Tag Archives: perur

Hear my sad tale – Temple Pillars of Perur

Its been another eventful December in the land of ancestors and thanks to friends, have tonnes of information to feature. Quite a few sad sights were also there, but nothing as shocking as the plight of the temple pillars of Perur. I had earlier featured the amazing pillar – which describes the story of Hanuman coming out of the crocodile’s belly.

Hanuman escapes from a crocodile -perur

But the orientation of the pillars in the previous post was not correct. Verified my doubts this time – the pillar in antique photo is the one that was broken n found in the garden inside the temple.

While the unbroken pillar is seen behind the door of the shop on your left as you pass the main gopuram entrance.

Apart from that broken pillar, there were many more pillars stacked in the small garden.


So, this time with news of the Temple restoration ( always view that with circumspect dread !) and consecration – went over to get another view of the beauties in the temple.

After parking our vehicle, before going inside the temple, i went over to the small sculpture shop ( sirppak koodam) to pay respects to the artists. But what greeted me churned my insides and almost made me faint.

Sewage and refuse covering up the beautiful pillars albiet damaged, they could be shown some respect. My worst fears were confirmed, yes – the Hanuman pillar has also been dumped into the trash.

When only Gold and diamonds are considered precious and when even they are not secure, what value are these mere stone carvings to these mortals.

Hanuman escapes from a Crocodile – Perur

Pillar sculptures are a treat and when they are in the hands of a master story teller – then its double the entertainment. Sadly, most of these tales have been lost on us, and so we cannot appreciate what is said by the sculptor. We take one such sculpture today from Perur.

Bordering the side of the shops, most visitors would miss this interesting tell tale or tale telling sculpture. We need to did back into the British Univ archives to dig out this frame.

Can’t find him, here you go.

To give you an orientation, the steps you see are the steps to the Kanagasabhai. so you can visualise where this pillar is. Present day, rope included he is like this.

But what intrigued us was this cast away broken pillar with the same motif.

A closeup of him again.

While talking with Artist Padmavasan, he mentioned that he had sketched this pillar as well and shared his with us.

So what is the story depicted in this panel – well, we saw the entire episode carved in the Sesharaya Mandaba in Srirangam in a previous post. Here you go..

Great Escape from a croc’s belly

But how did the pillars break – and is it a replica that we see today ?

Perur – sculptures of the great hall – a tribute. Part 1

Ever since i laid my eyes on this masterly creation, its been a personal crusade to bring out its beauty for all to see. Its taken almost 10 years and was it worth the wait n effort that went into it. I do hope you will agree with me once you complete reading this post.

We are going to see today the truly remarkable sculpture of Shiva in his Urdhva Thandava pose.

For starters, this is a pillar sculpture – meaning the entire composition is of a single piece of stone – the Kanaga sabhai with its collection of 8 such brilliant compositions was commissioned between 1625 CE and 1659 CE in the reign of Rajah Sivathiru Azhagaathiri Nayakkar.


Why all this effort, you might ask, for this pinnacle of artistic beauty, the very epitome of sculptural excellence, is lost to many – hidden behind a steel cage. I hope patrons who read this, could get together and maybe sponsor a glass casing instead of this ugly steel monster.



Its quite late for such a fantastic exhibition of stone work – considering the relatively lesser quality workmanship seen in the post chola, Pandya 13- 14th C CE – but, the sculptures here are proof that this art form survived and thrived till the 16th Century -possibly reaching its pinnacle in this very hall.

To visualise the true grandeur of this amazing structure, we are helped thankfully with a old plate from the British archives.

Thanks to varalaaru.com we also found this sketch by great artist Silpi.

Now, that we have a macro view of this mind blowing composition, lets go closeup to view what it hides within itself. Place on record our sincere thanks to the temple EO, who after hours of convincing, felt our passion for this art and not only allowed us to photograph these gems but also opened the grill gates for us….we were in for a true feast – come partake in our pleasures.

This sculpture is unique in many aspects and to truly understand them we need to go closeup – mean real closeup – for , its said that Siva’s dance cannot be comprehended by lesser masters. It is only the great ones like Brahma, Bharata, Hari, Narada or Skanda who can understand or appreciate his dance.

