Tag Archives: big temple

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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Shiva burns the Lord of Love – Tanjore

Today we are going to see another interesting panel from the Tanjore temple ( thanks again to Satheesh). The burning of the Lord of Love – Kama by Siva.

To the uninitiated a short brief on Kamadeva – the god of love – fair complexioned, handsome and the best looking among the gods. He carries a bow made of sugarcane and strung with a line of humming bees. He shoots with his bow the five flower-tipped shafts of desire * . RATI (passion) his wife and his friend VASANTA (spring), who selects for him the shaft to be used on the current victim accompanies him. Kamadeva’s vehicle is the parrot.

{ *couple of months ago in agathiar forum Mr. K. Srikanth posted an interesting article on the flowers that make up Kama’s arrow and his targets / effects. am giving that below – His arrows are of five varieties of flowers. Aravindam which is Lotus, Asokam – Hellebore, Chootham – Mango flower, Navamallika – new Jasmine, and Nilotpala – blue lotus are the five arrows of manmadha. With these arrows he hits five places in the body and creates five different effects.
Unmaadana – ‘unmattam’ or craziness/sillyness happens when manmatha hits with Lotus flower on the chest, rodana – the asoka flower hits the lips makes the person lament/cry with excitement, sosna – the jasmine flower hits the eyes and reddens it (loss of sleep), sammohana – the tender mango flower when hit at the head; makes the person loose their mind and finally the deadly Nilotapal flower stupifies the person to standstillness (Stambhanam).
http://manoranjitam.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/legend-of-kaama/ }

Ok, enough of introductions, we plunge into the story / legend.

The story immediately follows our earlier panel – that of Dhaksha’s beheading. Not able to put up with the insults heaped on her husband by her father, Dhakshayini has immolated herself in the sacrificial fire of Dhaksha. Heartbroken at this, Shiva is deeply immersed in penance. He is hardly aware of what is happening around and in deep meditation.

So when the destroyer is in such state, the forces of evil raise their heads. A demon named Taraka performs a great number of austerities for a great number of years, as usual Brahma is forced to grant an audition – usual dialogue – demon seeks boon of immortality – Brahma refuses – offers something short – This time the demon is wise ( or so he thinks), he knows that Shiva is in deep trance and there is no sign of his consort – he is leading a life of absolute austerity. So he seeks absolute invulnerability from every creation in the universe except a son of Shiva.

Ok, back to familiar script – armed with the boon, Taraka has none to stop him from conquering the worlds and inflicting tremendous hardships on humans and the gods. He defeated the gods one by one and forced them to pay him tribute. Indra was forced to part with his wonderful white horse, Uchchaisravas, which was one of the fourteen precious things that had turned up at the Churning of the Ocean at the beginning of creation. Jamadagni, the great sage, had to give up his celestial cow Kamdhenu, a creature which could fulfill all desires. Kubera, the god of wealth, had to pay tribute to Taraka in the form of a thousand precious sea-horses and Vayu had to obey all of the wicked asura’s commands. Even the sun and the moon were in terror of Taraka and while the sun could not give out any heat the moon was forced to shine all the time. The gods were forced out of their respective heavens and wander about in forests.

The disposed gods regrouped in the forest and tried to come up with the way to vanquish the demon – they blamed Brhama squarely for their debacle and at that point Brahma reminded them of the loophole in the boon. Immediately the Gods set about working on the acilles heel of Tarakasura. But the problem was that Shiva was still mourning Dhakshayini and was living a life of complete celibacy.

Fortunately the divine mother was already reborn as Parvathi ( parvatham – mountain – daugter off) daughter of the Himavan ( Himaalaya mountain) and his wife Manorama.
Parvati was born, exceedingly beautiful and worthy of a potent god like Shiva. When she came of age she realised her mission in life and she herself began to perform many austerities in the hope of attracting Shiva’s attention but that god was still in grief and impervious to all her best efforts.

