Category Archives: Sculpture

How did they manage to cut into rock?

We have seen quite a few rock cut structures, in order to truly understand the beauty and appreciate the effort that has gone into these creations one has to study how they were sculpted.

Lets take the monuments of Mahabalipuram for instance. These magnificent creations are cut out of living rock – how did the ancients manage this. To envision and conceptualise such works of art is one thing but what to execute them in the hardest rock is another and with what kind of implements, tools.

We look at a few tell tale marks of the sculptor ( will lead to another question – as to why these beautiful structures are half finished or rather unfinished – leads again to the question of authorship of these monuments, who, when – how long did he rule, were there interruptions /enemy incursions etc )

First off all, once a boulder is chosen – how do you sculpt away bulk of mass. The Pallava sculptor used a very simple technique. Take a look at these row of holes chiseled into many rocks ( you see them almost everywhere in mallai) – we expect them to have had hammers and chisels. Now once they chose a rockface, they would roughly draw a line with these holes.
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Once done, they would use wooden plugs driven into the holes into a tight fit, and then water it. The wood would absorb the water and expand – the pressure created by this uniform expansion of all the pegs would make the stone crack. What ingenuity ( recently i was watching a channel showing a modern quarry in Italy – and they used basically the same principle to crack marble!)
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OK, this is fine for breaking a boulder. How did they manage to cut the amazing caves into the rock face. Again very simple, this picture should give you a clue of both the techniques in one shot.
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The rock face to be sculpted into, would be marked into kind of a grid, and then slowly divided into smaller squares and chiseled – which would eventually chip off the smallest piece of rock. If you can imagine this, then you can appreciate the effort that would have been taken to create these.
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How Big is BIG – Part 2 on the Tanjore temple

Ok, we saw a big post with only one picture in the intro post – so those of you eager to see more of the big temple, apologize for that – but the call of my beloved hero Raja Raja aka ponniyin selvan was too much.

We saw the temple vimanam at a distance – so we approach closer, before the visual spectacle arrests you – lets for a second imagine that someone has blind folded you – and moved you closer to the entrance. We skip the first entrance tower ( which is a later addition) and move your nearer to the second – the Keralantagan ( he who destroyed kerela – one of the first victories of Raja Raja was against the Chera stronghold / martial academy in Kandalur Salai – so his meeikeerthi sings-Kandalur salai kalamarutharuli ) – we skip that one as well and move you to the Raja Rajan gopuram ( The illustrious Arulmozhi took the tile of Raja Raja on his crowning) and slowly remove your blind fold. You open your eyes slowly. what do you see?
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You see a Dwarabaalaga – door guardian – we first move you to the right one – with bared fangs and bulging eyes – looking down on you .
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You are forced to look down – for his lower right hand is held is a kind of warning pose – Be careful

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and then you look at the lower left hand – its says – look down –
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there we see a lion,ok and then there is a snake biting something – oh, its swallowing an elephant!!! there is also a crocodile that has been depicted but i don’t have an explanation for that now ( we come to this later)
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So we look up again – the upper left hand is pointing inside ( the Lord)
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and the upper right hand is raised in Vismaya ( Astonishment)
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ok lets read whats implied, beware,see below an elephant is being swallowed by a snake, and i am so much bigger than them – and inside – the God is much much bigger than all of us.
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so How big is the door guardian – Ok – lets zoom back – bring a human into frame,hmm lets do better and bring an elephant into the frame –

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Now do you get the perception of the scale of the doorguardian.
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Now we zoom even more and bring the entire tower into the frame slowly moving backwards …wow -how massive.
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The story of the elephant being swallowed is a pointer to the question on the first post as to why the Vimaana in tanjore is taller than the gopuram. A delightful explanation comes from Saint Sambandar’s Devaram.

Where he describes the abode of Shiva – the Holy mountain of Kailash, where there are huge snakes that are capable of swallowing elephants ( actually the right translation of Anaconda – is Aaanai – elephant – Kolran – killer – as per some? but how did a tamil saint envision of amazonian snake and how did the amazonian snake get such a name ?) – in other verses we hear of the lions in kailash ( as did we see in the angkorian ravana shaking episode). So the depiction of these animals are a pointer that the Vimana – true to its name is Dakshina Meru – Southern Kailash – the holy abode of shiva.

Now see the pictures

The first Tower – built during late 14 C

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The second Tower Keralanthagan Gopuram

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The third tower Rajarajan Gopuram
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and finally the Maha meru Vimanam – to truly describe the scale of this edifice requires more posts – so just leave you with some breathtaking visuals ( thanks to friends and Mr Rohan R. Rao
http://rohanrrao.wordpress.com/ for allowing me to post some of his pictures)
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There are numerous myths and some little known facts about the great temple. in the coming weeks we will slowly see them…
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The BIG temple – an intro post

After doing the intros of Ajanta, Ellora,thought i should do one for the Big temple in Tanjore. But a post of its sculptures preceded the post, so we take this as a prequel.

