The Capital of the Pallavas
It was originally the capital of the pallavas who ruled over South India between 4th and 8th centuries A.D. Even earlier it had come to be a fertile cultivated district, situated at the northern fringe of the Chola kingdom, known as Tondaimandalam. The Pallavas were great patrons of learning and art, and upholders of Hindu religion. Under their rule, the city became a literary and religious centre. Sanskrit scholars like Dignaga the Buddhist logician and other lived in eh city. It is to this period that those glowing descriptions of the city in the ancient classical works like Tamil ‘Manimekalai’ refer. We read that the city was strongly fortified, was resplendent with towering palaces, was surrounded by a moat and had big streets fit for cars to run in. Another poet (Appar) sings of it as a city "of boundless learning". Hiuen Tsiang, who visited it in the 7th century, says that the city was 6 miles in circumference and that its people were superior in bravery and piety as well in their love of justice and veneration for learning to many others whom he met with in his travels. The Kailasanathar temple and Vaikuntaperumal temple date back to the age of the Pallavas and are full of interest to the student of South Indian antiquities and architecture. The town passed into the hands of the Cholas in the 11th century A.D., and Conjeevaram became the capital of the province of Tondaimandalam and continued in their hands till their power decayed in the 13th century. When the vijayanagar kings spread their dominion into the Tamil country they conquered the town. After their decline, it passed into Mussulman and Maratha hands, remaining with the former till 1752, when Clive took it from them in the wars with the French.
Beginnig with Saiva temples, the most important one is the Kamakshi Amman temple. Here the goddess is worshipped in the form of an Yantra. Unlike in other temples, the Chakra (the sacred mantra- bearing disc) here is placed not below, but in front of, the idol. An image of Sankaracharya is worshipped in the temple. The legend associated with it is as follows- Kamakshi Amman, in the form of Kali, was said to be doing havoc in the city at nights. Sankara came and appeased her and extracted a promise from her that she would not stir out of the temple without his permission. Hence came the image of the great vedantist in the temple, before which they halt the deity- whenever it is taken out in procession to the city- as a token of applaying for permission in pursuance of the promise.
Sri Ekambaranatha temple is another important shrine of Siva. The shrine has a mango tree, to which great sanctity is attached, under which Siva is said to have appeared to Goddess Parvati when she prayed to him on the Vegavati... (Kambai which flows west of Conjeevaram. It served as a fortress in the... century wars.
An ancient and equally important... shrine is the Sri Kailasanthar temple. It was built by the Pallava king Rajasimbha, about A.D. 667 and was called originally after his own name as Rajasimha- Pallavesvara. The temple is famous for the beauty of its sculptures. It is in characteristic Pallava style with the vimana over the garbagriha rising high and dominating the entire temple as in the Tanjore Brihadisvara shrine. An equally important Vaishnava temple is the Vaikuntaperula temple, built by the great Pallava king, Paramesvara varman II. And originally named after him as Paramesvara vinnagaram. It contains various fine sculptures of Vishnu and is also famous for a series of sculptures dealing with a famous episode of Pallava history.
The other important Vishnu shrines are those of Pandavadudar, Vilakkoliperumal, Ashtabhuja and Ulagalanda perumal. These are on the western part of the town. Some of these were built by the great Vijayanagar Emperor, Krishna Deva Raya, and many of the smaller shrines and rest- houses owe their origin to the piety of the members of the same dynasty.
Where there is only a single cell behind the mandapa, there are four pillars and pilasters on the façade of the rectangular mandapa, two pilasters in antis at the two extreme ends against the side walls, and two pillars in the middle-all equally space. The façade is longer with four, six or eight equally-spaced pillars between the extreme pilasters and with three, five, or seven shrine- cells. The pillars are all massive, short, square in section at the base and top, with the middle third of the height octagonal in section. They carry massive corbels with bevelled or curved ends, sometimes with the faces carved as a series of rolls, the taranga, with a median flat band, the patta. A massive beam is cut above the corbels, but there is no wll-formed cornice projection, or kapota, the rought rock brow itself acting as one. The faces of the square sections of the pillars are adorned with large, circular lotus medallions often inscribed inside a square. The mandapa may be divided by inner longitudinal row of pillars and pilasters into two sections, front and rear, indicating the mukha-mandapa and ardha-mandapa portions, though both may be of the same width and of the same type, corresponding to the façade row. Where there are no inner pillars, the differentiation is indicated by the varying floor-levels or ceiling heights.
A flight of about three rock-cut steps from the floor of the mandapa leads to the simple shrine entrance which is cut projecting a little into the mandapa. The shrine often shows a moulded pedestal, or adhishthana, and the wall is cantoned at its two front corners by four-sided flat pilasters with two more in between, each of the inner pairs flanking the shrine entrance. Often these two inner pilasters form also the two jambs of the simple doorway with a low lintel across and a sill cut at the top of the flight of steps below. The door-frame, if distinct, is again simple and unadorned. The pilasters carry in some cases distinct capital mouldings and corbles, or potika, on top. A beam and flexed overhanging cornice or kapota is cut on top. The kapota is adorned by semi-circular kudu ornaments, with a flat shovel-shaped finial above.
The shrine doors are generally guarded by relief sculptures of two armed dvarapalas, or gatekeepers, one on each side. In the earliest cave-temple where the shrines for the trinity-Brahma, Siva and Vishnu-are but deep plain niches cut into the rear wall, the two dvarapalas are found one on either side of the façade of the mandapa. The Vasantesvaram at Vallam, the Vishnu cave-temple of Mahendravadi and Mamandur and the Avanibhajanas cave-temples at Siyamangalam are examples of cave -temples with a single shrine-cell cut into the hind wall of the mandapa. The Rudravalisvaram of Mamandur and the Kalmandakam cave-temple at Kuranganilmuttam are examples with three shrine cells, as at Mandagappattu. The four additional cells, two on each laterl wall of the ardha-and mukha-mandapas of the Kalmandakam temple, are later additions to the original scheme of three cells on the rear wall. The Pallavaram cave-temple has five shrine-cells, while the unfinished Vilappakkam cave-temple has seven shrine-cells. The similar unfinished Aragandanallur cave-temple, with four pillars and two pilasters on the façade and in the hind row, would indicate five shrine-cells on the rear wall still uncut. Thus the number and disposition of shrines on the rear wall would correspond to the pillars of the mandapa in front, each shrine -opening coming in between two equally-spaced pillars, or a pillar and a pilaster. This along with the equal inter-columniation would contrast with the arrangement of the wider central nave and the narrow lateral aisles of the earlier Buddhist example follwed by the contemporary and later examples of the Chalukya-Rashtrakuta series.
The facades as well as the shrines of the Kalmandakam, Rudravalisvaram, Vasantesvaram and the Vishnu cave-temples of Mahendravadi and mamandur and Siyamangalam face almost west. Pallavaram is the only example in the series where the mandapa façade and shrine-cells face south. The Lalitankura and Satrumalla cave-temples at Tirchirapalli and Dalavanur areexamples with the mandapa facing south and the shrine cut into the lateral wall-the eastern one at Tirchirapalli and the western one at Dalavanur-so that the shrines face west and east respectively. In the Dalavanur cave-temple the larger mandapa, with a single row of pillars and pilaster on the façade, indicates an inner division of the front and rear portions of the mandapa by a difference in the floor levels. The shrine on the western wall of the ardha-mandapa part is cut with a small porch-like pillared mandapa in front of it. This too is rock-cut and stands on the floor of the ardha-mandapa on distinct plinth at a still higher level. In the case of the Tiruchirapalli cave-temple, an inner row of pillars and pilasters is cut very close to the hind wall with a narrow passage in between it and the wall. The cell on the east faces west into the front part of the mandapa between the inner and outer rows of columns. This is a feature not quite Pallva, but rather reminiscent of the cave-temples in the Pandyan country, for example, the one at Tirup-parankunram. Incidentally, the Lalitankura Pallavesvaram cave-temple of Tiruchirapalli is the southernmost Pallava cave-temple nearer to the borders of the Pandya territory. The lotus medallions on the top and bottom cubical parts (sadurams) of the pillars, which are absent in the earlier cave-temples of this series like those at Mandagapattu, Pallavaram and Kuranganilmuttam, and the Siva caves at Mamandur and Vallam are to be found in the later ones of the series as in the Vishnu cave-temples at Mahendravadi and Mamandur. The Siva cave-temples at Tirucuirapalli and Siyamangalam have, in addition, other motifs incised in side ciruclar medallions, such as makaras, kinnaris, matanganakras (combination of an elephant and a makara) and pushpa-lata and patra-lata (scrolls of leaves and flowers). The Siyamangalam cave-temple has small relief panels of sculpture on top of the pilasters.
The shrine-cells, or garbha-grihas, in all these cases are empty and do not contain either a rock-cut linga or linga-pitha, as is common in the Pandya, Muttaraiyar and Chalukyan cave-temples. They do not have in fact any appropriate sculpture of the deity in worship-Siva, Vishnu or other gods-to whom the temple according to the inscription is known to be dedicated. Often there are traces of lime plaster with a painting over it on the hind wall indicating that the object of worship was a mural painting of the god. Sometimes one finds a slight relief of a pedestal cut at the base of the hind wall indicating that the deity was done in stucco, or lime mortar and painted, or was a wooden panel with a carving set into a sunk chase on the wall.
These Mahendra temples are noted also for the absence of other kinds of sculpture even in the mandapa part, except those of the dvarapalas. These dvarapalas are found at either end of the façade of the mandapa in the Mandagappattu cave-temple. In the Dalavanur and Siyamangalam cave-temples, the dvarapalas are found not only on either side of the mandapa façade but also on either side of the shrine entrance. In the case of the Vishnu cave at Mamandur and the cave-templeat Pallavaram, there are dvarapalas neither on the flanks of mandapa façade nor on the flanks of the shrine-cells. The dvarapalas either face full-front or are in semi-profile or half-turned towards the shrine door and stand resting on a massive club entwined by a serpent. In Siyamangalam the two outer dvarapalas are, however, depicted as warriors inside separate niches at either end of the mandapa façade, while the two flanking the shrine entrance are of the usual form. The Tirucuirapalli upper rock-cut cave-temple of Lalitankura is unique in that it has a large group sculpture forming a panel on the western wall of the mandapa directly opposite the shrine and depicting Siva as Gangadhara. The Siyamangalam cave-temple is unique even otherwise, in having small sculpture panels on top of the façade pillars and pilasters in place of the lotus medallion. The two panels on top of the two pilasters depict, respectively, a dancing form of Siva, or tandava murti-perhaps the earliest such representation in Pallva sculptures, and Siva and Uma standing with the bull behind them depicting the form called Vrishabhantikamurti.
