Tag Archives: Nayanmaar

All for a Mango – not the one you know, Karaikkal Ammai

The previous post of Karaikkal Ammai in cambodia, created quite a few responses. Many wanted to know more about her life and some on her weird features. Had left out that part in the previous post precisely to generate this interest. Her divine songs not withstanding, what better way to showcase her life story and answer all the questions by way of this tower sculpture from Tiruvalangadu temple. (thanks to Mr. V. Subramanian, who has helped me often with interesting verses from rich tamil bakthi literature)

First the sculpture, its a storyboard,showing the three main aspects of her life. From left to right, Her marriage, the mango creating the confusion and then her ascent to Shiva’s heavenly abode – Kailash, on her head!!!

Ok, the detailed story goes thus

( thanks – http://www.geocities.com/shivaperuman/karaikal.html)

In the prosperous town, Karaikkal belonging to the Chola kingdom, Punitavatiyar was born to a prosperous business man Danadattan . She grew to be a beautiful damsel and her beauty was compared to that of Goddess Lakshmi. As she grew up so did her devotion and love for Lord shiva and all his devotees.

In due course of time, she married a eligible businessman Paramatattan of Nagappatinam. They stayed in karaikkal and enjoyed all the pleasures of wedlock. The couple devoted much time in thier devotion to lord shiva and regularly served his devotees with good food and clothes.

Ok, enough of the happy days, paramatattan is given two delicious ( special) mangoes and he sends it to his wife through a servant intending to have it during his lunch. Just at that moment a hungry Saivite saint comes to her door, and since she had’nt yet prepared the side dishes, she served him plain rice with the mango ( since she had two, she must have felt her husband would have one and the other hers and hence gave hers away). The saint had his fill, blessed her and left.

Now, the husband gets back, sits down for lunch, finishes rice, side dishes and the one mango ( must be good eater like me) and since the fruit tasted heavenly, asks for the other one as well. This puts her in a fix and she goes inside as though to bring the fruit, her faith leads her to pray of the scared feet of Lord shiva -and lo behold, by the grace of her Lord , a mango drops into her hands. Full of devotion to the Lord for his infinite grace towards her, she serves the fruit to her husband.

But thats not it, the fruit ( being divine) tastes heavenly and the husband gets wind of something amiss. So he questions her, that this is not the other fruit, as this tastes out of this world. Fearing the worst, she speaks the truth. Her husband refuses to believe her and challenges her to repeat the feat. She goes inside and prays again to her lord and he who never fails his devoted subjects, graces her with another mango. She takes it to her husband but just as he takes it in his hand, it vanishes.

On seeing this he trembles with fear, and realises the godliness of his wife, but then the thought of her diviness, drew him away from her and he realised that he could not live with her anymore. So he tells her some story and goes off on a business trip never intending to return.

He lands in Pandya land, his voyages earning him lots of wealth and he decides to start life afresh. Sees a beautiful lady and marries her. They are blessed with a baby girl and he names her punithavathi in remembrance of his first wife.

she meantime, is still waiting for his return but news soon reaches her of his new life/wife. Her relatives take her to Pandya land, but on seeing her, her husband falls at her feet, saying how can he live with her now that she is a goddess – fit for worship.

On hearing her husband speaking like this, Punitavatiyar worshipped the feet of lord Siva in her mind and appealed to him to take away her physical frame which was united in wedlock to Paramatattan and bless her with the form of a ghost. Her prayers were answered and in front of the relatives and friends she got the form of a ghost. relatives wondered abd worshiped her in fear and left that place.

Punitavatiyar who got a ghostly form by the grace of God says with.’I also became one of the ghosts she sang ‘wonderful Tiru-antathi’. Then praising the qualities of Lord Siva she sang ‘Tiru-Irattai-Manimalai’.

Ever growing in devotion, she started journeying towards Tiruk-kailai, the abode of Lord Siva. Those who saw her went away from her in fear. But she thought thus : “It is sufficient if my Lord knows me, when these people do not know the truth of my having become ghost by the grace of Lord Siva. yet maybe seen in any form”. So thinking she craseed many northern states and turned her steps to kailas, and reached it. Not willing to place her feet on the sacred place, she moved along on her head.

When she thus reached the top of the mountain, Goddess, Uma wondered and asked Lord Siva about the approaching figure’s infinite love towards him. lord Siva said, “she is our devotee. She got ghostly form by my grace on her request to me.

When Punitavatiyar, in ghostly form reached him, Lord Siva called her ‘Ammai’ meaning mother. With joy she cried oh / Father / fell at his feet and worshipped him. From that moment, Punitavatiyar came to be known as the ‘Mother of Karaikkal.’ The Lord asked here what boon she wanted from him. She pleaded with God, “Oh Lord I pray for constant devotion to you. I must not have birth again, then I must be granted remembrance of you without lapse. I wish to stay at your feet always witnessing your cosmic dance”

Lord Siva granted her wishes and said that in Tiru-Alankatu she would see his dance can remain singing happily about him for ever. Accordingly she reached that place Tiru-Alankatu by walking on her head. Seeing the celestial dance of the Lord, she sang patikam(decade) beginning with the words ‘Konkai tiranki’. ‘ Enjoying the dance of the Lord and growing in devotion she sang another patikam, beginning with the words ‘Etti elavam’ How to praise Punitavatiyar who was called as mother by Lord Siva, the Father and Mother of all creation, and who was blessed to be at the lotus feet of Lord Siva for ever witnessing his divine dance? None can describe her ardent love towards Lord Siva.

