India is a country with an ancient and rich spiritual culture. The overwhelming majority of Indians profess the religion of Hinduism - a very ancient one, numbering many millennia. So a traveler visiting India will inevitably, literally in the very first hours of his stay on Indian soil, see numerous Hindu temples and sanctuaries and, most likely, wish to visit them.
India is a country with an ancient and rich spiritual culture. The overwhelming majority of Indians profess the religion of Hinduism - a very ancient one, numbering many millennia. So a traveler visiting India will inevitably, literally in the very first hours of his stay on Indian soil, see numerous Hindu temples and sanctuaries and, most likely, wish to visit them.
It is impossible to say even approximately how many temples there are in Hindi, "mandir". There are several thousand temples of very ancient, legendary, with a long history - for example, the Krishna Jagannath temple in Puri in the east of the country or Srirangam in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. There are many temples built in the Middle Ages - many of them were founded by great saints. There are very young temples, for example, a group of temples built in all major cities and important places of pilgrimage in the 20th and early 21st centuries with money and by the project of a major industrialist and philanthropist Ghantashyam Birl and his descendants. A visit to these Birla Mandirs - in Delhi, where the most famous of them Lakshmi-Narayan Mandir is located, in Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bangalore and other cities - is an almost invariable element of a trip as part of a tour group. And there are many shrines, very small, that are on every street,
The entrance to most of the temples is absolutely free. There are very few exceptions, but, unfortunately, the exceptions are the most famous temples - Jagannath Mandir in Puri, Lingaraj in Bhubaneswar and some more (tourists can view the courtyard of such temples from special platforms or the roofs of neighboring buildings, where they are allowed for a small donation). In Srirangam, which is seven temple walls, between which there are many small sanctuaries (this is generally the largest temple complex in the world, comparable in size to a small city), tourists can enter the first four walls, but no further. Everyone can formally enter the Krishna Guruvaurappana temple in Kerala, but only in unsewn clothes, that is, strictly in saris for women and dhoti for men. In general, the dress code in the temples is quite soft - for men it is practically absent, the Indians themselves do not disdain to wear the same shorts, and women should not wear mini-skirts and transparent blouses. Also, women are not allowed to enter the temple during menstruation, such are the rules in all temples, without exception. Taking pictures in the temple is most often possible, but not always - at the entrance to the temples, where it is prohibited, there are lockers for all kinds of electronics.
The temples are usually open to the public from early morning until noon and from 3 pm to 4 pm until sunset. During this time, several services are held - pujas, between pujas, visitors perform darshan, that is, they come up, look at the Deities and offer them respect. In small temples, you can simply enter and walk up to the altar. On the main altar are the Deities after which the temple is named (Radha and Krishna, Lakshmi and Vishnu, various incarnations of Durga and others). In addition to the main altar, there are usually several smaller altars. Before entering the temple, and if the temple has an area inside the wall, then at the entrance to the territory you should take off your shoes and go on barefoot (in large complexes there are storage rooms for shoes). Entering, you need to hit the bell that hangs at the entrance, having done it with your right hand (in general, in the temple, everything is done only with your right hand - using your left hand is insulting, so consider that you do not have it), then go to the altar, carefully look at the Deities, starting from the feet and looking up (and the most pious thing is to look only at the feet) and mentally express respect to them. Well, it's not forbidden to ask for anything for yourself. There is a passage behind the altar, so that it can be walked three times clockwise. There are usually images of divine forms on the walls behind the altar. They can also be respected by touching their feet with your right hand and then touching your head. If you come to the temple during the puja, just stand still. During the puja, the brahmana offers various items to the Deities, which then acquire special, spiritual qualities. After the puja, the brahmana will offer the audience a lamp with fire - you need to hold over the fire with your right hand and touch your head. Also, a drink offered on the altar will be dropped on the hand - it must be drunk immediately, they will give some food to be eaten. This is all prasadam, the grace of the Deity. If a flower is given from the altar, it must be preserved and dried, it will be your talisman. After darshan or puja, you need to make a donation - put how much money you don't mind in a special box in front of the altar. By the way, you need to do this at all the altars, so you need to enter the temple with a supply of coins - it will be very bad if there is only a 1000 rupee note in your pocket. However, it is not worth walking the streets with especially large bills, only to the place where they can be exchanged - it is better to have several hundred square meters with you. However, money changers are sitting near any temple, who will change a 100 rupee note for nine 10-rupee notes, and a 10-rupee note for nine one-rupee coins. But if a brahmana, seeing a European, becomes very interested and starts asking for additional donations - like five thousand rupees, feel free to ignore him. The babajis in Radha Kunda near Vrindavan are especially famous for this, but it happens in other places as well.
In very large and famous temples, things are a little different. There is usually a queue for darshan there, and a considerable one, but there are several passages - the longest and winding, to which most pilgrims go, for a free darshan, and shorter ones can be accessed for donations of various sizes. All these passages are connected at the main altar. It will not work for a long time to communicate with the Deity, there are a lot of people who want it, especially during the holidays. Offering sets - coconut, flowers, and so on - are usually sold near these temples, which must be given to the brahmana at the altar to offer them all.
If for some reason it is impossible to enter the temple, you can pay respect to the Deities by walking around it clockwise, taking off your shoes if possible. In general, parikrama, walking around holy places is a very common ritual, a ten-kilometer path around the holy city of Vrindavan is equivalent to visiting all its five thousand temples, so hundreds and thousands of barefoot pilgrims are constantly moving along the Vrindavan Parikram-marga.
