Tag Archives: Pillar

If ever there was super pillar contest

Its the season for contest and ….Got talent shows. These shows are filled with lots of talent and lots more glitz where the participants are pitched against one another and in a sequence of exponentially increasing odds they perform mind blowing feats to arrive at the prized price. Today we are going to see a similar contest but among sculptors – in stone. The stage is the famed Nellaiappar Temple of Tirunelveli. For the record, Me and Arvind went in without much expectations hoping to be outside in time for the famed Iruttukadai shop to open !

The raised platform with a distinctly post 15th C doorguardians ( I know I know – the nucleus of the temple is dated to 7th C CE..but) didn’t evoke much of a response, initially at least.

For as we went around to the steps, the sight blew us away.


The entire block is carved out of a monolithic stone, with the doorguardian in front and an extremely complex array of pillars of differing thickness in the back, and that was not all. Row after row of astounding pillars lined up as if for inspection in a guard of honor.

To top it, these were the famed musical pillars !! each producing a distinct note ( that they have survived so long with every visitor trying to show their musical prowess on them itself is worth an applause ) , but the sheer labour that went into these stumped us.

When we say massive, we mean it. Not convinced, take a look.

and by massive, it doesn’t just mean gargantuan size alone. Take a look at the art on display !

This is not some trick sculpting, if you do not believe that its all carved out of a single block of stone. Take another look. The grain of the stone runs right through the different pillars.


There were a few more pillar clusters which seemed a bit easier on the chest and breathing ( with all the wows and ooh and aahs)

.

But, as in an expert rendition of carnatic music, we did not realise that the sculptor had lulled us into a false sense of mediocrity, to think that this was ordinary compared to the rest – but then, he had one or two more tricks to show us.

Watch closely towards the base. do you spot it?

Yes, when he was busy reducing the rock, he had left enough material to carve a ball inside the pillar, so designed that it cannot roll out ( also means it was not introduced later !!)

Well, i said a trick or two !! test your spotting skills

Did you spot it?


Yes, hewing a composite multiple fluted pillar that would emanate different musical notes while shaping a solid stone ball was not challenging enough for him – he sculpted a stone squirrel as well on the inside of one of the pillars.

Sometimes inorder to win some you have to loose ..No Shrink ! Hanuman vs Surasa

Hanuman’s characterisation is every child’s delight and stories abound of his antics. There multitude of such short stories are attempts to paint a mental picture in the minds of readers of his sharp wit matching with his superhuman strength.

Today, we are going to see one such interesting legend. Thanks to Sri. KK uncle’s chance posting of a visit to Varaheeswarar temple at Thamal (is inbetween Vellore and Kanchi) and a picture from Sri. ArvindhanNeelakantan’s Flickr album of a sculpture from Munchirai Sivan Temple, Kanyakumari district, we see today two versions of one story.

The crux of the story is simple, faced with an equally hardy opponent, Hanuman uses his sharp with and tact to get himself disentangled from a potentially long drawn battle.

The story is that of Hanuman Vs Surasa.

Having brought up on healthy dose of Amar Chitra Katha ( our tribute to Uncle Pai – we salute you for bringing us hours and hours of fun+knowledge), lets for once go through the core text to read what happened.

Time is of the essence as Hanuman attempts to jump across to Lanka is search of Sita, at the foothills of Mount Mahendra. Aided by the wise Jambavan, Hanuman realises his true strength and leaps across. Enroute, the demi gods test his skills.

You can follow the whole episode in verse and detailed text

Thereafter, Devas together with Gandharvas, Siddhas and great sages spoke thus to Surasa, the mother of Nagas, equal to the Sun in brilliance. “This glorious son of Vayu, going by the name of Hanuma is flying over the ocean. You obtain a horrible mountain like demonic appearance and make a face with fearful tusks, red-brown eyes and as vast as the sky, and create an obstacle to Him for an instant. We are desiring to find out if by His strength and also courage and intelligence He can win over you or obtain sorrow.”

