LALITANKURA MANDAPA

This cave temple, almost on top of the steep rock-hill in the midst of Tiruchirapalli, is carved into its southern face with a view of the town and the vast landscape beyond it. On its northern side, the river Kaveri takes its winding course through the plain. This hill was worshiped since very ancient times and numerous inscriptions refer to it under different names-Siramalai, Sirapalli, ete. The saints, Appar and Sambandhar, have sung their hymns there in a contemporary structural shrine.
According to an inscription in its interior, the cave temple was called Lalitankura Pallavesvara Griham and made by King Lalitankurena (of tender sprout), a biruda of King Mahendra. It is certainly one of Mahendra’s most interesting excavations, not only because of the numerous inscriptions which cover its darkened walls and reflect so openly the spirit of his time, but specifically because of the Ganga-dhara panel, the first large sculptural composition in a Pallava cave temple. The inscriptions contain many birudas of King Mahendra, most of them known from his other cave temple Avanibhqjana (earthvessel), Gunabhara (abundance of virtues), Lakshita (the distinguished one), Satrumalla (the queller of his foes) ete.

The inscription which deserves special interest is engraved on either side of the Gangadhara relief and it con-tains a charming text, poetical and full of puns. In the English translation, I am following (with minor modifications) the first translation by Dr. Hultzsch (1890). On the northern side of the panel it begins by stating that King Gunabhara had a stone image of Siva Gangadhara carved (or placed) in the temple and it continues with a pun on ‘sthanu’ (stationary) which is one of Siva’s aspects. 1)‘’When King Gunabhara carved a stone figure in the wonderful stone temple on top of the best of mountains, he made in this way sthanu (Siva) sta-tionary and became himself stationary (i.e. immortal) together with him in the worlds.” M. Lockwood in his book ‘Mahabalipuram Studies’ objects to the word ‘placed’ in the translation and substitutes it for the word ‘carved’. He says, “Hultzsch, in his translation says, that King Mahendra ‘placed’ an image of Siva in the cave temple. The English word ‘placed’ is utterly misleading here and Hultzsch and others have concluded that a separate piece of sculpture was brought from somewhere and ‘placed’ in the cave temple. But in fact, the image referred to in the inscription is obvious: the figure of Gangadhara in the relief-panel itself, which was carved in situ. The Sanskrit word ‘nidhya’ may be translated quite fairly as ‘made in situ’, and therefore we have freely used the word ‘carved’ in this sense.

Secondly, when King Mahendra had the figure of Siva Gangadhara carved in anthropomorphic form, it was given the human form of the king himself. That is, when we look at the Gangadhara panel, we are actually seeing a figure of Siva which is at the same time a portrait of King Mahendra. This is the significance of the passage in the inscription which claims that in the making of the image of Siva, the king ‘became himself immortal together with Siva before the eyes of the world.” 2) “King Satrumalla (Mahendra) built on this mountain a temple of Girisa (Siva), the husband of the daughter of the king of mountains in order to make the name Girisa (i.e. mountain-dweller) true to its meaning.” The next verse describes, how Siva, after he had come to know about the king’s intention to build a temple for him, gave him a hint, as to where it should be situated. 3) “After Hara (Siva) had graciously asked him: “How could I, standing in a temple on earth, view the great power of the Cholas or the river Kaveri?”-King Gunabhara, who resembled Manu in his manner of ruling, assigned to him this moun-tain temple, which touches the clouds.” In the following verse is described, how the Tamil name of the hill Siramalai (Tamil: sira=crown, malai=mountain) became meaningful by bearing the figure of Siva on its top.

4) “Thus having joyfully carved on top (of the mountain) a matchless stone-figure of Hara (Siva), which he caused to be executed, that Purushottama (Mahendra), who bore Siva fixed in his mind, made the loftiness of the mountain fruitful.” The text continues on the southern pilaster. From the following verse it has been concluded that a figure of Parvati was installed in the temple. The meaning of the verse is that Parvati joined her husband Siva on this mountain in order to warn him not to fall in love with the river goddess Kaveri as she was already the beloved of King Mahendra.

1)“Being afraid that the god who is fond of rivers (Siva), having perceived Kaveri, whose waters please the eye, who wears a garland of gardens, and who possesses lovely qualities, might fall in love (with her), the daughter of the mountains (parvati) has, I think, left her father’s family and resides permanently on this mountain, calling this river (Kaveri) the beloved of the Pallava (king).” 2)“While the king, called Gunabhara (Mahendra) is a worshipper of the linga, let the knowledge which has turned its back on hostile (vipaksha) conduct, be spread for a long time in the world by this linga.” This last verse has, as also admitted by Hultzsch, a double meaning throughout. This is Lockwood’s translation: “As the king has (assumed in this manner) the form (of Siva), let this form (the figure of Gangadhara, together with its great fame) forever spread throughout the world the faith, which has turned its back on hostile conduct (towards the truth of Saivism).” The Gangadhara Panel: The large and extremely fine panel of Siva as Gangadhara is carved into the west wall of the temple.

