Tag Archives: Darasuram

Thiruneelakanta Nayanar – Darasuram

Thanks to Satheesh again we are going to see another interesting panel from Darasuram. Tiruneelakanta Naynar.

For a change we are going to see the panel first and see if you can help identify it.

This is the long shot from Satheesh,

zoomed in

some more

ok, this is the panel, see the `Hero’ pen for the size comparison

Its a very simple panel – to the left you see a temple, to the right a couple shown holding a stick, emerging out of a tank.

For those who want to read the full story here goes:

http://www.nayanmar.com/abtus.htm

Thiruneelakanta Nayanar’s birth place was chidambaram( Thillai). His profession was making pots and clay items. He extended his service to the saivite Nayanmars by providing them with begging bowls made of clay because they bowed down in reverence before the pinaka bow shouldered Lord Shiva, like him. He was also an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. He is the place of all good qualities. His youthful vigour influenced him to lead an amorous gay life.

One day he returned home after he had carnal pleasure with a woman of low character. His wife came to know about this and was unhappy with him for his deed. She fulfilled all the responsibilities of a wife but didn’t allow him to share the bed with her. To bring down her resentment he went near her and tried to hug her praising her with sweet words . She retorted immediately, “If you touch us (me)! Thirunilakantam !” meaning “Beware, in the name of Lord Shiva who has burnt the desire, do not touch us- lay not your hands on us”. The very moment of hearing her pledge on the name of Lord Shiva that great man Thiruneelakanta took off his hands from her.

The immense respect he had for Lord Shiva the Hero Who burnt the lust made him say with determination, “As you pronounced as “us” (emmai) rather than `me’ in your vow I won’t touch, not only you but also any woman, even in my dream. They lived together under one roof fulfilling all the responsibilities of a husband and wife barring conjugal status. They grew old.

Lord Shiva wanted to put the principle of celibacy of this great couple to an acid test. He came down to the earth as a sage and proceeded to Chidambaram . He met Thiruneelakanta and gave him His begging bowl asking him to preserve it in safe custody till the time he asks for it. He by His Godly ability made the bowl disappear from the Nayanar’s safety. After many days, He came back and asked for His bowl. The Nayanar did not find it in the place where he kept in safe custody. He searched his entire house, but in vain. He could not find it anywhere. He told the sage that the bowl was lost beyond trace. He begged His pardon and promised that he was ready to present Him even with a golden bowl, instead.

Lord Shiva, in the form of the sage was very adamant and scolded the Nayanar for his negligence and said that he required only His bowl and not any other even if it is made of gold. Nayanar begged many a time. The sage asked the Nayanar whether he could vouch that he kept the bowl safely. The Nayanar replied that he was ready to vouch like that to the satisfaction of the sage. Then Lord Shiva started to play His game of trickery on him. He told the Nayanar that if he takes a dip in the pond in front of the local people holding the hand of his son He would believe his words. Nayanar told him that he did not have any offspring. “O.K. then hold the hand of your wife and and have dip in the pond and vouch your promise” said the sage, cunningly. When the sage asked him to have a dip holding his wife’s hand he replied humbly that due to a vow he was not able to do that. Acting as if angered the Graceful sage went to the court of the priests of Thillai and appealed to them his case. The court upheld the argument of the sage that Nayanar should have a dip in the pond holding his wife’s hand since the bowl was lost while in his custody.

Nayanar came with his wife to a pond of the Thiruppulichchuram. True to his secret vow that he won’t touch his wife he held one end of a bamboo while his wife held the other end and was ready to take the dip. But the old sage stopped this and was very adamant that the Nayanar should hold his wife’s hand and take the dip and then only He will be satisfied. The Nayanar was caught in a fix. He had to declare to the entire public the secret behind his not touching his wife and the entire episode behind it. He narrated the entire secret story and they both plunged into the water, holding the bamboo. The couple who rose from the water after the dip regained their youth, to the astonishment of all. They were as young as one could covet and at the same time they found the Lord who came in the form of the sage disappear. There appeared the Lord in the horizon on the holy Bull with His consort Parvathi Devi to bless the hailing devotee, “You both are very great due to your victory over your five senses and conquered the craving for carnal pleasure . You be with Me, in bliss, for ever with your ever-lasting youth.

images courtesy: Satheesh and http://www.kumbakonam.info/kumbakonam/darsuam/index.htm

Kungiliya Kalaya Nayanar Puranam – Darasuram

Today we are treated to another special thanks to Satheesh. Its a very special sculpture depicting one of the Periapuranam legends.

