We traveled to Kanchipuram on a day trip from Chennai. I was lucky to have my friend who is a learned historian, well versed in Pallava architecture and iconography. To warm things up, we went to a couple of smaller temples first (Mukteswara temple, Pravalavarna Swamy Temple) before lunch at Hotel Sakthi Ganapathy, followed by a 3 hour stop at the highlight of the visit - the Kailasanathar Temple.
Kanchipuram can stake a claim to be the temple capital of South India, if not all of India. The Pallavas ruled from here during the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries CE and have commissioned temples of breathtaking majesty, whose sculptural and architectural excellence make them in my humble opinion on par with that dynasty's efforts at Mamallapuram. UNESCO which bestowed World Heritage Site status to Mamallapuram, for some reason has given the Kanchipuram temples a miss.
The Kailasanathar temple was commissioned by Rajasimha Pallava who is also credited with the Shore Temple at Mamallapuram. The vimanam (structure on top of the inner sanctum) is reminiscent of the Mamallapuram Shore Temple although much bigger. The vimanam and most of the superstructure is built of sandstone on a granite base. The Vijayanagar kings are said to have added the granite mandapam (hall) that connects the main temple to the original Pallava mandapam. I think they did a disservice which among other things, robs one off a more complete view of the beautiful main temple.
The temple is structural in the sense that it is made of a stack of sandstones, with the sculptures spanning and aligned across multiple stone pieces. See adjoining picture of Dakshinamurthy where you can see the crease line between the stones along the forehead of the elephant and along Dakshinamurthy's waist.
The unique architectural feature of the temple is the surrounding structure which is made up of 58 sub-shrines with exquisite sculptures both inside and between them. The sculptures depict Lord Shiva in his many forms, along with other figures of the Hindu Pantheon playing out scenes of stories from the puranas and other Hindu texts:
Gangadhara, where Shiva gathers the river Ganges with a strand of his hair. Parvathi in a twisted pose seems to be looking with a touch of envy.
Dakshinamurthy under a banyan tree surrounded by peaceful lions, deer and the rishis receiving his silent intonation of the vedas.
Dancing as Urdhwa Tandava where he is raising one of his legs almost vertically up to replace his fallen ear rings (kundalam) without missing a step (there is a legend that Shiva and Parvati were dancing in competition and Parvati could not match this particular move, understandably so, owing to her modesty). This pose is the second most common pose of Shiva dancing in Pallava and Chola art, with Nataraja being of course the more common and well known.
Lingodbhava, where Vishnu and Brahma are trying in vain to find Shiva's feet and head respectively.
Kalantaka, where Shiva is rescuing his devotee Markandeya from Lord Yama.
Kirata & Arjuna showing Arjuna and Lord Shiva as Kirata the hunter dueling before Shiva grants Arjuna his astras for the Mahabharata war.
In addition to Shiva, Vishnu also figures in some of the sculptures, the most common form depicted being the Narasimha.
There are Tamil inscriptions (in the Grantha script) along the bottom of the sculptures citing the many titles Rajasimha presumably bestowed upon himself including ironically Guna Vineetha - the humble one. There are two layers of inscriptions the bottom one a beautiful calligraphic version (see picture).
In the niches between the subshrines you see Somaskandhas - Shiva, Parvati seated with Karthikeya as a child between them and also a couple which is likely to be Rajasimha and his queen or Siva and Parvati. The case for the former is strengthened by the fact that the couple don't have their hands in the abhaya (blessing) mudra.
It should be noted that the iconography is not always obvious and the two experts who I was with sometimes had different interpretations of some of the sculptures. One such sculpture is remarkable for the dynamism in the poses of the figures is (arguably) a scene where Indra is trying to enter Kailasha but is stopped by a Gana*. There is something unique about this Gana, who is bigger and standing on a lotus which should have given Indra a clue. Indra, angered by the rebuff is about to deploy his Vajrayudha, while Brahma is desperately trying to stop him, having realized that the Gana is none other than Shiva himself.
I reached information overload and we had finished only two sides of the outer sub-shrine lined structure. After coffee and snacks at Saravana Bhavan, we made a quick stop at the Pandava Thoothar Perumal Temple that houses a gigantic form of Lord Krishna. He assumed this when Duryodhana tried to humiliate him when he came to visit as the Pandavas' messenger trying to stop the war. The bigger black statue is actually behind the Utsava Murthy (idol used during processions) in the inner sanctum.
It would take at least a week to do justice to all the major temples of Kanchipuram. We looked at the majestic gopuram of Ekambareswarar Temple from the distance. Not to mention Vaikunta Perumal, Kamakshi Amman, Ulagalantha Perumal to round out the top 5.
