Fern leaf Jacaranda in Yercaud

Arittapatti, Tamil Brahmi and Lakulisa

Continued from here.

Dec 19th 2009

More rocks and more discoveries!

After some off-road driving we arrived at Arittapatti village, in Melur taluk. Once again there was the side-by-side existence of old Hindu relics and vestiges of Jainism.

We visited the Siva temple first and then came back to the Jain site, but I shall narrate in reverse order, since the Jains were there first!

The path was overgrown, indicating that it was a well-hidden secret, and the trees were filled with calls of treepies, sunbirds and the ubiquitous crow. The odd coucal was heard in the distance.

We clambered around the shrubbery around to the base of the large rock in the picture above.

Rounding the corner, we came across a single tirthankara, carved into the stone, with Vattuezhuttu under it.

But we were after more ancient markings - Tamil Brahmi script, brought to the south by these very Jains!

I must confess that when I saw them, I was sorely disappointed!

We reached a cave like this. It was smelly, dusty and on the whole unimpressive.

If somebody had not pointed out the writing, I surely would not have noticed it!

On the brow of the cave was some faint just visible markings!

Do you see it? They are important and ancient! Like cave art. Arittapatti has one of the earliest known Tamil Brahmi inscriptions.

Second Century BC! Dr I Mahadevan is an important name to know in this context. He was awarded a Padma Shri in 2009, and is a pioneering epigraphist in our land.

An epigraphist is one who spends his life deciphering ancient scripts. Now Dr Mahadevan specialised in early Tamil epigraphy and so basically deciphered the Tamil brahmi script!

Now isn't that cool! If I'm not mistaken, these faint markings on the wall relate to a chieftain from Nelveli, Velliyan, who "caused to be given the cave". Please forgive me, but I dont remember now whether that meant he lived there, or whether he gave the cave to someone else!

There's more on the Arittapatti inscriptions here.

My mind wandered back to those ancient times, trying to recreate how the area must have looked. A bustling centre, filled with travellers, monks and traders, and now only these slender tell-tale signs to mark their presence.

The lotus pond was an important symbol for the Jain travellers, I learnt. If they saw a pond, it meant that there would be a sacred image on the rock/hill, along the line drawn from the centre of the pond, due south. And a monastery would be in the vicinity.

The monasteries also played a role like a bank it appears, protecting money and goods for traders on their trips back and forth.

Commerce and free trade, at the turn of the century! There was an important trade route between Brahmagiri (now in Karnataka) and Uraiyur (near Trichy). I wonder if Arittapatti was on one of the extensions further south, from this.

From the second century BC, we shall fast forward to the seventh century AD and Lakulisa! The first time I heard of this interesting character.

We had to get to the rock on the other side of this little lake. This lake dries up in summer, which means that one can just walk across to the other side.

But we were visiting after the rains, and so we enjoyed the lovely sight of rippling water, grasses blowing in the wind, and lotus and lilies in the ponds.

We did not hurry, in fact we positively straggled and meandered, in small groups, examining the wildflowers, the strange rock formations, perandai and lemon grass growing wild.

Under the trees, a baby lay fast asleep in a cloth-cradle hung to a tree. We dont see that these days in our cities anymore.

Closeby, a man sat, tending his goats, and chewing on a stick with one hand, while staring at a cellphone in the other!

Some of the ladies asked him whether there was a signal here. He drawled in Tamil that he really didn't know since he didnt know how to use the phone, but was given it by is friend!

It was here that I was introduced to Lakulisa.

We came to this rock-cut Siva temple, now under the protection of the ASI - see the grille gates, but it is still used for worship by the locals and is called Idaichhi mandapam.

Let me narrate the legend of Lakulisa, believed to be the last avatar of Shiva by some.

I was fascinated by the story/legend, which goes like this:

Lakulisa was born in Gujarat, and when a little boy, was struck by illness and given up as dead. He was taken to the ghats to be cremated, when he is supposed to have "come back to life". He asked the people to leave him, and grew up in the ghats, with special mystical and spiritual powers.

Prof V expounded that his name could mean "na-kula-isa" - a god with no kula/ancestry. The popular meaning is that it stands for the lord with the club.

