Tag Archives: mallai

Pallava inspiration for Rajini Balle Rakha song costumes !!

Its been a while since the celebrations of Rajini starrer Shivaji – the boss have died down. But i noticed one very interesting feature in the opening song of the movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjVm1sYuESc

Sorry again but i am not digressing from sculpture…been quite some while since we went to my favorite – mallai. So today we are going back to see a very unique sculpture, not many notice, few even realise that it is so. We cant fault them for so great is this panel – that is the largest open air bas relief sculpture in the world , hey hang on, I know regular readers are already saying that we carried a full length intro on the mallai penance panel – we also did some interesting comparisons of the test panel nearby as well and drew some conclusions on what is being depicted. However, today we are going to zoom in on a very very unique depiction and end of it you will see the links between the song and this sculpture.

When i meant zooming in, i did mean it literally. So, fasten your seat belts as we zoom in on the central figure ( ok the figure next to the central figure or inbetween the two central figures). Cant figure out who i am talking about ?







Yes, today we are going to see this diminutive dwarf or goblin ( as many books call them) – faithful assistant of shiva, a very funny guy, right by the side of the boon giving Shiva. But did you notice something wierd in his belly!! Yes, its a tiger or lion face carved splendidly into his belly. Now do you get the reason for pulling in the song !
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Back to hardcore sculpture – What does this signify, is it just the Pallava sculptor showing off his prowess carelessly – are there similar depictions of such belly faces. Thanks to kathie, I have another, which we will see in part 2 of this post plus part 3 holds a new belly face as well.

Btw, this belly face is called a Urdhva Muha ( terror face !)
How many times some of us have been past this panel and not noticed this. Next time i am sure when you visit such places, you would stare at the belly of every statue!!
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2008 Fashion is 6 packs Abs – check this girl from 7th C

The ‘IN’ thing among todays macho men of the film industry ( thank God for that – else we will have Hero’s who look like beached whales running around trees romancing girls young enough to be their daugthers …we still do!! – but atleast the healthy trend is catching on ) is getting fit and flashing their 6 packs abs ( a yet to be released bollywood blockbuster claims 8 packs!!)

But check out this damsel flashing her abs – sculpted 1300 years ago. Mallai ( mamallapuram) near chennai – the Mahishasuramardhini Panel. Can you spot her, no I am not referring to the Devi. Giving you multiple angles.
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Can you spot her assistant now…crouched on one knee, brandishing a heavy sword on her right hand, beautifully attired in a breast band , she is poised to strike the leg of the demon Mahisha.

Now, can you see the justification for the tag line, 6 packs abs, take a look at hers. Women were warriors ( and some still are ) and from the shape she is in, must have been a heavily trained one at that.

Time to get up and hit the threadmill i guess.

Two Demons plot against a sleeping Vishnu – Mallai

Today we are going to see a very interesting legend in sculpture – most visitors would have seen this sculpture in mahabalipuram, but dont stop to notice the legend nor the sculptural beauty of this masterpiece. One of the earliest acts of valor of Vishnu. The Anantasayana Panel in the Mahishasuramardhini Mandabam. I am grateful for Mr. Swaminathan’s guidance to understand this panel.

Before we see the legend, for a change we see the main sculpture once and a superb piece of stone work that often goes unnoticed.

The depth of this panel carved into hard rock and the masterful depiction of these two key players in the legend is unique – it full of life, as though its a scene being enacted before our very eyes.

Now, lets see the legend. Vishnu has absorbed the Universe in Himself after the destruction of the Creation ( which he does once every cycle is complete), he is supposed to be sleeping (because he has no work to do!). He has delegated the work of creation ( for the next cycle) to Brahma and is into deep slumber in the Ocean of Milk. His bed was the coils of Ananta, the god of serpents. This Sleep is the state of deepest meditation of a person, when there is complete cut off from the external and also internal perceptions.

At this moment – The demons Madhu and Kaitabha are said to be generated from the ear-wax of Vishnu.The two demons slip out of the ears of the Lord and attempt to destroy Brahma, the clear perception about the Creation, and try to enforce a world view in terms of categorization by names and forms,disturbing thus the very act of creation. . These two demons are difficult to conquer.

