Vishnu Temples of South India (Set of Five Volumes)

Book Detail:

• Author: Chithra Madhavan

• Publisher: Alpha Publications

• Binding: Paperback

• Number of Pages: 636 (Throughout B/W Illustrations)

• ISBN: N/A

• Languages: English

• Edition: 2019

• Dimensions: 20.5 cm x 12.5 cm

• Weight: 740 gm

  Book Description

  Volume I

  About the Book

  South India is famous for his temples, both big and small, found in every city, town and village. Many of these temples are dedicated to Vishnu. While some these temples are famous, there are many others which are not well-known. This book contains thirty articles on Vishnu temples in Tamil Nadu. Four of these are Divya Desams or the temples sanctified by the hymns of the Azhvars or the Vaishnava saints and are famous. All the other articles in this book describe the smaller temples, mostly found in villages, small towns or in suburbs of Chennai which are also important historic and religious centres, but are unfortunately not visited often. The articles focus on the legends connected with these temples, their history, art and architecture and the festivals celebrated here. This book also highlights the ancient historic inscriptions etched on the walls of the shrines which provide an authentic account of the donations made by royalty and common people alike and the important role the temples played in the socio-economic sphere in times bygone.

   About the Author

   Chithra Madhavan completed her M.A. and M.Phil. from the Department of Indian History, University of Madras and her Ph.D. from the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Mysore. She has received two post-doctoral fellowship from the Department of culture, Government of India and from the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi. She has authored six books-History and Culture of Tamil Nadu (in two volumes), Vishnu temples of south India (in three volumes) and Sanskrit Education and Literature in Ancient and Medieval Tamil Nadu- An Epigraphical Study. She has written the text for a coffee-table book Snapshots of A Bygone Era- A Century of Images which contains about a 100 photographs of monuments of India. Chithra has co-edited a book South India Heritage-An Introduction containing approximately 500 articles on various aspects of the heritage and culture of South India. She has also compiled a book Kalakshetra Reflections – sculptures which has articles by eminent art historians.

   

  Foreword

   

  India is a land of temples. They are not merely places of worship but are centres of all kinds of activities. Over a period of time, they have developed into all-round institutions where people congregate for discourses, artistic performances and festivals, besides offering prayers. There are historical evidences to show that, in times of scarcity, the temples used to maintain people through supply of grains and food. While almost every individual or family has a small recess in their homes for prayers, everyone wishes to visit temples for worshipping the deity of their choice, whose Image has been installed according to Vedic rites. Moreover, temples are considered as symbolic manifestations of the God's Form. The topmost point of the temple is the Head (sikhara), the sanctum sanctorum is the Heart (hridaya), the front hall is the stomach (kukshi) and the main gate represents the Feet (pada). The deity's Image is the soul of this human form. Thus, every part of the temple is considered sacred. According to another tradition, the temple is the microcosm of the universe, with the Image as the moving spirit and other areas of the temple as surrounding sheaths encasing the universe. A third interpretation of the temple is a lotus pond, where the sanctum represents the water, the fixed Image (moola vigraha) is the root, and the mobile Image (utsava vigraha) represents the lotus itself. Be that as it may, the temple is an integral part of man's spiritual and social life in India. Not only is the actual site of the temple considered sacred, but the village or town where the temple is located is treated as a 'sacred spot' (Divyadesa). Srivaishnavas consider 106 such places as Divyadesas, as the Azhvars have sung about them in the Nalayira Divyaprabandha. (Two more are in the transcendental plane, viz. the Milky Ocean and Srivaikuntha.) Besides these Divyadesas, there are many popular kshetras, called abhimana sthalas, which contain popular temples. There is actually a saying in Tamil which enjoins a person not to live in a place which has no temple (Ulaga-neeti 4: koyil illaa ooril kudiyirukka vendaa).

   Growth of Temples

   From early beginnings, where modest shrines consisted of brick and mortar structures around certain selected trees (banyan, pipal, neem, etc.) to modern temple-towns like Srirangam, Tirumala, Rameswaram, Kanchipuram and others, the growth of temples makes inspiring reading. Successive dynasties like the Guptas, Pallavas, Chalukyas and the three famous kingdoms of Chera, Chozha and Pandiya in the south have fervently contributed not only the physical structures but also engaged themselves in artistic representations on the temple. One can spend weeks and months in going round and enjoying the grandeur of the temples at Srirangam, Kanchipuram and Madurai. While royalty busied itself with large temples in the capitals, lesser potentates engaged themselves in building smaller temples in almost every other place in the hinterland. The result is a countless number of temples in the country, some of which are very popular, but many remain unknown.