Anyway Lakulisa then grows up to become the proponent of the Pasupatha dharma, a strongly ascetic, Saivite way of life. He had four main sishyas - Kushika, Gargya, Maitreya and Kaurusha. It appears that these sishyas did a good job, because before long, the dharma had spread to various parts of India. Its still important in Nepal, isnt it? From what I've understood, the sect had a dark side, and the true practiser could carry out much black magic and sorcery!

The presence of this Lakulisa in Arittapatti indicates that his influence had spread so far south - in the eighth century...all very fascinating, when you consider what the nature of communication and transport was in those days.

I guess it was too austere and severe to survive among us comfort-loving Indians for long, and by the 15th century, the sect had shrunk, and became restricted to Gujarat, the Himlayan region including Nepal.

There isn't much written or codified about this mystery sect, which in its heyday in the eight to tenth centuries had a huge number of followers.

There is a book titled "The iconography and ritual of Śiva at Elephanta" By Charles Dillard Collins that mentions that Hsuan-tsang wrote about the considerable Pasupata sect activity during his travels!

And here he was - my first encounter with Lakulisa - in this rock carving, along side a huge lingam, carved out of natural rock.

How little I know about the country of my birth.

Kazhugumalai - Jain bas reliefs

Continued from here.

December 18, 2009

After the wonder of the Vettuvan kovil, I did not think that I would be further surprised that day. As the others hung around the temple, chatting and laughing excitedly, I got into one of my solitary wandering moods and clambered further up the rock.

An ASI guard sat chewing on a grass, smiled and pointed to a brick structure up the hill. "Ange mattu poyittu paarunga maa, Jaina murthigal irrukkum".

Oh, ok, that seemed an interesting thing to check out I thought, and so off I went up the hill. I followed the crude signs that said "Jain carvings" and soon I was much further up, looking down on the hill. I spied the top of the Vettuvan kovil, the fields and farms, but not one eagle.

Kazhugumalai - the abode of eagles, thats where I was, but there wasn't an eagle in sight. I looked up and saw a shikra circling for a while before it lost interest and zoomed off.


A rickety gate past which I stepped and this is what I saw!



I stepped a little closer, crunching through the fallen leaves, and took a closer look through the ficus branches that swept low, growing unhindered and wild up here.

What a sight it was - row upon row of seated monks!

Some of the decorative motifs were beautiful, but it made no sense to me. Why were they all lined up on the wall like this? What were those squiggly, Tamil-looking inscriptions at the bottom saying? Why were there some, more elaborate friezes and what were the stories they were recounting?

So many questions, and Prof Venkatraman was still below at the Vettuvan kovil! They would make their way up here eventually I knew, so I wandered some more.

I was horrified by this ugly white wall hiding some of the bas reliefs behind it.

Maybe its considered graffiti, the better to hide? Or maybe we just have so much around us that we just dont appreciate it?

I ruminated on this, and walked further on and above. A path beckoned, and on an impulse I climbed. It was a way used to reach the top of the hill.

Rough steps were hewn in the rock, wild grasses grew alongside, and the breeze blew cheerily in my face, threatening to send my cap soaring across the rock!

It was a silly thing to do, in retrospect, wandering off amidst uneven stones and up a path where I could so easily have twisted my ankle or lost my balance trying to hang on to cap, bag, camera and binoculars!

I was rewarded for my efforts by a line of bee eaters on the wire, swinging with the breeze. A warbler of some sort took off in alarm at my intrusion, and I had this lovely panoramic view below me.

It was time to head back and my descent down was somewhat nerve wracking given the treacherous nature of the path and the sudden dawning that I was alone! I made it back to the Jain bas-relief rock face to find the other members assembled there. I sauntered the last few metres trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, (but then everyone who knows me will realise my physical difficulty in being unobtrusive!) since I didn't want to be berated for having gone off! I almost managed - but drat it, that ASI guard (remember the grass-chewing one who had sent me on my way?) remarked rather loudly, "Amma yenna mele mattum poyittu varingala, ungalai pathen". To my relief, the others were engrossed in Prof V's explanations and I skulked back in!

I learnt that Kazhugumalai was a seat of Jain learning in centuries past, and these carvings date to around 800 AD. Did you know there are some hundred Jaina sites in Pandya country? And Kazhugumalai has probably the largest collection of inscriptions and carvings?!

