VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA TEMPLE INDIA

The temple also depicts the sculptural glory that the sculptors had attempted to do in
of the Vijayanagar period. stone what had for a long time back been
The Nayak chiefs became great temple done in woodland they had achieved a
builders. Here and there are a score of great amount of success.
important temples which are a monument Prakaras (corridors) round the sanctum
to their sculptural art. Earlier, all temple came to be covered during this period, of
sculpture was of divine beings, but the course in stone. The famous Rameswaram
Nayaks decorated their temple halls with corridors are a well-known example.
not only divine beings and celestial beings The temples had all been conceived of in
like Manmata and Rati, but also with very great sizes. Very often we lose sight of
fine sculptures of ordinary human beings the size. The human figures carved by the
like the kuravan and kuratti. Tenkasi Nayaks are all not of natural size, but of a
Visvanathar temple” has about ten artistic heroic size. We can have a conception of
creations of this type, introduced by the size of various things which appear
Parakrama Pandya of the first half of the small at a great height, if we know that
15th century. This was taken up by the the kalasas on temple vimanas and towers
Nayaks and they have introduced it in many which appear small from the ground level
temples they built. The Meenakshi temple are actually about six feet in height.
at Madura has numberless such sculptures.
The temple itself is like a large city, with The Temple Complex and Distribution-
its many sculptured entrances. The total The Siva Temple
number of sculptural figures in stone and
stucco in this temple is estimated at thirty- It may be interesting to note that all the
three million-an astronomical figure indeed! temples, both Saiva and Vaishnava, follow
The thousand-pillared hall contains many an agamic code of construction. We shall
such figures. The musical pillars at Madurai, take an east-facing temple. It may have
Tirunelveli and many other places are a three prakaras. On the outer prakara, there
rare piece of work combining architectural is the main eastern entrance, over which
sculpture and the art of music. We find in there is a tall gopura. There may be other
this period rare and delicate workmanship entrances in the other directions with
in stone, such as a hanging chain with gopuras. There may be a Vinayaka temple
several links all carved out of a single piece in miniature at the gopura entrance, on
of stone, a ball of stone inside the mouth the south side. Inside the gopura itself we
of a lion and so on. These are yet marvels may see Adhikara Nandi installed.
of what the human fingers can do. Incidentally, we would like to draw attention
The Ramaswami temple at Kumbakonam to one important misconception. Most
built by Raghunatha Nayak, the Murugan people call the bull mount of Siva as Nandi.
temple at Cheyyoor near Madurantakam This is wrong. Nandi does not have a bull
and many others repeat the sculptures of face. He has just a human (deva) face
human figures. and four arms. He is supposed to regulate
We may realise through these works of art with a cane in his hand the celestials and

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humans who enter His presence for worship. sub-temple facing south. A little farther
As we go in through the several entrances, east, Durga is installed on the walls of the
there is the central sanctum where the ardha-mandapa in a koshta.
Sivalinga is installed. At the entrance, Then we pass on to the eastern corridor.
Ganapati and Subramanya are installed on On its eastern side the Yagasala is at the
the right and the left. There is an north-eastern corner and then we find
ardhamandapa and a mahamandapa. On invariably Bhairava. Surya and Sani in
the northern side of this mandapa, a another enclosure.
separate sabha (hall) is provided for This is the lay-out of the temple and its
Nataraja and His Consort, Sivakamasundari. sub-temples. Nalvar and Saptamatas also
These are in bronze. The vimanas over all Arupattumoovar may sometimes be found
shrines have only one kalasa, but the installed on the southern corridor in a long
vimana over this hall has always three or mandapa. Sometimes also Kali. But Mari
five. There is then a palliyarai (or sleeping and Aiyanar are never placed inside a Siva
room)and besides it the sanctum for the temple. The Agamas do not provide any
Shakti of the temple. place in the temple for the group of
As we go round the first corridor around Navagrahas but the Smarta influence in
the sanctum, we see the temple kitchen society in a later day has found odd places
installed at the south-eastern corner. On inside the temple for installing them.
the southern outer side of the sanctum, The sthala-vruksha (the tree sacred to the
there is Dakshinamoorti in a koshta (niche) shrine) and the temple tank are other
on the wall. Very often we see a nartana important adjuncts in the temple. The tank
(dancing) Ganapati, Jvarahara Murty and (pushkarini) is sometimes outside the
Agastya also in separate niches to the east temple.
of Dakshinamoorti, on the wall of the ardha- About five percent of the temples may be
mandapa. On the back side or the same west-facing and the same arrangement is
outer wall we see the Lingodbhavamoorti followed here. There are no north-facing
at the centre in a koshta; sometimes there or south-facing temples in Tamilnad, except
is Vishnu instead. the rare one at Kulittalai which is north-
On the western side of the corridor, we facing.
see installed, in three separate sub-
temples, Ganapati at the southern corner, The Vishnu Temple
Subramanya at the Centre and
Mahalakshmi at the northern corner. Usually The Vishnu temples do not have so much
we see also Kasi Visvanatha installed of detail in sub-temples. They have the
separately at the northern corner. entrance, the gopura and the vimana, with
On the northern outer wall of the sanctum, a separate temple for Vishnu’s consort,
Brahma is installed in a koshta over the Lakshmi. Krishna in various forms and Rama
gomuka (spout through which the may be found installed in some; Narasimha
abhisheka water flows out). A little to the and Varahamurthi are given importance in
east, Chandesa is installed in a separate many temples.