Mahendra’s son, Narasimbhavarman Mamalla (630-68) and his lineal successors, Mahendravarman II (668-72), Paramesvara I (672-700), and Rajasimha (700-728) continued the tradition started by Mahendera I and excavated a number of cave-temples in the Mahendra style in the course of the century. They are the Orukal mandapam at Tirukkalukkunram, the Kotikal mandapam at Mahabalipuram, the Narasimha cave-temple at Singavaram, the kovil, the Ranganathan cave-temple at Singavaram, the Dharmaraja mandapam or Atyantakama Pallava’s cave-temple at Mahabalipuram, and the Atiranachanda mandapam cave at Saluvankuppam, near Mahabalipuram-all in the Chingleput district of Tamil Nadu, except Singavaram which is in South Arcot.
The Singavaram and Singaperumalkovil cave-temples are dedicated to Vishnu, the Kotikal mandapam to Durga and the rest to Siva. While none of the Siva cave-temples contain a rock-cut linga in the sanctum, the two Vishnu cave-temples have in the sanctum stucco figures of the deities now modernized. The Kotikal mandapam of Durga has no sculpture of Durga inside the sanctum, though the dedication is indicated by the female dvarapalikas on either side of the shrine entrance as also by the name of the temple. The Atiranachanda mandapam of Rajasimha, the last of the series, alone contins a bas-relief panel of Siva as Somaskanda, with Uma and Skanda sitting beside him and Brahma and Vishnu standing on either side of the groupbehind. The carving of such a bas-relief in place of the earlier traditional painting, or stucco-rlief, or woodcarving of the principal god of the sanctum appears to have been started in the time of Paramesvaraman I (672-700). Two more such Somaskanda reliefs aree found carved on the hind wall of the mandapa on either side of the shrine entrance. It would appear that while Mahendravarman I broke the tradition of the wooden and brick-and-mortar temples and excavated temples in stone, he could not go far enough to change the traditional material of which the principal deity in the sanctum was made. This had to wait for a few decades till Paramesvaravarman I, in the last quarter of the seventh century, introduced for the first time almong other innovations the carving of the principal deity as a relief on the back wall of the shrine. In Rajasimha’s cave temple, the Atiranachanda mandapam, a black polished, fluted or sixteen-sided stone linga (dhara-linga) also came to be planted on the floor of the sanctum in front of the Somaskanda relief on the hind wall. This indicated the commencement in the Pallva territory with the installation of the formless lings to represent Siva.
In most respects this series of post-Mahendra cave-temples resembles those of Mahendra in plan and design and other general features. But one observes a tendency for the pillars and pilasters to become thinner and taller, sometimes flatter, with an oblong section. The space between them is equal but wider. The kapota over the façade is still an undifferentiated, projecting rock-ledge over the beam. All the cave-templess of the series have single shrine-cells cut into the rear walls, with the frontage projecting more into the mandapa. The only example with triple shrine-cells is the Dharmaraja mandapam or Atyantakama Pallva’s cave-temple where the two lateral shrine-cells are simple excavations, which are perhaps later additions, without definite shrine front, as is found in the case of the main central one. All these cave-temples have only two pillars and two pilasters on the mandapa façade, and a similar set behind, inside the mandapa wherever there is such a demarcation of ardha-and, uka-mandapas, as in the Ranganathan cave-temple, the Orukkal mandapam, and Dharmaraja mandapam. The pillars have the top and bottom sadurams and intervening kattu, while the pilasters are uniformly four-sided as in Mahendravarman’s cave-temples expect that in the Singavaram Ranganathan cave-temple the pilasters like the pillars are demarated and have lotus medallions on the saduram faces. This cave-temple is the only example in the series, which has an outer pair of dvarapalas at either end of the mandapa façade. The inner pair flanking the shrine entrance is in common with the rest. There are generally no other sculptures in the mandapa beside the dvarapalas. In the Orukkal mandapam, however, there are relief sculptures of standing Brahma and Vishnu on the rear wall, one on either side of the shrine entrance and beyond the dvarapalas. In addition there are two fine, bold, life-size reliefs of dvarapala like sculptures, one on either end wall of the mukha-mandapa. In the Singavaram cave-temple, as at Siyamangalam, there are small panel reliefs of two female devotes on top of the pilasters of the inner row.
The last series of Pallava temples dated after AD 730 are small and less interesting. They mark the decadent phase of this type of rock architecture in Tondaimandalam. The Kilmavilangai cave-temple is the only example in the Pallava kingdom of Tondaimandalam of rock-cut cell without a rock-cut front mandapa, but such cell-shrines are more common in the Pandya and Muttaraiyar and Kerala areas, most of them contemporary with the late, post-700 AD Pallava period. The cell contains of its hind wall a flat bas-relief of standing Vishnu. The two smaller cave-temples at Vallam on the rock below Mahendra’s Vasantesvaram cave-temple, one dedicated to Vishnu and the other to Siva, have very thin pillars carrying bevelled corbels on the mandapa façade, the mandapa itself being narrow and the shrine-cell behind very small. An inscription in script of the seventh century reading pa(l)lava-peraraisaru meaning ‘Pallava emperoe’ has since been found in the Vasantesvaram cave-temple in Vallam. This and the other almost similar excavation, both below the larger Mahendra cave-temple, are rather feeble attempts, considering the fact that they are rather crude, small in proportion and shallow in depth.
The adhishthana, or plinth, shows all the usual mouldings as could be seen in the finished examples. The mandapa façade has a fully represented entablature, or prastara, which constitutes all the architectural parts coming over the beam and including it, as against what is seen in the Mahendra-style cave-temples. The prastara is fully finished with a flexed kapota, or an eaves-like cornice projection, decorated by horseshoe-shaped kudu arches. The prastara has also a string of miniature shrines above it, all of oblong plan, often with a barrel-vaulted roof, the sala, while in the later examples, the sala sting ends at either extremity in similar miniature shrine models of square plan with a four -sided domical roof, the kuta. The entire string constitutes what is called the hara with interconnecting lengths of cloister. The pillars generally conform to the wooden prototypes, but are taller and slenderer and have their bases often shaped into squatting lions. The tope of the shaft has the variously moulded capital members such as the malasthana, the padma bandha, the kalasa, the tadi, the kumbha, the Pali and the phalaka or abacus, the last-mentioned one omitted in some cases, and the topmost member carrying the corbel or potika, with curved profile and roll ornamentation, or taranga, with a median plain patta.
Their mandapas are often demarcated into front and rear sections by an inner row of pillars. The shrine fronts, one, three or five, are at the rear of the inner mandapa, project more into the mandapa, and have all the angas of a uimana front, namely, moulded adhishthana, pilasters, or kudya-stambhas, with capital components as detailed above and prastara with well-formed kapota and kudu decorations. The further superstructure of the uimana is not shown, as in a depiction of the interior aspect of a mandapa with the shrine behind, the upper parts of the uimana would not be visible. The prastara of the shrine front abuts on the mandapa ceiling.
There are eight such cave-temples in various stages of completion: the Koneri mandapam, the Varaha mandapam, the Mahishamardini mandapam (locally called Yamapuri mandapam), an unfinished cave-temple next to the Koneri mandapam, the Pancha-Pandava mandapam, the Adivaraha cave-temple called Paramesara Mahavaraha Vishnu-griha in its inscriptions and the Ramanuja mandapam. Of these the Varaha and Ramanuja mandapams have undivided mandapas by an inner line of pillars. The Mahishamardini mandapam is peculiar in that its principal central shrine is preceded by a square and a pillared portico projected into the larger mandapa, as in the case of the Dalavanur cave-temple. The Pancha Pandava mandapam records an attempt to cut a square central shrine with a surrounding cloister in the form of a mandapam having two rows of pillars running all round. The Varaha mandapam and the Adivaraha cave-temples have each a single shrine-cell while the Mahishamardini and the Ramanuja mandapams have three shrine-cells in them; the Koneri mandapam has five in a row behind the mandapam.
The Mamalla-style cave-temples show a marked advance over the Mahendra type in Plastic decoration also, in having a wealth of large and fine sculptures in addition to the usual dvarapala sculptures. These are often synoptic, narrating important Puranic legends. The Varaha mandapam, which is the most complete cave-temple and has been preserved in all its parts, contains bas-relief compositions of Bhu-varaha and Trivikrama inside large panels on the side walls of its mandapam. Its back wall has towed more-one on either side of the projected shrine entrance, carrying panels of Gajalakshmi and Durgaa. The front and side walls of the projected shrine front have niches with dvarpala sculptures. The manner in which the boar-head of Bhu-Varaha merges at thee neck imperceptibly with the human body is a mastepiece of art not equalled by similar representation in the Gupta and other sculptures. The central shrine is now empty, but perhaps once contained painted or stucco representation of Narasimha. Almost identical, but more artistic and graceful delineations of Gajalakshmi and Durga are reproduced in almost the same positions on the rear wall panels on either side of the projected shrine entrance in the Adivaraha cave-temples. In addition, the front wall of the projected central shrine of the Adivaraha cave-temple has three niches, each on either side of the entrance containing other sculptures. The niches flanking the entrance contain dvarapalas. The two central wider niches, one on each side have sculptures of standing Vishnu and Harihara, respectively. The extreme ones on the north and south show a Nagaraja or Adisesha in human form with the five-headed serpent-hood and a portrait sculpture in graceful tribhanga posture. The south and north walls of the mukha-mandapa contain large relief’s of stnading Brahma, and Siva as Gangadhara. Similar panels on the south and north walls of the ardha-mandapa have almost life-size royal portrait groups of the Pallva kings, Simhavishnu and Mahendra with their queems amd consorts and with label inscriptions over them indicating their identity. The main sanctum contains a modern stucco form of Varaha murti. This temple is in use for worship while others are not. The bas-relief sculptures of Durga on the south and Gajalakshme on the north side walls of the Ramanja mandapam have been totally chiselled off in later times by the Vaishnava occupants as also the three shrine fronts and their dvarapalas of this original triple-celled Siva cave-temple. The back wall of the central shrine retains traces of a Somaskanda group. The Mahishamardini cave-temple contains on the two side walls of its mandapa two of the most celebrated and famous Pallva sculptures, namely, Durga as Mahishasurmardini, mounted on a leaping lion and battling with Mahishasura and his hordes on the north, and Vishnu as Anantasay in Yoga-nidra, or contemplative sleep, on a serpent-couch on the south. Besides the beauty, grace, vigour and agility depicted in Durga, the clever synthesis of the buffalo-head and human body of the demon Mahishasura would equal only that of the Varaha form mentioned above, not to speak of the defiance and haughtiness depicted by his stance and demeanour even in the animal face. All these sculptures would thus constitute some of the earliest extant representations of the respective forms and as such valuable material for a study of the development of early iconofrapy in the south.