An inscription on the cave temple at Saluvankuppam has a verse to elucidate not only the distinction of Siva’s dance, but also to enumerate the great celestial exponents of natya and sangita and their ability, as the right audience, to appreciate Siva’s dance: yadi na vidhata bharato yadi na harir narado na va skandha boddhum ka iva samarthas sangitam kalakalasya (Epigraph. Ind. 10, p. 12).
From the Book:
NATARAJA – THE LORD OF DANCE – Dr. Sivaramamurti

It is not only these great gods and goddesses, the creators each in his or her own important way, that are the witnesses to applaud the dance of Siva, but they enthusiastically also join in creating the orchestra for him, by playing the musical instruments. At the very sign of his brow, Vishnu takes up the drum mardala, which, with is noble rumbling notes, like the cloud inspiring the blue-throated peacock to dance, starts the musical sound. With his louts hand, Brahma takes up a pair of cymbals, ostensibly to keep time to the dance of the victor of Kama

Whats so special here is the depiction of Brahma.


He is shown here with 5 heads and is holding the attributes of Shiva – the Axe and the deer !!

Like a musician, who, during his song, stops for a while, and draws attention to the tala or the rhythm beat, Siva the great dancer, pauses for a while, to sound the drum himself in between, to show the correct adjustment when necessary

Another uniqueness in this sculpture – was tempted to use the word panel here, but then this is no panel – its a monolith for that matter, is the depiction of Karaikkal ammaiyaar.

Such masterly depiction of the shriveled breasts, the loose folds of skin across the neck and throat – to show an old lady, prematurely aged – giving up her beauty to become a ghost. Read previous links for her !!

ofcourse, we do have a very chubby Muyalagan underneath his foot, cradling his snake.

Its becoming a long post, but its a crime to break it into two or three parts, for the beauty and charm of this piece of art is too sublime to be enjoyed in parts. I will try and use less descriptive words and more pictorial speech.

The face of a youthful shiva – complete with a double chin, the carved curves of the nostrils….

The beauty of the limbs – even to the detailing of the reverse kneecap. Oh, the fingers, lines, nails – cuticles…



Another beautiful aspect to notice – the feet – the toes – top and bottom view, the ring of the sandal and on the other side, the grace of the inwardly turned hand and the delicate mudra of the thumb and forefinger !!






The row of arms on both sides are a sight to behold with the myriad of attributes.

Such detailing in the hands and the attributes, some a quite unique and am yet to find their names and significance.

Especially this one


Normally would get some props to give our readers an idea of the scale of the composition – it would be a key for miniature panels and even went with the elephant for the big temple door guardian, but this natural prop blew me away.

Maybe, the skill of the sculptor fooled our winged friend who is blunting his fangs in vain to draw blood from this !!!

If you like what you have seen and would like future visitors not to be deprived of a chance to drink in this distilled essence of artistic brilliance, please pass on the word – to patrons who can raise funds and the cry – to change the grill to atleast a glass panel.

The minute aspects to note in a sculpture – finding a needle in perur

There are many wonderful and awe inspiring sculptures in Perur. But as we saw in the previous post, there was this seemingly innocuous looking pillar sculpture, which we would have totally missed, if not for the genius in Sri Padmavasan.

Many people would have passed this sculpture without even batting an eyelid, and to be honest despite our heightened mortar skills, we too missed to even spend the few seconds to capture it on camera. The subsequent trouble we went through to secure the images, is a lesson for us, not to take any sculpture or artist lightly.

Padmavasan sir, showed me his sketch of this pillar and started explaining its uniqueness.

Lets see if we can make out some basic features from the sculpture first.

Obviously, its an ascetic in deep meditation. Perched on one leg, but there are few signs which help us to identify him

A bow on his shoulder and the boar, show us that its Arjuna, the penance to get the Pasupathaastra from Shiva.

The craftsmen’s mastery in handling the relief in the bow is simply astounding. Take a look at this angle.

