MELA THIRUVENKATANATHAPURAM, India — A bare-chested priest sat cross-legged in the temple of this farming village on a recent morning and recited all 1,008 names of Vishnu, the Hindu god, in the hope of soon receiving good news from the White House.

A junior priest sprinkled the idol, known as Balaji, with shredded tulsi leaves and rose-water. The subject of their prayers was Sri Srinivasan, an Indian-born judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia who is rumored to be a top contender for President Obama to nominate to the Supreme Court.

In Washington, Judge Srinivasan is known as a brilliant lawyer, and — what may be more important this year — so difficult to pigeonhole ideologically that his current appointment passed a bitterly divided Senate 97-0.

In Mela Thiruvenkatanathapuram, though, he is known as the grandson of a local schoolteacher and yarn merchant who drove an ox-cart and typically wore a traditional wraparound dhoti.