epgp.inflibnet.ac.inepgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/S000451PA/P00… · shrines of Vishnu). Many saints and alwars have sung songs in praise of this deity. This

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Paper: 1

Detail Study Of Natyashastra, Specially Dance Related Chapters And

Sangita Ratnakar

Module 14 Kumbhakonam Sarangapani Temple

Sarangapani temple is situated in Kumbakonam in Tanjore district in

Tamilnadu. This is one among the 108 Divya Desam (important

shrines of Vishnu). Many saints and alwars have sung songs in praise

of this deity. This temple is situated on the banks of river Kaveri.

Hence it is one of the Pancharanga kshetrams (five important shrines

of Vishnu in the banks of river Kaveri). Initially the temple was built

by the Pallavas. This temple was then developed magnificently by the

medieval Cholas. Later the Vijayanagar kings and Madurai Nayaks

renovated and contributed towards this temple.

LEGENDS ABOUT SARANGAPANI

There are many interesting legends regarding this temple.

Sarangapani is the Vaishnava diety incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

Jagadish Ayyar in his book South Indian Shrines (Madras, 1922,

p.124) describes the origins of the incarnation of Vishnu as

Sarangapani. In this avatar (incarnation) he was named as

Sarangapani which means (in Tamil) as ‘a person holding a bow in

his hand’. A legendary story in the Sthala Purana reveals that Vishnu

came to earth to bless the mortals. Sage Hemarishi, an ardent

devotee of Vishnu, performed penance to obtain goddess Lakshmi to

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be his daughter. He sat in front of the sacred tank called

porthamarai kulam, in Kumbakonam. Lord Vishnu was pleased by his

prayers and granted the boon to the rishi. Goddess Lakshmi emerged

from the porthamarai pond amonst thousand lotuses and the rishi

was happy to have a daughter. He named her Komalavalli. Since

Lakshmi was already born on earth Lord Vishnu followed her. From

his abode in Vaikundam, Lord Vishnu descended on earth in a chariot

drawn by majestic horses and elephants. In this avatar he was

named as Sarangapani. He stayed in a nearby Siva temple called

Someswara temple. Gradually love bloomed between Sarangapani

and Komalavalli and eventually they got married.

Another popular legend is that a staunch Brahmin devotee of Lord

Vishnu spent all his life in the service of the deity. At the end of his

life he felt his loneliness and prayed that his last rites (karma) to be

performed by the Lord. Aravamudan (name of the festival deity)

descended himself to perform the last rites of the devotee on the

Deepavali day. This ritual is continued till date and the priests

perform the death ritual annually in the temple. This is very rare and

one of its kind rituals performed in a Vishnu temple.

It is believed that Lord Sarangapani was instrumental in compiling

the nalayira divya prabandam. A Vaishnavite saint named Nadamuni,

during his prayers, heard some divine verses in praise of the Lord by

a few devotees in the temple. He was exhilarated and asked them to

sing the remaining verses. The devotees did not know the remaining

thousand verses. Lord Sarangapani appeared in the dream of

Nadamuni and asked him to visit Alwarthirunagari (Vishnu shrine) in

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Tutucorin district to learn the other verses. Here Nadamuni gets

blessings and learns the rest of the verses from saint Namalwar. He

compiles the verses and the hymns sung by twelve Vaishnava saints

(alwars) and this came to be known as nalayira divya prabandam

(4000 holy verses).The tradition of singing the Divyaprabandam / ददव्यप्रबंधम in Vishnu temples continues even today.

The main deity in this temple is in a half-reclining pose. Here again

there is a tale to justify the position of the diety. Saint Thirumizhisai

alwar in his manglasasanam hymns asks the Lord whether he was

resting with a leg pain due to his long walks in the woods during the

Rama avatara. The Lord tries to get up to grace Alwar. Alwar

requests Him to bless him from the half-waking position. This

position of the reclining Perumal (God) is a very unique feature of

this temple.