But, the uniqueness of this relief sculpture is in the way the sculptor has portrayed the intensity of Arjuna’s penance. How?

Do you notice anything different. Let me give you a clue. Normally the sculptor would strictly adhere to framing guidelines – but in this frame the foot seems to extend slightly out of the lower frame. Why?

Try to spot something under the big toe !! Maybe sir’s sketch can help us take notice.

Yes, he is doing penance on a needle point. Thanks to Praveen for capturing the different angles to truly appreciate the greatness of the sculpture. No better way to explain than this angle.

Perur Series – starting off with a penance

About 9 years back, i visited Perur – was stunned by what i saw – for what it had to show was truly a connoisseur’s delight. As my journey into sculpture matured over the years, my love for these beauties grew manifold. But, every time i ventured to photograph these beauties, i was turned down. I had to be content with some small resolution snaps published in a newspaper. But then, each unsuccessful attempt strengthened my resolve, and visit to Perur Patteswarar and a request to photograph was a standard feature of every visit to Coimbatore.

Late in 2008, on a fateful saturday i was reluctantly accompanying my wife and son to an event organised by the Annalaxmi group in Singapore – it was called
Dance of India, Taste of India……as i tried to find an excuse to make myself scarce, i spotted at a distance some lovely pen and ink sketches of ganesha – immaculate art – somewhat like this ( i am kicking myself for leaving my camera behind that day)

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2007/06/09/images/2007060951460301.jpg

I sped to the stall – and below the sketch was a small signature – Padmavasan. Oh oh – i was overjoyed for – the card next to it said, the artist was present there to do spot sketches ( profiles) for sgd 20. Having never had the good fortune of meeting him before i frantically looked around for help, asked the next stall person – and he pointed to a small very innocuous looking man just standing around – clad in a simple kurtha. I couldn’t b’ve my
eyes, there he was – the artist himself.

i went up to him, introduced myself ( ofcourse ponniyin selvan ……..kalki…..silpi…sculpture ) and he warmed up. we spent about 45 min
chatting away.

He talked of his interaction with the great man silpi – the divine
gift of his – He also talked of Silpi’s mindblowing talent – pointing out that once
when he was sketching the natraja in tanjore – he sketched the front profile ( running out of paper – he took another piece and pasted in the bottom to complete) . and he went on to sketch the back head portion alone – ofcourse the two sketches were in different sizes – but most amazing was the fact that mr
padmavasan later – for a book, tried to resize both the sketches to the same size – and when he placed the front on the back – they fit like a glove…such a gift to visually capture the divine proportions!!.

We exchanged numbers, and he wrote his address and phone number on a small piece of paper in pencil ( still treasure it)…

Dec 2009. Another mandatory visit to Perur, but this time, i had made it a point to get the permission – come what may. Was assisted by some very good friends and well wishers, but all pointed to the hands of the Temple Executive Officer. I was expecting to hit a blind alley once again, when after about an hour – we were still waiting. But then we finally managed to get an audience with the EO, a smart Young man, who recognised the passion in our voices, yet it took about an hour to convince him of our mission. He finally yielded and once he saw that we were only there to promote the temple and its beauties, doors opened pretty fast. We faced an unexpected one final hurdle in the mandatory power cuts – yet we still had a spare day – so we returned the next day to complete the shoot – of what we thought was an extensive aka comprehensive coverage of the temple.

Next week in Chennai: I caught up with Sri Padmavasan again for the second time, in his home in chennai – in Dec 2009. I showed him my photo gallery and you could see the glee in his eyes and he started showing me more of his rare work. I mentioned about perur and he came out with his entire collection of Perur including a spectacular rendition of the Moolavar in color.

I was speechless by seeing the true color rendition – including the color and sheen of the copper vessel on top of the Linga.

But among the many sketches, there was one, which he considered very special, but we had overlooked it – for it felt too simple and we just skipped it. Later, i would kick myself many times over for doing so. It took another 3 months and help from Mr Praveen and the EO once again to get the particular pillar in the right angle.



Whats so special about this pillar sculpture? Looks like some Rishi in Tapas.

Well we see that in part 2 of this post