Expanding Form - The Architectural Sculpture-South Indian Temple - 1500-1700 - Branfoot

'Expanding Form': The Architectural Sculpture of the South Indian Temple, ca.
1500-
1700
Author(s): Crispin Branfoot
Source: Artibus Asiae , 2002, Vol. 62, No. 2 (2002), pp. 189-245
Published by: Artibus Asiae Publishers
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3250266
REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3250266?seq=1&cid=pdf-
reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
Artibus Asiae Publishers is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Artibus Asiae
This content downloaded from

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
CRISPIN BRANFOOT
'EXPANDING FORM': THE ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTURE
OF THE SOUTH INDIAN TEMPLE

CA. 1500-I700
INTRODUCTION
ntering the Antal temple in Srivilliputtur after sunset is an eerie experienc

lights and noise of the bazaar, the corridors leading to the heart of the temp
Tall columns line the corridor and huge figures emerge out of the columns them
are fierce sword-wielding gods killing diminutive demons, and lion-headed mo
ing their sharp claws, alongside more peaceful figures of dancing women and
playing his flute. These large-scale sculptures are among the most striking featu
ple complexes built in Nayaka-period Tamilnadu in the sixteenth and seventee
ing as bold an effect on the twenty-first-century visitor as they must have done on
them four hundred years ago.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Tamilnadu, the growth of tem
large numbers of shrines, halls, gateways, and corridors led to the use of major
the temple, especially on the composite columns in the corridors and open det
(man.dapas) that are such a distinctive feature of the period. The composite co
earliest form of column created in the Tamil country but is rectangular in sect
Each is a monolith up to five or six metres in height. The origin of the south I
lies in Tamilnadu but the figural composite column developed further nor
prominently at the capital of the Vijayanagara empire in the early sixteenth ce
teenth century and on into the seventeenth huge architectural sculptures began
temples in Tamilnadu, with figures two to three metres high as part of compos
a single piece of stone. The subjects depicted in these Nayaka-period architectu
from images of deities familiar throughout India, to figures from local Tamil f
cavalrymen, mythical lion-headed animals, and life-size portraits of kings and
Earlier studies of Hindu sculpture in Tamilnadu have focused on the fine po
the seventh to eleventh centuries cast in bronze and the stone images fitted i
on the exterior of a temple's main shrine and its attached mandapa. This article
the genre of the figural composite column as a distinctive feature of Nayaka-p
In section one, the development of the composite column within the Tamil Drav
tecture and the spread of the figural composite column as an architectural ty
India will be addressed. The artistic and technical developments which culmina
these dramatic architectural sculptures demonstrate the vitality of Nayaka-pe
The emergence of a deity from a column is also a conceptual development, an
of'expanding form' evident in a range of Hindu sculpture and iconography. Th
I89

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
animation
animation of a stone
of acolumn
stoneby column
the apparent
byemergence
the apparent
of a figure from
emergence
within - is of
evident
a figure
in two from within
ways,
ways, firstly
firstly
in the form
in the
of anform
individual
ofcolumn,
an individual
and secondly column,
in the evolution
and of secondly
the figural com-
in the evolution
posite
posite column
column
during the
during
sixteenth
theandsixteenth
seventeenth centuries.
and seventeenth
Section two outlines
centuries.
the distribution
Section two outline
of
offigural
figural
composite
composite
columns in columns
the Tamil region
in the
(ill. i)Tamil
and provides
region
a survey
(ill.
andi)explanation
and provides
of the a survey and
range
range of subjects
of subjects
depicted. depicted.
TAMIL TEMPLE SCULPTURE
Tamil temples in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were constructed in a form
built six or seven hundred years previously, with a series of enclosed manzdapas a
shrine unit (vimadna), but were often part of larger complexes with multiple walled
and towered pyramidal gateways (gopuras). The exterior walls of the vimdana, and u
enclosed columned hall (ardhamandapa) attached to its front, often include distinct n
containing figural sculptures. The typical early Chola-period temple from the tent
figural niche at the centre of each wall of the vimdna and another at the centre of each s
ardhamandapa, though some have three on each side of the ardhamandapa. A major v
of the mid- to late-twelfth-century Airavatesvara temple at Darasuram, has five nich
The number and prominence of these niches and the fine stone images placed in th
focus of attention for many scholars studying early Tamil temples, whether in th
attached mandapas or the stone bases of the gopuras that are such a dominant elem
ples from the eleventh century onwards.
Continuity with this earlier practice is demonstrated by the many sixteenth- and
tury Nayaka-period temples with similar niches containing large sculptures, sculpt
fitted into place on the exterior walls, which are articulated as a series of projecting
niches were not essential in the later periods. The vimanas, mandapas, and gopuras
period temples have no niches at all. The great size and scale of many Nayaka-perio
pared with earlier ones, especially gopuras, mean that the sculptures of deities in ni
nent than earlier, for they remain at a similar scale to those in earlier temples, rath
in size proportionately to the whole structure of which they are part. More often t
niches in a late-sixteenth-century Tamil temple are either devoid of sculpture or ma
image in relief that emerges out of the flat wall of the temple, a concept unusual in
Though occasionally a sculpture may have been removed, many niches in Nayaka-p
never intended to contain a sculpted figure. This is clear from the examples of nic
too narrow or too shallow ever to have accommodated a sculpture of a deity (fig. 3
I The absence of sculptures in niches that are too shallow to receive them is also a feature of nin
temples in the Pandyan region, some distance south from the main scholarly focus on the central,
inated by the Cholas. See K.V. Soundara Rajan in Michael Meister and M.A. Dhaky, eds., Encyclop
ple Architecture: Lower Dravidadesa (Delhi: American Institute of Indian Studies, 1983), II2. This
acteristic of the later Karnata Dravida tradition of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in which th
is clearly sufficiently meaningful without the reinforcement that figural sculpture in niches woul
I90