(Madhu in Sanskrit means honey. It is the extra sweet feeling that things are more than right. Kai in Sanskrit means
‘noise’. Kaitabh represents the inner noise resulting from the feeling of inadequacy. The evils represented by Madhu and Kaitabha erode the inner essence compromising effective engagement.Madhu denotes form of anything. Kaitabha denotes name of everything – )

The threatened Brahma requests the Supreme Goddess to help. Vishnu, aroused by the Goddess, destroys the demons. ( its a long story and inorder to justice to the panel i have shrunk it)

Now lets return to the sculpture:

Vishnu reclining in a trance -watch how the sculptor has brought the serene /dream like peaceful emotion into his face.

He is sculpted with two arms – His right arm is out-stretched and seems to be cluthing something? his left arm is bent at the elbow ( sadly broken) He has his head and chest slightly raised. His left knee is slightly bent though other parts are stretched flat. Is he about to get up? He is adorned with a beautiful crown ,necklaces and ear rings.

His bed or couch – Anantha – what a majestic portrayal of his five headed hoods forming a protective canopy over the sleeping Vishnu. Such depth into the carving and such fluid lines.

Below the feet of Vishnu is the goddess, a depiction of great beauty. ( some version say its Bhu Devi, but is she the Goddess requesting Vishnu to wake up?)

Above the reclining God are two flying figures and below him are two more. These are the weapons of Vishnu shown in human form, ayudh-purusha-s. Of the two flying figures, the dwarfish figure, Panch-janya, on the left is conch and the other charming Kaumodaki represents the mace (gada). The two below are two handsome youthful figures represent discus (chakra) and sword (nandaka). Some identify these two as Markandeya and Bhrigu.

The threatening asura-s, Madhu and Kaitabha, are having a stealthy, but animated, discussion. The one on the right is ready to strike at the Lord. The way they talk over the demons shoulder and how it has been sculpted into stone is magnificent.

Mallai Olakkaneswara temple

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Today we are going to see a unique structure in mallai, sadly not many go to view this amazing place, not just for its beauty but also for its great view. With the new lighthouse ( which itself was commissioned in 1887 !) offering a nice offset, lot of people do capture this structure albeit in long shots. Kind of Old vs new but its more sad since this is probably one of the most unique structures of Mallai.

Why we call it unique, is because its a structural temple and not a rock cut/cave temple like the rest of the sculpture and unlike the shore temple, its build on top of a small hillock. Today the structure is in pretty sad state – nature and the british ( using it as a lighthouse) have taken its toll on the structure. ( images courtesy British library)16891686
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From the pictures you could get a good idea on the location, it can reached by climbing a flight of steps adjoining the Mahishasuramardhini cave.
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But the temple is still braving the odds and has some very unique sculptures. The rajasimha lions / vyala’s are there on the corner pillars of Garbha Griham and ardha mandabam, and a few of our favorite shiva ganas – amazingly funny and endearing characters these dwarfs.( like children waiting for their dad to come back from work with trinkets)
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Now the name, i learnt it after reading Mr. Swaminathan’s work on mallai ( shortly coming out as a book and a must read)

Quote”
We understand that it was the practice in those days of collecting a measure of oil (Uzhakku-ennai) from the community for the permanent light of this temple. Thus it came to be called Uzhakku-Ennai-Isvarar Temple. Olakkaneswra is its corruption is a view.”
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There are three relief sculptures on the outer walls: on the south is Dakshinamurti, Siva as a teacher, heralding a practice in all Siva temple then on, Siva as the divine dancer ( visitors to Kanchi kailasanatha would recognise this )on the eastern wall and finally, on the north side, an exquisite relief of Siva subduing Ravana who had the temerity to lift Mount Kailasa.”
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The beauty of this sculpture is amazing, you can still see the crescent moon gracing shiva’s locks and the scream emanating from ravana’s mouths.

