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Home , Darasuram, Kumbakonam, Shaivism, Srirangam

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the case of the Mahamakam tank, to the : the topography of a whole of .

sacred and royal city of Legendary origins ofKumbakonam Our knowledge of the earliest history of Vivek Nanda Kumbakonam comes from texts and very South India is renowned worldwide fo r the architectural splen­ little archaeological work has been con­ dour of its temples and the elaborate sculpture that adorns ducted so far. The city was referred to as Kudandai in the corpus ofTamil literature them, but their symbolism, still ritually enacted today, is less known as the Sangam, which dates to the well understood outside India. Complex interrelationships of first three centuries AD. However, in early art, architecture and ritual are expressed in the evolution, religious works dedicated to the through the past thousand years, of the topography of one of the (the Shaiva corpus) it was called Kuda­ most important of the temple cities. mukku (literally, the mouth or spout of the pot), probably the antecedent of its present name Kumbakonam which first appears in or over a millennium Kumba­ city's present commercial prosperity. a fourteenth-century inscription. The pot konam has been a sacred centre Throughout its historical evolution, it has motif, evidently significant in the histori­ of Hindu pilgrimage. It differs also been a seat of scholarship - the bril­ cal evolution of the place name, may sim­ Ffrom other temple cities of south­ liance and fame of its scholars being ply refer to the 's wedge shape and ern India in the diversity of the widely recognized through to the early location at the point where the religious traditions manifested in its archi­ twentieth century, when it was known as bifurcates in its delta from the Arasalar tecture and celebrated in elaborate cycles the " of South India". (Fig. 1). However, the pot motifrecurs in a of ritual enactment that have been per­ Kumbakonam's urban and ritual topog­ later text, the Kumbakonam formed and re-interpreted down to the raphy is unique in comparison with other Puranam, where the city is the site of the present day. temple cities of the Tamil country.1 It is far cosmic myth of Shiva as Adi-Kumbesh­ Contemporary Kumbakonam, in the more complex than most of them, which vara or the "Lord of the Pot". state ofTamil Nadu, is a thriving city on the are organized around a single large temple According to this legend, , the legendary Kaveri River [Fig. 1), the central complex that is the theatre for the enact­ creator god, places scriptures artery that has nurtured and sustained the ment of a single corpus of creation myths. and the seed of creation in a golden pot to cultural traditions of the Tamil people. Kumbakonam, in contrast, contains several save them from destruction; in due course The siting of Kumbakonam near the head important temple complexes, sacred water the pot floats to the south, to be later of the Kaveri delta has given it an exalted tanks, and hundreds of secondary shrines, released by the arrow of Shiva The appear­ position as a religious and economic cen­ principally organized in two chronological ance of Shiva at a shrine after the cosmic tre. Its craft traditions - in textiles, sculp­ clusters. This article describes the histori­ flood, the shattering of the pot (or womb of ture, bronze casting, brassware and gold cal evolution and main constituents of all creation), and the subsequent release of jewellery - have been renowned since the Kumbakonam's ritual topography, in par­ amrata (an embryonic nectar that congeals ninth century AD and contribute to the ticular the sites sacred to the city, and, in and crystallizes to form Kumbakonam's luminescent topography of temples and tanks) mark the start of a renewed creation. Even today, Kumbakonam's religious topography and embody and re­ enact this creation myth. Although all the

Kum akonam city's sacred sites participate in the cosmic . origins, particular sites directly embody this myth. The Banapureshvara temple, for example, is the place where Shiva km soo LGh launched his arrow westwards onto the o Q site where the pot actually ruptured, cele­ brated today in the form of the Adi­ Kumbeshvara temple (Fig. 2).