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.
1880188718901884
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

Enchanting Ascetic, Mesmerising Mohini

One of our viewers commented on the post of Sri Dhivakar, as to why despite lots of Shiva Bhikshadana forms being present, why i chose to depict only a few? A very good question and the answer is, inorder for the depth and beauty of his post to reach the audience, i kind of underplayed the sculptural content. Well it does give me a chance to run a sequel to that post.

So here you have Shiva Bhikshanda, you heard the story previously, now see how the master sculptor not only depicted the main form but also brought in the entire scene into his sculpture.

The Kailasantha temple in kanchi, is the grand creation of the great pallava kind Raja simhan, the temple was addressed as the big stone temple, but Great Raja Raja chola himself. Coming from someone who built the grandest of temples it quite a compliment and its not an exaggeration.. Every panel in the magnificent creation is sheer poetry and a delight to watch. Lets take the great shiva bhikshadana panel in long shot. Its beautifully framed by the famous prancing lion yaalis of raja simha. What grace and what artistic brilliance. Before we go into the main sculpture, we can see the left hand index finger of shiva pointing up – whats is it pointing to, the amazing dance of shiva ( see the similarity in the depiction to the one we saw in the mallai olakaneshwara temple)

Ok, lets come back to the composition. Shiva is the charming ascetic, the form of the sculpted youth exudes youth, vitality, the nakedness of his lower body, the grace of his bent knee, the slight flex of his left foot with the sandals, the broad shoulders, the nonchalant manner in which is right hand rests on his staff, the begging bowl stuck into his palm, the mischievous grin on his face – all portray youthful exuberance.


Not being content with this masterly depiction, the sculptor continuous with his story board, two rishi wives, are charmed by shiva, captivated by his grace and prostrate at his feet. Seeing this an angry rishi is rushing at shiva, raising his left hand to strike him.

Is there a reference in verse to this, yes there is.
4th Tirumurai

has the instruments such as kokkarai, cymbals and vīṇai to measure time when the youth dances.
adorns his waist with chank beads.has a cobra of five hoods.
remove the snake-bite, 5 he is in vakkari a shrine nāka īccaravaṉār has a form in which the waist is naked without cloth and caused the wives of the sages of tārukāvaṉam to be infatuaged with love.
Translation: V.M.Subramanya Aiyar–Courtesy: French Institute of Pondichery / EFEO (2006)

Ok, but what about the Mohini we saw earlier -thats from the Kanchi Devarajaswami temple pillar. Her you can again see the skill of the sculptor and more so his playfull intelligence.

The rishis are not only drunk on the bewitching charm of Vishnu as mohini, but are also getting drunk on the beverage which she is serving. They are thus shown in various stages of intoxication.

Is there a reference in verse to this, yes there is

2nd Tirumurai


you spread yourself into many living beings and worlds you absorbed them into you at the end of the world you created all the living beings which had a short respite, to be born again, in order that they may be get respite for a short while from their Karmams yourself and the noble-minded Māl who bent the wild lime tree got separated and joined together you desired the cremation ground where corpses come and felt joy in staying there
Translation: V.M.Subramanya Aiyar–Courtesy: French Institute of Pondichery / EFEO (2006)

Back from the Crocodile’s belly

In an earlier post we saw how Hanuman came out alive from a Crocodile’s belly. Now, we are going to see another such feat.

Darasuram has some amazing miniature story board like freezes. One such depicts the Periapuranam legend of Saint Sundarar, by his infinite devotion to Lord Shiva, making a crocodile regurgitate a boy.
1640
The story goes thus, in the town of Avinashi, two young boys, close friends just completing their 5th year, go for a swim in a nearby lake. Unfortunately a large crocodile swallows one of the boys, while the other manages to escape and return home. The loss of their dear son greatly grieved the parents and they never managed to get over the grief.

Couple of years pass and the other boy is old enough for his thread ceremony, so his family prepares for it in great fanfare, a festival atmosphere prevails with beating of the ceremonial drums etc. On seeing this the parents who had lost their young child, are reminded that if not for the unfortunate incident, their home would also be bedecked and resound with similar joy and celebrations. So great was their loss that years couldn’t lessen their lament.

To their good fortune. the great saint Sundarar had taken an invitation from his dear friend Cheraman Perumal to see him in tiruvelam. so as he was moving there from thiruvaroor, he passed through Avinashi. As he was passing the street, he heard laughter, rejoicing and all auspicious sounds from one house and from the other house he heard the heart wrenching lament. he inquired around and learnt the story of the two boys. Just then the weeping parents heard that the great saint was passing by, and they wiped their tears and being true devotees of shiva, offered their respects to him. Moved by their devotion and wanting to alleviate their suffering, the saint decided that he would resurrect their son and then only worship the god in the town’s temple. So he composed his divine verse right there, imploring the Lord – who loves his worshipers, he who dwells eternally in the minds of his followers,
he who is the start and end point of all, he who resides in this beautiful town of avinashi, please bring forth the boy on this tank bund.
16371642
Lo and behold there came the crocodile and regurgitated the boy, much to the delight of his parents and all around. Thus is the grace of the lord and his benevolence to his followers.

Thanks to Mr. V. Subramanian, for his valuable guidance with regard to the verse references.
http://www.geocities.com/nayanmars