VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA
adhishthana and moolaharmya built in
brick.
The gopuras in the earlier phase, also all
stonestructures, are of proportionately
lesser magnitude than the main vimana of
the temple complex. But they too increase
in magnitude, but are still subordinate to
the main vimana as in the all-stone vimana
built by the great Rajaraja Chola-1, (985-
1016). The great vimanas of the temples
in Gangaikonda Cholapuram (Rajendra Chola
(1012-1024), Darasuram(Rajaraja Chola-2,
1146-1173) and Tribhuvanam (Kulottunga
Chola-3, 1178-1218) are all stone-
structures that come next only to those
of Thanjavur in magnitude. Later the
gopuras tend to exceed the size and height
of the principal viman and dominate the
architectural composition and their super-
structures come to be built of brick over
the stone-body. With the number of prakara
circuits, concentrically increased to three,
five and seven, the complexity of the
temple is not only increased and enlarged
in its lay-out, but also the number of
gopuras increased. This happens when the
original nucleus is added to from time to
time and we have the examples of the huge
temple complexes of Tiruvannamalai,
Chidambaram, Madurai and Sreerangam, to
mention a few among many such. The
gopuras on each cardinal, one before the
other too, are of proportionately increased
magnitude. The number of storeys or talas
reached in the outermost gopuras is eleven
at the maximum and we have the examples
in Kalahasti, Kanchi (Ekamreshvara),
Tiruvannamalai (east, for instance, which
were built by the great Krishnadevaraya
of the Vijayanagar dynasty (1509-1529)
and are popularly called Rayagopurams).
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After the monolithic vimanas of
Mahabalipuram, the so-called rathas, what
can be considered to be the last among
them, locally called the northern Pidari
ratha, (c.700) and all the structural
vimanas from that period (700-728)
onwards to date, cease to have a hara on
the topmost tala surrounding the greeva.
This is also the case of the Pandyan
monolith, the Vettuvan koil, (c.800) in
Kazhugumalai in the district of Tirunelveli.
But what comes to be a fixed feature on
the top-most tala of the Tamilnad vimanas
from that time is the positioning of the
vahanas or lanchanas (vehicles or
distinctive symbols) of the deity enshrined
in the garbha-griha of the moolaiala
sanctum at the four corners of this top-
most uparitala, as it called. They are
bhootas or bulls in the case of Shiva
temples, lion or Garuda in the case of Vishnu
temples, elephant or peacock in the case
of Subrahmanya-Kartikeya temples and
mooshika (mouse) in the case of Ganesa
temples, lion in the case of Jaina temples
and so on. We have no examples of a
Buddhist temple (vimana) extant and
possibly it carried miniature stoopa forms
as the lanchanas, even as the Indonesian
Tjandis (Chandis) or temples do. This special
feature of placing the vahana or lanchana,
appropriate to the deity consecrated in the
vimanas, makes one recognise the creedal
nature of the vimana even from outside
and from a distance. The lanchanas on
each corner, instead of being single as in
the earlier cases, tend to be doubled in
the much later cases, the two often
coalesced as bi-corporate (two-bodied)
forms with a single neck and head still later.
The deities inside the four cardinal niches
VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA
(mahanasikas), projected from the four
sides of the greeva and shikhara combined,
as also the three niches (dvakoshthas) on
the two side-walls and the rear-wall of the
moola-harmya below get also to be
definitely polarised, as Indra or Shiva in
the east mahanasika, Dakshinamoorthi on
the south mahanasika, Vishnu in the west
mahanasika and Brahma in the north
mahanasika; likewise lower down
Dakshinamoorti in the south devakoshta
niche of the moolaharmya, Vishnu (or
alternatively Harihara, Ardhanari or
Lingodbhava) in the moolaharmya
devakoshtha or external wall niche of the
ardha-mandapa is to enshrine Ganapati,
(often the dancing form, or otherwise
seated) and the corresponding
devakoshtha niche on the north Durga,
standing over the severed head of
Mahisha, the buffalo-demon or on a
padmapeetha. While this is the case
prescribed and in practice in all Shaivite
temples throughout from the 8th century
onwards, the prescription, though equally
applicable to Vishnu temples of both the
Vaikhanasa and Pancharatra agamic
persuasions, is varied in later times. We
find the earlier agamic prescription followed
in some of the early Vishnu vimanas extant
as, for example, in the temple of
Tiruvadandai near Mahabalipuram and at
Sreerangam. The temples dedicated to Devi
can have the three shakti forms, Iccha,
Kriya and Jnana, in the three moolaharmya
niches.
Dakshinamoorti, the form of Shiva as the
great teacher and expounder of ‘Truth’, is
a special Tamilian concept, which has its
roots in the early Sangam times. He is
referred to as Al-amar-shelvan, the god
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TEMPLE INDIA
seated under the peepal tree, as a young
yogin with four aged rishi disciples seated
in front. The Dakshinamoorti is an obligate
icon on the southern niche of the
moolaharmya of the vimana as also in the
top mahanasika as stated before and the
south side niche of the intervening talas,
carry often the other forms of
Dakshinamoorti such as Yoga, Jnana,
Vyakya, Medha and Veenadhara
Dakshinamurtis.