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Though niche sculpture in stone appears to be less important in Nayaka-period temples than in
earlier ones, sculpture remained a major feature, and images in stone or metal were still produced for
use as the main m7rtis under worship inside the temple or as processional images.2 The complex struc-
ture of many later sixteenth-century vimanas, with great attention to detail in the forms of the base
mouldings, engaged columns, and roofs, emphasises the sculptural quality of the Tamil Dravida tra-
dition and indeed Indian temple architecture in general (exemplified by rock-cut monuments such as
the rathas at Mamallapuram or the rock-cut caves of the Western Deccan). In Tamil temples, reliefs
of deities and other figures often fill the flat recesses of the sub-base (upapitha) and the horseshoe arches
(ndsi, Tamil kutu) of the curved eave moulding (kapota) in the base and above the wall. These can
become quite substantial and contain large narrative and mythological scenes rather than just a sin-
gle small figure. The upapitha of the mid-sixteenth-century Kutal Alakar temple in Madurai, for exam-
ple, has recessed panels up to 46 centimetres high and up to 98 centimetres wide containing relief scenes
of the Krsnalzld under the central sala-aedicule on each side of the vimdna.3 Columns were also covered
with small, low-relief images of deities, which, while of interest for the range of subjects depicted, do
not have great visual impact in the manner of figural composite columns.
Two of the most elaborate examples of the increased use of major relief sculpture are found at the
Alakiya Nampirayar (Visnu) temple at Tirukkurunkudi in southern Tamilnadu, and the Gopalakrsna
temple in the Ranganatha temple complex at Srirangam. The Chitra Gopura at the Alakiya Nam-
pirayar temple is the entrance to the second of three east-facingprdkdras of this substantially Nayaka-
period temple. Rather than having separately sculpted images of deities fitted into niches, very detailed
reliefs are sculpted on the flat surfaces of the projecting aedicules from which the gopura is composed,
and in the large ndsis, each approximately 45 centimetres high (fig. 4). These are not just of individ-
ual figures but large scenes of Siva as Daksinamurti, Krsna playing the flute and stealing the bathing
gopfs' clothes (fig. 5), a ratha procession, small shrines, and groups of dancers. The Gopalakrsna tem-
ple is located in the southwest corner of the fourth prdkdra of the Ranganatha temple complex (ca.
1674).4 The walls of both the vimana and ardhamandapa are dramatised by large high-relief sculptures
of women and Krsna (fig. 6).
While continuity with earlier sculptural practice is evident in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
temples, the major emphasis of Nayaka-period sculptors was on the creation of composite columns,
and more particularly the carving of large-scale figural composite columns, with images up to three
metres high, lining the corridors and open mandapas that proliferate in the period. Although in gen-
eral it is appropriate to study Hindu sculpture in its original temple context, with figural composite
columns there is no option, as it cannot easily be removed, unlike stone sculptures originally fitted
2 There are, however, no studies of specifically Nayaka-period detached sculptures, such as exist for the Chola period.
But some fifteenth- to seventeenth-century sculptures in stone and bronze are discussed, for example, in C. Sivara-
mamurti, South Indian Bronzes (New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1963) and George Michell, Architecture and Art of
Southern India: Vijayanagara and the Successor States, I350o-750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, I995), I15-
2I9, who also discusses figural composite columns.
3 Crispin Branfoot, "Approaching the Temple in Nayaka-period Madurai: The Kutal Alakar Temple," Artibus Asiae
60o, 2 (2000): 197-221.
4 Madras Reports on Epigraphy nos. I02-I04 of 1937.
I9I

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
into niches or metal sculpture used in festival processions that feature in so many museum collections
and salesrooms. This in part may explain the absence of studies of this type of sculpture, as, with one
notable exception in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, little Nayaka-period architectural sculpture
has left its original context in a Tamil temple.5
Origins and Development of the Composite Column
The composite column is an adaptation of the simple column form present in the earliest rock-cut caves
and structural temples of the Tamil Dravida architectural tradition. The earliest examples of the sim-
ple column form are cubical at top and bottom, and therefore square in section, with chamfered sides
in the middle creating an octagonal section. Later examples retain a cubical middle and have octago-
nally chamfered sections above and below; thus they are divided vertically into five parts, of square
then octagonal section (square-octagon-square-octagon-square) (fig. 7, ill. 2). From the sixteenth cen-
tury, the octagonal parts are normally chamfered into sixteen sides with a band around. While the
number of parts generally remains consistently five, the height of the column can be varied by elon-
gating the lowest and topmost sections (nos. i and 5 in ill. 2), the central part (no. 3 in ill. 2) usually
remaining cubical no matter how tall the whole shaft. Many simple columns, and all composite
columns, have a moulded base beneath this core shaft, sculpted from the same monolith. They sup-
port a series of separately sculpted capital elements stacked one upon another, which in the Nayaka
period include the puspapotikd (flower-bud bracket-capital) and the seated simrnha, and ultimately the
flat beams of the stone roof.6
What distinguishes the composite column from the simple column are additional columns emerg-
ing from the same monolith. This scheme is the basis for substantial variation, for composite columns
may have several attached columns or colonettes, sometimes carved fully in the round on one or more
sides of the core column, which I describe as 'detached' though they are still joined top and bottom to
the core monolith; or they may have attached figural sculpture.7 Whilst the basic composite column
has only a single attached column, some of the most remarkable composite columns are made up of
over twenty slender colonettes clustering around the core column, known as 'musical columns' because
5 W. Norman Brown in A Pillared Hallfrom a Temple at Madura, India, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, I940) discusses a mandapa with figural sculpture from Madurai, probably the Kutal
Alakar temple. In an earlier article (Branfoot, "Approaching the Temple") I expressed some doubt that this man.dapa
could come from the Kutal Alakar temple as its form suggested it was a detached festival mandapa and there is no
room for such a structure. However, the similarly dated Saundararaja Perumal temple at Tatikkompu north of
Dindigul has an open mandapa with figural composite columns along the main aisle attached to the goddess' shrine
rather than as a separate structure. The Philadelphia Museum's mandapa was probably similarly placed directly in
front of the Kutal Alakar's goddess shrine dedicated to Maturavalli tayar. Such a layout, with a festival mandapa placed
directly in front of the goddess' shrine, is not unusual though only a few have such elaborate figural composite columns
as that at Tatikkompu and, clearly originally, at the Kutal Alakar in Madurai.
6 In Illustration 2, the monolith is the whole of the composite column indicated by the vertical line on the left, includ-
ing the base, the main shaft (I-5) and the lower of the twopuspapotikds. The bracket-capital (potika) is one of the diag-
nostic features used to date Tamil temples by the pioneering historian of south Indian architecture, Gabriel Jouveau-
Dubreuil, Dravidian Architecture (1917; reprint, ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyengar, Varanasi: Bharat-Bharati, 1972).
7 In modern Tamil this column type is called anivettikkal or aniyottikkal. Composite columns may also be termed piers
(Michell, Architecture and Art of Southern India, 174), but the former is here preferred. In Western Classical architec-
I92