Kumbakonam under the Chola kings: seventh to thirteenth centuries AD The earliest historical stratum, as gleaned from extant buildings and rudimentary surface archaeology, corresponds with the advent of the Chola kings, who, from the N seventh to thirteenth centuries, developed a characteristically Tamil form of urban­ ism that grew by aggregation from its core t in the Kaveri Valley to an empire that at its peak, in the tenth-thirteenth centuries, extended from the Ganges Valley in the land above m D 50 north to Sri . Kudamukku, present­

km 25 day Kumbakonam, was the sacred reli­ gious centre, organized around its several temples, whereas Paliyarai, Zkmto the Figure 1 Th e location ofthe cityofKumbakonamnearthe apex of the delta of the Kaveri southwest, was the royal centre and resi­ River, southeastern In dia. dential capital, with its palaces, royal

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Figure 2 Kumbakonam showing the loca­ tion of the principal temples and sacred water tanks: (1) Nagesh vara temple, (2) Banapureshvara temple, (3) Mahama­ kam tank, (4) Kasi-Vishvanatha temple, (5) Abhimukteshvara temple, (6) Somesh­ vara temple, (7) Adi-Kumbeshvara temple, (B) Sarangapani temple, (9) Pottramarai tank, (1 0) Ch akrapani temple, (1 1) ­ vamy temple. temples and administrative and military establishments. The sacred-royal configu­ ration of Kudamukku-Paliyarai, together with a wider network of subsidiary temple­ centred agglomerations, constituted one of the earliest settlements of the Chola kings in the Kaveri Valley.2 It epitomized the Chola idiom of symbolic landscapes con­ secrated by the sacred Kaveri, the continu­ ity of which was embodied in a sacred topography of temple centres and ritual kingship. As the Cholas were devout Shaivites Figure 3 Th e Nageshvara temple: the northern wall of the main sanctum.

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Figure 5 Th e Airavateshvara temple, : viewfr the southeast showing the sanctum and pyramidal tower (vimana), and in the righ t foreground the southernporch Figure 4 The Nageshvara temple: sculp­ leading up to the colonnaded hallway. ture of a royal figure on the southern wall of the main sanctum. Kumbakonam under the (dedicated to the seven sacred -Nayaka kings: rivers of the Hindu cosmos) probably also (followers of Shiva), the primary focus of fifteenth-seventeenth centuries AD dates from this period. The Vijayanagara­ the settlement was the Kudandai Kilkot­ Under the Vijayanagara-Nayaka kings the Nayaka contribution to the ritual topogra­ tam or the Nageshvara temple (Figs 2 and religious topography of Kumbakonam phy of Kumbakonam, as in the rest of the 3). This temple, apart from beingone ofthe underwent a series of changes as a result Tamil country, is manifest in large build­ finest examples of early Chola art and primarily of a shift in royal patronage from ing programmes for the renovation and architecture, embodies several strata of to (from the god expansion of several of Kumbakonam's ritual symbolism. The earliest and proba­ Shiva to the god ). Consequently early temples; the expansion of the Adi­ bly most consistent ritualistic and iconic the Shiva temples of the Chola period Kumbeshvara and Sarangapani temples by theme in the Nageshvara temple draws its declined; the Adi-Kumbeshvara temple the addition of several colonnaded hall­ inspiration from of the sun gained precedence over the Nageshvara ways and concentric outer enclosures is god. To the present day, the most auspi­ temple; and the two new temples dedi­ testimony of this. cious and important annual festival cele­ cated to Vishnu, the Ramasvamy and The most significant impact of the brated at the Nageshvara temple occurs on Chakrapani, together with the much older Vijayanagara-Nayaka intervention was, the day when the sun penetrates through to Sarangapani temple (Fig. 2), gained popu­ however, on the urban and ritual topogra­ the inner sanctum and illuminates the larity. The popularity of the seven river phy of the city as a whole. Under the Cho- linga (the phallic depiction of Shiva). The exquisite sculptures that adorn the sanc­ tum walls show Shiva in the company of royal persons (Fig. 4) and sages,3 and prob­ ably allude to a much closer identification ofearlyCholakingship with divinity in the form of Shiva. The Shaiva topography of early Kumba­ konam also comprised the Kayavarohana or Karona temple (believed to be the present Kasi-Vishvanatha temple), the Someshvara temple and the Banapuresh­ vara temple (Fig. 2). The epitome of Chola Shaiva religious architecture, is, however, the Airavateshvara temple complex, located in the northern quarters of Paliya­ rai (present-day Darasuram)4 about 5krn southwest of Kumbakonam (Fig. 1) and assigned to the reign ofRajaraja II (AD 1146- 72). Although somewhat smaller than the grand temples of the period, such as those at Tanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram (Fig. 1), the Airavateshvara complex is one of the finest to survive, replete with inscriptional records and a complete Figure 6 Th e Airavateshvara temple, Darasuram: the southernportico sculpted to depict ensemble of relief carvings (Figs 5 and 6). a celestial chariot drawn by horses and elephants.

