Thanks, your site is splendid as well. Hoping to see your guest post here pretty soon.

rgds
vj

This is the first time I am coming to your site, really I have missed your site.

This sculpture is really unique, as sdiyen has seen viyakrapadar in standing position but this one is in sitting position.

Blessings for you for your yeomen service.

No need to be sorry, glad to find a fellow enthusiast. Feel free to go back and see the previous posts ( there are about 90 as of tdy - target 500 - hopefully with help from friends and well wishers!!)

Thanks for leaving the comment and feel free to put in suggestions as well and share pics if you have.

rgds
vj

தேவ்”

You mention the saint as Pulikaalmuni in the snaps. Of course everyone does know that in the temples at both Chidambaram (Natarajar koil) as well as at the Amritaghateswarar at Melakadambur… we do have saint with tiger body and paws… i.e. saint Vyaghrapadar — it seems Vyaghrapadar had some link with Simha Vishnu the Pallava King who originally laid the foundation of the Chidambaram temple (He was also called Hiranyavaranan - it is said that he had some debilittating skin disease and that he was advised by Vyaghrapadar to take bath at the Chidambaram pushkarini to get cured)… Then Simha Vishnu (Hiranyavaranan) created the temple of Siva which acted as a sanctuary of worship for Saint Vyagrapaadar. Of course, the great shrine that Chidambaram is undoubtedly, nurtured with selfless and unrelenting devotion over thousands of years by the Thillai Iyers, it had the benefit of being cared, nurtured, expanded and developed by so many dynasties like Pallavas first, then the Cholas, the Pandiyans and to an extent the Nayakars first under Vijayanagar and then by themselves independently.

I think if you ever did storeys on Chidambaram Natarajar koil, then Vyaghrapadar cannot be missed. I heard that Kulothunga I was particularly fond of saint Vyaghrapadar whom he got etched in stone in one of the greatest but lesser known Siva temples, the Amritaghateswarar at Melakadambur. The scores of statues of Vishnu at Melakadambur Amritaghateswarar temple also put a lie to Kulothunga I being biased against the Vaishnavite sect….

Your take on this.

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http://www.poetryinstone.in/lang/en/2008/11/03/the-saint-with-tiger-paws.html

rgds
vj