Monthly Archives: December 2008

Tiger belly once again – can’t keep this little devil out

We have already seen this cute little darling of a fellow in Mahabalipuram and in Srinivasanallur. Today we are traveling to another Chola treasure trove – Pullamangai, Brahmapureerswara temple .

A quick test for your observation powers. Can you spot our friend.

Can’t, try this one

Still Can’t, come on !!

Now, do you see him. such a darling fellow.

Nowadays, we do see Shiva’s Gana’s ( assistants) adorning modern temple walls, but they lack the character and spirit of the originals. They are sadly repetitive and monotonous. Take a look at this impressive array of delightful ganas – each of them have such cute expressions that its difficult not to fall in love with them. One thing you have to notice is the fact that these are true dwarfs – as you can see by the body proportions and the depiction of the hands and legs – this is not to show the physical deformity but to show how observant were the sculptors who could sculpt them so beautifully.

Not all have the tiger belly face and it seems to be one particular individual who has this – what could be his name. Need to do some more research to find out. Meantime, please keep an eye out for this tiger belly face when you visit Chola temples. And for the normal fellows, please do spare them a glance.

picture courtesy : Ms. Kathie and Varlaaru.com

What is the inspiration for a sculptor – Pallava Mallai – my interpretation

I had asked this question in the original post – What is the inspiration for a sculptor ? True Mallai abounds with animals – the great penance panel with its whole forest / zoo of animals, the Govardhana panel with its cows etc, but this is a very unique sculpture, as it depicts no divine legend, no god figures – no puranic myth.

It would have taken the sculptor months of hard work – to sculpt such a realistic natural scene. But why did he do it. Doubt if the King would have commissioned him to do such a work. It is also not a causal fling, like a half hour sketch by a caricature artist.

This line of thought made me try to come up with some other reason, to explain the sculpture.

Here it goes: consider this – the sculptors of mallai were experts, clearly the work in mallai is not that of novices. So it couldn’t be like some finishing school, the degree of perfection in form is much too advanced. Their stone craft could not be mastered by common people and would have called for years of study under expert teachers – most probably, right from childhood, these sculptors would have been exclusively tutored in stone craft, with single minded devotion. Whether there was the system of father teaching son or established gurukulam like – we don’t know. But one thing is clear, to achive this kind of mastery over any art, the heart soul and everything else had to be devoted into the work.

Keeping the above in mind, my interpretation of the panel is :

The sculptor is the monkey

In sculpting the visibly joyous, frolicking , happy elephant family, he depicts what he has missed – loving family life, for he would have had to be in sculpture school at a very young age, missing the years of fun and frolic which a normal
kid would have got, which he is lost when he decided to pursue his passion.
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The peacock could be his lady love – again am sure these guys would never had time to lead a normal family live, most probably would have been geeky nerds with single minded approach to sculpture. Even if they married, they wouldn’t have spent much time in the pleasures of it.

Now look at the monkey again in the sculpture, he is visibly sad, has a sense of great loss but is also having a kind of searching / questioning face. He is looking at the viewer,as if asking, if all his sacrifices were worth it. what do you say, was it worth it

100th Post – A unique sculpture, an unique person – Dr. Jaybee

This is the 100th posting on this site. A century in a short span would not have been possible without the support of friends, philosophers and guides – but the seed for this effort was sown by a few guiding lights. One such guiding light, who continues to enthrall not only me, but anyone interested in varied subjects from trivia to research thesis – whose sheer propensity to generate articles of interest to a wide audience spanning pre sangam to contemporary living, makes you think if he is a walking encyclopedia – well, How do i introduce this truly multi faceted master of writing – or does he need an introduction at all : yes, its Dr.S. Jayabarathi whose writings (in Tamil and in English) on Tamil history and culture have earned him the respect and affection of enthusiasts world over. He has this amazing ability to judge individuals, an interesting thread or even a small post in some forum and he would call you – clearing your doubt or correcting an error, offering not the answer but show you the path – for the journey is half the pleasure of the goal ! he loves to inspire people to join on this search to understand what a great land we hail from.

( incase there is someone who don’t know him, this is for their benefit :
An introduction
)

I kind of wriggled this post from him, or technically hijacked from his site, but again since we have showcased most of the other sister sculptures of this group, i sought Dr . Jaybee’s kind permission to use his – and he graciously consented. Pray for his long life, so that he can inspire many more like me.


Dr. Jaybee’s site link


This frieze is a panel from the famous group of temples at Bantei Seri. Bantei Seri is 15 miles north-east of Ankor Wat in Cambodia. Bantei Seri is acclaimed as among the most beautiful pieces of sculpture in the world.

