The Rule Nobody Wrote Down
There is no dress code pinned to the wall of any temple on Ayudha Puja. Nobody hands you a pamphlet. And yet, walk into any home in Tamil Nadu or Karnataka where the puja is being performed and you will see the same thing: cotton or silk in muted colours, minimal embroidery, and then, stacked on the wrists and draped at the neck, gold. The restraint and the extravagance sit side by side without anyone finding them odd. That is because they are not in conflict. They are the same statement made in two different registers.