The Hindu Trinity-the Trimoorti, namely,
Brahma. Shiva and Vishnu-find an equal
place with equal importance (sama-
pradhana) in the earliest rock-cut cave-
temples of Pallava Mahendra (late sixth
century), at Mandakapatru-(district south
Arcot) as also in the Trimoorti cave-temple
of Mahabalipuram of three contiguous
shrine cells enshrining Brahmanya (in place
of Brahma) in the northern cell, Shiva in
the central cell and Vishnu in the southern
cell, with the difference that the central
Shiva shrine-front is advanced a little more
forwards to give it a relatively greater
prominence than the other two. But in the
time of Rajasimha Pallava (A.D. 700-728)
in his Shiva Temples, Brahma and Vishnu,
come to occupy a secondary position on
the inner wall faces of the ardha-mandapa
of the structural temples and subsequently
the rear and the northern outer niches or
deoakoshthas of the vimanas moola-
harmya as mentioned before, as again on
the western and northern mahanasikas of
the greeva-shikhara region. The icons of
Brahma and Vishnu also find place in the
northern and western cardinal niches of
the talas in between, the Vishnu forms
varied as Narasimha, Varaha, etc.
Vishnu on the western devakoshtha of the
VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA
moolaharmya is replaced by Annam-alaiyar
or Arunachala Moorti or Lingodbhava with
Vishnu tunneling down in the form of Varaha
to discover the feet (root or origin,
symbolically) of the all-pervading, infinite
and formless or amorphous linga (Shiva)
and Brahma soaring up as ahamsa to
discover the crest or apex (or end) of the
same infinity. Often Shiva in iconic form
(sakala) is shown as emanating from the
left in the linga (nishkala) as if revealing
himself and besides, the symbolic
representation of Vishnu and Brahma, as
Varaha and Hamsa respectively, they are
shown in anthropomorphic form as moortis
standing on either side in worship.
As against this suggestion of dominance
of Shiva, we have the syncretic icon of
Harihara where the right half is Shiva and
the left Vishnu. Here Vishnu takes the place
of Shiva’s consort, Uma, in the other
syncretic hermaphrodite form of Ardhanari
Shiva and is thus equated with her. This is
echoed by the early Shaiva saint, Appar,
in his Tevaram (v.4556) in a hymn which
says that the God of Aiyaru (Tiruvaiyaru)
has no devi or consort other than Ari (Hari
or Vishnu.)
This Vishnu-Durga relationship is found
emphasised by Durga being placed in
proximity to Vishnu, especially
Anantashayin Vishnu as one sees in the
arrangement of the opposed sculptural
panels in the Mahishasura-mardhinee cave-
temple in Mahabalipuram (7th century), the
sculpture compositions here recalling,
particularly the first and subsequent
chapters of the Devi -mahatmya (Chandi
or Durgasaptasati) of the Markandeya
Purana (4th-5th centuries A.D.). In the
Trimoorti cave-temple, aforesaid, in
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Mahabalipuram, there is an ashtabuja Durga
form in an elaborate niche-like shrine-front
adjoining and to the south of the Vishnu
shrine of the group, we find again the
association of Durga-sculpture-niche on the
head-side of Anantashayin- Vishnu in the
cave-temple in Singavaram, near Senji in
the South Arcot District. In the Shore-
temple complex in Mahabalipuram, where
recumbent Vishnu occupies the shrine
between the east and west-facing vimanas
of Shiva, we have the sculpture called
‘Durga lion’ on the head side of Vishnu,
with a sculpture of Mahisha-suramardhinee
Durga inside a deep niche cut into the chest
of the sejant lion sitting on its haunches.
In the far south again in Tiruttangal,
(Ramanathapuram), there is a Durga-
Mahishasuramardhinee panel in a niche
round the corner beyond the head-side of
the Anantashayin of the Pandyan rock-cut
cave-temple. The Tamil epic, the
Shilappadikkaram (vi, 59), describes
Korravai or Durga as the younger sister of
Mal or Vishnu. It is the relationship that
underlies her famous festival in Madurai of
Azhagar (Vishnu-Sundararaja) from
Azhagarkoil coming over to Madurai in the
context of his sister Meenakshi’s wedding
and that of Ranganatha of Srirangam
sending presents to the Devi of
Samayapuram across the Kollidam river on
the day after the Pongal festival. The
Vaivakikamoorti groups in bronze and stone
in the Tamilian temples depicting the
wedding of Shiva and Uma has a figure of
Vishnu (the brother) accompanied by his
consort Lakshmi as giving away the bride,
Uma, to Shiva in marriage with oblations
of water (kannika-dhana), while Brahma as
the priest performs the connected homa