Dravidian dream: Rupert Isaacson visits Tamil Nadu, where he finds some of India's most spectacular temples and meets an indigenous tribe run by women who worship buffalo and practice polyandry. (Travel Tamil Nadu).(the Toda people) From: Geographical | Date: November 1, 2002| Author: Isaacson, Rupert | COPYRIGHT 2002 Campion Interactive Publishing Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

ON THE BANKS OF THE SACRED GANGES, downstream from where it welled up amid Shiva's flowing locks, an elephant stood dreaming, oblivious to the cosmic conflict of gods, angels, demons and men. They struggled and fought around the great, peaceful beast, before ascending into heaven or descending into hell--every figure arrested in mid-flight by the stone-carver's art.

I was in a temple cave in Mahabalipuram, on the Coromandel Coast of Tamil Nadu, India's southeastern-most ...