Its a very small sculpture, and causes some wrong interpretations as Markandeyar or kannapar.


Kannapar ofcourse is depicted right next to this panel. So who is depicted here?

Lets first analyse the sculpture in more detail.


Do you notice the slight slant of the Linga. That is the clue. Its Kungiliya Kalaya Nayanar. Lets see his story in full.

(courtesy : http://www.nayanmar.com/nayanmar3.htm)

Kalayanar, a brahmin devotee of Shiva lived in Tirukadavur. He considered it, his sacred duty to spread the scented smoke of kungiliyam in the temple. Even when he became poor, he continued this service. Kalayanar would rather forego his meals for several days than stop his kungiliyam service even for a day.

A time came when he had literally nothing on hand to continue this self-chosen devotional duty. In the meantime, he and his family had gone without food for several days. Kalayanar was blessed with an understanding wife.

She could stand no more the hunger of her children and so gave her auspicious golden necklace ( thali) to him requesting him to buy rice . He was to sell it and buy some rice.

When Kalayanar was going through the street with the golden ornament in his hand , a vendor of kungiliyam came on his way. Quite excited by the availability of a bag of kungiliyam, Kalayanar exchanged the necklace for the incense. The next moment found him walking to the temple, totally forgetting the hunger stricken family of his own . Entering the sacred precincts he fell unconscious as he had been without food for several days. Shiva appeared in his dream and advised him to go home and drink some milk and rich food and return . Waking up, Kalayanar was flabbergasted that Shiva should ask him to partake of a rich meal when his home had not a grain in the granary. All the same, he did not dare to disobey the Lord. He got up and went home.

Wonder of wonders! His house had changed beyond recognition. It was endowed luxuriously and the granary overflowed with paddy. The house was full of gold. Even as his darling wife fed Kalayanar and the other devotees of Shiva to her heart’s content, it was clear that for his lifetime hence forth Kalayanar would have no dearth of wealth to render his favourite service to Shiva.

As Kalayanar happily continued his service at Kadavur, he heard that in the temple at Tiruppanandal, the Linga had tilted to one side. The king had set his army to pull it back to its original angle but in vain. Kalayanar hastened to Tiruppanandal. Finding the army tired out and in a swoon, he decided to join their ranks. He bound one end of a rope to the image of Shiva and tied the other end to his neck and pulled hard. Shiva, at the touch of his devotee straightened himself in a trice to the wonder of all those present. The very heavens showered scented blossoms to mark the miracle.

images courtesy: Satheesh and http://www.kumbakonam.info/kumbakonam/darsuam/index.htm

The slaying of Vaali – a delightful miniature from Darasuram

Today thanks to some amazing captures by Satheesh, we are being treated to a spectacular miniature from Darasuram.

We had earlier seen Vaali humbling Ravana in a previous post. He was famous for the boon that he had received, according to which anyone who came before him lost half his/her strength to him, thereby making Vali invulnerable to any frontal attack.

Vali had been known as a good and pious vanara-king, but once when he was challenged to a duel by a wicked demon Mayavi – the battle raged on for a long time inside a dark and ravenous cave. Vaali left instructions with his brother to wait for him at the entrance….when vaali did not come out for a long time,Sugreev spotted blood oosing out of the mouth of the cave, he also heard a shrill voice like that of his brother. Fearing that his brother may be dead, he blocked the entrance to cave with a huge boulder and returned to Kishkinda.

Vali emerged and found the cave mouth blocked, in a fit of rage he suspected his brother of plotting against him. HIs anger was multiplied when he came to his capital and noticed that Sugreev was ruling in his place.

Sugriva tried to explain the situation to Vali, but Vali would not listen. Vali banished Sugreev from the kingdom, and held the latter’s wife captive in his own palace. Sugreev fled into the forest, where he met and formed an alliance with Rama. He sought Rama’s help in return for his help in defeating Ravana and rescuing Sita.