Sarangapani temple is situated in Kumbakonam in Tanjore district in Tamilnadu, between two rivers -- Arisalaru and Kaveri. The temple is enshrined in a huge granite wall with many small shrines. The temple is built in the Dravidian architecture style. The Raja gopuram (main tower) is 173 feet high and has eleven tiers. This is one of the tallest gopurams in Kumbakonam. There are five more small gopurams around the temple. The temple faces the east direction. The sanctum is shaped and constructed like a chariot and this style of architecture in a temple is called the ratha temple. The chariot is drawn by beautifully sculpted elephants and horses. There are openings from either side of the ratha picturizing the descent of Lord Sarangapani to the chariot. The sanctum faces the east direction. There are two

stepped entrances to the sanctum called utharayana vassal /

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उतरायण वस्सऱ and dakshinayana vassal / दक्षऺणयान वस्सऱ . These two entrances are open for six months in turn according to the direction of the sun. The porthamarai kulam (temple tank) is situated opposite to the western entrance of the temple. The porthamarai tank has a hall in the centre called Hemarishi mantapam

/ हेमररशी मंडऩम . The main deity Sarangapani is in a lying position resting his head on his hand also called pallikonda perumal. The reclining posture of the deity is unique and is known as uddhana sayana. There is a vimana on top of the deity called vaideeka vimana / वदैीक ववमान . There are sculptures around the sanctum sanctorum depicting the story of Narasimha avatara of Lord Vishnu. The temple has two beautifully carved wooden chariots for the annual procession. The chariots weigh 300 tons each. They were renovated in the year 2007. The chariots are taken out in procession twice a year. Once during Brahmotsavam (April-May) and another during Ratha Saptami (January-February). During these festivals the chariots are pulled by thousands of devotees across the streets around the temple. The festival idols of Sarangapani and Komalavalli are brought

to the thermutti / थेरमतु्तत (corner of the street) where the chariot is stationed, after elaborate religious rituals conducted in the temple to the idols. The festival deity is called Aravamudan. This car festival

was praised by Thirumangai Alwar as rathabandham / रथबन्धम .

The temple follows the Pancharatra agama / ऩंचरात्र आगम and the Vadakalai tradition. The temple priest is a Vaishnavite Brahmin. He

performs daily pooja and the annual pooja of the deity. The daily

rituals are performed six times a day. Each ritual comprises three

steps viz. alankaram, (decoration), nivedanam (offering of food) and

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deepa aradanai (waving of lamps) for both Sarangapani and

Komalavalli Thayar. There are weekly, fortnightly and yearly festivals.

All these rituals are conducted with Vedic chants by the priests and

music by nadaswaram and tavil.

INSCRIPTIONS

The Annual Report on South Indian Epigraphy (ARE-1927, p.49)

recorded three inscriptions on the temple. The inscription number

294 is attributed to Kulotunga Chola ΙΙΙ. On the outer prakara on the

base of the mantapa there is an inscription (293) attributed to

Sadasivadeva Maharaya of Vijayanagar dynasty (1482 A.D.). Another

inscription on the base of a hall connected to Sarangapani matha

reads about the contributions of Ragunatha Nayak (1551 A.D.) of

Tanjore. The inscription on the mantapa of the central shrine (ARE

1959, P.64) recounts the endowments of Krishnadevaraya towards

the worship of the deity Sarangapani. From these inscriptions it is

evident that the mantapa in the central shrine came into existence

prior to 1385 A.D. An inscription engraved in the mantapa of the

southern prakara (no.294 of 1927) dates 1178 A.D and belongs to

the nearby Somanatha temple built by Kulothunga Chola.

Apart from these slabs, there are dance sculptures incorporated in

the gopuram of the temple. These are the kinetic expression of a

dance mode codified in the dance text Natyashastra and are called

karanas. On the basis of inscriptional and architectural evidences,

archeologists opine that the Vaishnava shrine is attributed to 14th

century A.D. There are 96 dance figures carved on the outer walls of

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the gopuram. The department of Archeology confirmed that the

dance karanas do not originally belong to this temple. The dance

sculptures belonged to either the Somanatha temple (12-

13centuryA.D.) or the Shiva temple of Cholamarthanda

Chaturvedimangalam, a Brahmadeya in Manninadu. The stylistic

feature of these dance sculptures have little in common with the

other bold reliefs on the gopuram. The dance karanas are inserted

with their names. They are arranged in a horizontal manner as in the

Brihadeswara temple in Tanjore. They are larger than the

Chidambaram karanas and smaller than the dance karanas in the

Brihadeswara temple. The inscription under each relief show that

they are independent slabs. Taking the chronology into

consideration, the dance karanas belong to the later part of 12th

century. This was probably built after the Brihadeswara temple and

implemented the dance karanas on the gopuram.