Recent research (by) Lockwood, Siromoney and Dayanandan-Mahabalipuram studies) has established that the dvarapalas of the Pallava cave-temples, Saivite and Vaishnavite, are really ayudapurushas, or delified personifications of the appropriate weapons of Siva (sula and parasu, i.e. trident and axe) of Vishnu (Sanka and chakra, i.e.conch and discus), which are shown on the headgear of the concerned dvarapala. Also it has been demonstrated that the original dedication of the Mahisamardini cave-temple was to Vishnu, subsequently made Saivite in the same century by the introduction of the large Somaskanda panel, on the lined wall of the shrine, in place of the original Vishnu that was perhaps a painted stucco. Appropriately enough the two dvarapalas wedged in a curious manner into the narrow spaces on either side of the shrine’s door-jamb, were afterthoughts likewise, modified for the Savite re-dedication as also the two flanking shrine-cells on either side in the trimurti pattern, Vishnu occupying the place of precedence in the central cella in the original scheme.
Though not strictly cave-temples like his Atiranachanda mandapam, other creations Rajasimha Pallva (700-728) in the series of rock-carvings found in Mahabalipuram and neighbourhood are the Yali mandapam at Saluvankuppam, a hamlet to the north of Mahabalipuram, familiarly called ‘tigercave’, and similar ornamental pavilions. These would stand apart from either group of cave-temples described above. The Yali mandapam is a small, oblong, shallow pavilion, or mandapa, excavated on the eastern face of a boulder facing the sea with its moulded adhishthana and a façade of flanking pillars, which are adorned at their bases by rearing lions or uyalas, cut over a lower platform reached by a flight of steps. The whole structure is surrounded by an arched frieze of eleven large uyala heads mistakenly called ‘tiger heads’. To the south of the pavilion, and carved on the rock face, are relief’s of two elephant fronts with howdahs over their necks, a dvajastambha in between, and horse at the south extreme. The northern face of the rock is roughly carved out into a large squatting lion-front with a small square niche cut into in its bosom, enshrining a relief panel of Mahishamardini. The Yali mandapam obviously served as resting place of the processional idols or the royalty during festivals. This, even the name of the place-Tiruveluchchiyur-found in the inscriptions, would suggest. A smaller replica of the Yali mandapam is found on the surf-beaten boulder to the south of the shore temple in Mahabalipuram. To the north of the temple is another larger rock called the Mahishamardini rock with a large lion face and Durga niche in its bosom.
In passing, mention may be made of the two celebrated open- air bas-relief compositions of large group sculptures on the face of the massive rocks in Mahabalipuram. They are Arjuna’s penance and the Govardhana-Krishna scenes. The compositions are both synoptic and narrative of the respective themes. Arjuna’s penance depicts the scene of Siva granting to Arjuna as a boon the desired weapon-pasupata-sought by the latter through the performance of a severe penance. The depiction is after the description of the scene in Bharavi’s Kiratarjuniya. The Govardhana-Krishna scene depicts Krishna as holding up the hill to afford shelter to the displaced gopas and gopis with their children, cattle and other belongings, when they had to flee their homes as result of a great deluge of rain and stone brought down by the irate Indra. The depiction is quite powerful and realistic. A unique south Indian note is struck by the introduction of Krishna’s facourite gopi, Nappinnai, huddling near him in the group and distinguished from the rest of the women in the scene by her dress, stance and attendant lady. The Krishna-Nappinnai theme is speical to the earlier contemporary Tamil literature and tradition.
The Muttaraiyar chieftains, who had their kingdom astride the Kaveri in the traditional Cholamandalam, viz.Tiruchirapalli, Thanjavur and the southern half of the South Arcot districts, and who owed allegiance alternately to the Pallavas and Pandyas, left in the latter part of the period, quite a few cave-temples in their area. These are found at Tiruvellarai, Narttamalai, Kunnandarkovil, Puvalaikkudi and other places, all in the Pudukkottai and Tiruchirapalli districts. Their cave-temples too are a type of mandapas with simples shrine-cells and are much akin to the Pandya cave-temple in the same area. The Atiyaman, or Adigaiman cheifs, ruling in the Kongu area of Salem and Coimbatore districts, bordering on the Tiruchirapalli district, have excavated two fine cave-temples in Namakkal. They are dedicated to Vishnu and are noted for their fine sculptured panels.
hese cave-temples , numbering about sixty in all, are like the Pallava examples, excavated into the hard, local rocks and are essentially similar to the Mahendera-style excavations in plan and design. But they also show certain characteristic features of their own, incorporating in the process a few features peculiar to the Chalukyan examples, particularly in respect of their sculptural make-up and iconography.
They, like the Mahendra-style cave-temples, consist of a mandapa with one or more shrine-cells cut often at the rear, but in some case excavated into the side walls of the mandapa, as in the lower rock-cut Pandya cave at Tiruchirapalli and the cave-temple at Tirup-parankunram, near Madurai, among others. They have massive pillars on the facades, essentially square in section at the base and top, with an octagonal middle section, carrying heavy potikas or corbels, usually with a straight bevel, resulting in an angular profile. There are, however, some examples with pillars of other types and corbels with a curved profile and taranga moulding. The cave-temples, all, lack a well-defined kapota in the architrave over their mandapa facades, as is also the case in the Mahendra-style cave-temples. Some of the excavations are merely shrine-cells scooped directly into rock face, without a rock-cut mandapa in front. Such cave-temples are numerous in this region and very rare in Tondaimandalam.
The cave-temples at Malai-yadi-k-kurichi(Tirunelveli district) would appear to be earliest known Pandya cave-temple of the mandapa type, with a single shrine-cell on the rear and containing a foundation inscription of the seventeenth year of Pandya Maran Sadaiyan in the second half of the seventh century. The inscription mentions the cave-temple significantly as kal-tiru-k-koyil or ‘the sacred stone temple’, enhoing the pioneering, ideal for this region as found in Pallava Mahendravarman’s inscription at Mandagappattu in Tondaimandalam. The rock-cut cave-temple at Pillaiyarpaati (Ramanathapuram district) with an inscription in an archaic script would also be one of the early Pandya cave-temples, as also Siva cave-temple III at Kunnakkudi in the same district, which has another short inscription in the same scrip calling it Masilisvaram. The Vishnu (Narasimha) cave-temple at Anaimalai (Madurai district) has a foundation inscription giving the Kali year 3871 (AD 770) and referring to its excavation by a minister of Pandya Maran Sadaiyan, alias Parantaka. The large cave-temple at present famous as the Subrahmanya temple at Tirup-parankunram near Madurai was excavated earlier and later re-modelled by another Pandya minnister and his wife in the kali year 3874 (AD 773), according to their foundation inscriptions there. There is a complex of four cave-temples on this northern face of the Tirup-parankunram rock and one of the above inscriptions mentions the excavation of a separated Jyeshta cave-temple also, which is of the cave-cell type, without mandapa in front. The other two excavations on either side of the larger mandapa-type cave-temple and above the level of the Jyeshtha cave shrine should be of a somewhat later date. One of these contains a bas-relief of Gajalakshmi, and the other a group comprising devi as Bhuvanesvari and her attendants.
The well-known rock-cut cave-temple at Sittannavasal in the Pudukkottai area (Tiruchirapalli district), containing the celebrated early mural paintings in fresco, is an example of a Jain cave-temple of the eigth-ninth centuries. This, according to a long verse inscription associated with it, was re-embellished by a certain Iilan Gauttaman alias Madurai Asiriyan and a structural mukha-mandapa added in front, all in the reign of Advanipa-sekhara Sri Vallabha Pandya (c.815-862). This contains bas-relief Jain tirthankara sculptures on the hind wall of the shrine and in the niches on the lateral walls of the mandapa in front. This cave-temple is a typical Pandya version of a Mahendra-style cave-temple, with the façade pillars carrrying taranga corbels.
The eastern cave-temple at Malai-yakkovil, the upper Siva cave-temple at Tirumayam, the cave-temple at Mangadu, the Malai-k-kolundisvaram near Rayavaram, the Jyeshtha, the Gajalakshmi and the Bhuvanesvari cave-temples in Tirup-parankunram, and the cave-temple at Vilinam (Vizhinam), among other, are examples of simple cave-shrines of the Pandya-Muttaraiyar-Ayvel vintage of the non-Pallava series.
Among the cave-temples that have the shrine-cell on one of the lateral walls of the mandapa may be mentioned the Satyagirisvara or Siva cave-temple at Tirumayam, the southern cave-temple at Malai-yakkovil, the Siva cave-temple at Tirumalapuram (Tirunelveli distict), and the Umaiyandar cave-temple on the southern face of the rock at Tirup-parankunram. In the case of some cave-temple at Pillaiyarpatti, and the cave-temple in Muvaraivenran (Ramanathapuram distict) the shrine part occupies, as it were, a corner of the oblong mandapa, which thus encloses it on two sides-in front and on one of the flanks, suggesting a partial copy of a model with a central shrine and a surrounding mandapam with a greater part of it in front. Such a plan is not to be found commonly in the Pallava examples except in the case of the Pancha Pandava mandapam of Mahabalipuram and the unfinished Cave-temple IV at Mamandur. The cave-temple at Trikkur, near Trichur in Kerala, is a large excavation of square chamber with a linga at the centre. Cave-temples with shrine-cells cut into both the lateral walls of the mandapa are exemplified by the lower rock-cut cave-temple at Tiruchirapalli and also the larger cave-temple, called the Subrahmanya temple, on the north face of the hill at Tirup-parankunram. This has also a third shrine cut into the rear walls of the mandapa, in addition to the two thus excavated into either end walls of the mandapam.
While the mandapa-type façade pillar with a cubical base and top and an octagonal belt in between is the general rules, as in the Mahendra-style cave-temples, there are often variations. For example, in the Malai-yakkovil at Kudumiyamalai capital components like the kalasa, kumbha, etc. are cut on tops of the façade columns. In the Vishnu cave-temple at Malai-yadippatti the pillar bases are shaped into squatting lions. The corbels of the Malai-yadi-k-kurichi cave-temple are peculiar in that the taranga rolls are cut as incurved curls, a feature indicating Chalukyan inspiration.