The act of Rama killing Vaali, from an ambush attack ( attack from behind) is a subject of many debates. Here we are seeing a superb miniature of the scene just prior to the attack.

Cant see it, lets go closer


Sadly the people don’t even notice the beautiful sculptures.


Check out this for a sense of size.

What happened next and what happened before this – some more interesting sculptures coming our way shortly.

Images courtesy : Satheesh and the last one from http://www.kumbakonam.info

A Sculpture Monalisa

This is an amazing sculpture of Shiva as Gajasamhara murthy ( gaja – elephant), samhara ( vanquish) ins sanskrit or Yaani uri porthia murthy ( yaani – elephant, uri – skin, porthia – cover or clad in) in Tamil. This beauty was brought from Darasuram to Tanjore museum.

We have seen many sculptures of this episode before, so whats so great about this one? you might ask. Well when i met one of my mentors Shri. Kudavoil Balasurbramaniam, i asked him about his favorite pieces. ( incidentally the same one was picked up by master sculptor Sri Umapathy in our recent interview – will post it – he is trying out a new form of showcasing these beauties in plates !!)

Well, K Balu Sir explained to me the splendor of this creation. At first glance, i did not pick the amazing details of this sculpture. There are many repetitions of this pose in later chola temples and also in other places, but the chola style is unique. Here is one from Chidambaram.

Chandra of course will pick the Pullamangai sculpture we saw earlier as his pick – since its a miniature and the delightful baby skanda jumping off parvathi’s hands.

But the beauty of this creation – standing at almost 6 feet, the sculptor really used the proportions to bring out at sculptural marvel.

Inorder to fully appreciate the greatness of this magnificent piece, i requested my good friend Mrs. Lakshmi Sharath who was going to Tanjore to get me some closeup pictures. ( Kathie also helped with her snaps!!!)

We have already seen the episode in detail in the earlier post, however the dynamic post, quote from Sri Vidya Dehejia’s book – Art of the Imperial Cholas

Also from Darasuram is a dynamic relief carving of Siva’s jubilant dance of triumph after killing the elephant demon Gajasura. Having flayed the elephant, Shiva held its skin in his outstretched hands and danced a tempestuous dance. The exaggerated twist of his body dramatically conveys his frenzied movement. One cannot but appreciate the sentiment of Saint Manikkavachakar, who described Shiva as a madman:

i shall call you
madman draped in elephant skin
poison throated madman,
madman dancing
amid the trees
of the burning ground,
madman clad in tiger skin,
madman who enslaved
even me.

But the beauty of the piece needs more elaboration. He has four hands on each side – look at how his fingers have torn into the elephant hide and protrude out. Oh! such splendid detailing.

Look at the ornamentation on the hands, legs, neck. The elaborate headdress, flowing locks forming a crown held back by a Skull shaped diadem, his knotted waist cloth swaying in the power of his dance. Exemplary art. But what is his lower left hand doing, its pointing the viewer towards the extreme left of the sculpture ( right as you view it).

Well well well, we see Parvathi in a kind of sidewards stance – her right shoulder is slightly pushed up, as though she is shielding someone, Oh!, there he is, baby skanda, cocooned by his mother, who doesn’t want him to witness the gory scene.

Here lies the magnificence of this sculpture. As you bend down and look upwards from the position of baby skanda, parvathi’s body would block the action of Shiva totally. But we return to the face of Shiva now, for the final flair of the artist, as a singer would finish off his masterful composition with a delightful alapana. Look closely at the face of shiva.


33733386
The side facing away from Paravathi and Skanda – the right side ( left as you view it) – eyes brows are arched in anger, while the other side is more gentle

Parvathi’s penance to unite with Shiva – Darasuram

When Satheesh told me that he was planning to go to Darasuram, I immediately asked him to take some pictures of the amazing pillar sculptures in the pillared hall. He obliged with some delightful pictures. They depict some lovely scenes from the birth of Lord Murugan. Though the Sanskrit work of Kalidasa ( Kumarsambhava) deals with this in epic proportions we searched for an authentic south Indian version. With help from Vairam (who runs the popular Karka nirka blog) we chanced on the rare work of Kachchiyappa Sivaachaaryar in Project Madurai Archives – Kandhapuranam.