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
of the sound made when the colonettes are struck. They are relatively unusual in the Tamil country,
occurring mainly in the far south. Examples include pairs in the tdydr shrine's open mandapa at
Tatikkompu, the front of the mahdmandapa of the Alakar temple at Alagarkoyil, the Iooo-Column
Mandapa of the Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple at Madurai (fig. 8), the southern festival mandapa of the
Adinatha temple at Alvar Tirunagari, and the porch of the Nellaiyappar temple at Tirunelveli, all dat-
ing to the Nayaka period.8
The origin of the basic composite column lies firmly in Tamilnadu. The mid- to late-twelfth-cen-
tury Airavatevara temple and the adjacent goddess temple th at Darasuram have some columns that are
prototypes of the later composite column with a shallow, flat pilaster added to one side of the core col-
umn or overlaying the rner in anticipation of the amuch larger engaged columns that create the more
substantial composite columns (fig. 9). The Bhojesvara temple at Kannanur (or Samayapuram), eight
miles north of Srirangam, and the Nilagirisvara temple just west of the Jambukesvara temple on Sri-
rangam island itself (fig. io) both have early examples of the composite column and date to the thir-
teenth century.9 While the Nilagirisvara temple's composite columns have three square colonettes still
adjoining the core column, the composite columns of the Bhojesvara temple's mukhamandapa have
three colonettes sculpted fully in the round and only attached at top and bottom at the corners in a
manner similar to composite columns in use at Vijayanagara two centuries later (fig. ii).
In addition to the basic composite column shown in Illustration 2, the most common composite
columns throughout southern India are those with a rearing mythical animal, the vydla (Sanskrit) or
ydli (Tamil) or those with detached colonettes, either a single one or three at the corners. All these
types have clear precedents in thirteenth-century Tamilnadu at the two temples mentioned above, the
ydIi column at the early-thirteenth-century Kampaharesvara temple at Tribhuvanam (fig. 12), and the
composite columns with three detached colonettes at the Bhojesvara temple at Kannanur. But
significant developments took place at Vijayanagara in the Deccan. Whilst the basic composite col-
umn itself developed from around the twelfth century out of the simple Tamil Dravida column form
in Tamilnadu, the major development of the figural composite column took place in the Deccan dur-
ing the early sixteenth century, especially at Hampi, the capital of the Vijayanagara empire. This fol-
lowed the adoption of the Tamil Dravida tradition of architecture at the capital in the early fifteenth
century.10 But the Tamil Dravida-inspired temples built at the capital in the fifteenth and especially
tural terminology, the pier is not simply an enlarged column but a solid mass between a window, door or other open-
ing. They are usually square or rectangular, and may be connected with engaged columns or pilasters, or have a base
and capital of their own.
8 Five further examples from a dismantled mandapa are placed within the outer north gopura of the Minaksi-Sundaresvara
temple at Madurai. The outer open mandapa of the Vitthala temple at Vijayanagara, completed in I554, has a variety of
composite columns similarly identified as 'musical' columns. Cf. Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat and Vasundhara Filliozat,
Hampi-Vijayanagar: The Temple of Vithala (New Delhi: Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Scientific Research, 1988), 29,32-37.
9 K.R. Srinivasan in Meister and Dhaky, eds., Encyclopaedia, 333-337.
IO The fifteenth-century Ramacandra temple is one of the earliest examples of this new Tamil-derived architectural tra-
dition in the Deccan for it is markedly different from the earlier temples found at the capital, such as those on Hemakuta
Hill and those in the wider region, the final temples built in the Karnata Dravida tradition. George Michell, "Revival-
ism as the Imperial Mode: Religious Architecture During the Vijayanagara Period," in Perceptions of South Asia's Visual
Past, ed. Catherine B. Asher and Thomas R. Metcalf(New Delhi: Oxford and IBH Publishing Co., 1994), 187-I97.
193

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
early sixteenth centuries were not simple copies of fifteenth-century temples in Tamilnadu, but local
adaptations incorporating many Deccan elements. Vimainas were built in the Tamil tradition but may
have Deccani features, such as the projecting sukanasa over the ardhamanzdapa, a square mandapa entered
on three sides, and multiple garbhagrhas. The use of granite, sometimes cited as evidence of the
Vijayanagara-period break with past practice in the Deccan, is partly related to that stone's availabil-
ity at the capital, but it is also a Tamil tradition.
The basic composite column of the Tamil Dravida tradition was thus adopted at Vijayanagara but
the advent of the figural composite column signalled a new architectural form, which subsequently
spread throughout southern India." The major temples built at Vijayanagara in the first half of the
sixteenth century in the established 'imperial' tradition, such as the Virupaksa, Tiruvengalanatha,
Vitthala, Krsna, Pattabhirama, and Ranganatha temples, incorporated the composite column adapted
from the simple Tamil column type as a standard architectural feature of open detached and attached
mandapas. The most elaborate composite columns at Vijayanagara are those in the open attached
mancdapa built in 1554 of the Vitthala temple and the similarly dated cruciform open mandapa along-
side. Some of these composite columns have twelve detached colonettes and two rearing yezlis spread-
ing around the four sides of the core column (fig. I3).12 The attached mandapa is also notable for some
of the earliest examples of figural composite columns, though at under a metre in height, these images
of deities are much smaller and less prominent than the examples of such sculpture in Tamilnadu a
decade or two later (fig. 14).
The creation of individual composite columns, from the basic form in thirteenth-century Tamil-
nadu to the figural examples of the sixteenth-century Deccan, had a notable impact on the design of
temple structures from this period. Composite columns are architecturally significant for they allowed
greater distances to be spanned within temple complexes, supporting much longer beams in higher,
wider, and more open corridors and mandapas. This is in contrast to the earlier prevalence of mandIapas
with dense rows of shorter columns that left narrower aisles between them. The use of the composite
column in Tamil temples went alongside the continued use of simple columns. As the basic compos-
ite column spread in Tamilnadu from the mid-sixteenth century, so too did the addition of compos-
ite columns with figural sculptures. Most of the figural sculptures of composite columns have no archi-
tectonic function in themselves, as did the caryatids or atlantides of the Western Classical tradition,
which completely replaced a column.
From its beginnings at Vijayanagara, the figural composite column became a standard element in
the great number of temples built in the Deccan and especially Tamilnadu from the middle of the six-
teenth century and throughout the seventeenth. The changing nature of mandapa design and the use
ii The means of transmission of architectural and sculptural forms cannot be securely determined. However, the evi-
dence of Tamil stoneworkers' inscriptions on the mid-fifteenth-century Saumya Somesvara temple in Nimbapura at
Vijayanagara suggests that some Tamils migrated north to work at the capital itself (T.M. Manjunathaiah in Vijayana-
gara, Progress of Research, 1987-88 (Mysore: Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of Karnataka, I991),
I65-167). Tamil architects are also known from inscriptions to have migrated in the fourteenth century to work on
sites in the central highlands of Sri Lanka, constructing Buddhist image-houses just west of Kandy in the I340s. This
migration both north and south may have been due to a lack of major temple construction in the fifteenth century
throughout much of Tamilnadu; few temples can be securely dated before the last decade.
12 Filliozat and Filliozat, Hampi-Vijayanagar, 29, 32-37.
I94