What is more interesting in these cave-temples is their varied sculptural content and iconographic forms, some of which are the first to appear in the southern cave-temples of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. They are Ganesa, the Saptamatrika and Jyeshtha. The Ganesa and the Saptamatrika cults would thus appear to have come into the far south from the Chalukyan area through the Ganga region, before they penetrated the Tondaimandalam of the Pallavas. These two are not to be seen in any of the Pallava cave-temples, till they are not to be seen in any of the Pallava cave-temples, till they make their first appearance in the structural temples of Rajasimha pallava (700-725) as, for example, in the Kailasanatha at Kanchi. In the far south, Ganesa is to be found in the cave-temples at Pillaiyarpatti, Kudumiyamalai, malai-yakkovil (southern cave-temple), Tirugokarnam, Kunnandarkovil, Tiruvellarai (Siva cave-temple), Devarmalai, Tirukkalakkudi, Tiruchirapalli(lower cave-temple), Tirumalapuram, Kunnakkudi, Muvaraivenran, Tirup-parankundram (lager cave-temple), Sevilippatti, Kunnatur (Nilakanthesvara), Virasikhamani and Arittapatti. The Saptamatrika group is met with in the cave-temples at Tirugokarnam, Malai-yadippatti, Tirukkalakkudi and Kunnatur. While many of the cave-temples dedicated to Siva have a rock-cut linga with a pitha in the shrine, there are others where the iconic forms of Siva are represented as bas-reliefs on the rear wall of the sanctum. There is often a small cistern or pit cut into the floor of the sanctum below the projected channel-spout on the top of the linga-pitha or image pedestal to receive and collect the abhisheka water. This feature is unknown in the Pallava temples, whether cave, monolithic or structural, but is found in the Chalukyan area and in the far-off temples of the Dieng vally in Java (Indonesia). The liga-pitha is generally square, but octagonal in the eastern cave-temple, at Malai-yakkovil. In the Siva shrine of the Tirup-parankunram cave-temple, there is a Somaskanda panel on the rear wall, as in the Pallava cave-temples of the close of the seventh century and subsequent structural temples. In the cave-temple at Piranmalai and Tirumalai (Ramanathapuram district) it is only Siva and Parvati (Umasahitamurti) seated, without Skanda. The rear wall of the shrine of the Umaiyandar cave-temple at Tirup-parankunram contains a relief of Ardhanari-Siva while in the case of ladankovil cave-temples at Anaimalai, dedicated to Subrahmanya, he is shown with his consort in the central shrine.
But for the single exception of the eastern lateral shrine in the Subrahmanya cave-temple, Tirup-parankunram, containing a bas-relief of Somaskanda on its rear wall after the familiar Pallava pattern, the reliefs of Umasahitamurti (Siva), without Skanda, in the Pandyan cave-temples is significant. Such icons found for example on the rear wall of the shrine in the cave-temples of Piranmalai and Tirumalai (Ramanathapuram district), and on the north wall of the rock-cut front mandapa of the kunnandarkoil (Pudukkottai district) cave-temple are reminiscent of the Siva-Parvati wedlock, or vaivahika form of Minakshi-Sundaresvar, prevalent in theat reigion.
In the lower rock-cut-cave-temple at Tiruchirapalli (Pandya), while the two lateral shrine-cells are dedicated to Siva and Vishnu, the rear wall of the mandapa has five niches enclosed by pilasters, the central on with Brahma and the others with Ganesa, Subrahmanya, Surya and Durga. With Siva and Vishnu, these would form the gods of the Shanmata grouping which Sankaracharya is stated to have re-established after reformation of the extant ritual practices. Sankara is reputed to be the Shanmata sthapanacharya, the Shanmatas being Saiva, vaishnava, Sakta, Kaumara, Saura and Ganapatya. The gouping in this cave-temple would indicate also a suerimposition of the Shanmata deities on the pre-existing trimurti concept of Siva, Vishnu and Brahma, inaugurated by Mahendra Pallava in his first mandagappattu cave –temple.
The larger cave-temple at Tirup-oarankunram takes in five out of the six deities, exculding Surya, for the two principal lateral shrines are dedicated to Siva and Vishnu, while a third, for Durga, has been cut out of the rear wall at its centre with the two recesses on either side having sculptures of Ganesa and Subrahmanya. In the comparatively fewer Vishnu cave-temples dedicated solely as such and in the Vishnu shrines of other cave-temples, the standing, seated and, more often, reclining forms are met with as the main sculptures. The standing form occurs in the Vishnu shrine of the Tiruchirapalli lower cave-temple, the sitting form in the Vishnu shrine of the larger Tirup-parankunram cave-temple, and reclining form in the Vishnu cave-temples at Tirumayam, Malai-yadippatti and Tiruttangal (Ramanathapuram district), and in the eastern or Ranganathan cave-temple at Namakkal (Salem district). The other cave-temple at namakkal has Narasimha in the sanctum.
The Malai-yakkovil Siva temple at Kudumiyamalai, the Satyagirisvara or Siva cave-temple at Tirumayam, the upper Siva cave-shrine in the same place, the Gokarnesvaa cave-temple at Tirugokarnam and the eastern cave-shrine at Malai-yakkovil are associated with inscriptions on musical notations in what is called the Pallava-grantha script as also colophons in the old Tamil script, as indicated by the label parivadini-e inscribed on them. While the actual notations, or remnants of them, are to be seen in the first two cases, they have disappeared in the rest. The extant colophons indicate that the art o the parivadini ( a stringed lute) called Vidya-parivadini was enunciated by a Gunasena, and the notations were got inscribed for the benefit of the votaries by a king who was a great Saiva or Paramamahesvara, and a disciple of Rudracharya. While the Satyagirisvara cave-temple at Tirumayam is thus connected by the presence of the musical inscriptions with the others above, it has besides, as one of its dvarapalas flanking the shrine entrance, a portrait sculpture of a king or chieftain which is found also in the cave-temples at Kunnandarkovil and Devarmalai within 48 km from it in the same district (Pudukkottai). What is more, it is also found in the Siva cave-temple at Virasikhamani in the far southern Tirunelveli district and in the cave-temple at kaviyur, near Quilon in Kerala. These would indicate a similarity of origin, namely, Pandya, and a proximity of date. The cave-temple at Tiruandikkara with a south-facing mandapa façade and an east-facing shrine inside on the western wall of the mandapa is celebrated fo the remains of ancient fresco paintings of the same period as Sittannavasal and Tirumalapuram of Pandya vintage.
The Siva cave-temple called Vagisvaram at Malai-yadippatti was excavated by Vidalvidugu Muttaraiyar in the sixteenth yea of Pallava Dantivarman. The adjoining Vishnu cave-temple of a later date was also perhaps a Muttaraiyar excavation. The cave-shrine called Paliyilisvaram at Narttamalai, another Muttaraiyar excavation, dates a few yeas before the seventh year of Pallva Nripatunga in the late ninth century. The same may be said of the Puvalaikkudi cave-shrine, which was excavated by a certain Amarunri Muttaraiyar. The Vishnu cave-temple at Tirumayam, containing the reclining Vishnu group, is a natural cavern converted into a cave-temple with the addition of the façade pillars and other features by a queen of perumbidugu Muttataiyar and would date some time later than the Siva cave-temple of Satyagirisvara adjoining it. A few others like the Mangadu cave-shrine and Malai-k-kolundisvaram cave-shrine in the same area, as also the cave-temples at Tiruvellarai, can be attributed to the Muttaraiyars.
The cave-temples at Trikku, Irunilamkodu, Kottukkal and other places in the northern Kerala region are of the times of the rulers of the Chera country, while those in the southen parts, in the Quilon and Trivandrum districts of Kerala, and the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, or Venadu and Nanjilnadu as they are called, are perhaps mostly of the Pandya affiliation. Because of lack of specific authentication and of the fact that Kerala was under more than one dynasty during the period from the midlle o the seventh to the middle of the ninth centuries to which these cave-temples belong, it would be more correct to give them the regional nomenclature of kerala than to call these all ‘Chera’. The connected political history of the Cheras of the second period after the earlier Sangam epoch starts from the middle of the ninth century.
The two Vishnu cave-temples at Namakkal, one dedicated to Ranganathan or Anantasayin, and the other to Narasimha, are, according to their inscriptions, excavations by the Atiya king, Gunasila of the line of the Adigaimans known earlier from Tamil literature. They belong to the first half of the eighth century and contain some fine sculptures. The inscription in the Ranganathan cave calls it Atiyendra Visnu-gridha and is unique in that it gives an apt description of the varios figures in the iconographic grouping round Anantasayin. The sculptures are noted for their sharp delineation and vigorous poses and flexions that are quite distinct from their Pallava compeers. The Western Gangas of Talkad in south Mysore, folloainw the Chalukya-Rashtrakuta idiom, have left two unfinished cave-temples in the hard rock are Melkote near mysore.
In addition to the incorporation of the Chalukyan traits noted above, these southern cave-temples, essentially following the Pallava Mahendra-style and hard rock tradition, also reproduce many iconic forms that are found in the Pallava rock-cut and structural examples. The more important ones are the reproduction of Durga with a devotee cutting off his own head in sacrifice, a common Pallava a form, reproduced near the Vishnu cave-temple of Tiruttangal, and the Mahishasuramardini group, as at Mahabalipuram and Saluvankuppam, reproduced with variations in the Vagisvaram cave-temple at Malai-yadippatti. The Bhu-Varaha and Gajalakshmi forms are found in the cave-temples at Tirup-parankunram and the Trivikrama form along with Bhu-Varaha in the cave-temple at Namakkal. The other iconographic forms so reproduced are Lingodbhava, harihara, Subrahmanya, Vishnu with garuda in human form, Narasimha, and the tandava forms of Siva.
Beginnig with Saiva temples, the most important one is the Kamakshi Amman temple. Here the goddess is worshipped in the form of an Yantra. Unlike in other temples, the Chakra (the sacred mantra- bearing disc) here is placed not below, but in front of, the idol. An image of Sankaracharya is worshipped in the temple. The legend associated with it is as follows- Kamakshi Amman, in the form of Kali, was said to be doing havoc in the city at nights. Sankara came and appeased her and extracted a promise from her that she would not stir out of the temple without his permission. Hence came the image of the great vedantist in the temple, before which they halt the deity- whenever it is taken out in procession to the city- as a token of applaying for permission in pursuance of the promise.
Sri Ekambaranatha temple is another important shrine of Siva. The shrine has a mango tree, to which great sanctity is attached, under which Siva is said to have appeared to Goddess Parvati when she prayed to him on the Vegavati... (Kambai which flows west of Conjeevaram. It served as a fortress in the... century wars.
