This trio of scholars has been steadily working to chronicle the temple heritage of southern India

“The history that has survived for so long surely knows how to take care of itself,” says Dr. R. Kalaikovan, an ophthalmologist who balances his medical practice with his ardent love for researching the state’s past, particularly through its temples.

Assisted by his former students and now experts in their own right, professors M. Nalini and A. Akila, Dr. Kalaikovan has been the brain behind the Tiruchi-based Dr. M. Rajamanikkanar Centre for Historical Research Centre, named after his father, the outstanding scholar and Reader of Tamil at the Madras University.

A distinction student at school-level history, the young Kalaikovan opted to study Medicine at the Madras Medical College, and followed it up with a Diploma in Ophthalmology. He shifted to Tiruchi after marriage in the 1970s. “From 1975-80, I was strictly an ophthalmologist. I had no knowledge of history but for what I had learned in my school days,” he recalls.

In 1980, the priest of Woraiyur’s Panchavarna Swamy temple invited Dr. Kalaikovan for a prayer of thanksgiving after the successful cataract operation that he had done on him.

“After the prayer, while taking a look around, I came across the carving of a bicycle on a pillar behind the Amman temple,” says Dr. Kalaikovan. “It was so funny and intriguing to see the picture of a cycle in an ancient temple. But neither the officials nor the scholar who wrote its history, were able to explain how it came there. I started researching this fact.”

Through multiple forays into the history of the bicycle (which was invented in Germany in 1800s), and the Chola-era Woraiyur temple, he theorised that the vehicle was possibly a novelty in Tiruchi of the 1920s, when the temple had been renovated. “Perhaps the sculptor had seen someone on a cycle, was impressed by it and had recorded it forever on stone,” says Dr. Kalaikovan. “After this I got so interested in temple history, that I could no longer leave it.

“The builder of the temple, Kochengannan Chozhan, was the first to develop the typical temple complex in the 5th century. He premiered the concept of building temples on a maada (raised platform), followed by the Vimana (tower above the sanctum-sanctorum), to protect the structure from the flooding of the Cauvery.”

The centre has since found 34 such temples in the State.

Detailed projects

Among the many achievements of this trio of scholars is a district-wise directory of all the 105 cave temples of the State, a seven-volume magnum opus that took ten years to complete. “There is a line of thought among English-language historians that cave temple architecture doesn’t belong to Tamil Nadu, and was an idea copied from Maharashtra or the Kalinga empire. We have only 20 large cave temples, but the sculptures are excellent. And there is a difference in style and presentation, which we want to prove conclusively in our next publication,” says Dr. Kalaikovan.

The other major work of archival value that the team has undertaken is a detailed exploration of the nine monoliths of Mamallapuram.

With a sense of a teacher’s pride in his brilliant students, Dr. Kalaikovan credits Nalini and Akila for their dedication in highlighting temples as centres of history. “Around 1000 inscriptions have been found by these two scholars,” he says. “There are a lot of people, but few with dedication in historical research. Of the 60 students I have coached, 50 are women, but they have disappeared after graduation, due to domestic constraints. I request more women to come forward to work in archaeology, history and temple study, because they have a sense of devotion and attention to detail that is missing in men.”

Epigraphic snapshots

Dr. Nalini, associate professor of history at the Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, describes the cave temple directory as her best work to date. She was drawn towards epigraphy as a specialisation in her Ph.D, when she compared temple inscriptions between a fertile and barren area of Perambalur. “We were able to discover many details about the life and agricultural output of the villages through these inscriptions,” she says.

“When we discover an inscription, we inform the print media first and then the government authorities, so that they can copy it when they are on a tour here. Even though the Tamil alphabet has evolved, most of the meanings are to be interpreted through palaeographic study and through the historical references of the period,” she adds.

“Inscription study gives real history,” says Dr. Kalaikovan. “An inscription is like a register of events, showing the connections of the temple to society and political authorities. For example in Thirumayam, there is a Perumal temple and Sivan temple in the same campus. At the end of the 13th century, it was separated for worship. The details of this partition were decided by a committee of villagers, scholars and outside observers. The treaty discusses how the two temples would be separated, and also how the common areas would be used. It really surprised us to see the amount of balance and objectivity despite the quarrel behind the issue,” says Dr. Kalaikovan.

Guiding youngsters

Dr. Akila, who is an assistant professor of history at Arignar Anna Government Arts and Science College, Musiri, joined the centre as a student in 1989. Unable to secure a place in M.Phil after her Masters degree, she was advised by Dr. Kalaikovan to apply directly for her Ph.D at Bharathidasan University instead. Her highly-commended thesis on the Pazhuvur temple was the first to be written in Tamil.

Her work on the Mamallapuram monoliths, which included identifying the builder and recording the epigraphy, is perhaps the most detailed project of its kind on the historical relic.

“Since I’m now in the field, and want to improve, I try to guide the students in temple study, in its architecture and inscriptions,” says Dr. Akila. “Recently, a third-year student told us about a slab with an inscription at the Thirukameswar Temple, Vellore, which Nalini was able to identify and decipher. We usually give the credit to the students who spot the inscriptions, to help them with their projects.”

