Linking Ancient and Modern, A Worldwide Web of Worship

Kumararajah, 36, is a Hindu who moved to London from India eight years ago. She prays every day, she said, at home and in a small temple in Tooting, a south London neighborhood popular with Indian expatriates. Every morning and evening she performs a puja, an offering to a god, seeking a blessing of health and happiness. But she said performing pujas in London was never as meaningful to her as doing them in the ancient temples of India, where Hinduism was born.

"The gods there are very powerful," said Kumararajah, sitting in the storefront of her family's software company. "I always want to pray there, but it is not possible for me because I live in London."

Then she heard about Saranam.com, a Web site based in Chennai, in southern India, that sells "Hindu rituals and products," whether they are prayers or auspicious names for a baby.

Clicking her way to Saranam.com, Kumararajah recalled, she arrived at a site that looked like the home page of bookseller Amazon.com, with colorful graphics and a slick menu of products and services -- and a link to check on "my stuff."

She clicked on the "pujas" tab, which brought her to a page where she could choose from a menu including "pujas for health" and "pujas for children." She chose a puja for wealth, health and happiness -- asking for help in finding a husband and having a family, and for the family software business to prosper.

Then she clicked on the "temples" tab and chose Sri Rangam, a thousand-year-old complex near Tiruchirapalli, about 200 miles south of Chennai near the southern tip of India. She had grown up in Chennai but had never visited the temple, one of India's most venerated religious sites. The centerpiece of the temple is a reclining image of Vishnu, which draws Hindus from across the world. Kumararajah was thrilled to find it on the Web site's list of temples available for pujas.

She clicked again and put her puja in her "shopping cart," then hit "proceed to checkout," filled in her billing address and paid with her Visa card over a secure server.

She chose a package of 12 pujas, one a month for a year, to be performed each month on her "star day" according to Hindu astrology. She also chose a second puja to be performed each month to a goddess at the temple. Total price for her personalized package of worship: about $140, or about $6 per puja.

"I could never do this before," she said, her chestnut eyes beaming. "The gods are happy when we perform pujas."

Saranam.com was founded by Mahesh Mohanan and Mervyn Jose, a pair of young computer software engineers in Chennai, the steamy port city formerly known as Madras. It is home both to some of India's most magnificent old temples and to some of its most cutting-edge technology firms.

Mohanan said he hit on the idea shortly after his marriage in 1999, when his new mother-in-law insisted that he and his new bride visit 15 Hindu temples over three days to seek blessings. "It was exhausting," Mohanan said. "I thought it would be so much easier if I could just do it on the Internet."

With financial backing from a local businessman, Saranam.com was up and running within weeks as a for-profit company.