A Pallava king’s poetic expedition

February 22, 2018 04:42 pm | Updated 04:43 pm IST

R. Nagaswamy

R. Nagaswamy

Bald descriptions that merely point to obvious features, miss the spirit of a sculpture. Historian and archaeologist R. Nagaswamy firmly believes that it is important to understand the topography of the area, the ambience, the intention of the person, who commissioned the sculpture, inscriptions and literary references, if any.

In his lecture, ‘Immortal poetry in stone,’ Nagaswamy spoke about the cave temple, built by Mahendravarma Pallava in Tiruchi. It is a little below the Ucchi Pillaiyar temple. He suggested that before visiting the cave temple, one must climb to the top, and look around, as Mahendravarma must have. The king would have seen the Cauvery flowing by, its banks lush with paddy fields, jasmine creepers and coconut trees. Inspired by what he saw, he must have come up with a cave temple for Siva on the hill.

Mahendravarma composed Sanskrit verses, which have been inscribed on pilasters in the cave temple. The script used is Pallava grantha. Sanskritist and epigraphist Hultzsch translated the verses in the 19th century. Nagaswamy examined the beauty of Mahendravarma’s verses in the context of the cave temple and the Gangadhara bas relief in the temple.

Dramatic scene

Mahendravarma’s poetic imagery conjures up a dramatic scene. He says that Siva is a nadipriya — a lover of rivers. And so, Parvati isn’t quite sure that her spouse will keep away from Cauvery. So, leaving the Himalayas, she rushes to Tiruchi and warns Siva that Cauvery is dear to the Pallava king — Pallavasya Dayitaam . And because Siva is nadipriya, Mahendravarma has depicted him in the cave temple as Gangadhara, receiving the descending Ganges in his hair.

In another verse, Mahendravarma explains why he built the temple on the hill. Lord Siva asked Mahendravarma how he (Siva) could view the glories of the Cauvery at ground level. And so Mahendravarma built this temple on the hill for Siva.

The cave temple is rectangular, with two anganas. On the one side is the Gangadhara sculpture. On the other side of the temple is a scooped out garbha griha, now empty, but which shows signs of having had a linga installed in it, with provisions for the abhisheka water to flow out. The inscription on the lintel says this is Lalithankura Pallaveswara griham.

In one of his verses, Mahendravarma describes the banks of the Cauvery as being adorned with a garland of groves — ArAma mAlAdharAm . In yet another verse, concepts from tarkka sastra like lingin, and vipaksha come into play.

The hill is the crown (mauli) of the Chola Kingdom, says Mahendravarma, and this cave temple is a gem (mahAmaNi) in that crown. The effulgence of this gem is the jyoti of Lord Siva.

One verse says that Satyasanda’s (Siva) body and fame have been made permanent (sAsvati) by silAkarENa — chiselling into stone. While Hultzsch read it as silAkarENa, Nagaswamy read it as silAksharENa, which would mean that this permanence was achieved by the inscription.

Satyasanda is also Mahendra’s title. So, he has made himself permanent too. Elsewhere, Mahendravarma says that SthANu (Siva) has been made permanent (sthANu) by this temple.

Unique ideas

Mahendravarma says this temple is unusual (vichitra), and this is a subtle introduction of Mahendravarma’s title — vichitra chitha — a person with unique ideas. The hill’s name SirA (SirAmalai being the original Tamil name) becomes meaningful, because it now bears the figure of Siva — Harasya tanu — on its head. And Mahendravarama says this image is unparalleled — apratima .

Mahendravarma says he also bears Siva’s foot on his head, and this is borne out by the sculpture, in which there are two figures one on either side of Siva, in the pose of one ready to receive Siva’s foot on the head. Nagaswamy said that usually, important persons were sculpted to the right side of a divine figure and so the figure on the right must be Mahendravarma.

In the verses, Mahendravarma uses some of his titles like Gunabara, Satrumalla and Purushottama. The Gangadhara panel should be enjoyed with an analysis of Mahendravarma’s puns and wordplay.

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