This grand exhibition of Chola architecture and its lasting beauty is but a fitting tribute to one of the greatest kings of our land. The great man, as Arulmoli, who was content to let his uncle rule for 15 years, waiting by the sidelines ( after the assassination of his elder brother – the crown prince, Aditya Karikala in 969 AD), and then take on the reigns in 985 AD and user in a glorious period of chola rule.

The exact words are beautifully translated by Sri. K.A. Neelakanta Sastry in his lovely work COLAS ( 1935 – Madras Univ publication) from the thiruvalandadu plates

You can read them here:

but for this verse in particular

(V. 69.) (Though) requested by the subjects (to occupy the Chola
throne), in order to destroy the persistently blinding darkness of
the powerful Kali (age), Arunmolivarman who understood the essence
of royal conduct, desired not the kingdom for himself even in (his)
mind, while his paternal uncle coveted his (i.e., Arunmolivarman’s)
dominions.

Look at the lovely use of the words desire when it comes to Arulmoli and covet when it comes to Uttama ( his uncle)

Arulmoli took the title Raja Raja on his coronation and his military prowess and administrative capabilities are to be etched in gold – but maybe for longivity he chose Stone – yes, he left behind his illustrious deeds in the form of his Prasithi ( in sanskrit) or meikeerthi ( in tamil ) – mei – true, keerthi – fame – his true fame. That would be another post altogether

We look to another plate that sums up the big temple ( thanks to Sri Nagaswamy’s sir site http://tamilartsacademy.com/articles/article29.xml)

To him was born Arumolivarma, who with his long and beautiful arms bore the marks of sankha and cakra in his palms. He conquered the Ganga-s, Vanga-s, Kalinga-s, Magadha-s, Malava-s, Simhala-s, Andhra-s, Ratta-s (Rastrakuta-s) Odda-s (Orissans), Kataha-s, Kerala-s, Gauda-s and Pandya-s. By the wealth obtained through his conquests he erected at Tanjanagari (Tanjore) a very great temple (atyuttamam) named Rajarajesvaram
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As you enter tanjore – you are greeted by this – the towering Vimaana ( Vimaana is on top of the main Idol, Gopuram is on top of the outer walls/compound – most south indian temple gopurams are taller than the vimaana, Raja Raja’s tanjore temple and his illustrious son Rajendra’s Gangaikonda cholapuram being one of few exceptions – why ??) – we go nearer in the next post..

Understanding the greatness of Ellora – Part three

Well we saw that the elephants and other animals with burdened with a load in the last post. What are they carrying?
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We look at the string of pictures once more to get into the flow.
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Now we take a zoom upwards, no do you get the picture. The entire rock cut temple is fashioned as though its supported on this line of elephants. Just to put things in right perspective, reminding you once again that this cut into a mountain rock face. Meaning, the sculptor has to sculpt this in situ – top down in one single piece.
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Now that you understand the intricate work, lets look at the larger picture of the Ellora Kailasantha temple. From different angles with people occupying the frames to give you an idea of scale of this spectacular composition. The pictures show you the sheer rock face from which the skilled artist has fashioned this entire creation. Doesn’t it blow your minds off, just to imagine a scale of this size is mind bloggling. How on earth could someone have the courage to envision something of this nature, with technology that was prevalent a 1000 years ago.
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Step to the right, to the left, to the back – every inch is breath taking. Stone art its very best. For once i am short of words and take refuge in the visual overflow. Enjoy and drink up this fountain of art.
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The last picture has an interesting story board – of an epic carved into stone, which we will visit later.

Understanding the greatness of Ellora – Part 2

I have been summoning the courage to attempt this post for a long time. We had earlier seen what is so great about Ellora. This is part two of the post and certainly one in a long line of posts to come.

This is a large post and hence i would request you keep all your work aside, take your time – make sure you are on a stable chair ( lest you might fall off your chair) – such are the contents that are to follow.

I first introduced you to the fact that this is a mountain cut structure – ie the sculptors have cut this entire composition into the face of a mountain – so now i am going to detail the size of this composition, its complexity and innate beauty.

Inorder to do this, i adopt a bottoms up approach.
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Do you see this elephant, peacefully threshing some vegetation in its trunk – watch the detailing of the small bump of its skeleton as its trunk starts, the slight twist of it trunk to the right and the curl of it holding the grass – the beautiful symmetry of its ears and the delicate curl of the ear.
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We move a bit back – oh, maybe there are more like this one, NO, its a whole line of such elephants ( some have not withstood the forces of nature n time – lost a limb, a trunk)
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Now we zoom out – to see what this actually is – is an entire foundation of elephants who are sculpted as though they are carrying the whole structure. And what a structure, the man walking int he frame gives you an idea of scale.
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We try another place – oh,here elephants are combining delightfully with lions to form a nice one two combo. Oh, some delightlful Yazhi’s are also there. Some of lions and elephants seem to be bored of this work and are playfully fighting with each other.1243

What are they carrying on their mightly shoulders…well wait for the next post…

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.

A thousand year struggle to survive

I visited Chennai last June and immediately my good friend Mr. Chandra invited me for sunday trip to Uthiramerur. I jumped at this lucky chance little knowing what was in store.