An ancient and equally important... shrine is the Sri Kailasanthar temple. It was built by the Pallava king Rajasimbha, about A.D. 667 and was called originally after his own name as Rajasimha- Pallavesvara. The temple is famous for the beauty of its sculptures. It is in characteristic Pallava style with the vimana over the garbagriha rising high and dominating the entire temple as in the Tanjore Brihadisvara shrine. An equally important Vaishnava temple is the Vaikuntaperula temple, built by the great Pallava king, Paramesvara varman II. And originally named after him as Paramesvara vinnagaram. It contains various fine sculptures of Vishnu and is also famous for a series of sculptures dealing with a famous episode of Pallava history.
The other important Vishnu shrines are those of Pandavadudar, Vilakkoliperumal, Ashtabhuja and Ulagalanda perumal. These are on the western part of the town. Some of these were built by the great Vijayanagar Emperor, Krishna Deva Raya, and many of the smaller shrines and rest- houses owe their origin to the piety of the members of the same dynasty.
The Pallava
Mahendra Style Cave-Temples
The simple cave-temples of Mahendra (c. AD 580-630) consist of a pillared verandah with shrine-cell or cells cut into either the rear or the side walls of the verandah or hall, depending on which way the main façade of the verandah or mandapa faced. Thus in mandapas facing south or north, the single shrine-cell or cells were often cut into the lateral walls so as to face east or west, while in mandapas facing east or west the shrine-cell or cells were cut into the hind wall of the mandapa. These, as all rock-cut architecture, are necessarily designed to show the interior aspect of the structural monuments they imitated. They are essentially of the mandapa-type of temples. The cave-temples excavated by Mahendra are authenticated by his won inscriptions which are very often single dedicatory verses or stings of his titles. Such templees are ten in number. Nine of them are: the Lakshitayatana dedicated to the tirmurti at Mandagappattu, the so-called Pancha Pandava cave-temple at Pallavaram (now converted No. II at Mamandur dedicated to Siva, the Kal mandapam cave-temple at Kuranganilmuttam, very similar to the Pallava inscriptions, the Vasantesvaram or larger cave temple or Cave-temple at Vallam, dedicated to Siva, the Mahendra Vishun-griha cave-temple or Cave-temple No. 1 at Mamandur, the Satrumallesvaralaya a cave-temple at Dalavanur dedicated to Siva, and the Avanibhajana Pallavesvara-griha cave-temple at Siyamangalam. All of them are located roundabout the Pallava capital of Kanchi and the port town of Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram) in the Chingleput, North Arcot, and South Arcot districts-comprising the Pallava home province of Tondaimandalam (the region situated to the north, west and south of modern Madras). The Lalitankura Pallavesvara-griha, or the upper rock-cut cave-temple at Tiruchirapalli, is the solitary one farthest from the capital, situated in the Cholamandalam om the bank of the Kaveri up to which boundary Mahendravarman inherited the kingdom from his father, Simha Vishnu. This cave-temple is also the only example excavated near the summit of the hill, while the rest are nearer to the base of the rocks. The unfinished rock-cut temples at Vilappakkam (North Arcot district) and Aragandanallur (South Arcot district) would also, on stylistic grounds, belong to the Mahendra style.Where there is only a single cell behind the mandapa, there are four pillars and pilasters on the façade of the rectangular mandapa, two pilasters in antis at the two extreme ends against the side walls, and two pillars in the middle-all equally space. The façade is longer with four, six or eight equally-spaced pillars between the extreme pilasters and with three, five, or seven shrine- cells. The pillars are all massive, short, square in section at the base and top, with the middle third of the height octagonal in section. They carry massive corbels with bevelled or curved ends, sometimes with the faces carved as a series of rolls, the taranga, with a median flat band, the patta. A massive beam is cut above the corbels, but there is no wll-formed cornice projection, or kapota, the rought rock brow itself acting as one. The faces of the square sections of the pillars are adorned with large, circular lotus medallions often inscribed inside a square. The mandapa may be divided by inner longitudinal row of pillars and pilasters into two sections, front and rear, indicating the mukha-mandapa and ardha-mandapa portions, though both may be of the same width and of the same type, corresponding to the façade row. Where there are no inner pillars, the differentiation is indicated by the varying floor-levels or ceiling heights.
A flight of about three rock-cut steps from the floor of the mandapa leads to the simple shrine entrance which is cut projecting a little into the mandapa. The shrine often shows a moulded pedestal, or adhishthana, and the wall is cantoned at its two front corners by four-sided flat pilasters with two more in between, each of the inner pairs flanking the shrine entrance. Often these two inner pilasters form also the two jambs of the simple doorway with a low lintel across and a sill cut at the top of the flight of steps below. The door-frame, if distinct, is again simple and unadorned. The pilasters carry in some cases distinct capital mouldings and corbles, or potika, on top. A beam and flexed overhanging cornice or kapota is cut on top. The kapota is adorned by semi-circular kudu ornaments, with a flat shovel-shaped finial above.
The shrine doors are generally guarded by relief sculptures of two armed dvarapalas, or gatekeepers, one on each side. In the earliest cave-temple where the shrines for the trinity-Brahma, Siva and Vishnu-are but deep plain niches cut into the rear wall, the two dvarapalas are found one on either side of the façade of the mandapa. The Vasantesvaram at Vallam, the Vishnu cave-temple of Mahendravadi and Mamandur and the Avanibhajanas cave-temples at Siyamangalam are examples of cave -temples with a single shrine-cell cut into the hind wall of the mandapa. The Rudravalisvaram of Mamandur and the Kalmandakam cave-temple at Kuranganilmuttam are examples with three shrine cells, as at Mandagappattu. The four additional cells, two on each laterl wall of the ardha-and mukha-mandapas of the Kalmandakam temple, are later additions to the original scheme of three cells on the rear wall. The Pallavaram cave-temple has five shrine-cells, while the unfinished Vilappakkam cave-temple has seven shrine-cells. The similar unfinished Aragandanallur cave-temple, with four pillars and two pilasters on the façade and in the hind row, would indicate five shrine-cells on the rear wall still uncut. Thus the number and disposition of shrines on the rear wall would correspond to the pillars of the mandapa in front, each shrine -opening coming in between two equally-spaced pillars, or a pillar and a pilaster. This along with the equal inter-columniation would contrast with the arrangement of the wider central nave and the narrow lateral aisles of the earlier Buddhist example follwed by the contemporary and later examples of the Chalukya-Rashtrakuta series.
The facades as well as the shrines of the Kalmandakam, Rudravalisvaram, Vasantesvaram and the Vishnu cave-temples of Mahendravadi and mamandur and Siyamangalam face almost west. Pallavaram is the only example in the series where the mandapa façade and shrine-cells face south. The Lalitankura and Satrumalla cave-temples at Tirchirapalli and Dalavanur areexamples with the mandapa facing south and the shrine cut into the lateral wall-the eastern one at Tirchirapalli and the western one at Dalavanur-so that the shrines face west and east respectively. In the Dalavanur cave-temple the larger mandapa, with a single row of pillars and pilaster on the façade, indicates an inner division of the front and rear portions of the mandapa by a difference in the floor levels. The shrine on the western wall of the ardha-mandapa part is cut with a small porch-like pillared mandapa in front of it. This too is rock-cut and stands on the floor of the ardha-mandapa on distinct plinth at a still higher level. In the case of the Tiruchirapalli cave-temple, an inner row of pillars and pilasters is cut very close to the hind wall with a narrow passage in between it and the wall. The cell on the east faces west into the front part of the mandapa between the inner and outer rows of columns. This is a feature not quite Pallva, but rather reminiscent of the cave-temples in the Pandyan country, for example, the one at Tirup-parankunram. Incidentally, the Lalitankura Pallavesvaram cave-temple of Tiruchirapalli is the southernmost Pallava cave-temple nearer to the borders of the Pandya territory. The lotus medallions on the top and bottom cubical parts (sadurams) of the pillars, which are absent in the earlier cave-temples of this series like those at Mandagapattu, Pallavaram and Kuranganilmuttam, and the Siva caves at Mamandur and Vallam are to be found in the later ones of the series as in the Vishnu cave-temples at Mahendravadi and Mamandur. The Siva cave-temples at Tirucuirapalli and Siyamangalam have, in addition, other motifs incised in side ciruclar medallions, such as makaras, kinnaris, matanganakras (combination of an elephant and a makara) and pushpa-lata and patra-lata (scrolls of leaves and flowers). The Siyamangalam cave-temple has small relief panels of sculpture on top of the pilasters.
The shrine-cells, or garbha-grihas, in all these cases are empty and do not contain either a rock-cut linga or linga-pitha, as is common in the Pandya, Muttaraiyar and Chalukyan cave-temples. They do not have in fact any appropriate sculpture of the deity in worship-Siva, Vishnu or other gods-to whom the temple according to the inscription is known to be dedicated. Often there are traces of lime plaster with a painting over it on the hind wall indicating that the object of worship was a mural painting of the god. Sometimes one finds a slight relief of a pedestal cut at the base of the hind wall indicating that the deity was done in stucco, or lime mortar and painted, or was a wooden panel with a carving set into a sunk chase on the wall.
These Mahendra temples are noted also for the absence of other kinds of sculpture even in the mandapa part, except those of the dvarapalas. These dvarapalas are found at either end of the façade of the mandapa in the Mandagappattu cave-temple. In the Dalavanur and Siyamangalam cave-temples, the dvarapalas are found not only on either side of the mandapa façade but also on either side of the shrine entrance. In the case of the Vishnu cave at Mamandur and the cave-templeat Pallavaram, there are dvarapalas neither on the flanks of mandapa façade nor on the flanks of the shrine-cells. The dvarapalas either face full-front or are in semi-profile or half-turned towards the shrine door and stand resting on a massive club entwined by a serpent. In Siyamangalam the two outer dvarapalas are, however, depicted as warriors inside separate niches at either end of the mandapa façade, while the two flanking the shrine entrance are of the usual form. The Tirucuirapalli upper rock-cut cave-temple of Lalitankura is unique in that it has a large group sculpture forming a panel on the western wall of the mandapa directly opposite the shrine and depicting Siva as Gangadhara. The Siyamangalam cave-temple is unique even otherwise, in having small sculpture panels on top of the façade pillars and pilasters in place of the lotus medallion. The two panels on top of the two pilasters depict, respectively, a dancing form of Siva, or tandava murti-perhaps the earliest such representation in Pallva sculptures, and Siva and Uma standing with the bull behind them depicting the form called Vrishabhantikamurti.