The extensive work of scholars to fix the date and the connection to

the different karana panels in Sarangapani temple has benefited the

dancers in the study of karanas. These panels were debatable as to

whether the karana sculptures were sculpted by understanding the

technicalities of Natyasastra / नाट्यशास्त्र by the sculptors or were they blindly followed the mere movements they saw by the dancers

or models. The three figures among the reliefs confirm that the

karanas belong to a Shiva temple and not Vaishnava shrine. In one

figure the inscription reads that it is a Tandava of Kali, and the other

inscription reads as Tandava of Shiva. The third figure shows Shiva in

the urdhavatandava / उर्धववतांडव although the inscription reads as suda, possibly the corrupted form of suci (name of a karana). Many

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research scholars have concluded that the reliefs in Sarangapani

temple depicting karanas are from a Shiva temple and date back to

the later part of 12th century A.D.

The dance reliefs on the gopuram does not appear in any sequential

order that coordinates with Natyashastra or other dance texts. Some

inscriptions have been obliterated. In some other reliefs the number

or inscription text is not clear. In a few there is a number and an

inscription. There are few reliefs (ten of them) which do not fall into

the category of karanas. They can be identified as thanas, caris / स्थान, चारी etc. According to the cadences of the movements of karanas, Kapila Vatsyayan divided the karanas available in

Sarangapani temple into the following categories:

1. sama – karanas / सम करण 2. hasta – karanas / हस्त कर 3. swastika – karanas / स्वत्स्तक करण 4. recita – karanas / रेचचत करण 5. vricika- karanas / वतृ्चचक करण 6. sthana- karanas / स्थान करण 7. cari – karanas / चारी करण 8. kati – karanas / कटी करण 9. pada – karanas / ऩाड़ करण 10. uru, parsva / उरु, ऩाचवव

These are grouped in terms of predominant aspect of the stance,

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movement, etc. The karanas are self-contained units with an initial

position of an intermediary path of movement and final stance. In

some there is a continuity with the preceding movement and which

follows the other. The regroupings of karanas make it clear to

understand that 50 percent of the reliefs and inscriptions related to

them are correct and connect with the text of Natyashastra. It also

reveals the sculptors’ observation of the kinetic vocabulary and their

revelation of the art with understanding. The unfinished karana

reliefs in Brihadeswara temple is replaced by great precision in

Sarangapani temple. Later some of the reliefs were found in the

nearby Kumbeshwara temple and added to the sculptures in this

temple. Adding this altogether there are 98 karana reliefs in this

temple.

Many Alwars have sung in the praise of this deity. Thondaradipodi

alwar / थोंदाराददऩोदी अऱवर, poigai alwar / ऩोइगाई अऱवर, Madurakavi alwar / मदरुाकवव अऱवर , Kulasekara alwar / कुऱसेकरा अऱवर , Thirupunazhwar / चथरुऩनुाज्ह्वर, Pei alwar / ऩेइ अल्वर , Boothat alwar / बतूहत अऱवर, Thirumazhisai alwar / चथरुमात्ज्हहसी अऱवर, Nam alwar / नाम अऱवर , Peri alwar / ऩेरी अऱवर and Sri Andal / श्री आनडाऱ have all sung hymns in the praise of the deity and hence the shrine is referred to as padalpettra sthalam. Vishnu is always

portrayed with a conch and a discus, but in this temple the presiding

deity is portrayed as having a bow which is invisible. In most of the

Divya Desam temples the presiding deity is given the prominence in

the rituals. But in Sarangapani temple both presiding and procession

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deity (uthsavamurthi) is given prominence in the rituals. Hence it is

called the Upayapradana Divya Desam with due respect to the

uthsavamurthi.

As Kumbakonam is the place of many sacred rivers it is believed that

the devethas of the rivers come and worship Lord Sarangapani. Since

it is the birth place of Goddess Lakshmi (consort of Vishnu) the pujas

are first offered to the Goddess and then to Sarangapani. The temple

shrines are constructed in such a way that devotees first come to the

shrine of Komalavalli Thayar and then proceed to the Perumal shrine.

The first ritual early in the morning is the gopuja (cow worship)

which is performed in front of the Thayar sannadhi (shrine). The

South Indian temples are the repository of art, architecture, religion,

philosophy, and social interaction. Sarangapani temple in

Kumbakonam is one such temple which represents the South Indian

civilization over the centuries.

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