The Gangavatarama is a favourite theme in sculptural representations of the Pallavas. In the Kasakudi- plates the dynasty itself was compared with the descent of the Ganga on earth... “the spotless race of the Pallavas... which resembled the descent of the Ganga, as it purifies the whole earth “ The sculptural repre sentation is based on the Puranic story of the descent of the heavenly river Ganga upon the earth. The sons of King Sagara who in their wantonness had angered the Rishi Kapila were cursed by him and turned to ashes. After many generations a descendant of the king Bhagiratha, wished to sanctify the ashes of his ancestors. This could be done only by the waters of the sacred river Ganga which at that time was flowing in the heavenly realm. In order to bring her down on earth, Bhagiratha wished to practised a long and severe tapasya, which finally pleased Brahma so much that he granted him his wish. But he warned him that the earth would not be able to bear Ganga’s downpour and would be crushed; Bhagiratha continued his tapasya and prayed to Lord Siva who agreed to receive Ganga on his head in order to break her crushing force. When the river goddess, proud of her might, came down with all her force she found herself caught and lost in the tangled maze of Siva’s tresses where her destructive power had been broken. Then Ganga became humble and Siva permitted her to flow forth from his hair down to earth as a soft stream, to purify the ashes of Bhagiratha’s ancestors and, henceforth, all mankind from its sins. Since then the goddess is believed to abide in Siva’s hair—very much to the annoyance of Parvati.

The moment when Siva is about to receive Ganga in a lock of his hair is represented in the panel. Siva in his calm strength and concentration, personification of un- limited power, reminds one of similar expressive rep-resentations of the Gupta time. His figure is marked by austere grandeur and epic power while the typical Pallava feature of lyrical rapture and devotion takes a first shape in the two youths kneeling at his feet and having one of their hands raised in adoration; or perhaps best in the little gana who enthusiastically tries to support Siva’s raised foot. The tresses of Siva’s hair form a high and elaborate crown which is held together by a diadem. As in the Gangadhara panel of the Adi Varaha cave temple Siva holds a cobra with a raised hood in one of his hands. Impressive is the unusually rich drapery of his garment with its folds reaching to the ankles, a fan-like pleat hanging between the legs. This royal garment and the elaborate ornaments, not typical for the sculpture of Mamallapuram, seem to support more than anything else the presumption that it is King Mahendra who is portrayed here in the figure of Siva. Above Siva, two flying vidhyadharas indicate the heavenly sphere. Ganga, small and indistinct, with both her hands folded in anjali (adoration) is seen above Siva’s right hand which holds out a lock of his hair. The base of the panel is shaped like a Buddhist vedika or railing, with lotus medallions.

The temple faces south. Its facade has four pillars and four are in the interior, close to the back wall of the temple. Here, this second row of pillars does not demarcate the separation of the hall into the two mandapas, as the shrine chamber lies in between the facade and interior pillars on the eastern side wall of the temple. The pillars are slightly taller and reduced in width, and thus have a more graceful appearance than those of the first caves. They are decorated with various types of lotus medallions and other floral designs surrounded by concentric circles of beads, many of them being eroded or damaged, particularly those of the interior pillars. The corbels have roll ornamentations (taranga). The shrine chamber above the level of the hall faces the Gangadhara panel. Its front wall has a moulded base below and a rounded cornice with kudu arches above. Its entrance is reached by three rock steps and framed by dvarapalas, slim and much eroded figures which lean in elegant tribhanga on their clubs. Their heavy hair is formed to a high crown,jata-makuta. Four tetragonal pilasters, similar in shape to the Mamalla pillar, are found on either side of the dvarapalas niches.

This beautiful temple, the southernmost outpost of Pallava empire, with a vast view on the land of Cholas, is an expression of the deeply devoted, bu the same time, bold and challenging spirit of Mahendra era. From its lofty height it has seen many eventful centuries pass. At one time it was used as a powder magazine and its facade closed up with brick walls. But nothing whatsoever has been able to affect its mosphere of austerity and devotion which it has been served ever since the days when it was built—when kings obeyed the biddings of the gods and built temples as it would please them.