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Vishvaksena, who reminds one of Ganapati, Sasta and Lakshmi. Lakshmi is the consort
is always installed in the Vishnu temple; of Vishnu. As Lakshmi, she has a place as
he is the commander of His forces. Andal said above in all Siva temples and as Thayar
is found very often. The other Alvars are (Mother) she has an important place in the
also installed in most temples. The chakra Vishnu temple. But the installation of a
of Vishnu as the Chakrattalvar and Garuda separate Lakshmi in a temple which we find
and Hanuman are given importance in sub- today in the city has no sanction in the
temples in many places. There is greater agamas.
importance to the pushkarini, but generally Again, the Mari cult, which is very much
there is no sthala-vruksha. on the increase in the modem day, is
Vishnu, unlike the Sivalinga, has a form characteristic of the modem mind which is
here and He is installed in one of three governed by fear and dread and not by
states- the standing form, the sitting form the real values of life. Mari is known as a
and the reclining form. Sreerangam has the dur-devata, a deity doing ill and so her
reclining form of Ranganatha on His serpent appeasement has become a necessity in
couch. The Koodal Alagar temple at Madurai the modem mind. We find many modern
has all the three forms, in three tiers, one Mari temples flourishing with money, while
over the other. great holy temples languish through want
The sacred ash and the kumkum are the of funds to maintain them.
only prasada in a Siva temple. But in the So also the Aiyanar cult. Aiyanar has been
Vishnu temple, the placing of Sathari on installed as a tutelary deity in all villages
the head of the devotee, the teertha and on the outskirts, like Mari Amman, but
tulasi prasada along with the food offering Aiyanar, unlike Mari, is a beneficent deity.
are the general rules. But the modem craze for Aiyanar worship
is a copy from Kerala.
The Modem Period Every small item in the temples, Siva and
Vishnu, has an esoteric significance and a
The modern period has not produced any philosophy behind it, while the Aiyanar and
new styles of sculpture or architecture in the Mari worship, have, if anything, only a
the temple. This period is democratic and philosophy of fear behind them.
commercial oriented and so is incapable of
producing anything of artistic or lasting The Temple Culture-Architecture
value. But, yet, through the anxiety of the
devotees, many temples in deteriorating The temples have nourished a number of
condition are being renovated at great fine arts in the country, the like of which
cost. In many places, renovation adheres are not to be seen elsewhere. The first
to the agamic rules, while in some places, and fore most is the architecture of the
the modem utility type of building steps in. temple. All the temples in south India, both
of Siva and Vishnu, are all built on a certain
An important feature of modem temple pattern which is clearly enunciated in the
building is the importance given to Mari, Agamas and the Silpa-sastras. The temple

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was generally in the heart of the town and the Curator of the British museum, said a
town-planning was organised round the long time back: “Though the Greek
temple. The temples had concentric sculptures possess fine realistic and artistic
corridors. The smallest temple had one beauty, there is nothing to equal the
corridor, while the largest had seven as in dynamic form of Lord Nataraja which is the
Sreerangam. Three and five are quite highest perfection in transcendental art
common. The innermost sanctum is which the human mind can reach and the
conceived as the heart-place of the virat- hands can mould”. We have about a
purusha, while all the other parts are the thousand images of Nataraja in bronze, but
other organs of that purusha. There is then one is not like another and each has a
an ardha-mandapa, a mahamandapa for beauty and significance of its own. Similar
the worshippers, a mukha-mandapa or are the forms of Sakti, Muruga and some
entrance hall, several sub-temples in the others. Each has an indefinable mystic
innermost corridor and the next, usually a quality which holds the mind spellbound and
vimana over the sanctum sanctorum enthralled. A perceptive round of a single
(garbha-griha), a large and high outer wall average temple is enough to teach the
enclosing all the corridors and very tall receptive mind all the glory of our rich
gopura over the main entrance on the outer heritage.
wall and in many cases, over the other A word about the choice of material used
three walls also. The whole complex is for shaping the images. All stone images
fashioned like a place for the King of Kings, are of granite. Other stones do not stand
on quite a grand scale, with everything in the test of time. They get gradually
its proper place. corroded and lose their shape. The Kanchi
The whole of Tamilnad is dotted with Kailasanathar temple, built by Rajasimha
temples, particularly the Chola territory Pallava by the end of the ninth century, is
being the Kaveri delta, so much that the a visual museum of what wind and rain
Chola monarchs were characterised by can do to inferior stone. This ravage of
outside historians as a race of temple- time is not seen in any other temple.
builders’. Then, let us turn our attention to the metal
images. In a land where silver and gold
Sculpture were available in plenty (under the Chola
Emperors) nowhere do we find these
Then the sculpture in stone and bronze. precious metals, used for the icons. The
What a wealth of highly artistic sculptures rulers felt that when art was worked upon
each temple possesses! They are all not a precious metal, the public would value
realistic forms, but idealistic forms the metal and forget the art form. Hence
fashioned on spiritual considerations and they chose only bronze, both for its
having an esoteric meaning, unlike the Greek cheapness and for its strength. Only the
sculptures which are only realistic and Nataraja image at Chidambaram is
fashioned on mere material values. It is considered to have a large proportion of
well to remember what Lord Rothenstein, gold in its making.

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