We merrily got off early by 8 and reached this historic town by 10. After a hot breakfast of delicious pongal and dosas, we went to visit the Perumal temple ( with some lovely sculptures and edicts – will most later)

We then adjourned for the main event, visit to mark the opening ceremony for renovation of the Kailasanatha Temple. As i turned left into the road, i was hit by a thunderbolt. Nothing had prepared me or this sight, ok we have seen quite a few dilapidated temples, but something of this scale.
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The temple was obviously a pallava build, a brick structure on a granite foundation. The overgrowth gave it a kind of Angkorian look, complete with huge overhanging rooted plants. We went round inspecting the amazing struggle of this edifice – as we entered the main shrine – something remarkable happened. I couldnt take pictures ( as this was the Garba graha) but let me try n bring you the sight in words. We were expecting the worst, the panel behind the main shrine was empty ( could have held a wooden somaskanda panel in days of yore), the main ceiling slab had cracked, was expecting the worst seeing the collateral damage outside, but the ingenuity and engineering of the ancients was there for everyone to see – there stood the most perfect jet black shiva linga – shining in all his glory, not a scratch on him. With watery eyes and flesh tingling with goose pimples, we went around the gopuram ( tower) – the granite foundation has inscriptions all over, covered in dust, filth, dirt, name it.
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As we cleaned it, we had a trained epigraphist who read out the old tamil…the inscriptions were those of Rajendra Chola ruled 1014 AD ( the son of Raja Raja Chola who built the great temple in tanjore and who himself built the temple in Gangaikonda cholapuram)
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Some more and we fond inscriptions of Danti Varma Pallava ( 830 AD approx)
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But due to the sterling efforts of REACH foundation and a generous donation from this noble soul, ( who sold his land to fund the initial renovation ) work has started to restore this great temple to its former glory. We seek the support of like minded souls to contribute generously.
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http://www.conserveheritage.org/

A little known bas relief from Saluvankuppam

When we talked of the tiger caves in saluvankuppam, had mentioned that there are two more beauties in that cluster. They are the amazing bas relief sculpture of mahishasuramardhini and the Atiranachanda mandabam ( rock cut cave of Rajasimha having his lovely inscription) – we will visit the bas relief first.
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Even seasoned visitors to Mahabalipuram would mostly miss the attractions of saluvankuppam. Even those that do venture, would miss this seemingly innocuous looking stone. Just in front of the rock cut madabam is this piece of living rock.
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You got to go around to see the handiwork of the pallava sculpture, who has transformed this insignificant piece of rock outcrop into a work of art. These pictures would give you an idea to its location and ensure you don’t miss this pint size masterpiece on future visits.
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The large mahisha panel in mallai serves as a nice comparison for us to view this piece. Lets look at the main characters side by side in order to infer more. In the mallai panel the devi is in all her glory on her lion vehicle engaged in battle with her 8 hands.
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The demon too is standing up and giving fight with his massive mace. Whereas in the saluvankuppam panel – he is down on his knees, the devi too is in the process of dismounting from her vehicle, with one leg gracefully off the saddle. The demon looks wasted, with nostrils flayed and hands raised in a kind of let me go pose.
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Thus this is the sequel to the mallai panel.

Art inspired by Sculpture

Hope you have all seen the posts on the amazing pillars of Srirangam.

Recently two new friends of mine, not related in any manner, from different corners of the globe – have amazingly sketched the same pillars.

That’s the universal appeal of sculpture, that it touches similar chords among disconnected individuals, hits a soft spot, a past memory, a vestigial umbilical chord that revitalizes a sleeping nerve and suddenly opens your eyes,fills a deeply vacant spot inside you, a longing is fulfilled, leaving you with a sense of pure joy. That my friends, is the essence of art.

Check out these sketches.

Mr Raghavendra Prasad’s
http://raga-artblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/srirangam.html
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Mr. Shriram Rajaram’s
http://album-photo.geo.fr/ap/album/6945/?pos=1&order=InsertDate
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I wish both my young friends a great future in art, and hope they come up with many more such masterpieces.

Divinely inspired

Sculpture is divinely inspired. How better to explain these two sculptures in the Arjuna ratha ( one of the five rathas in the Mahabalipuram cluster).
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Look at how an elephant rider ( is it Indra the lord of the devas or it is Muruga) – but to just see the skill of artist to have been able to conceptualize this composition, an elephant rider in front profile and to execute it to such perfection, is incredible. Such is the wisdom the ancients that they could bring such finesse into their art.
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The ladies standing next to them, simply blow you away. How else to describe, that classical lines, divine proportions, that slightly angled profile, bent waist, flexed knee, hand gently caressing her locks, the other one enchantingly resting on her waist, the youthful exuberance of her face and lastly the sensuous smile. Is this a figment of the sculptors imagination or did the divine apsaras themselves come down to earth to witness this spectacle and stopped to strike a pose for this sculptor.
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( the last image is from varalaaru.com. Would request serious tamil enthusiasts to please visit their site. its an open university on sculpture)