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
of simple columns, basic composite columns, and figural composite columns are illustrated by four
mandapas built between ca. 1526 and 1630 in the Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple at Madurai. The 0oo-
Column Mandapa in the northeast corner of the Sundaresvara temple's second prdkdra was built ca.
1526 with low composite columns around the exterior and along the main interior aisle but with no
figural composite columns.13 Fifty years later, between 1572 and 1595, the larger Iooo-Column Mandapa
was added to the northeast corner of the expanded third prdkara, part of the huge late-sixteenth-cen-
tury expansion of the temple.14 Here, basic composite columns are placed around the outer edge of the
mandapa, whilst composite columns with figures are placed in two rows across the southern entrance
to the mandapa and along the wide main aisle leading down the centre with its higher roof (fig. I).
Shorter, much plainer columns are placed along the narrower adjacent aisles in stark contrast to the
elaboration of the central aisle's figural composite columns. Of the 985 columns in this mandzapa, less
than one-sixth are composite columns and of those, thirty-two have 'life-size' images of deities, two
are 'musical' columns, and a further twenty-four are yali composite columns, all concentrated across
the entrance and along the main aisle.
Particularly from the early seventeenth century many mandapas contained no simple columns but
only composite columns. The Viravasantaraya Mandapa that connects the east gopuras to the south of
the Iooo-Column Mandapa was built ca. I609-1623.'5 Its long cruciform aisle, with higher ceilings
and longer beams than before, is made up only of composite columns, many of them huge in cross-
section; six of the columns have attached deities and two have yalis at the east end. Shortly afterwards,
the construction of the Putu Mandapa (ca. 1630) further to the east in the same temple is a good exam-
ple of the preference for using only composite columns, many with figural sculpture: thirty-four of
the 124 composite columns have figural sculptures attached.'6 These four mandapas do not exhaust the
wealth of figural composite columns in the Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple, which has more of this col-
umn type than any other temple in Tamilnadu. There are further examples of 1.5- to 3-metre-high
deities attached to composite columns in the Kampattati Mandapa (ca. 1572-95) at the entrance to the
Sundaresvara shrine, the Kilikkfittu Mandapa (ca. 1623) and the Mutali Mandapa (ca. 1613), on the west
and east sides, respectively, of the tank, and the Astasakti Mandapa (early to mid-seventeenth century),
the southeast entrance to the temple complex.
The increasing prevalence of composite columns, both basic and figural, in many locations in the
larger temple complexes of this period coincides with notable developments in the creation of indi-
vidual composite columns, both in their form and the range of subjects depicted, the latter discussed
in the next section. Ydli composite columns remained common throughout the whole Nayaka period,
and were joined by a much greater variety of sculpted figures, both deities and humans.
13 A.V. Jeyechandrun, The Madurai Temple Complex (with Special Reference to Literature and Legends) (Madurai: Madurai
Kamaraj University, 1985), I69 and D. Devakunjari, Madurai Through the Ages: From the Earliest Times to i80o A.D.
(Madras: Society for Archaeological, Historical and Epigraphical Research, I979), 239-240.
14 William Taylor, Oriental Historical Manuscripts in the Tamil Language, 2 vols. (Madras, I835), vol. 2, 116; Devakunjari,
Madurai, 243 collects the source material together.
15 Ibid., 245; Jeyechandrun, Madurai Temple Complex, 182.
i6 Crispin Branfoot, "Tirumala Nayaka's 'New Hall' and the European Documentation of the South Indian Temple,"
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society II, 2 (July 200I): 191-218.
I95

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
In the early sixteenth century many figural composite columns remained orthogonal, the typical
sculpted yali generally remaining a small part of the whole composite column and barely emerging
from the confines of the monolith. The yali composite columns of the open mahadrragamandapa of the
Virupaksa temple at Vijayanagara (ca. 1509/I0) illustrate this.17 Though skilfully sculpted composi-
tions, the yalis are compact and squat and are not immediately apparent within the architectural form.
The yali composite columns on the exterior of the similarly dated iooo-Column Mandapa in the fifth
prdkdra of the Arunacalesvara temple at Tiruvannamalai, much farther south in northern Tamilnadu,
are also very small and squat, and remain within the rectangular monolithic block (fig. i6).18
As composite columns grew in size in the sixteenth century, both vertically and forward, some
added large high-relief sculptures to the sides or even front of the projection. The figural composite
columns of the open entrance mandapa and the partially ruined festival man dapa of the Virabhadra tem-
ple at Lepakshi in the southern Deccan are of this type, dating to around 1530-42 (fig. 17). Further south
and sixty years or more later, the composite columns of the Ramaswami temple's outer mandapa at
Kumbakonam in central Tamilnadu (ca. I6IO-20) similarly have composite columns with high-relief
sculptures.I9 Figural composite columns face outwards to the north at the entrance to the mandapa
and line the central cruciform aisle. The figures, which include Rati, Krsna, Hanuman, Trivikrama,
and perhaps a portrait image of the temple's patron, Raghunatha Nayaka of Tanjavur, are up to
170 centimetres in height and very skilfully carved, but do not substantially emerge from the stone block
(fig. i8). In all these examples, whether in the early sixteenth or early seventeenth century, the yali,
mounted cavalryman, or deity remains within the architectural member rather than emerging from it.
From the mid-sixteenth century in Tamilnadu the figure becomes a much larger part of the whole
composite column and appears to be almost completely detached from the column support. While
yali composite columns remain almost wholly unidirectional and frontal with little lateral spread even
as composite columns grow in size, figural composite columns with attached deities develop into very
lively fully three-dimensional sculptures bursting forth from the composite column. Particularly strik-
ing are the figures of multi-armed deities, such as Nataraja, holding many weapons and other attrib-
utes in the arms that spread to either side of the figure (fig. I9).
Dating architectural sculpture and the mandapas in which they are found is not always straight-
forward. Dating by inscription is problematic because, compared with the ninth to twelfth centuries
in Tamilnadu, inscriptions are relatively scarce in the Nayaka period.20 If there are few inscriptions in
general, then there are even fewer to be found on temple structures and only some of those have clear
dates. The dated inscriptions on temples tend to be on the main shrine and its attached man.dapas or
the gateways ofgopuras and not on detached mandapas with composite columns.21 Amidst this general
I7 Annual Report on South Indian Epigraphy, 1889, no. 29; Epigraphia Indica I, 36I-37I.
i8 Built by Krishnadevaraya in saka I435 or 1438 (15I3/4 or 1516/7); cf. South Indian Inscriptions VIII no. I65, Madras Reports
on Epigraphy no. 574 of 1902 and copperplate 32 of I940-41.
19 Vivek Nanda, Anna Dallapiccola and George Michell, "The Ramasvami Temple, Kumbakonam," South Asian Studies
13 (I997): I-I5.
20 David Ludden, Peasant History in South India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, I985), 70.
21 The only detached festival mandapa I know of which can be directly dated by an inscription on the structure itself is
on the north side of the thirdprdkara of the Margasahayesvara temple at Vrinjipuram in northern Tamilnadu. A Tamil
I96