Indra then turns to Kama, the god of love and desire, to go to Mount Kailash and somehow make Shiva break his self-imposed celibacy. That flighty god fearfully went to Kailash and found Shiva deep in meditation, impervious to all around him. Even the birds and animals in that holy place made no noise. Even the leaves on the trees stayed still and made no sound. Kama dared not proceed with what he had been sent to do and hung about the place wondering what he could do.

So Kama dithered about the place quite uncertain as to how to rouse Shiva’s desire to wed with Parvati. This uncertain situation went on for many days till, one day, suddenly, Kama saw Parvati approach gently and quietly and start picking flowers to offer to her desired lord, Shiva. Kama immediately saw his opportunity and, setting aside his fear of the hot-tempered god, fitted an arrow to his famed bow and aimed at Shiva and let fly. The arrow flew true to its mark, Shiva’s breast. Shiva was rudely shaken out of his meditative trance and his eyes flew open. The first person he saw was the lovely Parvati charmingly picking the colorful flowers. He immediately felt a warm surge of love for her course through his body. Then he saw Kama and he instantly understood the reason for his unforeseen desire. He flew into a rage at what he thought of as Kama’s imprudence and, turning his terrible third eye on that hapless god, reduced him to ashes.

Taking pity at the woes and responding to the pleas of his widow, Rati, Lord Shiva restored her husband but only as a mental image, representing true love and affection and not just physical lust. Hence the other name of Kama Deva is ANANGA (the bodiless).

The rest – is the birth of skanda/muruga and how he becomes the warrior chieftain of the Gods and leads them to a successful campaign to destroy Tarakasura. ( the entire legend is beautifully described in kalidaasa’s immortal work – Kumarasambhava )

A long post but an interesting legend. Lets look at the sculpture now.

The entire panel coming up first for you. The top most row is a groups of ascetics and the bottom most row -Shiva’s faithful assistants. The main story described in three scenes in between.

The first scene – shiva is in deep meditation – watch the beauty of the sculpture, even in this miniature scale the sculptor has managed to sculpt shiva’s closed – meditating eyes ! The handsome Kama ofcourse is aiming his arrow on shiva. (you can vaguely see the smile on his lips)

The second scene, immdly below – we see a falling Kama and a wailing Rathi. Again a slightly damaged sculpture, but the falling kama is shown beautifully. You can also see Rathi wailing beating her hands on her heads ( a very south Indian emotional act)

The last one, to the right of the second scene – we see a resurrected Kama in all devotion and a visibly happy Rathi – taking the blessings of shiva ( who has a large assitant – bootha gana beside him)

This reminds me of a similar scene in cambodia – Banteay Srei complex, which we will see in the next post.

There are many references in Thevaram on this episode, ( thanks to Mr.V. Subramaniam ) quoting a couple below;

http://www.thevaaram.org/thirumurai_1/songview.php?thiru=4&Song_idField=41030&padhi=103&startLimit=3&limitPerPage=1&sortBy=&sortOrder=DESC


fixing the pure and soft flowers as arrows in the bow of the sugar-cane.
putting into use the fire the Lord in nākaikkārōṇam who destroyed with the frontal eye kāmaṉ to become ash!
praising your names.
grant your grace to utter the five letters of namaccivāya on the day when I die.
our Lord who does good to devotees!
Translation: V.M.Subramanya Aiyar–Courtesy: French Institute of Pondichery / EFEO (2006)

http://www.thevaaram.org/thirumurai_1/songview.php?thiru=12&Song_idField=1228&padhi=72&startLimit=476&limitPerPage=1&sortBy=&sortOrder=DESC


“O Nectar that devoured the venom of the ocean
To save the Deva-throng of devotees,
O pure and purifying Lord unknowable
To the tall Vishnu and the Four-faced Brahma,
O One whose jewel is the snake of blue-hued poison!
O Holy Lord who, when Rati prayed to You,
Resurrected Kaaman who was reduced to cinders!
O beauteous Lord of Marukal girt with fragrant
And flowery gardens! Pray, save me!
Translation: T.N. Ramachandran

Murugan and Valli – the Chola version

Mr. Sreenivasan had raised a nice question for the previous post on the marriage of Valli with Muruga. Thanks to Satheesh again, we are going to see the original Chola version of the legend in sculpture.

