South Indian Inscriptions

GENERAL

Mahavīra is cut in relief on the brow of a rock overhanging another rock, on which latter are fashioned 5 or 6 groups of the so-called Pañchapāṇḍava beds with low pillows for the Jaina monks residing here. But there are no labels on these beds or pillow lofts. About5 50 years off is a pair of huge boulders leaning against each other, and in the recess between them is found a loose slab about 4 feet high with a fairly archaic sculpture of the Jaina goddess Padmāvatī cut on it in high relief. On the sides of the boulders facing each other on either side of the goddess are two panels, one containing in bold relief the figure of Gommaṭa and the other that of Pārśvanātha. Near the former figure is engraved a small inscription (No. 251) in characters of about the 10th century A. D., recording the erection of a Tēvāram (temple ?) evidently meaning these three figures, by a private individual named Vēli Koṅgaraiyar Puttaḍigaḷ.

The Raṅganātha temple at Śrīraṅgam.
   9. The famous temple of Raṅganātha at Śrīraṅgam visited during the year is called the Kōyil or Periyakōyil i.e., the temple par excellence¸ and has been the loadstar of Vaishṇava spiritual aspirations from quite an early past. It has been eulogised by all the hierarchy of Vaishṇava Ālvārs with the exception of Madhurakavi, and according to the Guruparamparā, some of them lived at this place and made it the scene of their devotional activities. Prominent among them were the Chēra ruler Kulaśēkhara-Ālvār, who renounced his kingdom and came over here with his daughter Chērakulavallī to lead a sanctified life of devotion to the god, and Tirumaṅgaimannan or Ālināḍan, the chief who looted the Buddhist vihāra at Nāgapaṭṭinam (Negapatam) and renovated the Ālināḍan-tiruvīdi in this temple. The names of the minor Ālvārs, such as Toṇḍaraḍippoḍi and Tiruppāṇālvār who was born at Uraiyūr close by, are also connected with this temple. The great Rāmānujāchārya, the apostle of the Viśisṭādvaita Śrīvaishṇavism, spent as many as 60 years of his rather long life as the administrative head of this temple and effected many reforms in its internal management. Kūrattālvār, Parāśara-Bhaṭṭa, Vēdānta-Dēśika and a host of other scholars also lived here. Śrīraṅgam is also sanctified as the place where Alagiyamaṇavāḷa or Maṇavāḷa-Mahāmuni, the āchārya of the Tenkalai Vaishṇava sect, lived for a long time giving religious discourses. This saint is reputed to have stayed at the Pallavarāyan-maṭham in the South Uttira street, where an image of his is being worshipped even now. The place is also associated with the famous Tamil poet Kambar whose Rāmāyaṇa, according to tradition, received its imprimatur here at the hands of the literary coterie of his time.

  Architecturally, the Śrīraṅgam temple offers many interesting points to the student of Indian art. It belongs to the uttamōttama class of temples, as it has its full complement of seven prākāras running round the garbhagṛiha, and in addition has separate subsidiary shrines for all the minor parivāradēvatās, as prescribed in the Āgamas. In his Elements of Hindu Iconography T. A. Gopinatha Rao has given a chart illustrating the positions of the main temple and its auxiliary shrines according to the Vaikhānasa authorities. This plan does not agree in some of the details with the existing shrines in the temple, and this divergence is perhaps due to later improvements and alterations made knowingly or unknowingly in successive generations. In fact the temple has undergone so much alternation at the hands of pious kings of several dynasties and donors of different generations that it is difficult to distinguish between the original nucleus and the later accretions. The introduction of images of the Vaishṇava-Ālvārs in shrines which previously contained images of gods, appears also to have been a later innovation, made during the time of Rāmānuja and Vēdānta-Dēśika. A shrine for Dhanvantari, the god of medicine, which is located in the north side of the fourth prākāra in this temple is unique, as it is not met with in any other temple of South India. A stucco image of god Narasiṁha called Eḍuttakai-älagiyār depicted as fighting with Hiraṇyakaśipu, figured on the north gōpura of the fourth prākāra, is provided with a maṇḍapa constructed in front of it, and presents a rare instance of an ornamental image in a gōpura acquiring sanctity in course of time.

  Sculpturally, however, the temple is rather poor. The garbhagṛiha which is only in mortar, is circular in shape and is surmounted by the famous ‘ Śrīraṅgavimāna,’ with the gold-plated representation of god Para-Vāsudēva portrayed on its front side, which is considered very sacred. The numerous maṇḍapas, prākāra walls and gōpuras that rose up at different periods do not exhibit any remarkable workmanship, except in the case of the so-called Śēshagirirāyan-maṇḍapa on the east side of the fifth prākāra, which contains a few well-made composite pillars of the type commonly met with in constructions of the Vijayanagara period, viz., rearing yāḷi and horses ridden over by hunting cavaliers piercing tigers