That Goddess Surasa, thus spoken to by Devas and also being respected by them, wearing a horrible disfigured appearance of a demon in the middle of the ocean which caused fear to all, and stopping Hanuma who was flying, spoke these words. “O best among Vanaras! You have been given by Devas as my food. I will eat you. Enter inside my mouth.”

mama bhakshaH pradishhTastvamiishvarairvaanararshhabha |
ahaM tvaa bhakshayishhyaami pravishedaM mamaananam || 5-1-151

Thus spoken to by Surasa, the glorious Hanuma, with a happy face and with folded hands, spoke these words to Surasa. “The son of Dasaratha, with the name of Rama entered the forest of Dandaka together with His brother Lakshmana and wife Seetha. When that Sri Rama, with a bitter enmity towards Rakshasas, was diverted in another task, His famed wife Seetha had been taken away by Ravana. I am going for Rama’s sake as a messenger to find Her presence. O subject of Sri Rama! You are suited to help Rama. Otherwise after seeing Seetha and informing that to Sri Rama who makes Seetha without troubles, I will obtain your mouth. I am promising truthfully to you.”

Thus being spoken to by Hanuma, Surasa with power to take desired form, spoke thus: “No one can overcome me. This is my boon.” Mother of Nagas, Surasa, desiring to know the strength of Hanuma, spoke these words on seeing Him going away.

“O best among Vanaras! You are bound to go only after entering my mouth. This boon had been given to me long ago by Brahma.” – speaking thus, with quickness she opened her wide mouth and stood before Hanuma. Then Hanuman speaking thus to Surasa, became angry and became ten yojanas long and ten yojanas wide.

Seeing Hanuma, who looked like a cloud, being ten yojanas long, Surasa also made her mouth twenty yojanas long. Thereafter, Hanuma got angry and became thirty yojanas long. Surasa made her mouth forty yojanas high. The courageous Hanuma then became fifty yojanas high. Thereafter, Hanuma got angry and became thirty yojanas long. Surasa made her mouth forty yojanas high. The courageous Hanuma then became fifty yojanas high.

Surasa then made her mouth sixty yojanas long. The mighty Hanuma in the same fashion, became seventy yojanas high. Surasa made her mouth eighty yojanas high. The mountain-like Hanuma then became ninety yojanas high. The great wise Hanuma seeing that mouth with a long tongue which was horrible and equal to hell being opened by Surasa, greatly reduced His own body and became the size of a thumb.

The glorious Hanuma with great speed, quickly entered Surasa’s mouth and came out of it and standing in the sky spoke these words to Surasa. “O daughter of Daksha! I indeed entered your mouth. My regards to you. I will now go where Seetha is. Your boon also came true.”

so.abhipatyaashu tadvaktraM nishhpatya cha mahaajavaH |
antarikshe sthitaH shriimaanidaM vachanamabraviit || 5-1-168

Seeing that Vanara being released from her mouth like the moon from the mouth of Rahu, goddess Surasa spoke these words assuming her normal form. “O gentle Hanuma! Go according to your comfort to achieve the desired task. Bring Seetha together with the great Sri Rama.”

Seeing that third very difficult task of Hanuma, all the creatures then praised Hanuma saying “Good! Good!”. That Hanuma, equal to Garuda in speed, neared the ocean which is the abode of Varuna, entered the sky and went in His original path.

So, lets go back to the two depictions. The one from Thammai first.

It is a brilliant depiction of showing the action of Hanuman diving in almost perpendicular. For people unaware of the story, they are bound to think that the Demoness is swallowing someone. But the ‘sculpture moment’ in this work is the depiciton of the tail of Hanuman!

Coming to the Munchirai depiction

Here, he is shown as entering through the mouth and existing through the ear. Considering that such an act is bound to leave Surasa injured it can only be called an error or we may have to give the benefit of doubt to the sculptor for trying out a local variation of the Surasa story.

Sometimes inorder to win some you have to shrink !

( I have been searching for a similar depiction in Sucindram temple. I hope viewers can check and contribute this rare sculpture on their next visit)

Some other contemporary depictions of this found on the net

http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fairytales/indian_mythology_stories/hanuman_meets_surasa.htm
http://www.hinducounciluk.org/newsite/circulardet.asp?rec=84

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 ?

Pallava Cave Temple at Thiruchirappalli Rockfort – Lalitankura Pallavesvara Griham

The Rockfort – the first of the two caves.