This is a slightly unclear sculpture, and hence we need to infer quite a bit. Its again a beautiful panel, but much withered. It is split into three scenes top to bottom. There is also a smaller panel running right next to it – with a still undeciphered story of Muruga, which we will see at the end.

The full panel can be viewed below, since we have already seen the legend in much detail, we go to the sculpture straight away.

We see Muruga as the old man ( he is carrying an umbrella now) talking to Valli ( who is seated on a much lower Paran)

The next scene – we see a much smaller elephant -more like an elephant calf than a scary raging bull – with muruga who has taken his original form and valli kind of offering a salute!!

The last scene is more unclear – Valli is shown with hands raised upwards – praying?? and the elepant (now it resembles an elephant) with Murugan seated on top going away.

The last two we see the hunters of Valli’s tribe.


The adjacent panel – again top to bottom we see a devotee of muruga praying by a tree, then below we see Muruga ( identified by his cylindrical crown and other regal ornaments) standing next to a seated goddess under an umbrella ( Devasena ??). the last shows him with his two consorts – valli and devasena ( a beautiful depiction) with his peacock sculpted under.

Shiva kicks Yama – the God of death

Today, once again thanks to some delightful camera work by Satheesh, we are going to see one of my favorite sculptures. But this time not as much for the sculptural beauty but more for its story content. The story of Markandeya, was a popular bedtime song for us and my dad used to put us to sleep often with the rendition – have heard it so many times and today my son goes to sleep hearing the same, that i was overjoyed at seeing this sculpture.

Ok, story first.

Mrikandu was a devote saint ( rishi). He lived offering daily prayers to Lord Shiva with his wife Marudvati. Though they lived a peaceful existence, the couple had one unfullfilled wish – they did not have any children and they longed for a son. The rishi prayed to Shiva and pleased with his devotion, Shiva appeared and granted him the boon, but as usual he put a twist in it. He offerred them a choice, either they have a hundred sons who will be dumb and foolish but live a long life or have one very intelligent son, but will live for only sixteen years.

The rishi contemplated and decided to have the one intelligent son. Shiva blessed the couple and in due course they had a baby boy – they named him Markandeya. The boy grew to be very intelligent and handsome. Markandeya was a born genius and learnt the Vedas and Sastras easily. He was the darling of everyone, but as he got older, he noticed that his father seemed to nurse some bad news – for he was getting more and more sadder. Markandeya was smart enough to notice this and he asked his dad to tell him the truth. His dad wept and told him that as per the deal of the boon, by the end of that year, he would be sixteen and hence they had to give him up. He could not bear to even think of giving up such a splendid son.

Hearing this, Markandeya immediately took stock – his parents gave birth to him, his teachers his knowledge but only shiva coud give him prolonged life – so he set his heart into utmost devotion to Shiva and promised his Dad that he would do enough to please shiva that he will not let him die. Thus he made a shiva linga and was eternally offering prayers to it.

On the appointed day, Yama, the Lord of death, came on his black buffalo vehicle, swinging his lasso ( he uses it to pull the souls whose time on the earth is over, out of the physical body) – seeing him Markandeya ran to the shiva lingam, with yama close on heels chasing him, swirling his rope. Markandeya ran and hugged the shiva linga so close, that the only way Yama could fasten the rope around him was with the shiva linga. Yama in his haste did exactly that, he threw his noose round the boy’s neck, and pulled him along with the Shiva- Linga.

