VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA
or fire rites. The group of bronze discovered
from Tiruvenkadu (district Thanjavur) now
on view in the Art gallery, Thanjavur is an
exquisite example of this. Such are
generally called Kalyanasundara recalling
the annual wedding festival of Meenakshi
and Sundareshvaramoorti in Madurai.
Ganapathi, ever since his advent (c.A.D.
700) as a deity in worship in Tamilnadu in
the early structural temple of Rajasimha-
Pallava, the Kailasanatha in Kanchi and the
contemporary and later cave-temples of
the Pandya Muttavaiyar area further south
in Tamilnadu, is always found associated
with the Saptamatrika group next to the
last of the Seven Mothers, Chamunda
(Durga); the series preceded by Shiva as
Veerabhadra (often by other forms of Shiva
too) coming before Brahmi. This proximal
association of Durga and Ganapati gets
repeated in the representation of these
two forms in the north and south exterior
devakoshthas or the ardha-mandapa
noticed above.
The Somaskanda cult, in the iconic
representation of which Shiva is seated
with Uma with baby Skanda in between, is
as old as the seventh century A.D. The
group of Shiv a, Uma and Skanda is flanked
on either side by Brahma and Vishnu as in
attendance in the representations found
in the cave-temples of the Pallavas. In the
earlier cave-temples of Mahendra Pallava
(580-630) there is no sculpture of any sort
occupying the hind wall of the sanctum
and in the Orukalmandapam cave-temple
of his son Mamalla (630-668) in
Tirukkazhukkunram, the theme was possibly
painted or picked out in stucco in the hind
wall of the sanctum, for we have the
sculptures in relief of Brahma and Vishnu
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on the hind wall of the mandapa outside,
flanking the shrine-front projection. From
the time of Parameshvara, when this vogue
commenced, the group comes to be
depicted in bas-relief sculptures too on the
hind wall of the sanctum in the cave-
temples. (e.g. Ramanuja-mandapa, a triple-
celled cave-temple where the flanking cells
for Brahma and Vishnu contain their painted
representations, the Atinarachanda cave-
temple in Saluvankuppam (Rajasimha), the
Vedagireesvara structural temple on the
top of Tirukkazhukkundram hill and in all
the other Pallava structural temples
beginning from the time of Rajasimha (700-
728) to the middle of the 9th century as in
the apsidal Virattaneeshavara temple in
Tirutthani (Aparajita Pallava). The cult
comes to claim greater prominence as the
Vitanka cult in the Chela country,
thereafter, where we have six out of the
seven Vitanka temples, round about the
most important one in Tiruvarur, in the
Kaveri delta. The seventh, in Tiruvanmiyur,
Madras in Tondaimandalam or the Pallava
home country. Further south in the Pandya
country, the Somaskanda form is found on
the hind wall of the Shiva shrine in the
Tirupparankundram cave temple (late 8th
century), while in the Pandya cave-temple
in Piranmalai (district Ramanathapuram)
Shiva and Uma alone are represented as
seated together on the sanctum hind wall,
as also in the lateral wall of the cave-
temple in Kunnandar Koil (district
Pudukottai). These two exceptions, which
are merely Uma-Shakta-muktis possibly
bear a greater relation to the Vaivahika
form (Kalyanasundra) than to the
Somaskanda form.
The Tiruvaroor Vitankan or Veedi vitankan
VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA
or simply Arooran, as referred to in the
inscriptions, later came to be called
Tyagaraja from the 15th century onwards.
It is only the bronze sculpture of the
Somaskanda group placed in the ardha-
mandapa of the stone vimana of the
Tiruvaroor temple complex, built in the times
of Chola Rajendra I (in A.D. 1030) that is
in worship and the sanctum where one would
expect the stone representation to be
enshrined as the moolabeera is empty,
denoting a rahasya as in the Nataraja
shrine in Chidambaram. The bronze group,
perhaps formed as the processional deity,
for we have Appar, the early Shaiva saint,
as referring to it in his hymns. Particularly
in his hymn- Tevaram 5297 -he refers to
the Vitankar being taken out in procession.
Like the bronze Adavallan or Nataraja of
Chidambaram, Vitankar of Thiru-Aroor or
Arooran, was a favourite deity of the
Cholas, for we have Rajaraja-1(985-1016)
installing the copper image of Arooran by
the name Dakshinameeru-Vitankar
(Dakshinameru refers to the Brihadeesvara
temple in Thanjavur) along with Adavallan.