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
dearth of dated structures in the Nayaka period are three clearly dated examples with figural composite
columns, which demonstrate that the major advances in the creation of this column form took place
in the late sixteenth century. These are the Venkatacalapati temple at Krishnapuram (ca. 1563-78)
(fig. 20), the Krsna temple at Srivilliputtur (ca. I571) (fig. 21), and the Iooo-Column Mandapa of
the Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple at Madurai (ca. 1572) (fig. I5). 22 The figural composite column is
primarily a development of the Nayaka period from the mid-sixteenth to the early eighteenth cen-
turies, and the majority of examples cited in this article date to this period. Later examples from the
eighteenth century are to be found at Kudumiyamalai and Ramesvaram.
Sculptural Practice and the Composite Column
The vast majority of Indian stone sculpture is complete with no separate pieces joined on, and the south
Indian composite column is no exception. All composite columns are sculpted from a single block,
whether they have a small, attached column, multiple detached colonettes, or a large attached deity.
It is important to recognise the tremendous sculptural skill required to produce these composite
columns. Peter Rockwell has outlined four basic principles of stone working.23 First, that most method
and process in stone working is subtractive, involving the removal of material. Careful planning is
thus required, for sculptures always remain within the boundaries of the stone. Second, that the nature
of the stone always has an influence. Third, that the material available for tools is a major factor in the
methods and processes used. He notes that iron and steel tools are not essential to all fine carving, but
cultures without iron use far more abrasion. Finally, stone is worked in a series of steps, each of which
is a distinctive job, the result of a need to avoid overcutting.
All these points are important to consider when studying the sculpting of a monolithic compos-
ite column with an attached figure or numerous smaller colonettes. The figure is neither a later addi-
tion to a separately sculpted column, nor are extra pieces added to the basic figure. The 'musical'
columns are similarly monolithic, with twenty or more colonettes sculpted fully in the round, encas-
ing the core column and only attached top and bottom (fig. 8). They may initially seem purely deco-
inscription dated s'aka I523 (1601/2) records the completion of the mandapa, the gift of Lingamma Nayaka, son of
Bommu Nayaka of nearby Vellore, a site well known for its temple and fine festival mandapa of similar date. This
man.dapa at Vrinjipuram, whilst architecturally noteworthy, has few notable figural composite columns. For the Vrin-
jipuram inscription, see Madras Reports on Epigraphy no. 211 of 1939.
22 Krishnapuram: Epigraphia Indica IX (1907-8), 328-341 for five copperplates in Sanskrit dated I567/8 describing the
construction of the temple by Krishnappa Nayaka of Madurai ( I564-72) and the grant of villages and land to the tem-
ple by the Vijayanagara king Sadashivaraya. Two inscriptions on either side of the entrance to the main shrine of the
temple are dated 1563/4 and 1577/8 (Madras Reports on Epigraphy nos. 16-17 of 1912). There is no reason to suggest that
this temple was not built entirely between ca. I563 and I578. George Michell's suggestion that the sculptures in this
temple, and perhaps similar ones at Tirukkurunkudi and Tenkasi, date to the early eighteenth century places them
I50 years too late. Cf. Michell, Architecture and Art of Southern India, 186-9 and Hindu Art and Architecture (London:
Thames and Hudson, 2000), 184. Krsna temple at Srivilliputtur: Madras Reports on Epigraphy nos. 59I-594 of 1926
refer to this temple as having been erected for the merit of the Madurai Nayaka Krishnappa by the later Pandyan king
Ativirarama Srivalabhadeva in I571/2. iooo-Column mandapa, Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple, Madurai, dated to the
early part of Krishnappa's reign: see note 14.
23 Peter Rockwell, The Art of Stoneworking: A Reference Guide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 8-14.
197