An imposing natural feature and an integral part of the charming Thiru Seera Palli town, it evokes lot of different emotions – there is something primeval about a stone outcrop that is not easy to explain. Anyway, thanks to Annapoorna, this long sleeping draft sees light. Actually, must have posted this long back – self and Arvind had been there in December, but there were a few visitors – couples and some prospective couples, who chose to park themselves in this cave , mistaking its sculpted steps for a chair and the insides for a cozy lounge chair or bed – oblivious to pains we were taking to take in the beauty of this monument while trying our best to avoid capturing their amorous rendezvous. It was not to be so and their patience cum free time cum pursuits cum utter disregard for any count of decency left us with an unfinished portfolio.

Had to wait for Sriram to fill in the blanks. Sadly, even regular visitors ( not the love birds – mean true visitors) look at this monument as a mere pit stop in their ascent to the shrine on top. Thankfully or otherwise the lower cave ( we will see it in a followup post) has just to suffer the ignominy of total neglect alone.

This pallava period multiplex for the less privileged smitten, is a signature contribution of Mahendra Pallava. Known as Lalitankura Pallavesvara Griham, this is the southernmost Pallava cave temple and is one among the ancient sites in the Rockfort complex. Lalithangura was one of many titles of Mahendra and means ‘charming-scion’. Its unique in many aspects – for it consists of an inscription which confirms or rather proclaims that the great Pallava king returned to the faith of worshiping the Linga from a hostile faith !! in his own words. Not sure if these modern day mozarts and Romeos are aware of the jest and pun in the actual verse we shall see in a subsequent post, as we rush on to the sculpture part of the cave to start with.

Iconograhically, there are two signature contributions of the Pallavas – the Somaskanda icon and the Shiva Gangadhara form ( How about Nataraja – check out the post on Seeyamangalam earliest Nataraja form). We are already studying the evolution of the Pallava Somaskanda as a series, but what we are going to see today is maybe the earliest and magnificent Shiva Gangadhara form.

The Tiruchy cave is the southern most cave of the Pallavas – right into Chola heartland – that he came all the way to Trichy to excavate a cave temple in an inaccessible hill is a puzzle ( there is a jain bed also on the hill !!). I am going to take the help of some references from Dr. R. Nagaswamy and Swaminathan sir to explain this series. ” One must try to imagine how this hill would have looked without the Tayumanavar Koil, Uchichi-p-pillaiyar Koil and all the sundry shrines, to wonder how Mahendra chose the site at a height of 200 feet and how his artisans managed the excavation. Like the other Pallava monuments, this cave temple also holds some puzzles” – says Swami sir.

This is a cave supported by four pillars with two pilasters ( half pillars) on each end . The façade is pretty simple and the chunky pillars are early Mahendra style – rather plain, square in cross section at the bottom and top, but eight-sided in the middle. I think its time for us to graduate to learn more about the technical names of these pillar styles. ( thanks to varalaaru.com)

A simple four sided pillar is called a Brahmmakantha ( Brahma – four faced !!)
A eight sided pillar is called a Vishnukantha
A Sixteen sided pillar is called a Indrakantha
A circular pillar is called a Rudrakantha

A pillar can also be a composite of many styles – like four sides on top and bottom + eight sided in the middle.

There are circular low-reliefs on all the four sides of the pillars.

Very interesting to note the brackets above the pillars – which are fluted. Titles of King Mahendra are inscribed on the faces of these pillars, mostly in Pallava Grantha and a few in the Tamil script.

Beyond the pillars is a mandapa (hall), and in the rear the hall is a series of four pillars very similar to the ones in the front.

As we ascend the small flight of stairs, we are greeted by this majestic panel to our left and to the right ( eastern wall) is a now empty rock cut Garba Graha flanked by two cute door guardians.

We shall study this fantastic bas relief in a detailed post shortly. Its got quite a majestic air associated with it and is very special to me personally – for i met two very important people in my sculptural quest, on the very day i was introduced to this Gangadhara form, Sri Sundar Bharadwaj and Sri Dhivakar, for the pre release of Dhivakar sir’s Vichitracittan – work of historic fiction basing on the life of Mahendra, which incidentally features this magnificent Bas relief on its front cover.