At that instant, The shiva Linga burst open and Shiva came out of it, Shiva was in great rage, he kicked Yama so violently that the Lord of death almost died!! Shiva thus saved his devotee and since the boon/curse was that Markandeya would have only 16years to live on this earth, he blessed Markandeya to be forever 16 ( endrum Pathinaaru ) – how many of us would love to have such a boon today !!

Now, have a look at the delightful panel from Tanjore Big temple – split into three frames, top to bottom. the top frame, we have a fiery Yama chasing Markandeya and the hapless boy clinging on to the Siva lingam for dear life.

The second frame, you have an angry Shiva kicking Yama who is sprawled on the floor ( one of the images is from another friend Srivatsan taken a year back – you can see the damage that these 1000 year old miniatures are undergoing – the Trident in the hands of shiva has been worn off this year !!!)

The last frame – the detailing is lost on the left, but you get to see a visibly relieved Markandeya offering thanks to Shiva with folded hands.

This legend has been sung by Appar in many verses and you can look them up here.

http://www.thevaaram.org/thirumurai_1/songview.php?thiru=4&Song_idField=4107&padhi=113+&button=%E0%AE%9A%E0%AF%86%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%95

to save Mārkkāṇṭēyaṉ, the bachelor, who worshipped him with flowers to be free from the sufferings of birth born of ignorance.
kicking the cruel god of death who had a twisted tongue, hairs as red as fire, curved white teeth and a dark body, [causing him] to tremble with fear.
the superior god who dwells in Kaṭavūr has the lotus red feet with which he caused the god of death to roll on the ground in this manner.
The central idea of the first nine verses is Civaṉ killing the god of death to protect Mārkkaṇṭēyaṉ who worshipped Civaṉ in this shrine.
Translation: V.M.Subramanya Aiyar–Courtesy: French Institute of Pondichery / EFEO (2006)

Shiva cuts off the head of his Father in Law – Tanjore Big temple

My friend Mr.Satheesh Kumar is an ardent sculpture lover like me and he offered to get me some nice photos of the tanjore big temple. Little did i realise that he will get me such a rich collection. We are going to see one interesting panel from his collection today.

As usual, we go for the story first:

Shiva’s consort Parvathi is born to Dhaksha – the king of mountains ( she is fondly called malai magal – in tamil – malai – mountain, magal – daughter). When she comes of age, she expresses desire to marry Shiva ( as is destined), but being a vain king, Dhaksha ( he himself being the son of Brahma) refuses to give his youngest daughter, whom he so lovingly brought up, in marriage to shiva – for he considers him uncouth, wearing animal hides and living in the cemetery, accompanied by ghouls/demons/ etc.But Shiva marries Parvathi and Dhaksha is not able to stand this insult.

He plots his revenge,and tries to insult Shiva, by organising a massive penance/sacrifice, but doesn’t invite Shiva, the foremost of Gods. However,hearing of this big event in her home, Parvathi’s heart and love for her family, makes her plead with shiva to let her go and attend the function. Shiva cautions her, that she will not be welcome and doesnt give her permission to go. However, love blinds the eyes of paravathi and despite the advise of Shiva, she lands us as an uninvited guest in Dhaksha’s palace. There she is not given any respect and is witness to all insults thrown at Shiva. Not being able to bear these and having acted against the advise of her husband, in anguish she kills herself in the sacrificial fire ( meaning, she gets rid of her material body which had affection to family there itself and takes her divine form). However, this enrages Shiva and he cuts the head of dhaksha and throws it into the sacrificial fire.

A bit later, Brahma and other rishis come and plead with Shiva, to forgive Dhaksha. Shiva obliges, but since the original head has already been consigned to flames,he cuts off the head of a sacrificial lamp and fits it on Dhaksha’s head ( inter species head transplant – how is it?)

Now lets look at the sculpture – Satheesh has masterfully taken the pictures to give you an idea size ( with ball pens for scale)

The story board is broke into two sides of the staircase – on one side is the beheading episode and on the other is the head transplant. wonderful depictions.