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earlier date) and the Kaveri, by way of the north-south bazaar for which it served as a termination (Fig. 2). In this wider con­ text, the Ramasvamy temple can be seen to have orchestrated an overlay of ritual king­ ship on a wider realm of the sacred city. The Chakrapani temple, at the northern end of the bazaar street and close to the Kaveri, is the only one at Kumbakonam to be raised on a series of terraces. It probably draws froma wider tradition of raised tern­ pies in the Paliyarai region and the Kaveri Valley at large (the temples at , Mulayur, Nallur and Avoor are some nearby examples). The temple is dedicated to Vishnu, as the bearer of the disc or (an attribute with which he re­ dresses all evil) after which the temple is named. Worshippers enter the central shrine fr om different directions according to the time of the year, reflectingthe influ­ ence of astronomic calculations on temple rituals. The temple has proved difficult to Figure 7 Bazaar street with th e Ramasvamy temple at its southernend. date due to a lack of inscriptional evi­ dence, but on architectural and icono­ las, the urban topography had a primarily agenda is manifest in the supports, trans­ graphic grounds it is now believed to have east-west Shaiva orientation consisting of formed here into sculptural compositions been built in the fifteenth century in emu­ small clusters of temples surrounded by showing king and retinue in the company lation of the preceding Chola style. concentric ceremonial streets lined with of the (Fig. 9). The Adi-Kumbeshvara is the largest and priestly dwellings, but during the In addition to the adoption ofRama ico­ most important temple at Kumbakonam fifteenth-seventeenth centuries this pat­ nography as propaganda for (sacred) Nay­ (Fig. 2) because Shiva, the god venerated tern was incorporated into a grand and aka kingship, the Ramasvamy temple as a here, is directly involved with the creation symbolic urban scheme. This transforma­ whole seems to have served a more crucial myth of the city. Here he takes the form of tion principally involved the creation of a royal agenda in terms of the overall topog­ an irregularly shaped linga made of sand, in complementary north-south Vaishnava raphy of the post-Chola city. It made the accordance with the story of the flood that topography to the west of the Chola city, most explicit contribution to the renewed ensued after he pierced the cosmic pot with which subordinated the older Shaiva reli­ sacred core of Kumbakonam. Its striking his arrow. Although the Kumbeshvara cult gious establishments to the new Vaishnava north-south orientation (in contrast to the dates back at least to the eighth-ninth cen­ ones. A north-south link, today a crowded east-west orientation fo llowed for most turies, the innermost shrine is a much ren­ bazaar street, constituted the nexus of the temples), is ample testimony of this for it ovated later building. It reflectsthe radical new sacred core of the city. It ritually con­ established a proximity to the Adi­ remodelling of the city under the Nayakas nected all Kumbakonam's new and reno­ Kumbeshvara temple (and thus the crea­ and their successors, the Marathas, in the vated religious establishments, and further tion myth of the pot), the Pottramarai tank seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. linked them to the fluvial horizons of the and the Sarangapani temple. Furthermore The most enigmatic monument at Kum­ sacred terrain - the rivers Kaveri to the it evoked a royalist Vaishnava topography bakonam is the Sarangapani temple (Fig. north and Arasalarto the south (Fig. 2). The that linked the Chakrapani temple (of 2). The main sanctuary, deep within the sacred character of the Kaveri, in contrast to the Arasalar, is evident in the profusion of ritual structures (shrines, plinths or ghats, and pavilions) that dot its banks. The purificatory role of the Kaveri is an inextricable part of this ritual topography that was (and continues to be) enacted through a host of fluvial consecration and ablution rites conducted in all the temples. The Ramasvamy temple complex,5 located at the southern end of the bazaar street (Figs 7, 8). was founded in the early seventeenth century by Govinda Diksitar, a powerful minister of the local Nayaka king, Raghunatha Nayaka (Fig. 9). The Ramasvamy sanctuary is built in a reviv­ alist manner, its architectural details emu­ lating the eleventh-twelfth century Chola style. The sanctum houses human-sized images, distinctive of the later period, of the god and his consort , together with their retinue. The columnar entrance or mandapa is designed as a royal hall for state occasions such as coronations, dec­ larations and marriages, and the royal Figure 8 Th e Ramasvamy temple: view of the sanctum from the southeast.

