hinduism in pittsburgh. 235
figure 9
Sri Venkateswara Temple, Penn Hills, Pittsburgh, showing the
hilly surroundings and adjacent freeway. Photo by John Hawley.
ple, as well as at a much later time in the morning than in India. (Considering that
the morning suprabhatam is recited sometime around 3:00 a.m., or earlier, in India,
it is easy to understand why the Penn Hills temple has scheduled it to a more rea-
sonable time, like 9:00 a.m.on weekends). These may seem like minor differences
from the parent temple, but in a ritual schedule where timing is important such ad-
justments to local devotee needs often seem unacceptable to orthoprax priests.
Despite the desire to remain faithful to the code and sequence of rituals, there are
some compromises and innovations. While the Penn Hills temple chooses to cele-
brate a few seasonal festivals, it tries as far as is astrologically possible to plan big
events around the holidays of the American secular calendar. Thus the bulletin in
1988 announced:
Maha Brahmotsavam was celebrated during the 4th of July weekend. Labor Day
weekend celebration will be climaxed by a “Pushpa Pallakhi,” a float decorated
with flowers and lights. Other religious and cultural events planned for the Labor
Day weekend are listed.^7The same bulletin also stated that restoration of the main tower (rajagopuram) was
completed in time for the Fourth of July weekend. In 1989, the “Temple News