Mahendra’s son, Narasimbhavarman Mamalla (630-68) and his lineal successors, Mahendravarman II (668-72), Paramesvara I (672-700), and Rajasimha (700-728) continued the tradition started by Mahendera I and excavated a number of cave-temples in the Mahendra style in the course of the century. They are the Orukal mandapam at Tirukkalukkunram, the Kotikal mandapam at Mahabalipuram, the Narasimha cave-temple at Singavaram, the kovil, the Ranganathan cave-temple at Singavaram, the Dharmaraja mandapam or Atyantakama Pallava’s cave-temple at Mahabalipuram, and the Atiranachanda mandapam cave at Saluvankuppam, near Mahabalipuram-all in the Chingleput district of Tamil Nadu, except Singavaram which is in South Arcot.
The Singavaram and Singaperumalkovil cave-temples are dedicated to Vishnu, the Kotikal mandapam to Durga and the rest to Siva. While none of the Siva cave-temples contain a rock-cut linga in the sanctum, the two Vishnu cave-temples have in the sanctum stucco figures of the deities now modernized. The Kotikal mandapam of Durga has no sculpture of Durga inside the sanctum, though the dedication is indicated by the female dvarapalikas on either side of the shrine entrance as also by the name of the temple. The Atiranachanda mandapam of Rajasimha, the last of the series, alone contins a bas-relief panel of Siva as Somaskanda, with Uma and Skanda sitting beside him and Brahma and Vishnu standing on either side of the groupbehind. The carving of such a bas-relief in place of the earlier traditional painting, or stucco-rlief, or woodcarving of the principal god of the sanctum appears to have been started in the time of Paramesvaraman I (672-700). Two more such Somaskanda reliefs aree found carved on the hind wall of the mandapa on either side of the shrine entrance. It would appear that while Mahendravarman I broke the tradition of the wooden and brick-and-mortar temples and excavated temples in stone, he could not go far enough to change the traditional material of which the principal deity in the sanctum was made. This had to wait for a few decades till Paramesvaravarman I, in the last quarter of the seventh century, introduced for the first time almong other innovations the carving of the principal deity as a relief on the back wall of the shrine. In Rajasimha’s cave temple, the Atiranachanda mandapam, a black polished, fluted or sixteen-sided stone linga (dhara-linga) also came to be planted on the floor of the sanctum in front of the Somaskanda relief on the hind wall. This indicated the commencement in the Pallva territory with the installation of the formless lings to represent Siva.
In most respects this series of post-Mahendra cave-temples resembles those of Mahendra in plan and design and other general features. But one observes a tendency for the pillars and pilasters to become thinner and taller, sometimes flatter, with an oblong section. The space between them is equal but wider. The kapota over the façade is still an undifferentiated, projecting rock-ledge over the beam. All the cave-templess of the series have single shrine-cells cut into the rear walls, with the frontage projecting more into the mandapa. The only example with triple shrine-cells is the Dharmaraja mandapam or Atyantakama Pallva’s cave-temple where the two lateral shrine-cells are simple excavations, which are perhaps later additions, without definite shrine front, as is found in the case of the main central one. All these cave-temples have only two pillars and two pilasters on the mandapa façade, and a similar set behind, inside the mandapa wherever there is such a demarcation of ardha-and, uka-mandapas, as in the Ranganathan cave-temple, the Orukkal mandapam, and Dharmaraja mandapam. The pillars have the top and bottom sadurams and intervening kattu, while the pilasters are uniformly four-sided as in Mahendravarman’s cave-temples expect that in the Singavaram Ranganathan cave-temple the pilasters like the pillars are demarated and have lotus medallions on the saduram faces. This cave-temple is the only example in the series, which has an outer pair of dvarapalas at either end of the mandapa façade. The inner pair flanking the shrine entrance is in common with the rest. There are generally no other sculptures in the mandapa beside the dvarapalas. In the Orukkal mandapam, however, there are relief sculptures of standing Brahma and Vishnu on the rear wall, one on either side of the shrine entrance and beyond the dvarapalas. In addition there are two fine, bold, life-size reliefs of dvarapala like sculptures, one on either end wall of the mukha-mandapa. In the Singavaram cave-temple, as at Siyamangalam, there are small panel reliefs of two female devotes on top of the pilasters of the inner row.
The last series of Pallava temples dated after AD 730 are small and less interesting. They mark the decadent phase of this type of rock architecture in Tondaimandalam. The Kilmavilangai cave-temple is the only example in the Pallava kingdom of Tondaimandalam of rock-cut cell without a rock-cut front mandapa, but such cell-shrines are more common in the Pandya and Muttaraiyar and Kerala areas, most of them contemporary with the late, post-700 AD Pallava period. The cell contains of its hind wall a flat bas-relief of standing Vishnu. The two smaller cave-temples at Vallam on the rock below Mahendra’s Vasantesvaram cave-temple, one dedicated to Vishnu and the other to Siva, have very thin pillars carrying bevelled corbels on the mandapa façade, the mandapa itself being narrow and the shrine-cell behind very small. An inscription in script of the seventh century reading pa(l)lava-peraraisaru meaning ‘Pallava emperoe’ has since been found in the Vasantesvaram cave-temple in Vallam. This and the other almost similar excavation, both below the larger Mahendra cave-temple, are rather feeble attempts, considering the fact that they are rather crude, small in proportion and shallow in depth.
The Pallava - Mamalla Style Cave-Temples
Mahendra’s great son and successor, Narasimhavarman I Mamalla (630-668), in addition to excavating some Mahendra style cave-temples like the Orukkal mandapam and the Kotikal mandapam described earlier, initiated a new and more ornate series of cut-in cave-temples. This was in addition to this unique invention of totally cut-out monolithic temple forms, or uimanas, the so-called rathas, and some open air bas-relief compositions of considerable size and superb quality, all confined to the great Pallava port-city of Mamallapuram of Mahabalipuram. These ornate cave-temples that Mamalla initiated were mostly completed in stage by his immediate successors for two generations, who also created a few monuments in the same style and at the same place. The outstanding development discernible in these is a fuller representation of their mandapa facades, their interior decoration and the replacement of the square massive pillars and pilasters by typical pillars with ornate bases and full capitals and all the moulded members of the ‘order’, thus making the stone copies more true to their contemporary structural originals in brick and timber.The adhishthana, or plinth, shows all the usual mouldings as could be seen in the finished examples. The mandapa façade has a fully represented entablature, or prastara, which constitutes all the architectural parts coming over the beam and including it, as against what is seen in the Mahendra-style cave-temples. The prastara is fully finished with a flexed kapota, or an eaves-like cornice projection, decorated by horseshoe-shaped kudu arches. The prastara has also a string of miniature shrines above it, all of oblong plan, often with a barrel-vaulted roof, the sala, while in the later examples, the sala sting ends at either extremity in similar miniature shrine models of square plan with a four -sided domical roof, the kuta. The entire string constitutes what is called the hara with interconnecting lengths of cloister. The pillars generally conform to the wooden prototypes, but are taller and slenderer and have their bases often shaped into squatting lions. The tope of the shaft has the variously moulded capital members such as the malasthana, the padma bandha, the kalasa, the tadi, the kumbha, the Pali and the phalaka or abacus, the last-mentioned one omitted in some cases, and the topmost member carrying the corbel or potika, with curved profile and roll ornamentation, or taranga, with a median plain patta.
Their mandapas are often demarcated into front and rear sections by an inner row of pillars. The shrine fronts, one, three or five, are at the rear of the inner mandapa, project more into the mandapa, and have all the angas of a uimana front, namely, moulded adhishthana, pilasters, or kudya-stambhas, with capital components as detailed above and prastara with well-formed kapota and kudu decorations. The further superstructure of the uimana is not shown, as in a depiction of the interior aspect of a mandapa with the shrine behind, the upper parts of the uimana would not be visible. The prastara of the shrine front abuts on the mandapa ceiling.
There are eight such cave-temples in various stages of completion: the Koneri mandapam, the Varaha mandapam, the Mahishamardini mandapam (locally called Yamapuri mandapam), an unfinished cave-temple next to the Koneri mandapam, the Pancha-Pandava mandapam, the Adivaraha cave-temple called Paramesara Mahavaraha Vishnu-griha in its inscriptions and the Ramanuja mandapam. Of these the Varaha and Ramanuja mandapams have undivided mandapas by an inner line of pillars. The Mahishamardini mandapam is peculiar in that its principal central shrine is preceded by a square and a pillared portico projected into the larger mandapa, as in the case of the Dalavanur cave-temple. The Pancha Pandava mandapam records an attempt to cut a square central shrine with a surrounding cloister in the form of a mandapam having two rows of pillars running all round. The Varaha mandapam and the Adivaraha cave-temples have each a single shrine-cell while the Mahishamardini and the Ramanuja mandapams have three shrine-cells in them; the Koneri mandapam has five in a row behind the mandapam.
The Mamalla-style cave-temples show a marked advance over the Mahendra type in Plastic decoration also, in having a wealth of large and fine sculptures in addition to the usual dvarapala sculptures. These are often synoptic, narrating important Puranic legends. The Varaha mandapam, which is the most complete cave-temple and has been preserved in all its parts, contains bas-relief compositions of Bhu-varaha and Trivikrama inside large panels on the side walls of its mandapam. Its back wall has towed more-one on either side of the projected shrine entrance, carrying panels of Gajalakshmi and Durgaa. The front and side walls of the projected shrine front have niches with dvarpala sculptures. The manner in which the boar-head of Bhu-Varaha merges at thee neck imperceptibly with the human body is a mastepiece of art not equalled by similar representation in the Gupta and other sculptures. The central shrine is now empty, but perhaps once contained painted or stucco representation of Narasimha. Almost identical, but more artistic and graceful delineations of Gajalakshmi and Durga are reproduced in almost the same positions on the rear wall panels on either side of the projected shrine entrance in the Adivaraha cave-temples. In addition, the front wall of the projected central shrine of the Adivaraha cave-temple has three niches, each on either side of the entrance containing other sculptures. The niches flanking the entrance contain dvarapalas. The two central wider niches, one on each side have sculptures of standing Vishnu and Harihara, respectively. The extreme ones on the north and south show a Nagaraja or Adisesha in human form with the five-headed serpent-hood and a portrait sculpture in graceful tribhanga posture. The south and north walls of the mukha-mandapa contain large relief’s of stnading Brahma, and Siva as Gangadhara. Similar panels on the south and north walls of the ardha-mandapa have almost life-size royal portrait groups of the Pallva kings, Simhavishnu and Mahendra with their queems amd consorts and with label inscriptions over them indicating their identity. The main sanctum contains a modern stucco form of Varaha murti. This temple is in use for worship while others are not. The bas-relief sculptures of Durga on the south and Gajalakshme on the north side walls of the Ramanja mandapam have been totally chiselled off in later times by the Vaishnava occupants as also the three shrine fronts and their dvarapalas of this original triple-celled Siva cave-temple. The back wall of the central shrine retains traces of a Somaskanda group. The Mahishamardini cave-temple contains on the two side walls of its mandapa two of the most celebrated and famous Pallva sculptures, namely, Durga as Mahishasurmardini, mounted on a leaping lion and battling with Mahishasura and his hordes on the north, and Vishnu as Anantasay in Yoga-nidra, or contemplative sleep, on a serpent-couch on the south. Besides the beauty, grace, vigour and agility depicted in Durga, the clever synthesis of the buffalo-head and human body of the demon Mahishasura would equal only that of the Varaha form mentioned above, not to speak of the defiance and haughtiness depicted by his stance and demeanour even in the animal face. All these sculptures would thus constitute some of the earliest extant representations of the respective forms and as such valuable material for a study of the development of early iconofrapy in the south.