The "squigglies" are called Vattezhuttu (Tamil: வட்டெழுத்து vaṭṭeḻuttu) - the precursors to modern Tamil/Malayalam.

The presence of the writing is all very helpful, I was given to understand. The writing informs us that there were jain monks called battarars who lived in the caves. It was a place of worship, but also a place of learning and a monastery. Male teachers are referred to as kuravars and the female teachers (yes, there were female nuns and teachers) as kurathi.

There are more than hundred inscriptions in Kazhugumalai. For the most part they seem to be sponsorship announcements. "This bas relief was sponsored by such and such merchant in honour of so and so who died ...",etc etc. See, capitalism, advertising and media way back then!

By far the largest donor seems to be Pandya king Maran Sadayan, who has donated towards 17 bas-reliefs. "Stories in Stone" is an interesting article, which gives more details.

The Jains believe that there are 24 tirthankaras, in the current time cycle, with Mahavira being the last.

So the bas-reliefs are of the tirthankaras, sitting on open lotuses. From what I gathered, the more elaborate ones were the more important tirthankaras.

Isn't the one on the right exquisite? If you click on the picture and zoom in, you will see there are little lions in the slab on which he is seated. There are dancing maidens in the trellis work above, and right above is Indira on Airavatham flanked by warriors on horses.

And here is Parasnatha the teerthankara with the yakshi Padmavathi by his side. He is the 23rd one and is always shown with a snake hood. Protecting him above is a yaksha Dharnendra, and bowing before him is Kamdan who had wanted to kill him. Legend goes that he saved two snakes from the fire and blessed them with the navkar mantra before they died. Those two snakes became yaksha/yakshi and watch over him.

And I thought this one was Mahavira, but I may be mistaken...in the deep fog of memory, I thought I remember some mention of the top knot and the elongated ears as being characteristic of Mahavira...

Indra on Airavatha is very prominent here.

I wonder...if the donor gave more, was there more embellishment, more adornments and more figures?

Anyway, the Kazhugumalai story would be incomplete for me without a narration of the legend of Ambika yakshi.

There was a lady called Ambika, who had prepared food for her husband's ancestors. The husband steps out on some work, and a hungry monk visits, and she gives him the food. In those days, this was definitely a no-no. So, when hubby comes back and learns about this, he is enraged and drives her out of the house.

She is despondent, seeks out the monk and goes and cries to him. Its a bit unclear as to what happens now. One version says the monk asks her to return to the husband and that she is so terrified at the prospect that she commits suicide along with her 3 kids. They all become yakshis. Ambika yakshi is the attendant to the 22nd tirthankara Nemminatha.

But Ambika pines for her husband and Indra says, alright go and live with him. Now the ungrateful man her husband on learning that she's a yakshi demands to see her powers. So she does, dazzling him with her true yakshi self, he is stunned and frozen and she converts him into a lion!

Vettuvankovil at Peruneccuram aka Kazhugumalai

Continued from here.

December 18, 2009

The Srivilliputur temple gopuram - 192 feet high I think!

About a hundred kms south of Madurai lies a rocky outcrop now called Kazhugumalai - The abode of Eagles.

It was here that the Hayagriva group was headed, post lunch on a lovely clear December day.

The morning had been spent at the Srivilliputur temple. Looking at the temple in the early morning light I had a feeling of deja vu - hadn't I seen this somewhere? Somebody explained that this is the temple that is used as the state's insignia. Oh yes, all my Tamil Nadu Textbook Society books had them. (Yes, yes I did go to a matriculation school.) Twelve tiers, but no deities or gods. The parrot made from leaves which is placed in Andal's hand and given away as prasadam the next day. I believe there is a family that has been making these parrots for 5 generations now.
Unembellished chaitya window at Srivilliputur temple

Tulsi garlands sold to devotees for offering to Andal, born of mother Tulsi and father Water

I learnt of Periyalwar, Andal, tulsi garlands, Chaitya windows, wooden galleries and much more!

Most important was the palkova of Srivilliputtur. Oooh, it is delicious I tell you, and my family will vouch for it. I wish I had brought back some more!


