Photo: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar, in the hour when the sun drops and the gold holds the last light.
The Golden Temple is open all day and night, but the water and the metal agree on one hour: late afternoon into dusk.
Photo: Vijayshinde107, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
The Rockfort above Tiruchirappalli, early morning before the stone holds the heat.
Trichy does not hide its temple on a hill. The hill is the temple, and the city grew under its shadow.
Photo: Balu 606902, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
Tiruvannamalai, at the foot of Arunachala hill, on an ordinary weekday morning.
Here the hill is the god, and the town walks around it.
Photo: PlaneMad, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
Mylapore, in the old south of Chennai, at seven on a weekday morning.
Mylapore still arranges its day around a temple and a tank.
Photo: Nikhilb239, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
The Seshachalam hills above Tirupati, in the week after the Navaratri festival.
Tirumala is a hill before it is a queue, and almost everyone who comes climbs it in some way.
Photo: Rohit14400, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
The Chennakeshava temple at Belur, in Hassan district, soon after the doors open.
Belur’s carving is so fine that the only way to see it is to stand close and slow down.
Photo: Joydeep Chakraborty, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
The Sun Temple at Konark, in the early morning.
A temple built as a chariot for the sun.
Photo: SuvadipSanyal, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
Bishnupur, in the Bankura district of West Bengal, late afternoon.
Brick and clay, not stone, and every wall tells a story.
Photo: Sneha G Gupta, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
The Somnath temple on the Gujarat coast, at sunset.
A temple rebuilt many times, beside a sea that never needed to be.
Photo: Rainer Halama, edited by UnpetitproleX, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
The Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur, late afternoon.
A thousand years old, and still the tallest thing in town.
Photo: MADHURANTHAKAN JAGADEESAN, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
The Meenakshi temple in Madurai, late afternoon.
The city did not build a temple. It grew up around one.
Photo: kknila, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
Imphal, in the valley of Manipur, early morning.
In Manipur, Krishna and the old gods of the valley keep the same hours.
Photo: Niraj Suryawanshi, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
Maharashtra, from a Mumbai street to the hills of the Western Ghats.
In Maharashtra, the same week can hold a queue in Mumbai and a climb through the monsoon forest.
Photo: Marcin Białek, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
Madhya Pradesh, from the carved towers of Khajuraho to the banks of the Narmada.
In the middle of India, the temples are old enough to have been lost and found again.
Photo: Argopal at ml.wikipedia, Public domain (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
A temple courtyard in Kerala, at the evening lamp.
In Kerala, the temple is lit by hundreds of small brass lamps, not by a single bulb.
Photo: iMahesh, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
Karnataka, from the boulders of Hampi to the Hoysala carvings of Belur.
In Karnataka, a thousand years of temple building are laid out within a day's drive of each other.
Photo: Ganesh Mohan T, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
A cedar forest above Manali, in Himachal Pradesh, on a cold morning.
In the Himalaya, the temples wear roofs of wood and slate, and snow sits on them in winter.
Photo: आशीष_भटनागर, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
Kurukshetra, in Haryana, at the evening aarti on the water.
At Kurukshetra, a banyan tree marks the place where the Bhagavad Gita is said to have been spoken.
Photo: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons
Gujarat, from the shore at Somnath to the stepped tank at Modhera.
In Gujarat, one temple has been rebuilt so often that its rebuilding is the story.
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