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
rative,
rative, yet
yet
thethe
sculptors'
sculptors'
skill they
skill
display
theyis display
something
isto
something
be admired. to
Whilst
be admired.
remaining sceptical
Whilst remaining sceptica
that
thatmusicians
musiciansplayed
played
on these
on stone
thesecolumns
stoneascolumns
musical instruments,
as musicalasinstruments,
modern guides sometimes
as modern guides sometimes
suggest,
suggest, Samuel
Samuel
Parker
Parker
has noted
hasthat
noted
modern
thatTamil
modern
sculptors
Tamil
routinely
sculptors
assess the
routinely
relative merits
assessof
the relative merits
stones
stonesbyby
thethe
sound
sound
they make
theywhen
makestruck
whenby struck
a chisel, by
the finest
a chisel,
having
thethe
finest
most musical
havingring.24
the most
Sim- musical ring.24 S
ilarly
ilarlyimpressive
impressive
demonstrations
demonstrations
of the sculptors'
of the skill
sculptors'
and characteristic
skill andfeatures
characteristic
of Nayaka-period
features of Nayaka-perio
architectural
architectural sculpture
sculpture
are theare
life-size
the life-size
cats, birds,cats,
and monkeys
birds, and
on the
monkeys
walls and eaves
on theof temples
walls and
(fig. eaves of temples (
22),
22),yalis
yaliswith
with
stone
stone
balls that
ballsroll
that
around
rollinaround
their fanged
in their
mouths,
fanged
or the mouths,
stone linksor
of the
chains
stone
at thelinks of chains at t
corners
corners of of
mandapas.
mandapas.
Ornamentation
Ornamentation
or decoration
or decoration
is never a meaningless
is neverveneer
a meaningless
but an integral
veneer
ele- but an integral e
ment
mentofof
thethe
artistic
artistic
project
project
in the Indian
in thetraditions.
Indian traditions.
The
Therock
rockused
used
in Tamilnadu
in Tamilnadu
for sculpture
for sculpture
in the Nayaka
in period
the Nayaka
is usually
period
described
is usually
simply asdescribed
gran- simply as gra
ite,
ite,anan
igneous
igneous
rock.rock.
Richard
Richard
Newman's
Newman's
study of the
study
materials
of theof Indian
materials
sculpture
of demonstrates,
Indian sculpture
how- demonstrates, ho
ever,
ever,that
that
notnot
onlyonly
granite
granite
was used
was
in southern
used inIndia
southern
but alsoIndia
two main
buttypes
also of
twowidely
mainavailable
typesmeta-
of widely available me
morphic
morphic rocks,
rocks,
granulite
granulite
and gneiss.25
and gneiss.25
The grey colouring
The grey of colouring
the rock usedofis the
consistent
rock and
used
it is
is highly
consistent and it is hig
durable
durable and
and
resistant
resistant
to weathering,
to weathering,
unlike theunlike
sandstone
theused
sandstone
for many used
structural
for Pallava-period
many structural Pallava-period
temples
temples at at
Kancipuram
Kancipuram
and Mamallapuram,
and Mamallapuram,
such as the such
eighth-century
as the eighth-century
Kailasanatha and Shore
Kailasanatha
tem- and Shore tem
ples,
ples,which
whichhave
have
weathered
weathered
badly.26badly.26
It was alsoItpossible
was also
to obtain
possible
large to
blocks
obtain
up tolarge
fifteen
blocks
metresup
long
to fifteen metres lo
in
in quarrying.
quarrying.ThisThis
played
played
a significant
a significant
role in therole
construction
in the of
construction
wider, open mandapas
of wider,
withopen
mono-
mandapas with mo
lithic
lithicbeams
beams
and and
greatgreat
gateways
gateways
in gopuras
inwith
gopuras
very tall
withjambs.
veryUnfinished
tall jambs.
gopuras
Unfinished
with the jambs
gopuras
in with the jambs
place
placeare
are
clear
clear
examples
examples
of this,
ofsuch
this,
as the
such
Raya
asGopura
the Raya
at Madurai,
Gopura theat
three
Madurai,
unfinished
thegopuras
threeofunfinished gopuras
the
theseventhprdkara
seventhprdkaraof theof
Ranganatha
the Ranganatha
temple at Srirangam,
temple atorSrirangam,
the similar example
or theinsimilar
the fifthprakara
example in the fifthprak
on
onthe
theeastern
eastern
side side
of theofnearby
the nearby
Jambukesvara
Jambukesvara
temple (fig. 23).
temple
The geological
(fig. 23).classification
The geological
of the classification of th
stone,
stone,however,
however,
is less
is important
less important
than its workability,
than its workability,
and the key characteristic
and the key of the
characteristic
material is thatof the material is t
it
it isisvery
veryhard.
hard.
Granite
Granite
and related
and rocks
related
are rocks
not 'cut',
areas not
Rockwell
'cut',
remarks,
as Rockwell
but smashed
remarks,
and shat-
but smashed and sha
tered
teredbyby
holding
holding
the tool
theperendicular
tool perendicular
to the stone
tosurface,
the stone
for itsurface,
is a hard for
and brittle
it is amaterial.27
hard and Inbrittle
a material.27 I
study
studyofof
thethe
nature
nature
of materials
of materials
in the practice
in the ofpractice
sculpture,of
Nicholas
sculpture,
Penny remarks
Nicholasthat
Penny
in conse-
remarks that in con
quence,
quence, sculptural
sculptural
undercutting,
undercutting,
projection,
projection,
and perforation
and are
perforation
generally avoided
are generally
when sculpting
avoided when sculpting
granite
granite for
for
they
they
are all
aredifficult
all difficult
and risky.
and
'Hammering
risky. 'Hammering
at a small area to
at achieve,
a smallsay,
area
theto
space
achieve,
betweensay, the space betw
arm
armand
andchest,
chest,
couldcould
have caused
have acaused
statue to
a statue
shatter and
to shatter
would certainly
and would
have weakened
certainly
it.'28have weakened it.'28
The
Thehardness
hardnessof the
of material
the material
used forused
muchfor
south
much
Indiansouth
sculpture
Indian
is reflected
sculpture
in theisrough,
reflected in the roug
unfinished
unfinished appearance
appearance
of some
ofsurfaces,
some surfaces,
particularlyparticularly
apparent on the
apparent
earliest seventh-
on thetoearliest
tenth-century
seventh- to tenth-centu
sculptures,
sculptures, andand
the preference
the preference
for carving
forfigures
carvingattached
figures
to a attached
stele or back
toplate.
a stele
Perforation
or back was
plate. Perforation w
achieved
achieved in in
thethe
CholaChola
period,
period,
freeing freeing
arms, for arms,
example,
for
from
example,
the side of
from
the body,
the side
but the
offigures
the body,
tend but the figures t
24
24Samuel
SamuelK. Parker,
K. Parker,
"Unfinished
"Unfinished
Work at Work
Mammallapuram
at Mammallapuram
or, What is an Indian
or, What
Art Object
is an?"Indian
ArtibusArt
AsiaeObject
6 (200I):?" Artibus Asiae 6 (200
53-75,
53-75,6969
no.no.
41. 41.
25
25Richard
RichardNewman,
Newman,
The Stone
The Sculpture
Stone Sculpture
of India: A of
Study
India:
of the
A Materials
Study of Used
thebyMaterials
Indian Sculptors
Usedfrom
by Indian
ca. Second
Sculptors
Century from ca. Second Centu
B.C.
B.C.toto
the
the
Sixteenth
Sixteenth
Century
Century
(Cambridge:
(Cambridge:
Harvard University
Harvard Art
University
Museums, 1984),
Art I9-29.
Museums, 1984), I9-29.
26
26The
ThePallavas
Pallavas
experimented
experimented
with many
with
types
many
of rock,
types
incorporating
of rock, different
incorporating
types in different
one structure.
types
A good
inaccount
one structure. A good acc
of
oftheir
theirtemples
temples
that that
is sensitive
is sensitive
to stone types
to stone
and stoneworking
types and stoneworking
is K.R. Srinivasan,is"Temples
K.R. Srinivasan,
of the Later "Temples
Pallavas," of the Later Pallav
in
in Studies
Studiesin Indian
in Indian
Temple
Temple
Architecture,
Architecture,
ed. Pramod ed.
Chandra
Pramod
(New Chandra
Delhi: American
(NewInstitute
Delhi: American
of Indian Studies,
Institute
I975), of Indian Studies, I9
I97-239.
27 Rockwell, Art of Stoneworking, 19.

28 Nicholas Penny, The Materials of Sculpture (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993), 24.
I98

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
to be more compact and passive than Nayaka-period architectural sculpture, or brackets are used to
support an extended limb. The images in the niches of the eleventh-century Brhadisvara temple at
Gangaikondacolapuram illustrate this (fig. 24): note the stele up to waist-height in this figure and only
some perforation at the waist and above the shoulders. In the earliest examples of south Indian figural
composite columns at Vijayanagara, Lepakshi, and Tiruvannamalai, for example, the monolithic block
is clearly evident; the sculpted figure remains within the orthogonal surfaces of the stone (figs. 17, i8).
The use of systems of proportion and grids by Indian sculptors in stone is well known, serving both a
vital aesthetic purpose and, from a technical point of view, making the sculpting of a figure from a
large block easier. It is not clear, however, from the Nayaka-period examples whether they were used
at that time.
What is evident, however, is that seventeenth-century sculptors in Tamilnadu had a great sense
of three-dimensional volume. This is seen both in the way that the large figures avoid the rigid frontal-
ity of much earlier sculpture, adopting energetic, sinuous postures, and also the way in which the
figures are freed from the orthogonal block. The rectilinear shape of the original monolith has disap-
peared and the primary form is the sculpture and not the stone block. Furthermore, sculptors in south
India normally work with the stone placed flat on the ground, which is then moved when substan-
tially complete. The frontal aspect of many earlier sculptures of deities is influenced by their function
and architectural context, facing out of a distinct niche toward the devotee, as well as the technique
of production, being sculpted lying flat on the ground. The movement into place in a temple struc-
ture of a completed ordinary composite column without figural sculpture was difficult enough given
its size and weight, but the skill and artistic vision required to conceive the three-dimensional vol-
ume of the figure bursting forth from the monolithic composite column whilst it lies horizontally on
the ground out of context is striking. Furthermore, Nayaka-period sculpture has a very fine polish,
demonstrating further patient labour with abrasives on the part of the sculptors. The degree of under-
cutting, the fine detail, and the smooth finish all suggest that the enormous technical problems asso-
ciated with working in very hard rock have been largely overcome.
'Expanding Form'
The way in which a composite column, particularly a 'musical' composite column, is composed of mul-
tiple images of itself not only demonstrates great sculptural skill but also reflects the larger theme of
'self-imaging' in Indian architecture. This was originally remarked upon byJames Fergusson, the first
historian of Indian architecture, who in the I87os noted that 'everywhere... in India, architectural dec-
oration is made up of small models of large buildings.'29 This idea has been examined in detail by Adam
Hardy, who has demonstrated that Indian temple architecture, both Dravida and Nagara, 'depends
for its visual structure, its expression, and its meanings, on the combination and interrelation of images
of shrines.'30 Hardy's analysis is focussed upon the main shrine, the vimdna or m/laprdsdda. But it is
clear from the Tamil Dravida material that the architectural conception of structures being composed
29 James Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture (London: John Murray, 1876), 285.
30 Adam Hardy, Indian Temple Architecture: Form and Transformation (New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the
Arts, I995), I8.
I99