Lets take a look at the two beautiful door guardians – one on each side, they are carved in bold-relief.

Both are in semi-profile ( a specialty of the Pallava sculptor !!) , two armed turned towards the shrine-entrance, standing with one leg bent and raised up and the other planted firmly on the ground, carry a massive club, their palms resting on it – they are less bulky than in Mandagapattu. Their attire is fantastically sculpted, but sadly they are much worn.

The garba graham itself was locked – which was funny in a way, but rather a sign of the times !!! For its empty today ( no bas reliefs or Somaskanda in the back wall – to remind our readers – none of the Mahendra caves have this feature outside of Mallai ) – yet the barred gates are testament to sad plight of such monuments – and the shanty respect shown on it – as a heritage site or at least as a shrine / sanctum. It does hold a puzzle as well – for it has two pits excavated into the floor – one might have held a movable stone Linga ( Pandya caves have as a contrast monolith lingas ) but there is a second pit to its right !! possibly the only cave with this feature.

Some frustrated souls seem to have found a way to tear up the mesh and finding the pits – mistook them for garbage bins and dumped their plastic waste into them. You can see the two pits coming into view towards the bottom of the photo.

We shall continue exploring the beauty of this cave and its spectacles in the next part.

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

Art inspired by Sculpture Series – 4, Horse Avudayar Temple, Tiruperundurai

We have seen an entire series on the horsemen of the Sesharaya Mandabam in Srirangam, so time now to start with another one.

Horses have always held the imagination of men, warriors, artists, sculptures. The horse rider is an embodiment of valor and its not surprising that the Pancing horse inspires many creations of art ( and cars!!). The energy of the horse, flowing through its every muscle, bone, sinew, waiting for the rider’s clue to gallop away at top speed, the feel the wind against your face is a sure rush of blood ( today’s youth who haven’t experienced it can compare to riding a 500 cc Bullet) – the sheer power between your legs ( no pun intended) is exhilarating. The charging cavalry with their outstretched lances would have sent many an enemy scampering. Many a kid would have gone to sleep hearing the heroics of valiant horses of benevolent heroes – be it Bucephalus of Alexander, Chetak of Prithiv Raj Chauhan or steeds of tamil folklore – Ori of Valvil Ori, Panchakalyani of Raja Desingu – the tok tok tok tok would have been the lullaby to many being heard long into their sleep in their dreams.

Today, we are going to see one such amazing horse rider, in a town and temple that is famous for a greater miracle involving horses ( we will see that in a seperate post) – thanks to artist Mr Jeeva, we are going to Aavudayar temple ( Tiruperundurai).

An amazing artist, Mr Jeeva ( www.jeevartistjeeva.blogspot.com) is sharing an exclusive digital art of the horse for us. So before we see the sculpture lets see his amazing work.

Temples built around this period ( late 14th C onwards – Nayak / Vijayanagar style) abound with such depictions. Sadly, visitors don’t even stop a minute to drink in the beauty of these marvels in stone.

Lets look at the beauty of this creation in more detail. The saddle, the stirrup, the reins, the designs of the riding pants … how did they manage to sculpt this in stone.

The weapons of the rider, the beauty of the lance. Its hard to believe that they are all of the same stone.

Not just the same stone as the sculpture, but part of a large stone that is the pillar.

Truly, mind blowing.

Photos: courtesy Mr . Kandaswamy

Answer to the riddle – Its the ruins around Kutub minar

Thanks for the overwhelming responses to the riddle. Yes, these are the ruins found around the Qutub Minar and the famous Iron Pillar in Delhi.

However not much is clear about them, though as Ragu mentioned there are various versions of pillaged temples, forts, jaina structures – Thomar, Rajput including as per the ASI board the original fort of Prithivraj Chauhan. Without going into those details, am sure a google search will land you on the various versions – incl a popular version in Amar Chitra Katha – for though the sights are visibly disturbing – the idea of presenting these was not to rake up any religious / communal sentiment. For that matter, everyday we are witnessing vandalism of our living temples even today, so why harbor hatred for something that happened hundred of years ago. There are thousands of such structures which you can adopt and safe in our rich country. Well, while i say that – as a art lover, you feel for the loss of the art and the effort of the sculptor. All is fair in war and conquest. But i would like to spur some creative outcome from this.