Recent research (by) Lockwood, Siromoney and Dayanandan-Mahabalipuram studies) has established that the dvarapalas of the Pallava cave-temples, Saivite and Vaishnavite, are really ayudapurushas, or delified personifications of the appropriate weapons of Siva (sula and parasu, i.e. trident and axe) of Vishnu (Sanka and chakra, i.e.conch and discus), which are shown on the headgear of the concerned dvarapala. Also it has been demonstrated that the original dedication of the Mahisamardini cave-temple was to Vishnu, subsequently made Saivite in the same century by the introduction of the large Somaskanda panel, on the lined wall of the shrine, in place of the original Vishnu that was perhaps a painted stucco. Appropriately enough the two dvarapalas wedged in a curious manner into the narrow spaces on either side of the shrine’s door-jamb, were afterthoughts likewise, modified for the Savite re-dedication as also the two flanking shrine-cells on either side in the trimurti pattern, Vishnu occupying the place of precedence in the central cella in the original scheme.
Though not strictly cave-temples like his Atiranachanda mandapam, other creations Rajasimha Pallva (700-728) in the series of rock-carvings found in Mahabalipuram and neighbourhood are the Yali mandapam at Saluvankuppam, a hamlet to the north of Mahabalipuram, familiarly called ‘tigercave’, and similar ornamental pavilions. These would stand apart from either group of cave-temples described above. The Yali mandapam is a small, oblong, shallow pavilion, or mandapa, excavated on the eastern face of a boulder facing the sea with its moulded adhishthana and a façade of flanking pillars, which are adorned at their bases by rearing lions or uyalas, cut over a lower platform reached by a flight of steps. The whole structure is surrounded by an arched frieze of eleven large uyala heads mistakenly called ‘tiger heads’. To the south of the pavilion, and carved on the rock face, are relief’s of two elephant fronts with howdahs over their necks, a dvajastambha in between, and horse at the south extreme. The northern face of the rock is roughly carved out into a large squatting lion-front with a small square niche cut into in its bosom, enshrining a relief panel of Mahishamardini. The Yali mandapam obviously served as resting place of the processional idols or the royalty during festivals. This, even the name of the place-Tiruveluchchiyur-found in the inscriptions, would suggest. A smaller replica of the Yali mandapam is found on the surf-beaten boulder to the south of the shore temple in Mahabalipuram. To the north of the temple is another larger rock called the Mahishamardini rock with a large lion face and Durga niche in its bosom.
In passing, mention may be made of the two celebrated open- air bas-relief compositions of large group sculptures on the face of the massive rocks in Mahabalipuram. They are Arjuna’s penance and the Govardhana-Krishna scenes. The compositions are both synoptic and narrative of the respective themes. Arjuna’s penance depicts the scene of Siva granting to Arjuna as a boon the desired weapon-pasupata-sought by the latter through the performance of a severe penance. The depiction is after the description of the scene in Bharavi’s Kiratarjuniya. The Govardhana-Krishna scene depicts Krishna as holding up the hill to afford shelter to the displaced gopas and gopis with their children, cattle and other belongings, when they had to flee their homes as result of a great deluge of rain and stone brought down by the irate Indra. The depiction is quite powerful and realistic. A unique south Indian note is struck by the introduction of Krishna’s facourite gopi, Nappinnai, huddling near him in the group and distinguished from the rest of the women in the scene by her dress, stance and attendant lady. The Krishna-Nappinnai theme is speical to the earlier contemporary Tamil literature and tradition.
Pandya And Other Non-Pallava Cave-Temples Of The South
In Pandimandalam farther south, comprising mainly the modern districts of Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari,Trivandrum and Quilon, and the southern parts of the Pudukkottai area now forming a district, the pandya contemporaries of the Pallavas started rock architecture soon after the pioneers, that is to say, from after the middle of the seventh century. They continued the activity for over three centuries till they, like the Pallavas, were overthrown by the rising Cholas of Thanjavur. Their cave-temples in the southern half of Tamil Nadu and the adjoining Kerala area are far more numerous than those of the Pallavas.The Muttaraiyar chieftains, who had their kingdom astride the Kaveri in the traditional Cholamandalam, viz.Tiruchirapalli, Thanjavur and the southern half of the South Arcot districts, and who owed allegiance alternately to the Pallavas and Pandyas, left in the latter part of the period, quite a few cave-temples in their area. These are found at Tiruvellarai, Narttamalai, Kunnandarkovil, Puvalaikkudi and other places, all in the Pudukkottai and Tiruchirapalli districts. Their cave-temples too are a type of mandapas with simples shrine-cells and are much akin to the Pandya cave-temple in the same area. The Atiyaman, or Adigaiman cheifs, ruling in the Kongu area of Salem and Coimbatore districts, bordering on the Tiruchirapalli district, have excavated two fine cave-temples in Namakkal. They are dedicated to Vishnu and are noted for their fine sculptured panels.
hese cave-temples , numbering about sixty in all, are like the Pallava examples, excavated into the hard, local rocks and are essentially similar to the Mahendera-style excavations in plan and design. But they also show certain characteristic features of their own, incorporating in the process a few features peculiar to the Chalukyan examples, particularly in respect of their sculptural make-up and iconography.
They, like the Mahendra-style cave-temples, consist of a mandapa with one or more shrine-cells cut often at the rear, but in some case excavated into the side walls of the mandapa, as in the lower rock-cut Pandya cave at Tiruchirapalli and the cave-temple at Tirup-parankunram, near Madurai, among others. They have massive pillars on the facades, essentially square in section at the base and top, with an octagonal middle section, carrying heavy potikas or corbels, usually with a straight bevel, resulting in an angular profile. There are, however, some examples with pillars of other types and corbels with a curved profile and taranga moulding. The cave-temples, all, lack a well-defined kapota in the architrave over their mandapa facades, as is also the case in the Mahendra-style cave-temples. Some of the excavations are merely shrine-cells scooped directly into rock face, without a rock-cut mandapa in front. Such cave-temples are numerous in this region and very rare in Tondaimandalam.
The cave-temples at Malai-yadi-k-kurichi(Tirunelveli district) would appear to be earliest known Pandya cave-temple of the mandapa type, with a single shrine-cell on the rear and containing a foundation inscription of the seventeenth year of Pandya Maran Sadaiyan in the second half of the seventh century. The inscription mentions the cave-temple significantly as kal-tiru-k-koyil or ‘the sacred stone temple’, enhoing the pioneering, ideal for this region as found in Pallava Mahendravarman’s inscription at Mandagappattu in Tondaimandalam. The rock-cut cave-temple at Pillaiyarpaati (Ramanathapuram district) with an inscription in an archaic script would also be one of the early Pandya cave-temples, as also Siva cave-temple III at Kunnakkudi in the same district, which has another short inscription in the same scrip calling it Masilisvaram. The Vishnu (Narasimha) cave-temple at Anaimalai (Madurai district) has a foundation inscription giving the Kali year 3871 (AD 770) and referring to its excavation by a minister of Pandya Maran Sadaiyan, alias Parantaka. The large cave-temple at present famous as the Subrahmanya temple at Tirup-parankunram near Madurai was excavated earlier and later re-modelled by another Pandya minnister and his wife in the kali year 3874 (AD 773), according to their foundation inscriptions there. There is a complex of four cave-temples on this northern face of the Tirup-parankunram rock and one of the above inscriptions mentions the excavation of a separated Jyeshta cave-temple also, which is of the cave-cell type, without mandapa in front. The other two excavations on either side of the larger mandapa-type cave-temple and above the level of the Jyeshtha cave shrine should be of a somewhat later date. One of these contains a bas-relief of Gajalakshmi, and the other a group comprising devi as Bhuvanesvari and her attendants.
The well-known rock-cut cave-temple at Sittannavasal in the Pudukkottai area (Tiruchirapalli district), containing the celebrated early mural paintings in fresco, is an example of a Jain cave-temple of the eigth-ninth centuries. This, according to a long verse inscription associated with it, was re-embellished by a certain Iilan Gauttaman alias Madurai Asiriyan and a structural mukha-mandapa added in front, all in the reign of Advanipa-sekhara Sri Vallabha Pandya (c.815-862). This contains bas-relief Jain tirthankara sculptures on the hind wall of the shrine and in the niches on the lateral walls of the mandapa in front. This cave-temple is a typical Pandya version of a Mahendra-style cave-temple, with the façade pillars carrrying taranga corbels.
The eastern cave-temple at Malai-yakkovil, the upper Siva cave-temple at Tirumayam, the cave-temple at Mangadu, the Malai-k-kolundisvaram near Rayavaram, the Jyeshtha, the Gajalakshmi and the Bhuvanesvari cave-temples in Tirup-parankunram, and the cave-temple at Vilinam (Vizhinam), among other, are examples of simple cave-shrines of the Pandya-Muttaraiyar-Ayvel vintage of the non-Pallava series.
Among the cave-temples that have the shrine-cell on one of the lateral walls of the mandapa may be mentioned the Satyagirisvara or Siva cave-temple at Tirumayam, the southern cave-temple at Malai-yakkovil, the Siva cave-temple at Tirumalapuram (Tirunelveli distict), and the Umaiyandar cave-temple on the southern face of the rock at Tirup-parankunram. In the case of some cave-temple at Pillaiyarpatti, and the cave-temple in Muvaraivenran (Ramanathapuram distict) the shrine part occupies, as it were, a corner of the oblong mandapa, which thus encloses it on two sides-in front and on one of the flanks, suggesting a partial copy of a model with a central shrine and a surrounding mandapam with a greater part of it in front. Such a plan is not to be found commonly in the Pallava examples except in the case of the Pancha Pandava mandapam of Mahabalipuram and the unfinished Cave-temple IV at Mamandur. The cave-temple at Trikkur, near Trichur in Kerala, is a large excavation of square chamber with a linga at the centre. Cave-temples with shrine-cells cut into both the lateral walls of the mandapa are exemplified by the lower rock-cut cave-temple at Tiruchirapalli and also the larger cave-temple, called the Subrahmanya temple, on the north face of the hill at Tirup-parankunram. This has also a third shrine cut into the rear walls of the mandapa, in addition to the two thus excavated into either end walls of the mandapam.
