Tag Archives: Pallava

Enchanting Ascetic, Mesmerising Mohini

One of our viewers commented on the post of Sri Dhivakar, as to why despite lots of Shiva Bhikshadana forms being present, why i chose to depict only a few? A very good question and the answer is, inorder for the depth and beauty of his post to reach the audience, i kind of underplayed the sculptural content. Well it does give me a chance to run a sequel to that post.

So here you have Shiva Bhikshanda, you heard the story previously, now see how the master sculptor not only depicted the main form but also brought in the entire scene into his sculpture.

The Kailasantha temple in kanchi, is the grand creation of the great pallava kind Raja simhan, the temple was addressed as the big stone temple, but Great Raja Raja chola himself. Coming from someone who built the grandest of temples it quite a compliment and its not an exaggeration.. Every panel in the magnificent creation is sheer poetry and a delight to watch. Lets take the great shiva bhikshadana panel in long shot. Its beautifully framed by the famous prancing lion yaalis of raja simha. What grace and what artistic brilliance. Before we go into the main sculpture, we can see the left hand index finger of shiva pointing up – whats is it pointing to, the amazing dance of shiva ( see the similarity in the depiction to the one we saw in the mallai olakaneshwara temple)

Ok, lets come back to the composition. Shiva is the charming ascetic, the form of the sculpted youth exudes youth, vitality, the nakedness of his lower body, the grace of his bent knee, the slight flex of his left foot with the sandals, the broad shoulders, the nonchalant manner in which is right hand rests on his staff, the begging bowl stuck into his palm, the mischievous grin on his face – all portray youthful exuberance.


Not being content with this masterly depiction, the sculptor continuous with his story board, two rishi wives, are charmed by shiva, captivated by his grace and prostrate at his feet. Seeing this an angry rishi is rushing at shiva, raising his left hand to strike him.

Is there a reference in verse to this, yes there is.
4th Tirumurai

has the instruments such as kokkarai, cymbals and vīṇai to measure time when the youth dances.
adorns his waist with chank beads.has a cobra of five hoods.
remove the snake-bite, 5 he is in vakkari a shrine nāka īccaravaṉār has a form in which the waist is naked without cloth and caused the wives of the sages of tārukāvaṉam to be infatuaged with love.
Translation: V.M.Subramanya Aiyar–Courtesy: French Institute of Pondichery / EFEO (2006)

Ok, but what about the Mohini we saw earlier -thats from the Kanchi Devarajaswami temple pillar. Her you can again see the skill of the sculptor and more so his playfull intelligence.

The rishis are not only drunk on the bewitching charm of Vishnu as mohini, but are also getting drunk on the beverage which she is serving. They are thus shown in various stages of intoxication.

Is there a reference in verse to this, yes there is

2nd Tirumurai


you spread yourself into many living beings and worlds you absorbed them into you at the end of the world you created all the living beings which had a short respite, to be born again, in order that they may be get respite for a short while from their Karmams yourself and the noble-minded Māl who bent the wild lime tree got separated and joined together you desired the cremation ground where corpses come and felt joy in staying there
Translation: V.M.Subramanya Aiyar–Courtesy: French Institute of Pondichery / EFEO (2006)

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 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/

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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A testing Penance – opps a test penance Panel

The Mahabalipuram penance panel which we saw in the last post is the largest open air bas relief sculpture. Just prior to embarking on such a massive sculpt, the sculptors seem to have tested the concept nearby…the little known test panel – but does it give any clues to the mystery of whether the Penace panel depicts – Arjuna’s penance ( to get the pasupatha astra from shiva) or Bagiratha’s penance to bring the ganges down to resurrect his ancestors!!

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Lets analyse the test panel – the depiction of the lighthouse will give you a rough idea on its location. Similar to the Main penance panel, the artist chose a cleft in a boulder to depict his theme – but here the two boulders are split into two.

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Why we call it  a test panel is the story is carved in low relief.

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The majestic elephants have not yet been obviously brought into the theme, though a few heads do appear.
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The flying celestials are all these, but seem to be moving away form the boon giving area towards the descending ganges – to witness this great spectacle. So its a definite give away as to the main story of the test panel – thankfully the boon giver and seeker are much farther away from the cleft ( infact their positions are transposed – left to right)

The most important clue is the absence of the weapon in Shiva’s hands!

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So if this were to be seen in isolation, its a pure story of the descending ganges and thus bagiratha’s penance. This story has been delightfully mixed with Arjuna’s penance in the main panel to come up with a puzzling combo…or is it just two in one or is there another twist to the plot….is it three in one..!!777806

The World’s largest open air bas relief sculpture – intro post

The opening picture we put in the introduction pages, raised a few comments. We could have easily put a better picture of the same relief, or a beautiful sculpture but what we wanted to highlight was the lack of awareness about these great works. So inorder make amends, thought we will make not one but a series of posts as a tribute to this greatest marvel of pallava art – the world’s largest open air bas relief sculpture.
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There are no parallels to this work before and since, what inspired the pallava artists to let their imagination and skill run riot on a canvas of this size, 200 feet wide by 40 feet tall, that continues to entrall audiences 1300 years after the last chisel blunted its edge on this hard rock face.

The grace of the flying celestials, the majestic elephants, a host of animals and birds, the emaciated book seeker, the benevolent boon giver, the host of attendants, the naga royal couple, well it does call for this series on mallai penance panel.

The giant composition is a giant puzzle, a living testament to the fertile pallava mind, to start with – the name itself is a puzzle. Is it Bagiratha’s penance (the descent of the ganges) or Arjuna’s penance to get the Pasupatha Weapon of Shiva – Descent of Ganges couldn’t be more apt – for the choice of the natural cleft in the rock face, and the deft use of this to frame the relief. But lets look at both the legends and also the subsequent post on the test penance panel.

Bagiratha’s ancestors are cursed to ashes and inorder to resurrect them, he needs to do severe penance ( not he but his whole clan) and it is he in the long list who manages in his persistent best ( even today he, sadly along with Md Gazni, are examples for being persistent to succeed). Ok,he finally manages to please the gods and the Ganges is forced to come down ( we saw her ego being abated in the earlier Shiva Gangadhara post). So the penance panel has been artistically conceived in such a way that during heavy rains the water would be engineered to flow through the crevice ( there are remanents of a catchment tank above the penance panel…maybe used to entertain the kings in the non rainy seasons)

Ok, the second plot in the puzzle is set in the Mahabartha just before the Kurukshetra War. Arjuna is building his arsenal of deadly opps divine weapons. He does severe penance to obtain the Pasupatha Astra from Shiva ( see the emaciated condition of the boon seeker in the panel …cant but compare with the current nuclear deal that India is being so wanting to sign…are we so emaciated !!) compare this with the divine beauty and grace of Shiva ( check out his ornaments – the different ear rings on each ear) ..the astra looks a kind of oversized spear – not like the regular arrow or the trident so associated with Shiva.

There are few more puzzles to be answered, the praying cat, the headless scribe, the forest scene, the belly face in the shiva bootha gana etc etc which we will see in the coming posts