“The lacy setting is superbly executed and the balanced rhythm and harmony of the scene itself cannot be surpassed in any work of man” – Reginald le May.

The above piece shows a scene from Mahabharatha. Its the one of the last scenes in the Bharatha War. Duryodhana lay exhausted and wounded, alone after losing everything. The Pandavas wanted to finish the war decisively and came in search of Duryodhana.

Since Duryodhana was alone and the Pandavas were five, he is given the option of fighting with any one of them. Among the five, all the others, except Bhima, were no match for Duryodhana who possessed the strength of ten thousand elephants. Bhima was similarly strong.

Both of them were exponents of warfare with the Gatha aayudham. Though exhausted, Duryodhana had better training and skill in fighting. So a duel of gatha weapons took place. Gatha is a huge mace which is very heavy. It was used to crush opponents, break armour, wreck chariots and kill elephants.

The Pandavas, Krishna, and his elder brother Balarama were watching. Both Duryodhana and Bhima had learned the art of gatha warfare from Balarama. It was a dvantha yuddham which was a fight to the finish. As the fight proceeded, Bhima got tired and became unwary. But Duryodhana still retained his skill and fought a cautious, careful, and alert fight.

At one instance, Duryodhana jumped up high above the level of Bhima’s head. From that vantage position, he aimed and swung his gatha at the head of Bhima in a downward stroke. But at that time, Krishna gestured to Bhima to hit Duryodhana on his left thigh, which was now at level with Bhima’s swing. The left thigh is Duryodhana’s vulnerable part. Duryodhana can only be killed by crushing his left thigh. Krishna knew this and gave the cue to Bhima. Bhima dealt a death-dealing blow which crushed the left thigh of Duryodana. Duryodana fell to the ground, mortally wounded.

When balarama saw what was happening, he swung his Haalaayudham the plough weapon with fury at Bhima for this frank breach of duel code of honour. But Krishna prevented him from harming Bhima.

You can see in the panel, the scene embodying all the dynamism and feelings fully.

At the right, the four Pandavas are seated.

In the centre, Bhima and Duryodhana are fighting. Duryodhana is aloft if the air with a swing and an unswerving aim.


At the left, Balarama is about to hit Bhima with his Haalaayudham. He is being held back by Krishna who is depicted wth four arms.

This is a wonderful piece of sculpture. What is more striking is that THEY have it THERE and we don’t have it here with us.

What is the inspiration for a sculptor – Pallava Mallai

Talk of abstract art, the sculptors of Mahabalipuram have for long captured my imagination. But despite breathing through all their works, i am still not able to comprehend their motives. For their class and perfection, why did they choose such subjects. Sculpting into the hardest stone and sculpting images of Gods is one thing – but take this little known Bas relief in Mahabalipuram – its right behind the Trimurthi cave, is purely a work of master art. The beauty of
this creation mimics the grace of nature.





From the bull elephant’s majestic grace, to its baby playing digging into the sand and its swirling trunk, the mother elephant’s head alone is shown above the Bull elephants body – Oh, such life. Sadly the bigger baby’s head is broken, but from the other three Elephants – look at the skill of the sculptor – the male elephant is shown with manly charm, majestic, the female with a loving almost motherly smile,while the baby is all mischief.

There is no parallel to Pallava sculptor when it comes to this – look at the graceful lines of the peacock. And to top it, the monkey – Oh, i am lost for words here. He seems to be alive and looking up at the viewer. Maybe the Pallava sculptors were alchemists or magicians who could turn living beings into stone by casting a spell or waving a wand. I cannot see these as hammered with chisel on stone, for they are breathed upon. A surreal experience.

The puzzle is as to why they toiled so hard on this panel – for it represents no God, no legend, no mythological scene. Almost like an elaborate florish of an artist on seeing a sunrise, an extempore speech by an orator on a hot debate, an outburst of poetry by a poet on seeing his lady love, the cheruby smile of an infant on seeing his mother – as if the sculpture wanted to capture a scene, just that this was not a mere brush stroke – but years of work! Why did he do it?

Images courtesy : Ponniyin Selvan egroup mallai trip – Mr. Shriram and Mr. Vinjamoor Venkatesh.