While the mandapa-type façade pillar with a cubical base and top and an octagonal belt in between is the general rules, as in the Mahendra-style cave-temples, there are often variations. For example, in the Malai-yakkovil at Kudumiyamalai capital components like the kalasa, kumbha, etc. are cut on tops of the façade columns. In the Vishnu cave-temple at Malai-yadippatti the pillar bases are shaped into squatting lions. The corbels of the Malai-yadi-k-kurichi cave-temple are peculiar in that the taranga rolls are cut as incurved curls, a feature indicating Chalukyan inspiration.
What is more interesting in these cave-temples is their varied sculptural content and iconographic forms, some of which are the first to appear in the southern cave-temples of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. They are Ganesa, the Saptamatrika and Jyeshtha. The Ganesa and the Saptamatrika cults would thus appear to have come into the far south from the Chalukyan area through the Ganga region, before they penetrated the Tondaimandalam of the Pallavas. These two are not to be seen in any of the Pallava cave-temples, till they are not to be seen in any of the Pallava cave-temples, till they make their first appearance in the structural temples of Rajasimha pallava (700-725) as, for example, in the Kailasanatha at Kanchi. In the far south, Ganesa is to be found in the cave-temples at Pillaiyarpatti, Kudumiyamalai, malai-yakkovil (southern cave-temple), Tirugokarnam, Kunnandarkovil, Tiruvellarai (Siva cave-temple), Devarmalai, Tirukkalakkudi, Tiruchirapalli(lower cave-temple), Tirumalapuram, Kunnakkudi, Muvaraivenran, Tirup-parankundram (lager cave-temple), Sevilippatti, Kunnatur (Nilakanthesvara), Virasikhamani and Arittapatti. The Saptamatrika group is met with in the cave-temples at Tirugokarnam, Malai-yadippatti, Tirukkalakkudi and Kunnatur. While many of the cave-temples dedicated to Siva have a rock-cut linga with a pitha in the shrine, there are others where the iconic forms of Siva are represented as bas-reliefs on the rear wall of the sanctum. There is often a small cistern or pit cut into the floor of the sanctum below the projected channel-spout on the top of the linga-pitha or image pedestal to receive and collect the abhisheka water. This feature is unknown in the Pallava temples, whether cave, monolithic or structural, but is found in the Chalukyan area and in the far-off temples of the Dieng vally in Java (Indonesia). The liga-pitha is generally square, but octagonal in the eastern cave-temple, at Malai-yakkovil. In the Siva shrine of the Tirup-parankunram cave-temple, there is a Somaskanda panel on the rear wall, as in the Pallava cave-temples of the close of the seventh century and subsequent structural temples. In the cave-temple at Piranmalai and Tirumalai (Ramanathapuram district) it is only Siva and Parvati (Umasahitamurti) seated, without Skanda. The rear wall of the shrine of the Umaiyandar cave-temple at Tirup-parankunram contains a relief of Ardhanari-Siva while in the case of ladankovil cave-temples at Anaimalai, dedicated to Subrahmanya, he is shown with his consort in the central shrine.
But for the single exception of the eastern lateral shrine in the Subrahmanya cave-temple, Tirup-parankunram, containing a bas-relief of Somaskanda on its rear wall after the familiar Pallava pattern, the reliefs of Umasahitamurti (Siva), without Skanda, in the Pandyan cave-temples is significant. Such icons found for example on the rear wall of the shrine in the cave-temples of Piranmalai and Tirumalai (Ramanathapuram district), and on the north wall of the rock-cut front mandapa of the kunnandarkoil (Pudukkottai district) cave-temple are reminiscent of the Siva-Parvati wedlock, or vaivahika form of Minakshi-Sundaresvar, prevalent in theat reigion.
In the lower rock-cut-cave-temple at Tiruchirapalli (Pandya), while the two lateral shrine-cells are dedicated to Siva and Vishnu, the rear wall of the mandapa has five niches enclosed by pilasters, the central on with Brahma and the others with Ganesa, Subrahmanya, Surya and Durga. With Siva and Vishnu, these would form the gods of the Shanmata grouping which Sankaracharya is stated to have re-established after reformation of the extant ritual practices. Sankara is reputed to be the Shanmata sthapanacharya, the Shanmatas being Saiva, vaishnava, Sakta, Kaumara, Saura and Ganapatya. The gouping in this cave-temple would indicate also a suerimposition of the Shanmata deities on the pre-existing trimurti concept of Siva, Vishnu and Brahma, inaugurated by Mahendra Pallava in his first mandagappattu cave –temple.
The larger cave-temple at Tirup-oarankunram takes in five out of the six deities, exculding Surya, for the two principal lateral shrines are dedicated to Siva and Vishnu, while a third, for Durga, has been cut out of the rear wall at its centre with the two recesses on either side having sculptures of Ganesa and Subrahmanya. In the comparatively fewer Vishnu cave-temples dedicated solely as such and in the Vishnu shrines of other cave-temples, the standing, seated and, more often, reclining forms are met with as the main sculptures. The standing form occurs in the Vishnu shrine of the Tiruchirapalli lower cave-temple, the sitting form in the Vishnu shrine of the larger Tirup-parankunram cave-temple, and reclining form in the Vishnu cave-temples at Tirumayam, Malai-yadippatti and Tiruttangal (Ramanathapuram district), and in the eastern or Ranganathan cave-temple at Namakkal (Salem district). The other cave-temple at namakkal has Narasimha in the sanctum.
The Malai-yakkovil Siva temple at Kudumiyamalai, the Satyagirisvara or Siva cave-temple at Tirumayam, the upper Siva cave-shrine in the same place, the Gokarnesvaa cave-temple at Tirugokarnam and the eastern cave-shrine at Malai-yakkovil are associated with inscriptions on musical notations in what is called the Pallava-grantha script as also colophons in the old Tamil script, as indicated by the label parivadini-e inscribed on them. While the actual notations, or remnants of them, are to be seen in the first two cases, they have disappeared in the rest. The extant colophons indicate that the art o the parivadini ( a stringed lute) called Vidya-parivadini was enunciated by a Gunasena, and the notations were got inscribed for the benefit of the votaries by a king who was a great Saiva or Paramamahesvara, and a disciple of Rudracharya. While the Satyagirisvara cave-temple at Tirumayam is thus connected by the presence of the musical inscriptions with the others above, it has besides, as one of its dvarapalas flanking the shrine entrance, a portrait sculpture of a king or chieftain which is found also in the cave-temples at Kunnandarkovil and Devarmalai within 48 km from it in the same district (Pudukkottai). What is more, it is also found in the Siva cave-temple at Virasikhamani in the far southern Tirunelveli district and in the cave-temple at kaviyur, near Quilon in Kerala. These would indicate a similarity of origin, namely, Pandya, and a proximity of date. The cave-temple at Tiruandikkara with a south-facing mandapa façade and an east-facing shrine inside on the western wall of the mandapa is celebrated fo the remains of ancient fresco paintings of the same period as Sittannavasal and Tirumalapuram of Pandya vintage.
The Siva cave-temple called Vagisvaram at Malai-yadippatti was excavated by Vidalvidugu Muttaraiyar in the sixteenth yea of Pallava Dantivarman. The adjoining Vishnu cave-temple of a later date was also perhaps a Muttaraiyar excavation. The cave-shrine called Paliyilisvaram at Narttamalai, another Muttaraiyar excavation, dates a few yeas before the seventh year of Pallva Nripatunga in the late ninth century. The same may be said of the Puvalaikkudi cave-shrine, which was excavated by a certain Amarunri Muttaraiyar. The Vishnu cave-temple at Tirumayam, containing the reclining Vishnu group, is a natural cavern converted into a cave-temple with the addition of the façade pillars and other features by a queen of perumbidugu Muttataiyar and would date some time later than the Siva cave-temple of Satyagirisvara adjoining it. A few others like the Mangadu cave-shrine and Malai-k-kolundisvaram cave-shrine in the same area, as also the cave-temples at Tiruvellarai, can be attributed to the Muttaraiyars.
The cave-temples at Trikku, Irunilamkodu, Kottukkal and other places in the northern Kerala region are of the times of the rulers of the Chera country, while those in the southen parts, in the Quilon and Trivandrum districts of Kerala, and the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, or Venadu and Nanjilnadu as they are called, are perhaps mostly of the Pandya affiliation. Because of lack of specific authentication and of the fact that Kerala was under more than one dynasty during the period from the midlle o the seventh to the middle of the ninth centuries to which these cave-temples belong, it would be more correct to give them the regional nomenclature of kerala than to call these all ‘Chera’. The connected political history of the Cheras of the second period after the earlier Sangam epoch starts from the middle of the ninth century.
The two Vishnu cave-temples at Namakkal, one dedicated to Ranganathan or Anantasayin, and the other to Narasimha, are, according to their inscriptions, excavations by the Atiya king, Gunasila of the line of the Adigaimans known earlier from Tamil literature. They belong to the first half of the eighth century and contain some fine sculptures. The inscription in the Ranganathan cave calls it Atiyendra Visnu-gridha and is unique in that it gives an apt description of the varios figures in the iconographic grouping round Anantasayin. The sculptures are noted for their sharp delineation and vigorous poses and flexions that are quite distinct from their Pallava compeers. The Western Gangas of Talkad in south Mysore, folloainw the Chalukya-Rashtrakuta idiom, have left two unfinished cave-temples in the hard rock are Melkote near mysore.
In addition to the incorporation of the Chalukyan traits noted above, these southern cave-temples, essentially following the Pallava Mahendra-style and hard rock tradition, also reproduce many iconic forms that are found in the Pallava rock-cut and structural examples. The more important ones are the reproduction of Durga with a devotee cutting off his own head in sacrifice, a common Pallava a form, reproduced near the Vishnu cave-temple of Tiruttangal, and the Mahishasuramardini group, as at Mahabalipuram and Saluvankuppam, reproduced with variations in the Vagisvaram cave-temple at Malai-yadippatti. The Bhu-Varaha and Gajalakshmi forms are found in the cave-temples at Tirup-parankunram and the Trivikrama form along with Bhu-Varaha in the cave-temple at Namakkal. The other iconographic forms so reproduced are Lingodbhava, harihara, Subrahmanya, Vishnu with garuda in human form, Narasimha, and the tandava forms of Siva.