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in the neo-Chola ornamentation, wherein Sarangapani sanctum), with Siva as custo­ the innovations appear as a fulfilment of dian. All the goddesses face south as a the tradition. The Nayaka rulers, through mark of respect to the waters of the Maha­ the good offices of their minister Govinda makam. However, Kaveri's pride Diksitar, were also responsible for recon­ of place and has earned her structing the Mahamakam tank (Fig. 2). It the privilege of presiding on the very banks owes to them its present layout, which of the tank in recent years. A vibrantly comprises steps descending into the water painted modern pavilion, the seventeenth, and 16 elaborately carved and stuccoed was added to the ensemble in 1974 as an pavilions, each dedicated to one of the 16 ultimate fulfilment of this ritual topogra­ great gifts or mahadanas, bestowed by a phy; religious traditions and social cus­ ruler on a holy place. toms, hand in hand with local nationalism, current politics and patronage, continue to Contemporary pilgrimage accrete and mould the contemporary The Mahamakam tank is possibly the most status of Kumbakonam. sacred place in the city. Praised by the Nay­ The Mahamakam tank, today, has anmar saint-poets of the seventh century, accreted pan-Hindu symbolism; it is sig­ its sanctity has made it a place of pilgrim­ nificant not just in but to the age for more than a millenniurn. Skirted by whole of India. Its sanctity has attracted a many temples and religious institutions, it complex multi-tiered mythology and sym­ is the setting for one of the main festivals in bolism involving the creation myth of the Kumbakonam, the Mahamakam or Great town, the 9 holy rivers, the 20 springs of Makam, which occurs every 12 years; the , the 16 endowments of last was celebrated on 18 February 1992 kingship, and a celestial symbolism com­ (Fig. 11). The festival takes place exactly at prising the guardians of the quarters, the the conjunction ofthe sun in Aquarius and sun and the zodiac. The Mahamakam fes­ Fi gure 9 Th e Ramasvamy temple: sculp­ of Jupiter and the moon in Leo (known as tival is a southern equivalent of the great ture on the central pillar of th e entrance the Mahamakam star), during the full Kumbh-mela festival held at the conflu­ doorway depicting the royal patron Raghu­ moon in the Tamil month of Thai (Febru­ ence of the Ganges at Prayag in northern natha Nayaka with wives. ary-March). Its climax lasts only a few India, the Kaveri, as great nurturer, replac­ hours, from early morning to mid-day, ing the sacred Ganges. complex, emulates a celestial chariot - when dense crowds of pilgrims wade exquisitely executed in stone on a plinth through the shallow waters of the tank and Kumbakonam, through its complex evolu­ decorated with prancing horses, elephants bathe in its 20 springs. According to the tion has earned itself the exalted reputa­ and wheels - that clearly links its founda­ legend, such is the purifying power of this tion of the Benares of southern India; like tions to the late Chola period of the tenth tank that all the sacred rivers ofindia, from its northern counterpart it is in the centre to twelfth centuries. The superstructure the Ganges to the Kaveri, are believed to of a pancha krosa or fivefold pilgrimage however is a later addition. The niches of bathe here over this period in order to landscape.6 It has come to embody multi­ the sanctum are adorned by a fine set of purge the sins of all humanity accumu­ ple religious themes: it resembles Gaya in marvellously executed sculptures of the lated in their waters. The west-facing Kasi­ northern India in that it comprises shrines later period that again emulate earlier Vishvanatha temple on the northern banks of the 18 gods worshipped there; and it is Chola aesthetic sensibility (Fig. 10). The of the tank (Fig. 2) provides a sanctuary for referred to as bhaskara kshetra (a land­ temple is dedicated to Vishnu, as the the enshrinement of the river goddesses, scape of light), in accordance with Hindu bearer of the bow or saranga. He is shown whose sisterhood has now grown to nine customs, because it has shrines dedicated here reclining on , the serpent who (since their first appearance in the to all the principal . Kumba- floats on the cosmic ocean prior to the cre­ ation of the universe, in the company of the seven river goddesses carved on the rear wall of the sanctum. Large stone guardians at the entrance to the sanctum epitomize the sculptural traditions of the late­ fifteenth-century Vijayanagara period, and the harmonious juxtaposition oflate Chola and Vijayanagara mature artistic traditions make this a unique monument. However, its greatest significance is that it incorpo­ rates Kumbakonam in a wider ritual land­ scape ofTamil Vaishnava pilgrimage of the fifteenth century that included sites such as and Tirupathi west and north of Kumbakonam. The Nayaka intervention can be seen overall as a spatial embodiment of histor­ ical and cosmic time. The paired creation motifs ofShiva (west) and Vishnu (east), lie either side of a street that itself superim­ poses everyday life upon ritual time, and is marked at its south by a mingling of royal figures and gods, and at its north by a ritual obedient to celestial cycles. The pre-exist- Figure 10 The Sarangapani temple: chariot iconography on the southern fa cade of the ing Chola context is further acknowledged sanctum.