The metamorphosis of Thadathagai – the three breasted Queen of Madurai

Recently i was searching for some specific pictures of an early Pandyan cave in Thiruparankundram, hence had made an appeal for viewers near madurai to help with pictures. One of my friends Smt. Shoba Ramakrishnan sent me her collection but it was from the famed Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple. While going through it – i came across this Gem of a sculpture. Initially I was bit hesitant to publish this post, for it concerned usage of certain sensitive ( in these days) descriptions and some explicit sculpture. But was emboldened by the strength of the legend and the need to explain a sculpture as it is. So inorder to prepare myself in advance for any backlash, i tried to seek assistance from friends on authentic texts – found the Thiruvilaiyaadal puranam authored by Paranjyothi Munivar

http://www.shaivam.org/tamil/sta_tiruvilaiyadal_02_u.htm

Ok, enough of beating around the bush – today we are going to see the sculpture and the story behind the three breasted Queen of Madurai – a name so synonymous with the city that the very mention of her name or the city – brings up the other.

Since the legend is long and well known – starting off with the sculpture first. How would a sculptor show a three breasted maiden, who should be ravishingly beautiful, full of pride bordering on manliness, majestic as a ruler, yet befit the title of the future consort of shiva – add to this her fame as the fish eyed one. Simple task for our master sculptor.

Enjoy the sculpture first

Now we go to the legend, the Pandyan King Malayadhwaja was a great devotee of Shiva and Shakti. Despite this, the couple were unhappy that they did not have any issues and as a King, he had to have a male heir to continue running the Kingdom. Hence, King Malayadhwaja along with his wife Kanchanamala perform a penance. From the great yaga, a three year old girl comes out of the fire. The child was ‘Ayonija’ (not born out of the womb). However, the King was shocked to see that she had three breasts. He pleads that he has been a devote follower and done the penance according to strict rules, yet he has been blessed not with a boy but with girl and she too with three breasts. Just then a divine voice is heard

“Don’t fear. Whatever has taken place is for good only. You bring up this child like a man. Whatever education and training is given for a man, all such education may be given to this child. Name her Thadathagai ( endowed with irresistible valour) When she sees the man who is to be her husband, the third breast will disappear. ”

Since she had eyes shaped beautifully like fishes (Meena) she was called Meenakshi. She grew to be a very beautiful young woman despite her birth defect. After the Kings’ demise, she ruled the country herself – Her valor was unparalleled and she wa unmatched in battle. Kingdom after kingdom fell to her might till she had no one else to conquer by Shiva himself. Destiny drove her on and she marched with her massive army to Kailash to face Shiva.

Shiva meantime, knew of this and came to meet her – clad in his tiger skin, sporting snake ornaments, sacred white ash allover his body, wearing the sacred thread – he smiled knowingly at her. In that instant she realised who she was, the third breast dissapeared, the manly valor gave way to feminine shyness, as she realised it was Shiva her beloved, who had given half of himself for her – who was in front of her…

Our friend tiger belly again – Srinivasanallur Koranganatha Temple

We had seen earlier the interesting belly face of Shiva’s assistant in the Mahabalipuram great penance panel. While i was discussing this with Kathie sometime back, she immediately recognised a similar face ( brilliantly) this time from an early Chola temple – situated 50 kms from Trichy – compared to the later temples this pocket sized temple is packed with so much of sculptural beauty – The magnificent Koranganathar temple in Srinivasanallur,

The temple is situated on the banks of the river Cauvery at Srinivasanallur. It is not a ‘living’ temple. “..Early Chola temples were small with no walls around them. Koranganatha temple 50 km from Trichy is the garbhagriha-and-mandapa type with beautiful sculptures on every surface. The base of the wall has a row of sculpted mythical animals called yazhi that is a special feature of Chola architecture. The first floor is made of bricks which have been plastered. This temple is a prototype of south-style architecture…” Takeo Kamiya in Architecture of the Indian SubContinent

Well, beautiful sculptures is putting it mildly, we will see the beauty of its sculptures in subsequent posts. But today we are to see just a panel – a decorative lintel panel, called Thorana or more correctly a Magara Thorana. This sculpture kind of symbolises the entire temple, for the amount of detailing that’s gone into this piece of stone is mind blowing. Lets take a look at the panel now.

Set high above the wall above two spectacular damsels ( we will see them later – just that dont want to divulge from the subject) the myriad of creatures – from mythical riders riding spectacular lion yaazhis, who themselves emerge from the mouths of larger Yaazhis, they seem to be at war with each other or just sporting ( This seems to be a popular motif among Cholas – with more definition for such sculptures in Pullamangai, Big temple and Darasuram – we will see them also soon)

The main character in the panel seems to be Vishnu as the Boar saving Mother Earth – he is shown with four hands – with the top two hands holding up his standard weapons, he is full of victorious/ triumphant energy – see him sporting her on his left lap – Mother Earth is all devotion, relieved at being rescued shown praying with folded hands. That the sculptor has gone to such lengths to portray even the Naga King and queen in such a miniature but with intricate details ( see them just coming into frame under Varaha murthy)

Noticeably one of the Ganas has the head of a bull – the one to the extreme left bottom. – just abvoe him is our little friend. We saw him in the Mallai penance panel – her he is again, this time upto more mischief, making faces by pulling his mouth with his index finger. The tiger yazhi in the belly seems more gruesome here. Have one more instance of such a belly faced Gana in Pullamangai ( if readers find any more please send us), not all Ganas are depicted thus. So do they have a name, a specific role – like the bull head one, the tiger belly etc??

