Sun Three of a short 4 day phase. The Siddhidata kulam shared news of their work in the garden and on Iraivan Temple. The silpis are fitting roof beams carefully on the foundation of temple prior to them being raised up to the roof itself.

In Bangaluru, Selvanathan Sthapati is marking the actual size drawing for the ceiling of the Iraivan Raja Gopuram on plywood. This drawing will be later transferred onto the stones and the carving will begin.

Chidambaram Sthapati–our Bangaluru carving site Sthapati and Tangavelu Asari–senior ornamentation supervisor/carver are with him. These two experienced men will transfer this drawing and supervise the carving done by the silpis

Professor Siva Bajpai finally made his way to Kauai after having been working in close association with the swamis in our publications teams for twenty years. Sivakatirswami gave him a tour of the Iraivan Temple. He has come to Kauai with his wife Catalina (right) his daughter Anita Bajpai Peterson (left) and son-in-law, Brett Peterson.

Siva and Catalina are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary this month. The family marveled at the intricacy of the temple carving work.

Professor Bajpai is one of the world’s foremost Indian historians. In his special area of expertise as a “geographical” historian, he was one of the three who teamed up to create the famous Historical Atlas of South Asia. Two decades ago the Ganapati Kulam tapped into his reservoir of knowledge to help generate the Hindu Timeline, which was published in Hinduism Today and later in Dancing with Siva. Sivakatirswami was his initial contact in the early days and now, 20 years later they finally meet in person.

In more recent times Professor Bajpai has been collaborating with Arumugaswami on the Hindu History lesson. We’ll have more about this tomorrow.

On the right is Nikki Nicholau and Bob Alstrum from Richmond, VA on a special tour of the Iraivan Temple. Also with them, visiting for the first time, are Pavan and Vasudha Chelpati from Michigan.

Here Pavan rolls the smooth granite ball around inside the Lion’s mouth. Carving Lion pillars (out of one piece of granite) is one of many amazing skills of the stone-carvers, especially since they carve a granite ball through the teeth inside the Lion’s mouth.

Pavan and Vasudha beside the Kadavul Temple pool.

Nikki and Bob pose beside the sacred Kalasa stupi stone that will eventually be placed on the very top of the Iraivan Temple Vimana Capstone.

Bob met and studied under Swami Satchidananda several years ago at Swami’s Lotus Center in Virginia.

A few more late photos arriving from the Golden Gate Mission of their successful program in Davis. Here, Susan Greenwald, mayor of Davis makes a presentation to some young performers.

The cultural performances were all inspiring.

Gurudeva’s old time devotees, the Burke family from Vancouver, Canada, who are “professional clowns” were kind enough to donate their time and expertise. Aubrey and his mother delighted the crowds and kids all day long.

Reports about them were that “They were sooooo funny! I laughed so hard I cried and thought I was going to burst open.”

Aubrey’s mother did face painting as part of her act.