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Fi gure 11 Th e Mahamakam festival of 18February 1992 at the Mahamakam tank; several hundred thousand pilgrims congregate at the site every 12 years, together with important politicians (the gigantic fig ure in the background is a wooden cutout of the Chief Minister of Tamil Na du, Mrs fayalalitha). konam's foundations as a city refer back to Notes its Chola origins, over a thousand years 1. For more detailed accounts of Kumba­ ago. The fifteenth-seventeenth century konam see V. Nanda, "Cambridge Kumba­ Vijayanagara-Nayaka reappropriation, as konam Project: the ritual topography of well as the eighteenth-century Maratha Kumbakonam" , Architectural Design 124, intervention, subtly embodied spatially 30-34,1996, and V. Nand a & P. Car! (eds), both historical and cosmic time. And Kumbakonam: a sacred city androyal city of South India (London: British Museum Kumbakonam's fluvial myths, transferred Press, in press for 2000). down to the present day, elevate it to the 2. R. Champakalakshmi, "Growth of urban status of a pan-Hindu or celestial centres in South India: Kudamukku­ threshold, one that is as primordial as the Palaiyarai, the twin city of the Cholas", beginning of creation. Studies in History 1 ,1-3 1 , 1979. 3. D. T. Sanford, " portraits: the Nageshvara temple at Kumbakonam", in Th e legend of Rama: artistic visions, V. Dehejia (ed.), 43-60 (Bombay: Marg Publishers, 1994). 4. F. l'Hernault, P. R. Srinivasan, J. Dumar­ cay, Darsuram: epigraphical study, etude architecturale, etude iconographique (Paris: Ecole Franc;:ais d'Extreme-Orient, 1987). 5. V. Nanda, G. Michell, A. L. Dallapiccola, 1997, "The Ramasvami Temple at Kum­ bakonam", South Asian Studies 13, 1-17, 1997. 6. This term reflects five levels of the Hindu cosmos that are manifested as five concen­ tric pilgrimage circuits around the city.

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