Words cant be found, no praise too much to drink in this splendid creation. Just makes you sit back and let it fill your senses.

Thanks to Shriram for the temple pictures ( more to come) and Kathie for the panel and for identifying this for me.

Door Guardians – part 1, Elephanta

I had been wanting to run a series on Door guardians for some time. We have already seen a few like the massive ones in Tanjore Big temple, the mace carriers in Mangadapattu – these lovely sculptures in their myriad forms are a delight to watch, sadly not many people even spend a second looking at them – to marvel at the detailing of their costumes, assortment of weapons and fangs and their facial expressions. Will start to showcase them one by one from now on.

I am choosing this particular one to start the series formally – ones of my favorite sculptures and is part of our site’s logo. Also mumbai has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently and the scene of that mindless violence is near to our subject today.

The door guardian from Elephanta.

Why i chose this sculpture as the logo for this site, is the message this work in stone conveys. Having stood the test of time, sculpted to protect its master from peril, this particular door guardian is badly mutilated, he has lost all his limbs and the bare torso remains. After a 1000 years of dutifully discharging his role the door guardian met his match – with the Portuguese in the 17th C. What it takes in a man however barbaric to use such an immaculate sculpture for target practise for their rifles defies my mind. Even the hardest hearted men, would stop to appreciate the artistic beauty of these creations. The guardian was more a symbolic protector, sculpted to reign in the mind, to create a sense of awe amongst the visitor, to channel his mind to the main deity, to ensure that he rid himself of all other thoughts and focus purely on the God. The rough stone worked on by the skilled craftsmen, toiling long hours to shape these marvels in stone – were no match for the Portuguese guns – is it the punishment for the door guardian to be so left – maimed and to suffer this fate for failing in his duty?

No, one look at his proud face, tells you that he is indeed the victor. The radiance emanating from his calm face, if anything has multiplied by the disfigurement. Truly the triumph of art, its universal appeal and lasting quality – sheer poetry in stone. Hence he finds his pride of place as an apt carrier for our site’s logo.

To give you an idea of his location, here are more pictures – next time you go to Mumbai please do not miss to take the boat to Elephanta and see him.

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Now to give you a sense of scale of this creation, i am posting this picture – these are the same scale as our man, but are on the adjacent side of the same wall.

Does the Tanjore Big Temple Vimana cast a shadow?

After reading the previous post on the Big temple Vimana Nandhi, lot of friends wrote in on the very popular `myth’ of the big temple vimana shadow not falling on the ground. The cholas are known for their meikeerthi – in tamil – mei – true, keerthi – fame, kind of invocation address ( prasithi in sanskrit) – so lets look at the Big temple – its needs no Poi Keerthi ( Poi – lie) to keep its fame. Its by itself a marvel of construction and ingenuity. So for good order sake I am using more of Sri Kudavoil Balasurbramaniam sir’s pictures to put to rest this popular misconception.

There are many versions of this myth, from the shadow of the whole Vimana doesn’t fall, shadow of the top copola doesn’t fall, the top Kalasam ( pot/spire) doesn’t fall etc.

It does fall.

For further reading below newspaper articles.

http://www.hindu.com/lf/2004/03/30/stories/2004033001340200.htm
http://www.hindu.com/2004/04/07/stories/2004040703010300.htm

Parvathi’s penance to unite with Shiva – Darasuram

When Satheesh told me that he was planning to go to Darasuram, I immediately asked him to take some pictures of the amazing pillar sculptures in the pillared hall. He obliged with some delightful pictures. They depict some lovely scenes from the birth of Lord Murugan. Though the Sanskrit work of Kalidasa ( Kumarsambhava) deals with this in epic proportions we searched for an authentic south Indian version. With help from Vairam (who runs the popular Karka nirka blog) we chanced on the rare work of Kachchiyappa Sivaachaaryar in Project Madurai Archives – Kandhapuranam.