The background is thus – We have earlier seen the stories of Dhaksha – wherein disgusted with the insults heaped on her beloved by her own father Dhaksha, Dhakshayini the consort of Shiva – jumps into the sacrificial fire to rid herself of all ties with Dhaksha. Stricken with grief, Shiva leads the life of an hermit. The demon Surapadhman meantime uses this opportunity to occupy the three worlds and causes innumerable hardship to all – he too is aided by a boon of Brahma – wherein he seeks his end only from an offspring of Shiva -cunningly sought knowing the demise of Shiva’s consort and his life of penance. The Devas use this loophole and to get Shiva interested in the reborn Parvathi – get Kama to shoot his love arrow ( we saw this sculpture as well in Tanjore Big temple) – he being burnt in the process.

The scene now shifts to Parvathi who is reborn as the daughter to the Mountain Himavan and his wife Menaa.

( since we cover the verses in tamil in the tamil version of this post – am giving the sanskrit references here)

http://www.geocities.com/desirajuhrao/ks/sarga1/kssans1.htm

*****Not able to display the sanskrit font right now – am working on it *******

1-21. atha= then; dakShasya kanyaa= Daksha’s, daughter; bhava puurva patnii= Bhava’s [Shiva’s,] former, wife; satii= husband devout wife; satii= Sati Devi named; pituH avamaanena prayuktaa= by father’s, dishonouring, incited; yoga visR^iShTa dehaa= through yoga, discarded, body; janmane= to birth – to take rebirth; taam shaila vadhuum prapede= her, mountain’s, wife, reached.

Then Shiva’s former wife and Daksha Prajaapati’s daughter Sati Devi, being a husband devout wife but incited at her father’s dishonouring discarded her body through yoga, and to take a rebirth she made her appearance before Mena Devi, the wife of the king of mountains. [1-21]

From a very young age she realises her mission and her only goal is to marry Shiva. She undergoes severe penance to attain her goal , the intensity of her penance amazes all the people around, to the extent that they pray to her to stop her penance – which is too strenuous for a 6 year old!!

Finally her penance gets the attention of Shiva, who as is his style, decides to test her resolve. As the tamil text mentioned above, he mockingly comes dressed as a old ascetic and advises Parvathi against such a penance. He ridicules her effort, saying will such acts get her shiva.

But Parvathi stays steadfast in her resolve.

Lets now look at the sculpture. A lovely intricate pillar sculpture from Darasuram. The panel probably read from bottom up – The last two rows, we see all people being amazed at Parvathi’s resolve. Next shows her deep in devotion to Shiva – depicted in Linga form -with three of her friends, with raised hands – maybe praying to her to stop.

The top most shows her – deep in penance, standing on one leg – fire raging both sides. What happened next ..well the rains came and ….to be continued.

Marar of Ilayankudi – what a sculpture

Today we are going to see a spectacular miniature sculpture from Darasuram Airawateshwara temple built by Rajaraja Chola II in the 12th century CE. This temple is a storehouse of art and architecture and am picking a very unique sculpture to showcase it. This panel was explained to me by Dr. Kudavoil Balasubramaniam, and all credit to him for this post.

Firstly, the mastery of the sculpture – inorder for you to spot this panel – lets give you a long shot, slowly paning in. Not on the Ganesha but below. do you spot it.


To give you an idea of the size of this miniature, once again we see the Slaying of Vali sculpture with a pilot pen. It gives you a sense of proportion of this sculpture.

Next we need to study the story that is depicted in this panel. Its the story of one of the 64 saivite saints – Marar of Ilayankudi. His life is a lesson on the famed hospitality of tamil land, combined with the reverence to saints.

In order to understand the panel more to appreciate its true beauty, we need to learn the story of this great couple. Maarar and his wife, were farmers, quite well to do and they were very devoted followers of shiva. They used to go to any limits to host fellow devotees and the wandering saints and followers of shiva. They thus lived a very contended life, till Shiva, as is his wont, decided to test their resolve.

Their prosperity vanned and they fell into bad times, heavily into debt, the family still continued their pious ways and took great care of any visitors to their home. During one such bad time, when their crops had failed and they had borrowed their last penny ( no US Govt bailout for them), on a stormy rainy night, shiva lands up at their door, disguised as a wandering ascetic.

