Gangaikondacholapuram - like father, like son
The Brihadeeswarar temple in Gangaikondacholapuram, near Kumbakonam, is a replica of the Tanjore temple. They say it was built by Raja Raja's illustrious son, Rajendra Chola, who earned for him the sobriquet Gangaikondacholan, by expanding his empire up to the Ganga in the north. he is said to ahve brought back huge jars of Ganga water, making him the Gangaikondavan.
During his times, the capital of the Chola kingdom moved from Tanjore to Gangaikondacholapuram, a new city built by him. The Brihadeeswarar temple in its design, architecture and sculpture almost replicates the monument built by his father at Tanjore. In temple sculpture I found this complex more refined and graceful than the Tanjore temple. I am no historian but Gangaikondacholapuram may have marked a progress and evolution in the art of temple sculpture.
The Simha kulam at Gangaikondacholapuram is a departure from the Tanjore complex design.
The Nandi is as big and perhaps even a shade bigger than the one at Tanjore. But here he is not consecrated in a mandapam but remains plainly exposed to the elements, fending for himself as best he can. The simha kulam and Nandi are made of some other material - not the granite structure we see in Tanjore - this looks more like limestone.
The temple entrance lacks a vimanam and I don't know whether it was deliberately kept incomplete or just ruined in course of time. The main temple gopuram that can be seen at the distance is as elegant though not quite as stately or majestic as the Tanjore gopuram. The story goes that Rajendra Chola found the temple complex shaping into an even more elegant structure than the Tanjore temple, and he deliberately toned down the design so that his father's would ever remain the grander and more admired monument. The main gopuram of the temple was thus kept smaller and I am not sure, but maybe even the Vaasal left unfinished?
I don't know whether the legend is true, but the story of the son's deference for his father making him take that ultimate step of deliberately underplaying himself to enable his father remain in the limelight stirred my imagination and moved me no end.
It also reminds me of another legend associate with another temple town - let me quote the wikipedia version of the story:
King Narasimha Deva-I of the Ganga Dynasty had ordered this temple to be built as a royal proclamation of the political supremacy of his dynasty. A workforce of 12 hundred artisans and architects invested their creative talent, energy and artistic commitment for an exhausting period of 12 years. The king had already spent an amount equivalent to the state's revenue receipts of 12 years. However, the completion of the construction was nowhere near sight. Then the king issued a final command that the work be completed by a stipulated date. The team of architects headed by Bisu Maharana was at its wit's end. It was then that Dharmapada the 12 year old son of the chief architect Bisu Maharana arrived there as a visiting on looker. He became aware of the anxiety looming large among the architects. Although he did not have any practical experience of temple construction, he was thorough in his study of the theories of temple architecture. He offered to solve the confounding problem of fixing the last copping stone at the top of the temple. He surprised everyone by doing that himself. But soon after this achievement the dead body of this adolescent prodigy was found on the sea beach at the foot of the temple. Legend says that Dharmapada laid down his life to save his community.
According to another version, Dharmapada flung himself into the sea and gave up his life to spare his father who was the expert in the field the ignominy and shame of being compared to his very young son. Sad legend. The Gangakondacholapuram legend is stirring, and it is not speak so much of sacrifice as this one; the Konark legend is poignantly sad and disturbing.
I am sure there are many versions of this legend associated with many Indian temples and I wonder if this is the Indian version of the sacrifice motif that is associated with kings and gods in all old cultures. Or is it the Indian version of those old stories of builders of monuments being killed after the completion of the work that we have heard of in Egypt and other places?
This picture [above] and the one before that is just to show what temple festivals can do to our temple complexes. We visited both Gangaikondacholapuram and the Tanjore temple on the same day - the latter in the morning and the latter in the evening of Sani Peyarchi. But what a difference! There was a steady stream of visitors in the Tanjore temple - as many tourists as devotees - and besides the regular prasadam we were offered a neat packet of kumkumam and vibhuti, some flowers and a banana at the main sanctum as a Sani Peyarchi special. At Gangaikondacholapuram, the temple complex had been transformed into a thiruvizha [mela] site, with entire village populations queuing up for a sani peyarchi special puja and special prasadam at the front mandapam of the main temple with much pulling and pushing and breathing down one another's sweaty necks. Not to mention littering the whole complex with plastic and paper cups and plates and leftover thayir saadam and banana skin....! Note the shops peddling trinkets and the temple elephant in the earlier photograph.
No one as much as looked at the sculptures. No one cared that a heritage site was being messed. What was this about? Was it a local effort to entertain the local populace by reviving a community tradition of collective celebration? Which is fine, but what was lacking was an effort to maintain cleanliness and order in the temple, and impressing the importance and significance of the temple and the ruler in their local history. An opportunity to build national pride and educate people on the need for order and cleanliness was lost.
Wonder if UNESCO or ASI were aware of the Sani Peyarchi programme? Wonder what they would have to say to the shameful mess that the temple was that day?
An entire panel running across the breadth of one of the shrines in the complex had lions in several poses, making me wonder whether Tamil Nadu was home to a lion population in the 10th-12th centuries? Or were they based on stories and pictures brought back by the king and his army from the north? The Sri Lanka flag has a golden lion on it - wonder where this awareness of lions came from?
