thailand, like the Buddhist pagodas. As I move on, a large group of Thai monks enter the complex; one of them opens a small bag of rice and the rest take a handful each, to feed the large group of pigeons in the temple complex.
We go further along a pond where an image of Lord Hanuman, the monkey God stands. Another visiting group opens a bag of bananas; simians appear from nowhere, and the bag goes empty in a minute..
It is sunset time, when the temple bell tolls below, and the Ganesha enclosure is lit up with the multiple lamps held by the priest, as pilgrims rush to the sanctum. Two musicians play the strains of Kungumam, Mangala Mangaiyar Kungumam, a Tamil film song dedicated to Muruga’s mother, Meenakshi. The notes are a bit faltering from the nadaswaram, the reed-wind instrument, but I guess that the Lord would grant small mercies for this errant musician. As also, for the shoe-clad, cigarette-smoking visitors on the holy premises…
It is a dark sky when we return to the capital city centre. The bus to Melaka is waiting for us. We board the upper deck and survey the bumper-to-bumper traffic jam in front of us. We look back, in our mind’s eye, thanking the pioneering efforts of Thambuswami Pillai for building a pilgrim centre that has, for over a hundred years, been blessing the faithful and giving visitors a truly enjoyable experience. We will make it again to the Batu temple, hopefully for next year’s Thai Poosam festival, we promise…
Text & picture by M J Krishna, travel writer
The author adds:
One thing that slipped mention was about a volunteer at Batu Caves, in 2005. This man was from India, on a short tour of Malaysia, when he reached the Batu temple. The tall Murugan statue was taking shape at the premises. Seeing some restoration activity at the temple and also noticing that volunteers were carrying buckets with bricks in them and climbing up the steps to hand the materials over to the site supervisor upstairs, this visitor from India, who had then, just recovered from surgery, decided to join the volunteers. He asked for a bucket and bricks, made the long, steep climb up the 272 steps and handed over the construction materials. “This was the minimum I could do as thanksgiving to Lord Muruga for my return to good health”, says this man, a legend himself, in Indian cooperative banking circles… he is M.Balasubramanian, Managing Director of the Chennai-based, government-owned, Repco Bank..
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