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
of
of miniature
miniature replicas
replicas
of themselves
of themselves
extends
extends
from the
from
vimana
thenot
vimana
only to
not
theonly
distinctive
to thepyramidal
distinctive
gate-
pyramidal gate-
ways
ways(gopura),
(gopura),in in
essence
essence
a vimana
a vimana
split in
split
half,
inbut
half,
alsobut
to smaller
also toelements
smallersuch
elements
as composite
such ascolumns.
composite columns.
One
One notable
notableexample
example
of this
of this
process
process
of architectural
of architectural
replication
replication
in miniature
in is
miniature
in the Nellaiyappar
is in the Nellaiyappar
temple
templeatatTirunelveli,
Tirunelveli,
where
where
two columns
two columns
of the of
south-facing
the south-facing
C6mavara C6mavara
Mandapa in Mandapa
the thirdprdkara
in the thirdprdkara
are
are in
inthe
theform
form
of of
a monolithic
a monolithic
miniature
miniature
gopura gopura
approximately
approximately
two metrestwo
high.
metres
This ishigh.
an appropri-
This is an appropri-
ate
ate form
formgiven
given
their
their
location
location
at the
atentrance
the entrance
to a festival
to a festival
mandapa that
mandapa
becomes
that
a temporary
becomes atemple
temporary temple
during
duringfestivals
festivals(fig.
(fig.
25). 25).
Adam
AdamHardy
Hardygoes
goes
on on
to demonstrate
to demonstrate
that Indian
that Indian
temple architecture
temple architecture
conveys a sense
conveys
of movement,
a sense of movement,
of
of emergence
emergenceand
and
expansion,
expansion,
in the
inarchitectural
the architectural
forms themselves.
forms themselves.
The composite
Thecolumns
composite
of the
columns of the
Tamil
TamilDravida
Dravidatradition
tradition
share
share
thesethese
dynamic
dynamic
qualities,
qualities,
especiallyespecially
the figuralthe
examples,
figuralfor
examples,
the emer-for the emer-
gence
genceof
ofthe
thefigure
figure
from
from
the core
the core
column
column
may bemay
similarly
be similarly
viewed conceptually.
viewed conceptually.
A column of A
power,
column of power,
whether
whethersacred
sacred
or or
secular,
secular,
is a common
is a common
theme theme
in SouthinAsian
Southarchitecture
Asian architecture
and sculpture,
andsuch
sculpture,
as the such as the
third-century
third-century BCE
BCE
Mauryan
Mauryan
columns
columns
or those
or erected
those erected
in central
inIndia
central
in the
India
fifthincentury
the fifth
CE.31century CE.31
Pillars
Pillarsofofvictory
victory
(jayastambha)
(jayastambha)
were were
erected
erected
by rulers
byafter
rulers
a conquest:
after a for
conquest:
example,
for
theexample,
Vijayanagara
the Vijayanagara
emperor
emperorAchutyadevaraya
Achutyadevarayamarked
marked
his victory
his victory
in the far
in the
southfar
of south
Tamilnadu
of Tamilnadu
around 1532 around
by planting
1532a by planting a
pillar
pillarof
ofvictory
victoryon on
thethe
banks
banks
of the
ofriver
the Tamparapani.32
river Tamparapani.32
In religious
In sculpture
religiousthis
sculpture
theme ofthis
a column
theme of a column
as
as aa symbol
symbolofof
power
power
is clearly
is clearly
represented
represented
by the by
linga,
thethe
linga,
principal
the aniconic
principal
image
aniconic
of Sivaimage
in Saiva
of Siva in Saiva
temples,
temples,inin
which
which
thethe
sacred
sacred
power
power
of theof
god
the
is embodied.
god is embodied.
This
Thisconcept
conceptis is
notnot
always
always
static,
static,
for the
forpower
the power
inherentinherent
in such a in
column
such isa often
columnseenistooften
expand
seen to expand
out
out and
andemerge
emergefrom
from
it. Heinrich
it. Heinrich
Zimmer
Zimmer
described
described
this phenomenon
this phenomenon
as 'expanding
as form',
'expanding
seeing form',
an seeing an
inherent
inherentdynamism
dynamismto sculptural
to sculptural
forms.33
forms.33
Doris Meth
Doris
Srinivasan
Meth Srinivasan
has relatedhas
the related
threefold
the
sequence
threefold
in sequence in
Saiva
Saivatheology
theology- from
- from
an all-pervasive,
an all-pervasive,
transcendental
transcendental
Supreme,Supreme,
through a through
subtle form
a subtle
to the mate-
form to the mate-
rial
rial form
formofof
the
the
god,
god,
the the
murti
murti
- to Saiva
- to iconography.34
Saiva iconography.34
For example,
For this
example,
conceptthis
is given
concept
visualisform
given visual form
in
in the
theappearance
appearanceof of
an iconic
an iconic
imageimage
of theof
deity
thefrom
deitythe
from
aniconic
the column
aniconic
of column
the linga.of
Mukhalingas
the linga. Mukhalingas
have
haveeither
eithera single
a single
faceface
(mukha),
(mukha),
appearing
appearing
out of the
out linga
of the
shaft,
linga
on shaft,
one sideon
or one
fourside
faces,
oreach
fourplaced
faces, each placed
in
in one
oneofofthe
the
cardinal
cardinal
directions
directions
and another
and another
face appearing
face appearing
on the top.
onThis
theidea
top.ofThis
'expanding
idea of
form'
'expanding form'
is
is dramatically
dramatically illustrated
illustrated
in the
in myth
the myth
of Lingodbhava.
of Lingodbhava.
This is a This
common
is aiconographic
common iconographic
form of Siva form of Siva
in
in Tamilnadu
Tamilnadu from
from
thethe
tenth
tenth
century,
century,
appearing
appearing
only in only
stone in
andstone
placedand
in the
placed
nichein
ofthe
the niche
rear wall
of the rear wall
of
of aaSiva
Sivatemple's
temple's
vimana,
vimana,
the west
the west
wall of
wall
an east-facing
of an east-facing
temple (fig.
temple
26). Siva
(fig.
is depicted
26). Sivaemerging
is depicted emerging
31
31 John
JohnIrwin
Irwin
in in
hishis
discussion
discussion
of the
of'Ashokan'
the 'Ashokan'
pillars of
pillars
north of
India
north
surveys
India
a wide
surveys
rangeaofwide
evidence
rangeforofthe
evidence
impor- for the impor-
tance
tanceof
ofpillars
pillarsas the
as the
focus
focus
of worship
of worship
in the in
first
themillennium
first millennium
BCE. JohnBCE.
Irwin,
John
"'Asokan'
Irwin,
Pillars:
"'Asokan'
A Reassessment
Pillars: A
ofReassessment of
the
the Evidence,"
Evidence,"The
The
Burlington
Burlington
Magazine
Magazine
115 (1973):
115 706-720;
(1973): 706-720;
"II: Structure,"
"II: Structure,"
Burlington Magazine
Burlington
ii6 (1974):
Magazine
712-727;
ii6 (1974): 712-727;
"III:
"III: Capitals,"
Capitals,"Burlington
Burlington
Magazine
Magazine
117 (I975):
117 (I975):
63I-643;63I-643;
and "IV: and
Symbolism,"
"IV: Symbolism,"
Burlington Magazine
Burlington
118 (1976):
Magazine 118 (1976):
734-753.
734-753.See
SeeJoanna
Joanna
Williams,
Williams,
The Art
Theof
Art
Gupta
of India:
GuptaEmpire
India: and
Empire
Province
and(Princeton:
Province Princeton
(Princeton:
University
Princeton
Press,
University Press,
1982),
1982),95-98
95-98for
for
thethe
later
later
columns.
columns.
32
32 Madras
MadrasReports
Reportson on
Epigraphy
Epigraphy
no. 157
no.of157
1924.
of 1924.
33
33 Heinrich
Heinrich Zimmer,
Zimmer,
Myths
Myths
and Symbols
and Symbols
in Indian
in Art
Indian
and Art
Civilization
and Civilization
(Washington:
(Washington:
Pantheon Books,
Pantheon
1946), 130-I36.
Books, 1946), 130-I36.
34
34 Doris
DorisMeth
MethSrinivasan,
Srinivasan,
"From
"From
Transcendency
Transcendency
to Materiality:
to Materiality:
Para Siva, Para
Sadasiva
Siva,
andSadasiva
Mahesa inand
Indian
Mahesa
Art,"in
Artibus
Indian Art," Artibus
Asiae
Asiae50
50(1990):
(1990):
I08-I42
I08-I42
and and
"Saiva
"Saiva
Temple
Temple
Forms:Forms:
Loci of God's
Loci of
Unfolding
God's Unfolding
Body," in Investigating
Body," in Investigating
Indian Art: Pro-Indian Art: Pro-
ceedings
ceedingsofof
a Symposium
a Symposium
on the
on Development
the Development
of EarlyofBuddhist
Early Buddhist
and Hindu and
Iconography
Hindu Iconography
Held by the Museum
Held by
of the
Indian
Museum
Art, of Indian Art,
Berlin,
Berlin,ininMay
May1986,
1986,
ed. ed.
Marianne
Marianne
YaldizYaldiz
and W.and
LoboW.
(Berlin:
Lobo Staatliche
(Berlin: Staatliche
Museen Preussischer
Museen Preussischer
Kulturbesitz, 1987),
Kulturbesitz, 1987),
335-347.
200

