India, Dec. 1 -- I have always considered myself a temple-goer. That description may seem inadequate, for my journeys have taken me from the southern tip of the subcontinent to the Himalayan foothills, tracing not merely the geography of India but also the many strands of its spiritual imagination.

I have stood in awe inside the famed Ramanathaswamy Temple at Rameshwaram, whose endless corridors seem to carry echoes of centuries of footsteps. I have craned my neck to behold the Shankaracharya Temple perched high above Srinagar, a solitary sentinel above the Dal Lake.

As a toddler, I have visited the gold-laden sanctum of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, a place where even the shadows seem to glitter, and joined the oce...