Story first, sources always
How we source a story
Temples are where legend, faith and history meet, and they do not always agree. Every line on Aalaya Katha carries a small label with two parts: who says it, and how settled it is.
Who says it
- Legend says
A Purana, an epic, a hymn or an Agama tells this. It is what the tradition says, not a claim about history.
- Tradition holds
The temple’s own tradition or local practice holds this, without a text we can point to by chapter.
- The temple says
The temple trust, devasthanam or devaswom board publishes this — the authority for timings, sevas and rules.
- The inscription records
An inscription on stone or copper records this. The strongest evidence for who built and who gave.
- The survey records
The Archaeological Survey of India records this — protected status, conservation, excavation.
- Historians believe
Scholars conclude this from the evidence. The book or paper is named.
- Officially recorded
A government body publishes this — a tourism department, a gazetteer, a court, a registry.
- Reported
A dated newspaper or magazine report says this.
How settled it is
The second part of the label, and the border around it. Colour is never the only signal.
- Settled
The sources we cite agree. A settled legend is settled within its tradition — not proven as history.
- Traditional
Attributed to a tradition, and we say which. Most legends sit here.
- Accounts differ
Sources disagree. Both positions appear, each with its own source, side by side. We never average them or choose one.
- Not yet verified
Nobody has checked this against an acceptable source yet. It is shown so you know it is said — never as fact.
When we don’t know
We never fill a gap with a guess. If we have not confirmed a timing, a PIN code, a date or a dress code, the page says so in plain words. Each temple page ends with two short lists: what is not on the page yet, and what is shown but still to be confirmed against an official source. Timings always say “confirm on the day”, even when they come from the temple itself — a pilgrim who travels overnight on a stale time is the reader we would fail worst.
What counts as a source
Texts by chapter and verse; inscriptions by their published corpus; monuments by the Archaeological Survey; timings, rules and sevas only from the body that runs the temple; scholarship by author, title and year; news reports only with a date. Online translations of the Puranas are linked so you can read the chapter yourself, and the chapter is named so you can check it in a printed edition.
Encyclopedias, listicles, darshan-timing aggregator sites and AI tools — including the ones that help us research — are never cited as sources. Where a detail came from nowhere better, it is marked “Not yet verified”.
No sides taken
Some temples have histories argued in courts and in politics. We describe what each source says and who says it, give dates for court proceedings, and do not rule on any of it. No miracle is stated as fact; a legend is told as a legend.
Corrections
Corrections are wanted — most of all from people who know a temple because they go there. Send the correction and, if you can, its source. Every correction that lands is logged against the temple with what it was, what it became, and why. Nothing is quietly overwritten.