South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses/Chapter 1

by Hosakote Krishna Sastri

SOUTH-INDIAN IMAGES OF

GODS AND GODDESSES

 

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

I

Almost every village of any importance in Southern India has its temple, round which centres in a very large measure the corporate civic life of the community which lives in it. The casual visitor is at once attracted by the temple and when he goes there he sees various images in all sorts of incongruous postures and is generally puzzled to know what they mean or what they represent, and how they serve to evoke the religious feelings of the people worshipping them. An attempt will be made in the succeeding pages to describe and classify them in various groups so as to make them more intelligible to the ordinary visitor.

Elaborate rules have been laid down in the ancient Agamas and Silpa-Sāstras as to the place where temples are to be built, the kinds of images to be installed there, the materials with which such images are to be fashioned, and even the dimensions and proportions of various kinds of images, to vary which will result in untold calamity to the maker and the worshipper alike. The curious reader may, for example, refer to Sukranitisāra (Chapter IV, Section IV, verses 130 et seq.).^[1]

II

Temples must have existed in this part of the country from time immemorial. But the earliest inscriptional evidence of the existence of temples takes us back only to the age of the Pallava kings, which is supposed to be between the fourth and the ninth centuries of the Christian era.^[2] The more ancient temples were probably made of wood and other such perishable material, as we find to this day in parts of Malabar. Perhaps the Pallavas were among the very first in Southern India to build temples of durable material. In fact one of the most famous of these Pallava kings, Mahēndravarman I, who reigned about the beginning of the seventh century A.D., was known by the title Chetthakāri, i.e., the maker of chaityas or temples.^[3]

The earliest Pallava monuments so far discovered are those of Mahābalipuram or the Seven Pagodas. They consist of solid rathas cut out of a single rock and of temples scooped out of the living boulder. The form of these rathas and temples served perhaps as models to the later temples in cut stone, such as those of the Shore Temple there, the Kailāsanātha and Vaikuntha-Perumāl temples at Conjeeveram, and other Pallava temples elsewhere.

Ill

The Pallavas were succeeded by the Chōla kings, who are justly entitled to be regarded as the greatest temple-builders of Southern India. About 90 per cent of the temples now found were erected in their time. They are generally dedicated either to Siva or Vishnu, and in their simplest form consist of a cell called the Garbha-griha,—the central shrine, surmounted by a spire or dome, with a hall in front, called Mukha-mandapa and a narrow passage or vestibule connecting the two, called the Ardha-mandapa, which is open on two sides to permit of the priestly worshippers circumambulating the central shrine. In the Mukha-mandapa or just outside it will be placed the image of the deity's chief vehicle, the Nandi-bull in Siva temples and the Garuda-bird in Vishnu temples. This is generally the limit up to which the non-Brahman classes are allowed to come. Round and outside of these are the Mahā-mandapa, the big hall, and other pavilions in which on special occasions processional images of the deity are placed and worshipped. Next after the Mahā-mandapa there will be two raised platforms, one behind the other, on one of which is planted the flagstaff or dhvaja-stambha, made of stone, wood or metal, and on the other is offered what is called the Sribali, when sacrificial cooked food and flowers are offered to the minor divinities or powers who have to be appeased in order to ward off all evil and to prevent disturbance to the ordinary conduct of the daily worship. It is only up to this limit that foreigners are allowed to enter the temples by the orthodox Hindu.

In temples of any importance there will be a separate shrine for the goddess, but generally on a smaller scale than that of the chief deity. There are separate places for the kitchen where the offerings are prepared with scrupulous regard to ceremonial purity; there are storehouses where the articles required for a year's consumption in the temple are stored; and there is generally a fresh water well which is often the best source of drinking water in the village. The whole group of buildings is surrounded by high prākāra walls, whose gateways are surmounted by the characteristic towers (figs. 1 and 2) which lend distinction to a temple city. In some cases there will be outside the temple a big pleasure tank (fig. 3), generally square in size, built round with stone steps on all sides, and with a central mandapa, where once a year the god and goddess are taken in procession for the floating festival.

IV

The outer walls and the lofty flagstaff will easily show to the sight-seer whether the temple is dedicated to a Saiva divinity or to a Vaishnava god. In the former there will be seen images of the Nandi-bull in a recumbent posture, while the latter will show similar images of the Garuda-bird. Temples other than those of Siva and Vishnu are not uncommon and can easily be identified by similar marks of the characteristic vehicle of the god. Vishnu temples may also show the symbols of the conch and the discus and the caste mark (nāmam) of the Vaishnavas painted on the walls.

V

The ritual followed every day in the temples of Siva and Vishnu may be generally described as rājōpachāra, or the paying of royal honours. Thus in rich temples there will be elephants and camels with their appropriate paraphernalia, the royal umbrellas and chauris mounted on gold or silver handles, palanquins and other vehicles, a troupe of dancers and musicians, a host of other temple servants to wash the god, anoint him with sandal or decorate him with flowers and

Fig. 1. –Gopura, Narasimha temple: Mangalagiri

Fig. 2.–Back view of central shiren, Siva temple : Gangaikondasōlapuram.

Fig. 3.–Haridranadi tank; Mannargudi.

so on. Crowns and other rich and costly jewellery, set with gems and pearls (fig. 4), and often presented by Rājas and Chieftains or other rich devotees, are a special pride of the wealthier temples.

The Brāhmana priest is to purify himself by bath and prayers early morning, and then open the doors of the sanctum and gently wake up the god, who is supposed to be sleeping, by chanting appropriate hymns in his praise. Then, after duly worshipping the guardian deities, he washes the feet of the chief deity, bathes the image, clothes it properly, decorates it with the usual jewellery, sandal and flowers, waving incense and lamps of diverse pattern (fig. 5) in front of the god and finally offering him the cooked food or naivēdyam and the final betel leaf and nut. At stated intervals the god comes out in procession and perhaps sees to the comfort of his attendant deities. Usually there is an important annual festival, representing in some cases the marriage of the god or some other special event in the doings of the god registered in local chronicles or Purānas. On such occasions the procession is carried on different vehicles, both common and special, the latter being such as the kalpa-vriksha, the wish-giving celestial tree or the kāmadhēnu, the wish-giving celestial cow, or the mythic animal gandabhērunda. The most important procession will generally be the car festival when the god goes round in the huge car through the main streets where his worshippers live and receives worship and offerings at their very homes.

VI

In the temples dedicated to the village deities the ceremonial is not much different. Brāhmanas however rarely officiate and animal sacrifices are generally offered, especially when the village is threatened with an epidemic or with serious scarcity or famine. Vedic incantations are not uttered in these temples.

With this brief general description of the temple, we can now proceed to study the various images which are found represented in them.

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Fig. 4.—Processional images (metal); Madura.

Fig. 5.—Lamp patterns and pūjā-utensils; Uttattut.

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1. Pages 166 to 182 of Vol. XIII of the "Sacred Books of the East" series, published by the Pānini Press, Allahabad.
2. The Buddhist stūpas at Amarāvati and other villages in the Guntūr district, the stūpa at Sankaram in the Vizagapatam district, and the caverns with rock-cut beds in the Madura and Tinnevelly districts are certainly much older but cannot in any sense be called temples. Some of these last may, however, have been used as temples in a much later period either by Buddhists or by Jainas.
3. Simultaneously with Mahēndravarman I, in the Pallava dominions, rock-cut temples appear to have come into existence in the Pāndya and the Chēra (Kongu) countries under the patronage of their respective sovereigns.