Sadly our modern day Kings and their consorts have decided that these creations should be graced with their names as well. A thousand year heritage being defaced thus, cant they find better avenues to exhibit their love.
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( Thanks to Mr. Swaminathan for taking the time to do the Mallai trip for Ponniyin selvan friends and pictures by Sri. Shriram, Sri. Plastics Chandra and Sri. Vinjamoor Venkatesh)

Mallai Shore Temple – An Intro Post

Before i start introducing the shore temple ( does it need introduction?) i got to place on record my sincere thanks to two friends i met on flickr.com – their photography stunned me and when i sought their concurrence to host their pictures here, they gladly agreed. The stunning visuals truly add beauty to the pallava creation and they are from the lenses of Mr. Prabhakaran ( Aadhi arts) and Mr Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan ( Ravages)
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Any chennaite and every visitor to Chennai – takes back many interesting memories, but nothing as spectacular as the twin spires of the shore temple.
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By the lilting waves of the sea shore, landscaping the skyline, words cannot aptly explain the visual overflow of senses on seeing this magnificent edifice, standing tall for a 1300 years, withstanding the elements, a living tribute to the pinnacle of artistic excellence of the Pallavas. In Art school you are taught the elements of symmetry and how aesthetic beauty comes from symmetric images – you could base the straight profile for that argument, but the greatness of this creation is that the asymmetric towers too appeal very much to your senses.
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The structure most often serves the purpose of a photo backdrop and not many know the intricate details of the structure, which is the purpose of this introduction.

The mallai shore temple is actually a three in one temple – an earlier Vishnu shrine
sandwiched inbetween two shiva shrines. The two Shiva shrines
gopurams are built by the great Raja Simha Pallava ( the self styled king of unlimited fantasies – Atyantakama – you can see his trade mark prancing lion pillars – we did see them earlier in the Saluvankuppam post – tiger cave bordering the stage and you will see more of them when we venture to Kanchipuram for his grandest creation – the Kanchi Kailaasanatha temple ). The Vishnu shrine in between, did it have a tower or was it damaged later, is not clear.
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But there are references in Vaishanvite Saints ( Alwars) works of Kadalmallai
Talasayana perumal. In Rajaraja’s later inscriptions he mentions the names of the three shrines of at Kshatriyasimha Pallavesvaragriham, Rajasimha Pallavesvaragriham and Pallikondaruliya Devar shrine.
Kshtriyasimha and Rajasimha are ofcourse titles of Rajasimha himself and hence we can conclude that these shiva shrines were built by him.

The shore temple is truly an ode to sculpture
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We will see more of the Sthala Sayana, the Vishnu shrine in the coming posts.

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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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.

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)

Pra(e)ying Cat

We say the main actors in the mallai penance panel. Now for a couple of light hearted posts.
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Towards the bottom of the panel, just in front of the majestic tusker, we see a very curious scene being enacted.
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You saw earlier the boon seeker ( arjuna / bagiratha) engaged in severe penance – standing up on one leg. Now you see a cat mimicking this and to add to the humor there are a couple of mice who seem to be in the act of worshiping the praying cat. What would be act 2 of this scene once the cat breaks his fast …breakfast.
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Maybe we could still draw some lessons from this story

The Majestic Elephants of Mallai

A full grown tusker marching majestically is a sight that will always inspire you. No doubt it inspired the Pallava artist as well. But then the greatness in him that he breathed life into the hardest of stone and left us this superlative herd of elephants. They have been exposed to the elements for a 1000 years ( ok 1300 years), yet they still retain their essence inside this maze of characters in the great penance panel.
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Inorder to truly appreciate this, we need a series of pictures. How much the pallava artist observed the elephant, to not just depict it in stone – meaning like a fixed sculpture, but to show it with grace, elegance, the majestic walk, the slight twist of the trunk, the fullness of the tusk, the delicate flap of the ear….the bump of the forehead.
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Well, a friend did me a favor by framing these goats, to give new viewers an idea of space and dimension of the panel.
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Compare this with a live elephant picture may assist in appreciating his craft more
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Throw in the cute babies of the family happily sporting under the protective masses of their parents…not a full body, just a profile, a head here, a small cute trunk there. enough to bring you cheer. Its fills your heart with joy, love. truly a moving composition, a timeless beauty.
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