Lunch at Rajapalayam and we were stuffed to the gills by our gracious hosts. The thought of climbing this rock was not very inviting!
We did set off up the slope though, and I had no inkling of what awaited us atop the rock. Prof V and Vani from Madurai had all-knowing smiles as if to say "Wait and See!"

The green agricultural fields stretched below us, with small splotches of blue water here and there.

What we came upon at first - the Vettuvan kovil - was the most beautiful rock-cut temple I have ever seen. I just stood and stared speechless at this carving of the Pandya period from the eighth century.

We came up above it, that is to say the temple was cut into the rock below us, and we saw this dome, with the intricate, delicate garlands coming down the sides, framing the chaitya windows and the other sculptures.

It seemed like the sculptor was one happy soul, there was a joy and lightness to the carvings and the decorations.

Then, why was it unfinished? There is no deity in it and the lower levels remain uncarved. There is some folklore about it, but I thought the idea of a father killing a son because of a sculptural dispute a bit extreme. So what could it be? Did the king get dethroned, the sculptor die? Who knows.

The Vettuvan kovil as you see it when you arrive on top of the rock

An even more birds-eye view, from further up the rock

Dakshinamurthy Once we had got over our initial amazement of the beauty of the whole, it was time to take a look more closely at the individual sculptures.

Prof Venkatraman remarked that this was arguably one of the earliest examples of a typical Hindu temple, with Dakshinamurthy, Narasimha and Brahma on the three sides of the vimanam and Siva and Uma on the fourth.

Dakshinamurty facing south (I know, I know that's obvious), is shown playing a drum. That is a bit unusual I have learnt since he's usually depicted playing the veena or in serene meditation.

The front two arms are missing now - either lopped off by vandals or just destroyed by time, but the demon underfoot can be seen quite clearly. The demon of ignorance stepped on by the personification of awareness, wisdom and knowledge.

Dakshinamurty now always figures on the south-side of a Shiva temple, but (it seems) there are few temples where he is the main deity. India (and the world) is sorely in need of more Dakshinamurty-driven contemplation I think!
Bramha

Then there was Brahma the creator, with his four heads. (I could see only two actually!) A weaponless Hindu deity. I never thought of it that way. Hmmm.

The lotus base of Brahma very different from what D Murthy sits on.

And then I saw Narasimha, with the characteristic lion head/man's body, which even I could recognise!

The Vishnu avatar, very popular in south India and the one deity with many a temple.

As children we all loved his savage victories over evil, and the deity was obviously a popular depiction because we found him in Siem Reap at the Banteay Srei temple clawing Hiranyakasapu to death!
Narasimha claws Hiranyakasapu - Banteay Srei, Siem Reap

The Banteay Srei temple is another story in itself!

We walked down to the lower part of the temple, and gained a different perspective of the sculptures. It was lovely. We were almost eyeballing some of the ones that were at head height. Its not a very tall temple, and one has to stoop to enter the sanctum which is just a bare, dark cave.

The Vettuvan kovil also had lovely Nandi bulls, dancing maidens and intricately carved chaitya windows.

Originally, these were actual windows in a chaitya or Buddhist prayer hall, and were horse-shoe shaped, openings if I'm not mistaken, for the monks to look out and for light to come in. It subsequently became a decorative aspect and a kind of good luck motif in Hindu temples.

I was fascinated by the difference between the chaitya window at Srivilliputur and that at Vettuvan kovil.
One of the ornate chaitya windows at Vettuvan kovil

Looking up at the vimanam
Siva and Uma - the northern face

The rock had more surprises for us - a whole frieze of Jain carvings, but I will stop here, and leave that for my next post!

What Mahabalipuram is to Pallava art, Vettuvan kovil must be to Pandyan stone art. An ASI board at the site links it to the period of Parantaka Neduchezhiyan.