See the first part, the assembled guests are shown – towards the back of the composition against the wall. Then you see Shiva seated in a lovely pose, with Parvathi leaning non nonchalantly with one arm on nandhi. she is flanked by her assistant to her right.


The crucial scene kind of flow through the entire panel – Dhaksha’s severed torso is shown, fallen to the ground, with his wife lamenting with her hands towards the sky, and shiva is shown clutching the severed head by the hair and dropping into the sacrificial fire ( he has an evil looking sword in his hand – kind of reminds of the blade – neck cutting video’s we saw from iraq)…the priest who is next to the fire is turning away in disgust.


To the right of the composition, we see three ladies and three men – faces turned in aghast at the beheading and almost freezing to flee – their highly strung bodies about to run away – towards the end we see much mutilated but clearly – two beings running away from the scene ( note the size of the composition with the ball pen scale)

The other side – is a prettier picture – a beautiful standing depiction of Shiva, complete with his axe and deer, with a snake adorning his waist – being pleaded to by Brahma, looked on by three rishis. The final scene, we see a revived Dhaksha with a Ram’s head, in all humility,bowed along with the others – showing deep respect for shiva.


A delightful panel. Trust you enjoyed it as much as i did. i loved the depiction of shiva with the snake hanging by the waist.

Exotic Meat for the Lord – A monitor Lizard

We had earlier seen how Kannappar defied conventional practise by wearing sandals. Today we are going to see him present a monitor lizard to Shiva. Again, the Tanjore Big temple sculpture – the deeds of the shaivite saints so en captured the fertile mind of Raja Raja Chola, that he loved their amazing lives and depicted them on the walls of his great temple.
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Its a small sculpture, more like a story board of sculptures depicted the story of Saint Kannappar, but what interested me was this depiction of him presenting this meat ( being a hunter you can see him still clinging on to his boy and arrow, plus his hunting dog comes into the frame as well). The divine bliss resplendent on his radiant face, as he, with total devotion, presents the meat to the shiva lingam.

Is there a devaram reference to this,ofcourse there is, how else would the chola sculpture depict such an act!!
Eleventh Thirumurai

As per the verse out of his extreme love for the lord, he presents a fat uncooked lizard to him.

For more of this amazing story and depiction in the big temple, please read this lovely post of Mr. Gokul ( watch the Priest Siva Gochariar, hiding behind the tree, in the climax scene)

Gokul’s lovely post

Images courtesy: www.varalaaru.com

Arjuna gets the Pasupatha Astra – Chola version

Hi,

In our earlier posts, we saw the famous penance panel of Mahabalipuram and how the Pallava Sculptor masterfully handled it. Now we run ahead 300 years to come to the Big temple in Tanjore.

The pinnacle of Chola art, the great contribution of Raja Raja Chola to south Indian temple architecture – everything about this temple is big, massive, yet today we are seeing a very small wall panel sculpture.

There are a lot of interesting books on the big temple ( every stone there is a subject for research), but to me this book was most useful in helping me identify a lot of these sculptures.

Iconography of the Brihadisvara temple by dr francoise lhernault.

This particular composition is called the Pasupatha astra dana murthi, its a very lively composition and exquisitely crafted. First, lets see the full panel in relief.
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At first glance, seems to be a maze of characters. so lets focus on line by line – bottom up

The row starts with a host of Shiva bootha Ganas ( goblins! for want of a better word) slowly morphing into a wild boar – need to check back the actual story. ***
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Arjuna is advised to beef up his nuclear stockpile and aims at getting the Pasuptha astra from Shiva -he dsoe severe penance. Pleased with his penance, shiva comes with his consort, but as is his wont, wants to sportingly jest with him – to see if he truly has the skill to wield the great weapon. So he comes disguised as a hunter and both seem to shoot down a boar ( was the boar sent by shiva – so could be logical that he sent his attendant himself ) at the same time. Soon an argument ensures as to who will take the prize and both of them engage on a one to one combat. It goes on for a long time, and Arjuna is visibly tired, yet the hunter shows no sign of tiring. This makes Arjuna realise that he is up against a divine force and he submits to his grace. Shiva reveals himself and grants him his weapon.

