VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA
scene are portrayed sporting the peculiar
Vijayanagar cap so popular in that period.
Vibheeshana departs from the
Pattabhisheka hoisting the Ranga Vimana
on his head and strides to the banks of
the Kaveri. He is received by Dharmavarma
Chola, a large gathering of people, rishis
and other heavenly beings who welcome
the coming of the Vimana by bearing
innumerable gifts. At that juncture,
Dharmavarma suggests that Vibheeshana
perform the brahmot-sava on the Kaveri.
The label indicates that for eight days the
festivities were performed with gaiety and
the ninth day was reserved for the
Rathotsavam that ended in avabhrita-
snana. The Vimana becomes immovable and
throws Vibheeshana into a hapless state.
He beseeches the Lord to help him in his
plight. Ranganatha tells his devotees the
story of the Kaveri.
The Sreeranga Mahatmya while delineating
from the main story of the Ranga Vimana,
has many subsidiary or sub-plots to bolster
up a weak mythical story. One such is the
story of the Kaveri. According to the
mahatmya, in the age of the Sakyapar-
vata, Kaveri and Ganga quarreled about
their might. Going to Brahma to resolve
their differences, Kaveri returns embittered
by Brahma’s judgment that Ganga was the
greater of the two, as she arose from the
Vishnupada. Thoroughly upset with the
judgment, Kaveri enters into a severe
penance when Vishnu manifests before her
and promises to reside by her shore.
Revealing this story to Vibheeshana, Vishnu
pleads his inability to proceed any further
and asks that he be allowed to remain on
the banks of the Kaveri. While the painting
and the literary traditions do not make any
73
TEMPLE INDIA
mention of the fact that Ranganatha was
placed facing south to give perpetual
darsana to Vibheeshana in Lanka, it has
now become popular to add this story. This
tale is given a greater sanctity by its
presence in the Koil-Ozhugu. However, this
legend might have its root in a verse of
the Azhvars and later added on to the
Mahatmya, giving to the Mahatmya itself
an antiquity that it cannot claim. There is
a Tamil verse in Tirumalai which says:
“Ranganatha rests on a serpent couch with
his head to the west, his feet to the east,
his back to the north and his face turned
to the south looking to Lanka”.
This is from Tondaradipodi Azhvar’s
Tirumalai that particularly highlights the
point that Ranganatha, the deity of
Sreerangam, lies south facing. The painting
ends with a large blue-print of the
Srirangam temple complex. The
pushkaranees mentioned in the labels are-
Chandrapushkaranee, Bilva Teertha and
Asva, Kadamba and other teerthas. The
existence of these ponds, according to the
label is tied respectively to the redemption
of Chandra for Chandrapushkaranee, with
Indra and his absolution from the sin
related to the Ahalya episode and with
Vasishta.
An important feature of the Sreeranga
Mahatmya murals is a set of three names
mentioned as patrons. Their names occur
at the end of each section of the paintings
i.e., at the end of each corridor. As the
whole group forms a single unit, it leads us
to infer that the financial commitment for
the execution of the work was possibly
shared by them. Their names are-
1. Ramanujamma-the mother of
Venkattayya (Ramanujamma nitya-sada-
VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA
seva, Venkattayyagari-thallee).
2. Perumal Nayana’s son (Perumal Nayani
kumaru-kainkarya).
3. Nallamma Nayana, the son of Golla
Venkatadri Nayan ( Golla Venkatadri Nayani
kumarudaina, Nallamma Nayani
kainkaryamu, Sreeranga Sthalamu).
We have not been able to locate the names
of the donors inscribed in the Sreeranga
Mahatmya murals, in the Srirangam
inscriptions. Their names suggest that they
belong to the Telugu Country. The
interesting feature is that one of the donors
is a lady Ramanujamma. Most probably, she
might have been a woman of considerable
means who had a special affection for
Srirangam. We come across names such
as Nayana, in a number of slabs on the
floor in Srirangam both in the Tayar shrine
and the Ranganatha shrine.
Many concepts inherent in the Sreeranga
Mahatmya can be traced back to the songs
of the Azhvars themselves. The Sreeranga
Mahatmya which makes much of the
quarrel between the rivers Ganga and
Kaveri, has most probably drawn its
inspiration from the words which describes
one as purer than the other. This has been
interwoven into a sthala-purana legend of
not only Srirangam but also in the Kaveri
Mahatmya.
In the post-azhvar period, the various
concepts centering around Ranganatha
were becoming crystallised into the nucleus
for the Sreeranga Mahatmya. Certain
iconographic details present in the songs
of the azhvars are present in the paintings
around the Tiruvannazhi.
The next reference is in the Amuktamal-
yada of Krishnadevaraya who gives a vivid
description of not only the Ranga Vimana
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TEMPLE INDIA
at Srirangam temple, the gopuras and
general surroundings around the temple,
but touches upon the origin of the Vimana
itself.
“In the beginning Lord Brahma worshipped
Ranganatha as a Guha Devatha. Then Sri
Hari orders Brahma to give it to Ikshuvaku.
Rama belonging to the Ikshuvaku dynasty
gifts it to Vibheeshana who then places
this vigraha in the middle of the Kaveri
where the river branches forming the island
of Srirangam; there on the chandrapush-
karanee, he places Ranganatha.”
By the 16th century, the sthala-purana
legend was fairly well-established and quite
popular with the Telugu kings. In the same
period, a number of mahatmyas covering
other temples were also written. The
Sreeranga Mahatmya itself was rendered
in Telugu by a number of poets between
the 16th and 18th centuries A.D. In the
Nayaka period, no less a poet than
Vijayaranga Chokkanatha Nayak wrote the
Sreeranga Mahatmya.
Besides the mahatmya written by the
Nayaka king, a number of other versions
are available either in manuscript form or
as published texts.
The most popular version of the Mahatmya
is the work of one Gowranna Bhairava who
wrote it around 1565. He was a great
Vishnu bhakta and in the Colophon of his
work, he states that the Satadhyayi version
of the Garuda purana was the nucleus of
his mahatmya. In the preface to Bhairava’s
mahatmya edition, the editor lists out
other versions that were written in Telugu
around that period. Srigiri is supposed to
have written the earliest version of
Sreeranga Mahatmya, but such a work no
longer exists.