Lets go back and relook at the pillars for stylistic parallels. The sheer weight of these pillars could have made transportation over long distances tedious So they must have been from around Delhi of yore. But the artistic styling is quite unique, especially the Ganas supporting the roof at the top of the pillars, the floral designs on them.

The differently styled pillars also support the idea of their source from multiple places – you see some are very ornately carved, while others are without much embellishments. Can we spot parallels among other sites.

A Pillared corridor – a sculptural riddle – part 2

For those who attempted the riddle ( thanks to thiru who cracked it), to be honest it was a very tough one. Just one picture in that selection had a clue. Let me give you some more pictorial clues. We saw some very exquisite pillars in the previous edition, now we are seeing some more pillars and their intricate carvings, but in more detail.

Combining some long shots and some closeups to show how sometimes our eye misses the obvious clues.

The long shots first

The closeups

Some independent relief panels

Well, now its getting really interesting. Obviously some exquisite sculptures have been vandalised and the focus or target has been very specific.

Taking you back to the picture with the clue in the prev post

Cant make out ? Look to the roof

The clash of two contrasting cultures

These pillars bear witness to a very historic period that changed the course of our nation

A Pillared corridor – a sculptural riddle

Today we are stepping a bit away from our traditional realms and moving across to the ############. A often visited site, but will surely be an opener for all, atleast it was for me. Keeping the suspense up, let me present some pictures and see if you can guess the location.

Presenting the pillared corridors – a sculptural riddle.

The pillared corridor is simply spectacular, the columns arranged in a mesmerising geometry. Watch closely for signs that may help you identify the location !

Lets see if you can crack this riddle

Dasavatharam cycle stand !!

We had earlier seen the amazing pillars of Srirangam Sesharaya mandabam in many posts. Such is the wealth of sculptural mastery in this pillared hall. it caught the eye of the master artist Silpi, to so masterly capture the stone in his work. Since there were many lovely sculptures in the hall, had requested my good friend Mr. Ashok to go there in person and do a full fledged shoot in the pillared hall. But what he came back with wrenched my heart.



The majestic horse pillar, lay is such a damaged condition. The unbelievable method in which such a lovely lance was sculpted into stone, lay broken. If only the master sculptor who sculpted these beauties saw this ! below the awesomely endowed lady stood majestically holding her head up in typical tamil pride, despite all the wanton destruction around. The rest of the sculptures have all been lost in the pillar.

When did this destruction happen, since no records are available for this, i searched on the net and came up with this 1868 albumen print

(Photograph from an album of 41 albumen prints by Edmund David Lyon. Close-up of carved horses and other figures in the Sheshagirirayar Mandapa at the Ranganatha temple of Srirangam. Lyon’s ‘Notes to Accompany a Series of Photographs Prepared to Illustrate the Ancient Architecture of Southern India’, edited by James Fergusson)

Seeing the pillar damaged during that period itself gave me some respite – atleast they were not damaged during recent times. But then what i saw next made my blood boil. The Kings of our land, gave grants and etched them into stone for these magnificent edifices – of art, to be a virtual repository of art, but how are we using them – a heritage cycle stand!



These beautiful Dasavathara pillars are being scratched by the handles and pedals of the cycles. Similar is the plight of numerous rare sculptures in this hall. Srirangam is the foremost – The Temple for Vaishnavites and if this is the plight there, i don’t have words for the lesser known temples.

One look at these pillars, would delight even the least artistically inclined soul, the sculptor has poured out his heart, fed the creation from his own blood and created masterpieces, it baffles me as to why its doesnt appeal to these heartless souls. They show as much respect to these treasures as a dog would give a lamppost. Decency limits me from writing more.

Can these sculptures be restored. Do we have the intent first and secondly is there the artistic know how. Even during the pallava period, the beautiful shore temple in mallai had its main deity – the vishnu idol’s hand being broken – and the court poet Acharya Dandin writes of the pallava sculptors mastercraft that he seemlessly restored the broken arm in his immortal work – Avanisundarikatha

Maybe, some good soul who sees this post, will take it up with the ` you know who’ and give these sculptures a new lease of life, or atleast the bare respect they deserve.