The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Tengalai
Temple car from the city of Shrirangapatnam, in the state of Karnataka. It is used to transport an image of
the temple’s primary deity during festival processions.
Temple Cars
Name for the ceremonial carts in which
the movable image of a deity (utsava
murti) can be transported throughout
the town or, in the case of the temples of
southern India, around the processional
streets that often ring the temple in concentric
layers. In some cases the carts
are made new every year, as at the temple
of the god Jagannath in the city of
Puri; in other cases (as one finds in
many of the southern Indian temples)
the temple car is one of the deity’s
standard accouterments, and it is made
from precious metals and is richly decorated.
In either case the deity is being
treated in a manner parallel to that of a
king, and the car is a means to move the
deity in procession to view his or her
earthly domain.
Tengalai
One of the two main subsects in
the Shrivaishnava religious community,
the other being the Vadagalai. The
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