Tracing the roots of Kanchipuram’s Thirumukoodal Azhvar temple

Where the Thirumukoodal Azhvar temple in Kanchipuram stands today, was a school, a fully-functional hospital, and a student hostel thousands of years ago

The rivers Palar, Seyyar, and Vegavathi, that merge to give Thirumukoodal its name, have gone dry. While the rivers are gone, an extraordinary temple is present near their confluence on the Selavakkam Road in Kanchipuram.

Once, vedas were taught on these grounds, the campus had a student-hostel, and a fully-functional medical college and hospital flourished. And the temple bears proof, says historian Pradeep Chakravarthy, who leads heritage tours introducing tourists, travellers and a large number of NRIs to these spaces.

Architecturally, the ASI-protected Thirumukoodal Azhvar temple is much simpler then the Kanchipuram temples. It however makes a powerful claim to fame with 17 inscriptions, engraved in 55 lines on the East wall of the

prakaram . There are more near the sanctum sanctorum. The letters are mostly Brahmi, 9th, 10th, and 11th Century Chola script, and the odd Telugu words confirm the Vijayanagara influence.

The inscriptions are in neat, parallel lines that go end to end. “No spelling errors,” Pradeep assures us. These stone epigraphs of Chola times represent the economic, social, and religious life of the 11th Century, he adds. They list grants for temple maintenance — there’s mention of gifts of sheep, oil for burning a perpetual lamp, a flower garden, paddy, gold, sandal paste, camphor, and

kumkum — along with names of the festivals and special days to be celebrated. (The king’s birthday is one of them.)

“The most significant decree was issued in the fifth regnal year of Veera Rajendra Chola (1068 AD),” says Pradeep, standing in a pit below the wall-face. We attempt to read and recognise the letters. “It’s about a full-fledged hospital, a school and a hostel.”

The stone-lines announce the number of students enrolled in the college, the number of teachers appointed for each subject and the remuneration paid, details of helpers and cooks. The school taught subjects like the Rig and Yajur vedas, grammar, arts, and worship protocol. Classes were held at the Jananatha

mandapam . The attached hostel fed 60 persons daily, among them students and those appointed for temple duties. The hostel could accommodate 50 students, but at the time of this inscription, there were 35. Thirumukoodal fell in a subdivision of the Madhuranthaka Chathurvedhimangalam, a piece of land given to vedic scholars.

Writing on the wall

It’s clear the temple was part of the campus of a medical school. Besides the physician, the hospital had a surgeon, two assistants for fetching herbs, two nurses and a person for performing minor surgeries. The sick were given meals. The list of medicines stored in the hospital and methods of preparation are also recorded clearly.

Teachers were paid in cash and kind measured in measuring units naazhi or uri . They got a daily allowance of two coins and an uzhi or naazhi of paddy or cloth.

Thirty-five mats were stacked for students to sit on, firewood was allotted to make hot water for oil baths. The food-stock list counted rice for in-patients, oil for a year of lamp-burning, names of the perfumed oil, Ayurveda medicines, and a ghee, cardamom and lemon juice concoction.

Interestingly, female students got a ration of higher-priced ghee. On the employee rolls were security and ward staff, apart from doctors. Hired men fetched firewood. No other inscription in Tamil Nadu has such detailed information, concludes Pradeep.

“The choice of this place for a hospital and medical college was based on sound principles. The three sacred rivers signify the confluence of thought, body and behaviour.”

Pradeep asks us to breathe in the energy of the campus. We sit in the mandapam , wondering where the cool breeze came from at noon. “The breeze blows through the year,” say the locals.