Save the legacy

Some facts may never emerge from the veil of times past, concedes Dr. Kalaikovan. “There is no doubt at all that our temple builders had real scientific knowledge. But unfortunately they have not recorded it in either literary or epigraphic form,” he says. “The temple builders never cared for their names, they only wanted to leave the structures behind as their legacy.”

Which makes it all the more important for the succeeding generations to take care of them, says Dr. Kalaikovan. “Temples should be treated as sacred history spaces, and maintained by the community. We must teach the people how to enjoy the temple and keep it clean for worship.”

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Fact file

Dr. M. Rajamanikkanar Centre for Historical Research was established in 1982 by his son Dr. R. Kalaikovan, an ophthalmologist. Dr. M. Nalini and Dr. R. Akila are its honorary assistant-directors.

The centre publishes an annual magazine called Varalaaru. Its monthly web-zine titled varalaaru.com is run by five software professionals with an interest in history, and has 109 issues online so far.

Besides a vast database of research material generated by its own scholars, the centre also periodically guides students and holds awareness programmes on temple preservation.

Dr. Kalaikovan may be emailed at kalaikkovanr@yahoo.com

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Nahla Nainar / June 12th, 2015

There is a theory that Cooum, a polluted river in Chennai is a corruption of Komaleeswaram.

In South India, any spot where a river suddenly turns north is considered particularly holy. A temple usually comes up at this bend. Our polluted Cooum River is no different. After flowing placidly west to east, it takes a turn northwards at Egmore, forms an oxbow around Chintadripet and then flows east to the sea. The little hamlet that nestles in this bend is Komaleeswaranpet.

The village takes its name from its Shiva temple where the Lord is Komaleeswarar and his consort, Komalambika. There is also a theory that Cooum is a corruption of Komaleeswaram. This must have been a sylvan locality around 400 years ago, the river sending wafts of cool breeze. It became an urban settlement in the 1730s when Chintadripet on the opposite bank developed. The main thoroughfare of the village led from the temple and came to be known as Pagoda Street, after the British term for any Hindu place of worship.

This street, backing as it did on to the river, became the place of residence of the well-to-do. Chief among these was Dubash Pachayappa Mudaliar, who in a short lifespan of 40 years (1754 to 1794), earned an enormous fortune, most of which is today used for running educational institutions. Srinivasa Pillai, who wrote Mudaliar’s biography in the 1840s, has it that Pachayappa built his house “at the hermitage like Komaleeswaranpet which takes its name from Lord Shiva.”

Pachayappa’s neighbours on Pagoda Street were Muniappa Pillai, a wealthy businessman and Swami Naick, a Native Dresser in the Army. All three have streets commemorating them in Komaleeswaranpet. Swami Naick is also remembered in a small monument set within a triangular park. Pagoda Street is now Harris (Adithanar) Road, a broad thoroughfare.

Local tradition has it that all the aristocrats of the village worshipped Komaleeswarar. Pachayappa’s will, however, does not mention any donation to it. The temple had a unique festival when flowers would be brought in coracles along the river. Today, this can only be imagined. The flourishing grey market for automobile parts that constitutes Pudupet has cut off the Cooum from Komaleeswarar. Sailing in the Cooum would be impossible anyway.

When you enter Temple Street, you are transported back to the 1800s. Old houses line the sides. The temple has acquired a tower in recent years. A broad courtyard leads to the small sanctum, which has sadly been modernised with polished granite and vitrified tiles. But the pillars and ceiling of the pavilion fronting it retain their antiquity with carved figures on them. A stone slab in the kitchen records a renovation done in 1818 by one Kuppammal, wife of Triplicane-based Baba Sah, a cloth merchant of the Saurashtra community. Donors of this century have not been as aesthetic as her in recording their munificence. Huge black granite slabs set out their deeds in gaudy gold lettering.

Komaleeswaranpet brings a whiff of old Madras, and sadly, a lot of the Cooum.

(Sriram is passionate about Chennai history and Carnatic music, and has several books to his credit)

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Sriram V / June 12th, 2015

A silver ring with an inscription in the ancient Tamil Brahmi script has been found reportedly from the Amaravathi riverbed at Karur in Tamil Nadu. The highly stylised script depicts the punctuated Pandya fish emblem.

Ms Beena Sarasan, an expert in numismatics, who purchased the ring from an antique dealer, suggested that the script reads “peruvazhuthi.”

Peruvazhuti is the name of a Pandya king who, according to the Tamil sangam tradition, has performed several vedic yagas and rituals . The letters are engraved in bold and legible characters.

The full name of this Pandya king was Palyagasalai Mutukutumi Peruvazhuthi who finds mention in several early Tamil sangam songs.

Dr. M.R. Raghava Varier, former Professor of Epigraphy, Calicut University said the letters on the ring can be attributed to an early stage of evolution of the Tamil Brahmi characters on the basis of the palaeographical features of the script.

Dr. Varier observed that the characters representing the peculiar Dravidian sound “Zha” show the earliest form of the letter found in the cave labels of Arittappatti- Mangulam group of inscriptions of the 3rd or 2nd century BCE.

The characteristic rightward stroke of the Tamil Brahmi letters as suggested by earlier scholars are also present in the third letter “Va”. The artefact is a valuable find in the historical and epigraphical studies of ancient Tamilakam, Dr. Raghava Varier added.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Kerala / by E. M. Manoj / Kalpetta (Kerala) – June 01st, 2015