The background is thus – We have earlier seen the stories of Dhaksha – wherein disgusted with the insults heaped on her beloved by her own father Dhaksha, Dhakshayini the consort of Shiva – jumps into the sacrificial fire to rid herself of all ties with Dhaksha. Stricken with grief, Shiva leads the life of an hermit. The demon Surapadhman meantime uses this opportunity to occupy the three worlds and causes innumerable hardship to all – he too is aided by a boon of Brahma – wherein he seeks his end only from an offspring of Shiva -cunningly sought knowing the demise of Shiva’s consort and his life of penance. The Devas use this loophole and to get Shiva interested in the reborn Parvathi – get Kama to shoot his love arrow ( we saw this sculpture as well in Tanjore Big temple) – he being burnt in the process.

The scene now shifts to Parvathi who is reborn as the daughter to the Mountain Himavan and his wife Menaa.

( since we cover the verses in tamil in the tamil version of this post – am giving the sanskrit references here)

http://www.geocities.com/desirajuhrao/ks/sarga1/kssans1.htm

*****Not able to display the sanskrit font right now – am working on it *******

1-21. atha= then; dakShasya kanyaa= Daksha’s, daughter; bhava puurva patnii= Bhava’s [Shiva’s,] former, wife; satii= husband devout wife; satii= Sati Devi named; pituH avamaanena prayuktaa= by father’s, dishonouring, incited; yoga visR^iShTa dehaa= through yoga, discarded, body; janmane= to birth – to take rebirth; taam shaila vadhuum prapede= her, mountain’s, wife, reached.

Then Shiva’s former wife and Daksha Prajaapati’s daughter Sati Devi, being a husband devout wife but incited at her father’s dishonouring discarded her body through yoga, and to take a rebirth she made her appearance before Mena Devi, the wife of the king of mountains. [1-21]

From a very young age she realises her mission and her only goal is to marry Shiva. She undergoes severe penance to attain her goal , the intensity of her penance amazes all the people around, to the extent that they pray to her to stop her penance – which is too strenuous for a 6 year old!!

Finally her penance gets the attention of Shiva, who as is his style, decides to test her resolve. As the tamil text mentioned above, he mockingly comes dressed as a old ascetic and advises Parvathi against such a penance. He ridicules her effort, saying will such acts get her shiva.

But Parvathi stays steadfast in her resolve.

Lets now look at the sculpture. A lovely intricate pillar sculpture from Darasuram. The panel probably read from bottom up – The last two rows, we see all people being amazed at Parvathi’s resolve. Next shows her deep in devotion to Shiva – depicted in Linga form -with three of her friends, with raised hands – maybe praying to her to stop.

The top most shows her – deep in penance, standing on one leg – fire raging both sides. What happened next ..well the rains came and ….to be continued.

Nandhi on Tanjore Temple Vimanam – a debate on its size

There are many myths surrounding the Big temple – from the claim that its shadow never falls on the ground ( it does!!), to that its top is made of single block of stone weighing XX tonnes ( its multiple blocks), that its builder Raja Raja built it to get cured of black leprosy etc.

In my intro post on the tanjore big temple, i had mentioned about this particular picture in this lovely site ( but my views slightly differ from what is shown in this picture alone)
http://www.kumbakonam.info/kumbakonam/thanjavur/images/arcpho/arph31.jpg


I take the above for a critical analysis, with some help from friends – Sri Kudavoil Balsubramaniam sir, gracefully allowed me to share these pictures ( for those of you who have not met him in person, here is a chance to see him) and also Mr. Shriram – shared his excellent closeup of the replaced nandhi and the Vimanam Nandhi’s

Lets first look at the claim on the size of the vimaanam nandhi in the site above. The Nandhi thats on the side corridor is actually the original nandhi installed by Raja Raja. This was later replaced during Nayak times with the now signature black one. ( why was it replaced ! maybe it suffered some damage during Malik Kafur’s infamous raids) – but why is it still retained – need to check. The person next to it is the great man himself – Balu sir. Am putting it not only this, but for you to judge the size of the Nandhi.

Now lets, look at the Vimanam. One is the closeup from Shriram and another is a long shot and a very important one for this post – from Balu sir – taken during the consecration ceremony. It clearly shows us the comparison against the person on the scaffolding.

Lets just zoom in on the pictures and analyse them to scale with the person standing below on the scaffolding as a guide.

Its clear that the Nandhi on the corridor is atleast a foot taller and different stylistically to the one on the vimana. However, it doesnt take any credit away from the size of Raja Raja pinnacle – giving you an idea of its massive dimensions. Just take a minute to sequentially view these amazing captures of the Maha Meru.
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