The Pandyans, Jainas and some little known treasures that I was privileged to see

There is an interesting group of people in Madras called the Hayagriva Study Circle, put together by Dr Gita Vasudevan. They come from all walks of life and are curious about filling in the gaps on subjects that interest them. I have attended lecture series on ayurveda, history and art with them, and its history that I've gone back for again and again.

Is it a sign of middle age creeping up or an acknowledgement that my history education has been abysmal? I seem to have a new found interest in the subject, which my teenage son finds completely incredulous and incredible. I mean, why would anyone willingly subject themselves to history lectures?! My husband smiles indulgently usually, since everytime I come back gushing about some new learning of mine, he has even more to add on the subject. But this time, I got him!

I came back from a Madurai tour with pictures and stuff that even he didn't know about! Oh, wasn't I smug! Let me rewind a bit.

December 17 2009

We boarded the Pandyan Express post dinner on Dec 16th, and our destination was Madurai. The tour was christened the Pandya country tour, and we were given a bunch of notes, which mainly dealt with Jainism and Jaina sites. Now this in itself had me puzzled. Weren't the Pandyas famous for the Madurai temple and other such stuff?

Various notions of mine were soon set right that morning at the Madurai Meenakshi temple, where we met the wonderful Prof Venkatraman, whose knowledge, of history, religion, symbolism, iconography and epigraphy knew no bounds, and was delivered with humour, sympathy and a modern world view.

I shall not spend my energies on the Meenakshi temple, so well known, and something which we didn't really do justice to, as whatever we see today is more the work of the Nayaks of the 17th and 18th century than the Pandyas, under whom the spot was sanctified.

So instead I will turn to Thenparankundram and Thirupurakunram, rock cut Jain caves from the 7th and 8th century AD. Madurai has a huge number of Jain caves all around it in rocky outcrops like this one below.

Thenparankunram is south-west of the city, and is in the same rocky hill that the better known Thirupurankunram, (which is now a Murugan temple), is. This is where we headed on the first afternoon, in our Hayagriva bus!

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I was so struck by what I saw, that I have not taken pictures of the entire cave complex from the outside, so please do take a look at Lakshmi Sharath's picture of the cave complex.

The air was cool under the large trees, and the call of monkeys and peacocks rented the air.
At the mouth of the cave, looking up at the rock face.

A short flight of steps led up to the cave, not very large, inside which now can be seen several Hindu carvings.

The early Tamil inscriptions on the eastern wall of the cave.

This Ardhanareeswara was in an inner dark cave. It faces east, and is believed to have replaced a Buddha probably, since there were tell-tale signs of removal, near the feet of this statue.

So then, what's the connection to the Jains, I wondered. Like an archeological Sherlock Holmes, Prof V showed us the tell-tale signs of previous Buddhist and Jain occupations of the cave.

The northern wall face - Shiva and Sivakami to the left, and Subramanaya and Devasena/Valli? to the right.

A close-shot of Shiva in the Anandatandava pose, bust upwards. I thought it a bit strange, as mutilations go, that they cut off the legs. usually the face is mutilated is it not?

The five-headed Herambaganesha - represented in supposedly the Buddhist style with little Ganeshas all around the head of the main statue.

What seems to be currently accepted by the historians is: that the cave was originally occupied by the Buddhists - check out the lotus medallion - and then the Jains/shramanas/samanas followed, then in the 12th-13th centuries, the cave was taken over by Maravarman (Sundara?) Pandyan, when the current carvings were probably made. That's not the end of the story. Malik Kafur swept through in the fourteenth century, and was probably responsible for the vandalisation of the sculptures.

That's a fair amount of history surrounding one cave, is it not?! And here I was centuries later, ruminating that the more things change the more they remain the same.Subramanya flanked by Valli (which I had marked as Bhoo Devi) and Devasena, (his heavenly consort). I have since forgotten which is which. The one on the right is probably Devasena? Professor, help!

As we stepped back out into the evening sun, my convent-educated head was reeling with kunjitha pada, tirodhana, and such like on the one hand, ajeevikas and teerthankaras on the other, while still grappling with Maravarman, Kulothanga, Kalabhras and Kadunkon Pandya!
The Nayanar trio

And it did not end there. I was introduced to this trio on the left, carved in the rock-face, outside the cave. Sundara, Thirugnanasambandar and Appar. The Nayanar poets of the seventh century, with mythic status in Tamil Nadu.

Shiva bhaktas all three, I thought Appar's story was rather interesting. He was a practising Jain, Dharmasena. During a long illness, he returned home to be nursed by his sister, who supposedly grew his Shiva bhakti, and his devotion and prayer cured him. The interesting bit is that the Pallava king Mahendravarman was also a Jain and converted to Shaivism under the influence of Appar.

Manivachagar

Only when I heard this account did the widespread influence and hold of Jainism in south India sink in and I began to see why we were looking at Jaina history and historical sites on a Pandya tour!

The good Professor also made me realise the importance of the bhakti movement in reviving Hinduism among the common masses, through song and poems.

At a little distance, separated from these three was a fourth Nayanar, Manikavachagar, though why he was off on his own, I dont know. As far as I can make out he's a bit like a male version of Meerabhai, pining for God and considering God as his lover.

And so I returned from the Sangam period and from the realms of the Nayanars to the earthy sounds of the Thiruparankunram temple, just around the corner from Thenparankundram, but vastly more well known, and now a Murugan temple. The sun had set, and this is what I saw.
The Murugan temple at Thiruparankundram, with the rock peeping out at the rear

Prof V had mentioned that this was also a rock-cave temple, but what I saw was a well-built gopuram and the other structures that go with it. So, where's the rock and where's the cave? Buried in its inner reaches, and where photography is not permitted.

The original cave carvings are dated to 773 AD, and that predates it vis-a-vis the Meenakshi temple. Jatila Parantaka Nedunjadaiyan - I loved that name, it rolls off the tongue so nicely and grandly - was a Pandyan king, and he had a Minister called Chatan Ganapathy. Mrs Ganapathy was one Nakkan Potri, and stone inscriptions note that this rock cut temple was built for a lingam (facing east), a Vishnu, (facing west), Raja Rajeswari and Jyeshta Devi.

So we climbed in past the grand Nayak columns into the old, cave, and we saw the lingam and the Vishnu, but then there was Muruga marrying Devayani! And where was Jyeshta Devi? Well, she's well hidden from view, locked up in fact because at some point in time the superstition took credence that Jyeshta Devi was the bringer of misfortune, and if the doors of her sanctum are opened the village will be wiped out.

So now Thirupurankundram is one of the six famous arupadai veedu temples for Murugan, and its Pandyan roots are probably not so well known.

We emerged back into the corridor-lined hall, and my eyes met the tired eyes of the temple elephant, all chained and cooped up. I was left with the unhappiness, guilt and sadness that temple elephants now fill me with.

We went on to the Koodal Azhagar temple, an eighth century temple, venerated in song by the Alwars, but much of what we see now is twelfth and thirteenth century Nayak-restored structures. An interesting multi-storeyed temple, with Vishnu in various poses, but my mind wandered back to the Jains and my heart was with the elephant and really not here.

Some references I liked -

Jatila Parantaka Nedunchediyan's Velvikudi grant

The quaint caverns of Samanamalai