The girls sang in the ancient language of India, pendants clipped in their hair, folds of gold fabric draped over their left shoulders.
Before dozens of Hindu devotees, they sat on stage, against a backdrop of orange flower garlands and the faint haze from burning masala incense.
The Highland Valley United Methodist Church, on Chenal Parkway in west Little Rock, had become their makeshift temple on Monday. Worshippers sat and knelt on tarp laid out on the church's fellowship hall floor, while the youngest children played a quiet game of tag toward the back of the room.
A nearby table held the figurine of Lord Krishna, a Hindu god that this holiday called Janmashtami honors. Trays of fruit offered earlier to this idol, known as Murti, lay on the stage. The Murti had been bathed in honey, coconut milk and yogurt.
This kirta portion of Janmashtami, and the traditional Bharatanatyam dancing that immediately follows, are Sabitha Rajan's favorite parts of the celebration.
"Just wait to see what Janmashtami will look like in the new temple," she said. "Next year."
Rajan is a founding member of the Hindu Temple of Central Arkansas. In 2014, she and a handful of other Little Rock Hindus formed an executive committee that set out to build the first temple of its denomination in the area.
The $1.7 million temple -- $1.5 million of that goes to construction costs, Rajan said -- will sit on a 22.2-acre site, located on Dineen Drive near Bates Elementary School. Groundbreaking was held in April; it's expected to open next June.
The 7,000-square-foot temple, which should hold up to 950 people, is just the first phase of the project. Plans are underway to also build community and dining halls, priest quarters and a meditation garden and pond on the property.
Local companies, residents and sponsoring organizations funded the project. Some of these groups will publicly announce their involvement with the temple soon, Rajan said.
Welspun Corporation, a Little Rock-based company that makes welded pipes, is a major sponsor in the project.
"The whole objective is to create a place where everyone can come together," said Welspun executive Rajesh Chokani. "All are welcome. All colors, castes. All beliefs."
Rajan and Bhuma Mohan, another Hindu Temple of Central Arkansas founding member, both say the temple will be a boon to the area's growing Hindu population.
Rajan said she remembers moving to Little Rock about 30 years ago, when there were about 50 Hindu families. Now, there are more than 2,500, she added.
There aren't any official statistics on the number of practicing Hindus, as the U.S. Census Bureau doesn't collect data on religion.
Hindus make up less than 1 percent of the total Arkansas population, according to a religious landscape study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2014. The survey was based on phone interviews with more than 35,000 people from all 50 states.
Mohan, who emigrated from India in 1983, recalls there being at least five temples in her childhood New Jersey neighborhood. By the time she left, decades later, that number had grown ten-fold, she said.
"I think about how it would have been if I didn't have that growing up," Mohan said. "I've seen how my kids have grown up, going to summer camp, learning shlokas [scripture].
"It's important to make something for our children," she said. "It was important for me to help."
Metro on 09/04/2018