The couple realise that the dont have anything to offer, while the lady in all her intelligence, suggests for Maarar to go to fields where they had sowed their last bag of grain and use a wicker basket as a sieve to retrieve the sown grain. He too does so, in pouring rain, sieves through his field and gets a basket full of grain. The wife mills it and makes flour and starts cooking, when she realises that they don’t have enough fire wood. The ever resourceful Maarar, takes the sticks off his roof and gives it to his wife to use ( mind the heavy rain)

HIs wife dutifully cooks the rice, offers respects to the ascetic, seats him on a plank, places a tripod stool in front of his and serves food. The ascetic takes one handful of the offering, is overcome with the devotion of his subjects, spontaneously bursting into a blinding flash, and returns with his consort, blessing the couple and taking them with him to enjoy the everlasting bliss in Kailash.

Now we see the how the master sculptor has handled this entire story in such a miniature story board. He has cut the story into three scenes. As you view the creation panning from right to left.

First scene:

Maarar bringing back the basket of grain and his wife eagerly taking it from him

Second scene:

The ascetic is seated and the lady is serving him. This is the master stroke of the scultor – watch closely the head of ascetic – you will see a small flame, then to its right a bigger flame and then a large flame. How beautifully he has shown the Lord disappearing as a flash of flaming light.

Last scene:

Simple – he closes the story by sculpting Shiva and Parvati giving darshan on Nandhi.

What a sculpture, What a story and such wonderful concept delivery.

Source; http://bhakthimalar.blogspot.com/2007/02/blog-post_24.html
Image courtesy: http://www.kumbakonam.info/kumbakonam/darsuam/index.htm

The devote who wore slippers

1793
Darasuram Airavateshwara temple sculpture, an amazing work of the hunter devotee of shiva, kannapar. We will see his story in more detail later, but one curious aspect of this sculpture attracted me to it. Its a splendid depiction of kannapar, the bow slung on his shoulders, the devotion in his face are brilliantly captured. But as you complete the sweep of the eye, the feet and what he wears on them startles you – a pair of lovely sandals.
1796
Normally one would refrain from wearing footwear inside Indian temples and so too are the sculptures inside, atleast the majority of them, the exceptions being shiva as the charming ascetic – shiva bhikshadhana and kannappar. Why is he depicted wearing these sandals? to answer that we need to go back to fourth thirumurai ( thanks to Mr. V. Subramanian again for giving me this verse reference)

http://www.thevaaram.org/thirumurai_1/songview.php?thiru=4&Song_idField=40490&padhi=049&startLimit=7&limitPerPage=1&sortBy=&sortOrder=DESC

In short, the ardent devotee kannapar, guarding the shrine of shiva with his bow and arrow on one hand, the cooked meat ( we will see this too later) on the other hand, wearing a large slipper made of animal hide….( and so goes the description)
1789
Now you see how intricately the sculptor has characterised each subject he worked on down to last detail.

Images courtesy

http://www.kumbakonam.info/kumbakonam/darsuam/

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

Darasuram – a delightful Hand rail

Darasuram forms the pinnacle of Chola art, a must visit in the golden triangle of middle chola art, Tanjore, Gangai Konda Cholapuram and Darasuram.

What you are seeing is a staircase leading to the hall,the humble handrail has been transformed into a splendid interplay of beautiful mythical animals – a delightful concoction of animal figurines ,called yaazhis ,..mythical beasts of gigantic proportions ,. Bulging eyes, horns, claws ,..the artist imagination is running riot here,.due to predominance of the elephant motif here, we will call it an elephant yaazhi which is set off at the bottom by his aquatic counterpart ,.a fish yaazhi,.if you watch closely you can spot the solider on top of the elephant yaazhi complete with as assortment of arms ..sword and shield ..and another one emerging from the mouth of fish yaazhi below!!


We are now looking at a similar flight of stairs ..but this has been crudely repaired by the powers to be !! you can compare the two side and by side and notice that the centre block just under the Yaazhi doesn’t fit.. its been crudely set into the composition, anyway lets look at what is depicted there,looks like some form of martial school, two people jesting in sport and another pair sparring with swords, in between the two pairs is the master..overseeing her wards,yes all are women fighters !!!

 

Thanks to my young friend Shriram, got better pictures of the rail and inlay panel. 1115
1119