No wonder we have the celebrated
Somaskanda-Tyagaraja shrine in the temple
of Tiruvotriyoor near Madras, since the
Adipureeshavara (the name of the main
shrine) as it is called, was built by Rajendra
I, Chola, in whose time the stone-temple
of Vitankar in Tiruvaroor was also
constructed. The Tyagaraja bronzes which
are Somaskanda forms with shrines and
festivals of their own are common in the
temples of the Chola country. Though the
early Tamil works of the Sangam period
assign the type of dance called Kodukotti
to Shiva and various tandava forms are
represented in sculpture all over India and
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more so referred to in the hymns of the
Shaiva Nayanmars-it is their sublimation
into the Ananda tandava of Natesha or
Adavallan that is universally accepted as
the most important contribution of the Tamil
country in the realm of concept, art,
iconography and esoteric symbolism. It
ranks with the concept of the icon of the
Buddha as evolved in the north as the
unique contribution of India to world art.
While the other forms of Tandava Shiva
are depicted in the early sculptures and
corroborated in the description of the
Tevaram hymnists, the climax of the
concept, the quite essence of the
panchakritya of Shiva as evolved in the
Shaivism of the Tamil country, appears to
have been reached only towards the end
of the 9th century. The characteristic form
of Adavallan in significant poise and pose
of arms, the upper two holding up the little
drum and fire and the lower in abhaya and
gajahasta, dancing on one foot placed on
the recumbent Muyalahan (Apasmara
Purusha) and the other raised in the blissful
kunchita, the entire poise suggesting
movement all round, as evolved in the Tamil
country is found for the first time in a small
panel on the hara aedicule facing south in
the early Pandya structural temple (c.890)
in Tiruvaleesvaram (district Tirunelveli).
Another early example in the Chola country
is the nearly free-standing Nataraja in the
ananda-tandava in a niche torana the arch
of the festoon framing the front of a
devakoshtha in Punjai (district Thanjavur).
A virtually free-standing image in the
Tiruvaduturai temple depicting the nadanta
or ananda-tandava mode, appears in the
devakoshiha on the south wall of the ardha-
mandapa of the Koneerirajapuram temple
VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA
(c.969-976). These forms would appear to
be stone copies of the form first realised
in bronzes and it is the early Chola copper
or bronze icons of Nataraja, that more than
the stone sculptures mark the acme of
perfection and have drawn the appreciation
of aesthetes the world over. The first
mention of ananda-tandava as ananda-k-
koottu is by saint Manikkavachagar in his
Tiruvachakam (588, Tiruvarttai 42 V.3) all
in the same work (3: Keertti-t-tiru akaval).
He states that Shiva danced the ananda-
koottu for the sake of the sage, Patanjali.
In the early temples of 10th-11th centuries
the Nataraja icon, in relief, comes to
occupy a niche on the exterior of the
south-west of the ardhamandapa next to
Ganapathi. In the later Chola temples, they
are found in one of the many devakoshthas
on the wall of the vimana itself as in
Thanjavur, Gangaikonda Cholapuram and
Darasuram. Adavallan, the presiding deity
of the Chidambaram temple, was the
favourite of the Cholas, for it was in
Chidambaram that they performed their
ritual coronation. Rajaraja I made an
exquisite metal icon of Nataraja-Adavallan
of which a precise technical description is
given in his inscription on the temple at
Thanjavur. There is no Shiva temple of any
importance in Tamilnadu without a metal
icon of Nataraja. He came to be installed
in separate mandapa temple called the
Sabha-mandapa or Sabha-nayakar kovil
built facing south, always in the precincts
of a temple complex. Such a mandapa with
a sabha-nayaka shrine with a bronze icon
of the god became the sine quenon of any
Tamilian temple complex. The Arudra
(Tiruvadirai) festival which falls in December
every year is sacred to Nataraja and the
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Arudradarshana is the most noted festival
in Chidambaram.
Another unique feature of the Tamilian
temple is the inclusion of Chandesha in the
parivara as an essential deity, with a shrine
or vimana of his own. He is one of the 63
canonised Shaiva saints or Nayanmars and
is considered to be the moolabritya (chief
servant or devotee) of Shiva, to whom he
endeared himself by his readiness to
chastise even his own father, who
interrupted his devoted worship to Shiva.
The boy devotee was specially blessed by
Shiva who bestowed the (Chandesha
padam himself, investing the devotee with
the parivattam (the garland or upper cloth
worn by Him) round the boy’s head. This is
a way of specially honouring a great
servant or devotee in Tamilian temples and
persists even today to honour great
benefactors, devotees and important
personages who visit a temple. Chandesha
thus came to be the chief guardian and
seneschal of the Shiva temple. Its
properties and affairs, gift deeds and the
like are made in the name of Chandesha.
The magnificent Chola sculpture group of
Chandeshanugrahamoorti of the
Brihadeeshvara in Gangaikondacholapuram
is the classical example of this theme,
though many other Shiva temples have
sculptures, or bronzes of the same. The
earliest extant sculptural example of this
theme is found in the intermediate tala of
the Dharmaraja ratha in Mahabalipuram and
a beautiful miniature in the hara line of the
Tiruvaleesvaram temple. An icon of
Chandesha thus became an obligate
feature of the Tamilian Shiva temple and
one can see his large sculptuory in the
north-east corner of the cloister of