   Yagasala and Temple

   A unique feature of all the temples is its layout. It is seen that, commencing from the outer compound wall up to the sanctum sanctorum, the temple is laid out in the form of a sacrificial site (yagasala). There is no reference to worship of images in the early Vedic ages. Of course, there were some structures inside the sacrificial area where materials for oblations were kept and where oblations were actually offered. In some of the Grihyasutras, a temple is mentioned as a place 'where the student observing the Mahanamni-vrata has to fast' (The Vedic Age, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, 1988, p.105). Traditional historians have therefore concluded that, though temples probably existed, they played no important part in the sacrificial rituals. Though the Itihasas and Puranas refer to the existence of temples in various places, sacrifices were more prominent. People seeking favours from divine elements or solutions to their problems performed fire sacrifices with the help of trained priests and their assistants. Appropriate mantras were chanted, materials that would please the deities were offered in the fire and the gods were invoked to come and grant the favours of the worshippers. This was an elaborate procedure and hence needed extensive space too. As time passed on, the type and number of sacrifices gradually declined and, in their place, concrete images of the deities came to be installed to whom offerings were directly made. The temple-culture grew fast in the country with many types of variations. But structurally, the similarity between the sacrifice site and a temple was maintained as is seen from the fact that the sacrificial post (yoopastambha) became the standard mast (dhvajastambha), the fire-pit became the sanctum sanctorum and the main altar of the site became the main image (moola vigraha) in the temple. While Vedic sacrifices were open only to a few persons (there were exceptions where those performed by kings were grand affairs and were spread over large areas to accommodate large crowds), all temples, whatever be their size, were public places which attracted many worshippers who had to be accommodated. At the same time, the sanctity of the temple had to be protected. This, in turn, led to sacrificial sites being earmarked inside the temples for use on important occasions like Pavitrotsava (purificatory festival), Brahmotsava (big annual festival), etc. Thus, from a minor position in the Vedic times, the temple has come a long distance to occupy an important place in every village or town in our country.

   Preface

   Tamil Nadu is known for the beautiful temples dotting every city, town and village. Many of the larger temples dedicated to Vishnu are well-known and are often visited by devotees and also by those interested in history, archaeology and temple architecture. The Divya Desams or temples wherein the deities have been eulogized by the Azhvars (Vaishnavite saints) in their hymns (Pasurams) collectively called Nalayira Divya Prabandham, are quite famous and many books and articles have been written about them. However, there are innumerable smaller Vishnu temples in cities, towns and villages, which have not been glorified by the Azhvars, but are still very important from the religious and historical perspective. Unfortunately, these temples are not very well-known and therefore not many people visit them.

   

  This book, Vishnu Temples of South India Volume I (Tamil Nadu), is a collection of my articles on Vishnu temples serialized in Sri Nrisimhapriya (English). They focus mainly on the smaller Vishnu temples of Tamil Nadu, especially those near Chennai and Kanchipuram. Many of these temples are associated with the lives of the Srivaishnava preceptors (Acharyas). Some are also of great historical importance, having many important inscriptions etched on their walls of the times of the Pallava, Pandya, Chola and Vijayanagara monarchs. They reveal that these temples were the hub of the socio-economic and cultural life of the villages and towns in which they were situated. Some of these temples are also of great architectural beauty and are studded with innumerable sculptures which reveal the talent and dexterity of the architects and sculptors of times bygone.

   

  This book would not have been published but for the blessings of H.H. the 45th Jiyar of the Ahobila Math. His Holiness has always been encouraging those who study the Srivaishnava Sampradaya and who try to spread it among the people at large. I take this opportunity to offer my deeper obeisance and gratitude to him.

   

  I am grateful to Professor M. Narasimhachary (former Editor-in- Chief) and Smt. Lakshmi Devnath (former Associate Editor) of Sri Nrisimhapriya (English edition) for giving me the opportunity to contribute my articles on temples to this esteemed publication.

   

  I wish to thank Dr. M.K. Srinivasan (former Editor-in-Chief), Sri Nrisimhapriya (English edition), for all his encouragement and guidance and for publishing my articles every month. I am extremely grateful to him for going through the manuscript and for contributing a scholarly foreword to this book.

   

  My heartfelt thanks to Dr. Anuradha Sridharan, (former Associate Editor, Sri Nrisimhapriya), for all the kindness and help she has shown to me over the years. She has evinced much interest in the publication of this book and has meticulously gone through the proofs of the manuscript.

   

  I am thankful to the Trustees of Sri Nrisimhapriya for permitting me to publish the articles serialized in Nrisimhapriya (English) in book form.

   

  I am extremely grateful to Turbo Energy Ltd., Chennai, for sponsoring the publication of this book.

   

  My sincere thanks to Sri. M.N. Srinivasan who has very kindly supplied me with many excellent photogaphs of the deities in the temples covered in this book.

   

  In this endeavour, I must acknowledge my gratitude to all the Bhattacharyas of the temples which I have visited for providing me with plenty of information about these shrines.

   

  I owe a lot to my parents for all their support and encouragement over the years and especially for accompanying me to many temples. Particular thanks are due to my teacher, Prof K.V.Raman (Former Professor and Head, Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Madras). My interest in and knowledge of Vishnu temples is mainly due to him.

   

  I wish to thank Dr. Padma Seshadri for the keen interest she has shown in all my academic pursuits and for telling me about some of the temples which I have written about in this book. As always, I my thankful to my well-wishers, Sri L.J.Krishnamurthi and Smt. Shobha Jayaraman.

   

  I deem it my good fortune to have been able to visit all these temples and to write about them. It is my sincere prayer that those who read this book will also visit these hoary shrines which are repositories of our ancient traditions and customs.