- Balaji
* Gana's are Shiva's attendants in Kailasha who are often portrayed as dancing, sometimes with musical instruments. They are also gatekeepers and are notorious for their protectiveness of Shiva's valuable time.
Kanchipuram can stake a claim to be the temple capital of South India, if not all of India. The Pallavas ruled from here during the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries CE and have commissioned temples of breathtaking majesty, whose sculptural and architectural excellence make them in my humble opinion on par with that dynasty's efforts at Mamallapuram. UNESCO which bestowed World Heritage Site status to Mamallapuram, for some reason has given the Kanchipuram temples a miss.
The Kailasanathar temple was commissioned by Rajasimha Pallava who is also credited with the Shore Temple at Mamallapuram. The vimanam (structure on top of the inner sanctum) is reminiscent of the Mamallapuram Shore Temple although much bigger. The vimanam and most of the superstructure is built of sandstone on a granite base. The Vijayanagar kings are said to have added the granite mandapam (hall) that connects the main temple to the original Pallava mandapam. I think they did a disservice which among other things, robs one off a more complete view of the beautiful main temple.
The temple is structural in the sense that it is made of a stack of sandstones, with the sculptures spanning and aligned across multiple stone pieces. See adjoining picture of Dakshinamurthy where you can see the crease line between the stones along the forehead of the elephant and along Dakshinamurthy's waist.The unique architectural feature of the temple is the surrounding structure which is made up of 58 sub-shrines with exquisite sculptures both inside and between them. The sculptures depict Lord Shiva in his many forms, along with other figures of the Hindu Pantheon playing out scenes of stories from the puranas and other Hindu texts:
Gangadhara, where Shiva gathers the river Ganges with a strand of his hair. Parvathi in a twisted pose seems to be looking with a touch of envy.
Dakshinamurthy under a banyan tree surrounded by peaceful lions, deer and the rishis receiving his silent intonation of the vedas.
Dancing as Urdhwa Tandava where he is raising one of his legs almost vertically up to replace his fallen ear rings (kundalam) without missing a step (there is a legend that Shiva and Parvati were dancing in competition and Parvati could not match this particular move, understandably so, owing to her modesty). This pose is the second most common pose of Shiva dancing in Pallava and Chola art, with Nataraja being of course the more common and well known.
Lingodbhava, where Vishnu and Brahma are trying in vain to find Shiva's feet and head respectively.
Kalantaka, where Shiva is rescuing his devotee Markandeya from Lord Yama.
Kirata & Arjuna showing Arjuna and Lord Shiva as Kirata the hunter dueling before Shiva grants Arjuna his astras for the Mahabharata war.
In addition to Shiva, Vishnu also figures in some of the sculptures, the most common form depicted being the Narasimha.
There are Tamil inscriptions (in the Grantha script) along the bottom of the sculptures citing the many titles Rajasimha presumably bestowed upon himself including ironically Guna Vineetha - the humble one. There are two layers of inscriptions the bottom one a beautiful calligraphic version (see picture).
In the niches between the subshrines you see Somaskandhas - Shiva, Parvati seated with Karthikeya as a child between them and also a couple which is likely to be Rajasimha and his queen or Siva and Parvati. The case for the former is strengthened by the fact that the couple don't have their hands in the abhaya (blessing) mudra.It should be noted that the iconography is not always obvious and the two experts who I was with sometimes had different interpretations of some of the sculptures. One such sculpture is remarkable for the dynamism in the poses of the figures is (arguably) a scene where Indra is trying to enter Kailasha but is stopped by a Gana*. There is something unique about this Gana, who is bigger and standing on a lotus which should have given Indra a clue. Indra, angered by the rebuff is about to deploy his Vajrayudha, while Brahma is desperately trying to stop him, having realized that the Gana is none other than Shiva himself.
I reached information overload and we had finished only two sides of the outer sub-shrine lined structure. After coffee and snacks at Saravana Bhavan, we made a quick stop at the Pandava Thoothar Perumal Temple that houses a gigantic form of Lord Krishna. He assumed this when Duryodhana tried to humiliate him when he came to visit as the Pandavas' messenger trying to stop the war. The bigger black statue is actually behind the Utsava Murthy (idol used during processions) in the inner sanctum.
It would take at least a week to do justice to all the major temples of Kanchipuram. We looked at the majestic gopuram of Ekambareswarar Temple from the distance. Not to mention Vaikunta Perumal, Kamakshi Amman, Ulagalantha Perumal to round out the top 5.
- Balaji
* Gana's are Shiva's attendants in Kailasha who are often portrayed as dancing, sometimes with musical instruments. They are also gatekeepers and are notorious for their protectiveness of Shiva's valuable time.
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