The Brihadeeswarar temple in Gangaikondacholapuram, near Kumbakonam, is a replica of the Tanjore temple. They say it was built by Raja Raja's illustrious son, Rajendra Chola, who earned for him the sobriquet Gangaikondacholan, by expanding his empire up to the Ganga in the north. he is said to ahve brought back huge jars of Ganga water, making him the Gangaikondavan.
During his times, the capital of the Chola kingdom moved from Tanjore to Gangaikondacholapuram, a new city built by him. The Brihadeeswarar temple in its design, architecture and sculpture almost replicates the monument built by his father at Tanjore. In temple sculpture I found this complex more refined and graceful than the Tanjore temple. I am no historian but Gangaikondacholapuram may have marked a progress and evolution in the art of temple sculpture.
The Simha kulam at Gangaikondacholapuram is a departure from the Tanjore complex design.
The Nandi is as big and perhaps even a shade bigger than the one at Tanjore. But here he is not consecrated in a mandapam but remains plainly exposed to the elements, fending for himself as best he can. The simha kulam and Nandi are made of some other material - not the granite structure we see in Tanjore - this looks more like limestone.
The temple entrance lacks a vimanam and I don't know whether it was deliberately kept incomplete or just ruined in course of time. The main temple gopuram that can be seen at the distance is as elegant though not quite as stately or majestic as the Tanjore gopuram. The story goes that Rajendra Chola found the temple complex shaping into an even more elegant structure than the Tanjore temple, and he deliberately toned down the design so that his father's would ever remain the grander and more admired monument. The main gopuram of the temple was thus kept smaller and I am not sure, but maybe even the Vaasal left unfinished?
I don't know whether the legend is true, but the story of the son's deference for his father making him take that ultimate step of deliberately underplaying himself to enable his father remain in the limelight stirred my imagination and moved me no end.
It also reminds me of another legend associate with another temple town - let me quote the wikipedia version of the story:
King Narasimha Deva-I of the Ganga Dynasty had ordered this temple to be built as a royal proclamation of the political supremacy of his dynasty. A workforce of 12 hundred artisans and architects invested their creative talent, energy and artistic commitment for an exhausting period of 12 years. The king had already spent an amount equivalent to the state's revenue receipts of 12 years. However, the completion of the construction was nowhere near sight. Then the king issued a final command that the work be completed by a stipulated date. The team of architects headed by Bisu Maharana was at its wit's end. It was then that Dharmapada the 12 year old son of the chief architect Bisu Maharana arrived there as a visiting on looker. He became aware of the anxiety looming large among the architects. Although he did not have any practical experience of temple construction, he was thorough in his study of the theories of temple architecture. He offered to solve the confounding problem of fixing the last copping stone at the top of the temple. He surprised everyone by doing that himself. But soon after this achievement the dead body of this adolescent prodigy was found on the sea beach at the foot of the temple. Legend says that Dharmapada laid down his life to save his community.
According to another version, Dharmapada flung himself into the sea and gave up his life to spare his father who was the expert in the field the ignominy and shame of being compared to his very young son. Sad legend. The Gangakondacholapuram legend is stirring, and it is not speak so much of sacrifice as this one; the Konark legend is poignantly sad and disturbing.
I am sure there are many versions of this legend associated with many Indian temples and I wonder if this is the Indian version of the sacrifice motif that is associated with kings and gods in all old cultures. Or is it the Indian version of those old stories of builders of monuments being killed after the completion of the work that we have heard of in Egypt and other places?
This picture [above] and the one before that is just to show what temple festivals can do to our temple complexes. We visited both Gangaikondacholapuram and the Tanjore temple on the same day - the latter in the morning and the latter in the evening of Sani Peyarchi. But what a difference! There was a steady stream of visitors in the Tanjore temple - as many tourists as devotees - and besides the regular prasadam we were offered a neat packet of kumkumam and vibhuti, some flowers and a banana at the main sanctum as a Sani Peyarchi special. At Gangaikondacholapuram, the temple complex had been transformed into a thiruvizha [mela] site, with entire village populations queuing up for a sani peyarchi special puja and special prasadam at the front mandapam of the main temple with much pulling and pushing and breathing down one another's sweaty necks. Not to mention littering the whole complex with plastic and paper cups and plates and leftover thayir saadam and banana skin....! Note the shops peddling trinkets and the temple elephant in the earlier photograph.
No one as much as looked at the sculptures. No one cared that a heritage site was being messed. What was this about? Was it a local effort to entertain the local populace by reviving a community tradition of collective celebration? Which is fine, but what was lacking was an effort to maintain cleanliness and order in the temple, and impressing the importance and significance of the temple and the ruler in their local history. An opportunity to build national pride and educate people on the need for order and cleanliness was lost.
Wonder if UNESCO or ASI were aware of the Sani Peyarchi programme? Wonder what they would have to say to the shameful mess that the temple was that day?
An entire panel running across the breadth of one of the shrines in the complex had lions in several poses, making me wonder whether Tamil Nadu was home to a lion population in the 10th-12th centuries? Or were they based on stories and pictures brought back by the king and his army from the north? The Sri Lanka flag has a golden lion on it - wonder where this awareness of lions came from?
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