BENGALURU – Barefooted and bare-chested, his forehead smeared with holy ash, farm labourer E. Batthan, 60, spends every Friday at the Shiva temple in Sivankoodal village.

At the hexagonal temple that stands in an oasis of rice farms amid the Sriperumbudur industrial estate in Tamil Nadu, he prays to a stone lingam of Shiva to bless his wife with good health.