Now we step back to the panel and see how masterfully the sculptor has interwoven the principal characters….

ok the Gana morphing into a boar could be one of our assumptions.
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then we see Arjuna up on one leg in penance – not as emaciated as the mallai version ( so maybe the mallai one is Bagiratha who is said to have been in penance for a much longer duration)

The next is the famous face off pose ( remember the one from Kanchi Kailasantha temple) –
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you can see how the sculptor has sculpted parvati with a baby skanda clinging to her in such a miniature..amazing.
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Next to them,looks like Brahma, Vishnu and Lakshmi watching the amazing duel. ( but it mallai panel we see Vishnu encased in a temple !!) and a host of other gods.
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We now come to the third tier – the panel read right to left as we see it – all the gods seem to give a hats off salute to the Arjuna – who is in all revenue, head bowed, folded hands – while the majestic posture of Shiva

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– oh, how can i describe it aptly in words – one arm non chalantly on his bent knee, while the other resting on his consort – Parvati too is amazingly graceful. While surprise surprise, a small bootha gana seems to be handing over the boon/weapon ( sadly no belly face for him – remember the belly tiger face of the gana in mallai – will post a seperate thread on him soon)
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The last, looks like Shiva, Parvati ( with baby Skanda on her hip – what a lovely lively depiction) returning to their abode.
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The fourth tier – also has a host of celestials in the act of saluting the great event.
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The last characters – seem to be a ascetic giving a discourse to an ardent pupil – is this the great sage Vyasa dictating the Mahabharata? 1307

** I did some checking and found the actual story – credit to Mr. V. Subramaniam for giving me the correct references from a delightful song from Saint Sambandar’s Devaram ( Tirumurai 1.48.6)

The song indicates it was an asura ( demon) – Mukasura who was disturbing Arjuna’s penance.

More information on the legend

http://www.shaivam.org/siddhanta/makira.html

purANa of the deity

kirAtar : the hunter

This is the only form of Lord Shiva in which He appeared black in color. arjuna wanted to get the peerless weapon pAsupatAstram from Lord Shiva for the battle of mahAbharata. He left the other four pANdavAs, went to the forest and did austere tapas for getting the boon of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva was satisfied with his prayer, wanted to give the pAsupatAstram to him, but wanted to play a bit too. He took the form of a Hunter with Shakthi as Huntress. That time a demon by name mUkAsura, who was in the form of wild pig came to kill arjuna. To kill the wild pig arjuna fired an arrow from the front, at the same time the Hunter, Who is none other than God Himself, attacked it from the back and killed the pig.

arjuna mocked at the Hunter for firing the arrow from the back. Having great pride of his valor, he was als angry at the Hunter because He aimed at his prey. The Hunter responded that attacking an animal from the back is not against rules of hunting. An argument broke out. They decided to fight deciding who was more valorous between them. The Hunter cut the string in arjuna’s bow with His arrow in the fight! Angered and excited, arjuna started wrestling. He couldn’t match the Lord, and the Lord enjoyed his fighting. At one point of time in wrestling arjuna held the foot of the Hunter. As the Lord is pleased when somebody catches His holy feet, He stopped wrestling appeared with pArvati revealing Who He is. Shocked arjuna pleaded for forgiveness, as he was trying to fight with the Supreme out of his ignorance. However the God, Who is pleased by devotion, blessed him and gave him the invincible pAsupatAstra. (In some books it is told that arjuna couldn’t fight with the Hunter, he started worshipping the Shiva Lingam. To his astonishment he found the flowers he offered to the Lingam on the head of the Hunter. Then he prostrated before the Hunter and the Lord revealed Himself). This can be found in detail in kirAtArjuniyam of bhAravi and mahA bhArata.