On the trail, for the record

On the trail, for the record

It is still dark when we set out beside the swift and silently flowing Tamraparni. The only sound is the rumbling of forest department jeeps moving towards locations across the velvety-green dark ranges, carrying student volunteers and forest watchers. The first phase of the 2010 tiger census in the Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) has just begun.
Created in 1988 by combining the Kalakad and Mundanthurai sanctuaries in the southern Western Ghats (in the district of Tirunelveli), this reserve is Tamil Nadu’s second largest protected area. To scan for the ‘tiger signature’, 84 teams — comprising one volunteer, anti-poaching watcher and a forest guard — will comb the ranges over the next three days with the 89,500 hectares of the KMTR divided into 42 units for strategic operations.
KMTR chief conservator of forests (CCF) A Ramkumar, who is also the field director, says the first phase will involve students and NGO volunteers from nearby districts. “This year, the response has been overwhelming: we received 320
applications. But we took only 92, beca use we cannot host more volunteers.” The volunteers will be involved each day in recording carnivore signs along a five-km trek (generally around an animal path/ghat road/stream line) and the herbivore encounter rate along a two-km transect line.
KMTR deputy director D Venkatesh gives the volunteers an exhaustive briefing. “By carnivore signs, we refer to signs of tiger and co-predators (that include panther, wild dog, wild pig, bear and civet cat). Indirect signs to look for are scat and pug marks, scratches on tree bark. Plant species recording, of tree/ shrub/ herb/ grass, the density of canopy cover, even signs of human disturbance need to be observed and recorded. Herbivore encounter includes sighting of elephant, sambar, Indian gaur, common langur and nilgiri langur.”
Eager student volunteers learn about the diverse habitats that tigers are found in across the Indian subcontinent, the decline of populations and reasons, the genesis of Project Tiger and the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the need for participatory conservation and scientific management. Also that a tiger always attacks from behind, kills only about once in 12 days, needs to drink water often, can climb trees and swim easily and sometimes eats mud, grass, and even elandha pazham (wild berries) for digestive rejuvenation!
The questions fielded are diverse. First-timer Karthi, a computer science student from Palayamkottai, asks, “How different is a kill of a tiger, panther or a hyena?” Mani, a Zoology undergraduate, wants to know whether the scat of a leopard looks different from that of a tiger. And Kavitha, a college student from Tirunelveli, is eager to know about how one would record the pugmarks of a tiger.
The explanations are even more fascinating: we learn among other things how tiger (or any of the cat family’s) scat is found on the grassy areas is different from wild dogs’ and of each one’s specific nature, how tiger scratches on their prey are deeper than a leopard’s, how cubs accompany their mothers till they are a year and half old, and so on and so forth.
Says ranger Pillai Vinayagam, “A pugmark with a diameter greater than 12.5 cm means it has to be a male tiger; the imprint of its pad will be squarer than the females (whose length is 11.5 cm to 12.5 cm).” An experienced forester can even tell, with just one look whether the tiger was on a slow, normal or quick walk!
Mostly students, participants are from across professions and cross-sections.
Vignesh, a PWD contractor, has been volunteering for some years now during the census every year. Krishnakumar, who has an estate in Kerala and is part of the Wildlife Association of Rajapalayam, is also an old-timer. So is an advocate from Chennai.
Every morning, teams set out at 6 am with survey forms to record details meticulously. They carry GPS monitors to record exact locations, tapes to measure, transparent glass-sheets (to trace pugmarks) and water cans (to mix plaster-of-paris where a pugmark-cast is needed). Each member has an allotted task — one to look for scratches on trees (big cats like to scratch to keep their claws clean of meat remnants), another to scan the ground for pugmarks, and scat (samples are taken for DNA analysis) and the third to record carefully. Young volunteer Ayyappan explains enthusiastically, “Our starting point into the Kannikatti core area could be reached only after crossing the Tamraparni by boat. There was no direct sighting, but we saw a lot of tiger-scat which we transferred with leaves or twigs into sterile polythene covers for DNA analysis.”
C Badrasamy, deputy director and wildlife warden of KMTR, says the second phase will involve details being cross-checked with WII officials to ascertain the carnivore area distribution. “In the last phase, cameras will be positioned in strategic locations across every 4 sq km over 45 days to ascertain how many tigers are actually in the reserve.”
Involving students in the tiger census has proved a remarkable awareness exercise
to reach out to the community and encourage their participation in conservation. Says CCF’s Ramkumar, “A keen eye for detail,
an alert mind and a feel for nature is all that is required.” And as one tired but happy youngster put it, “Participating in the tiger census combines both fun and adventure. I know that I am making a small step towards saving the tigers in India.”

— The writer is trustee of Nizhal, a Chennai-based NGO that promotes planting of trees in cities.
shobhamenon@airtelmail.in

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