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
out of the column or linga of fire revealing himself in human form as the supreme deity to Visnu and
Brahma. As the boar Varaha, Visnu appears at the bottom, diving downwards looking for the base of
the column of fire, while Brahma as a goose (hamsa) soars above looking for the linga's top; Visnu and
Brahma may additionally appear standing alongside in devotion. Zimmer noted that 'this piece of
sculpture might be said not merely to commemorate or signify a mythical event, but actually to exhibit
the process of its taking place.... The solid rock is apparently animated by an energy of growth.'3s
The notion of'expanding form' in Vaisnava iconography is clear in the Visvarupa images studied
by Thomas Maxwell from north and central India, with multiple figures issuing from a central one
embodying a cosmogonic process rather than depicting a group of figures.36 'In images of cosmic
Vishnu (Visvarupa)... the artist has consciously interpreted the icon with its upright posture as the
axis of the universe, from which the archetypes of creation are seen to emanate in a controlled explo-
sion of multiple forms.'37 The motif of a deity emerging from within a column is repeated in the
Vaisnava myth of Narasimha, Visnu's fourth avatara. The demon Hiranyakasipu was angry with his
son Prahlada for worshipping Visnu who, he claimed, is omnipresent. Hiranyakasipu then kicked a
nearby column and demanded of his son whether Visnu was present even in that, whereupon Visnu as
the man-lion Narasimha emerged from within the splitting column and killed the demon. In sculp-
tures and paintings of this myth, Narasimha is depicted sitting with Hiranyakasipu across his lap and
tearing his entrails out; the importance of the column from which the deity emerged is emphasised
by the two halves of a split-column appearing at diagonals behind the deity.
In the temples of the Dravida tradition in south India the concept of divine power emerging from
a column is represented in architectural form by niches framed by a split-column (figs. 3, 24, 26). A
niche's engaged column is shown as if splitting in half to reveal a sculpture of a deity within, such as
Lingodbhava. In an architectural context, this image framed by a niche can therefore be seen to enhance
the dynamism of the surrounding wall.38 Often as not, however, in the Nayaka period the niches in
the walls of vimanas, attached mandapas, and gopuras are empty and intended to be so, or they have a
framing split-column but are too narrow or shallow ever to have contained an image at all. The idea
of divine power emerging from within a splitting column has enough visual impact without the addi-
tion of an image, even if the niche appears deep enough to have contained one. Adam Hardy's analy-
sis of the Karnata Dravida tradition and indeed Indian temple architecture in general, demonstrates
that this concept of'expanding form' is central to an understanding of both the conception of an indi-
vidual temple and the development of the architectural tradition over the course of several centuries.39
In Tamilnadu the concept of'expanding form' is evident in the individual figural composite col-
umn as well as in the development of the figural composite column form over the course of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries. The images of deities attached to composite columns gradually free
themselves from the core column. They spread forwards and sideways, becoming larger and more
active until they are visually dominant, hardly appearing to be attached to the column at all.
35 Zimmer, Myths and Symbols, I31.

36 Thomas Maxwell, Vifvaruipa (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988).
37 Thomas Maxwell, The Gods of Asia: Image, Text and Meaning (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997), 86.
38 Hardy, Indian Temple Architecture, 21.
39 Ibid., I6-33.
201

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Throughout
Throughoutthe
thevast
vastarea
area
ofof
thethe
Deccan
Deccan
andand
Tamilnadu
Tamilnadu
regional
regional
variations
variations
of this
ofbroad
this broad
schemescheme
of
of development
developmentare
areevident.
evident.AtAt
Vijayanagara,
Vijayanagara,
for for
example,
example,
the squat,
the squat,
orthogonal
orthogonal
yali composite
yali composite
columns
columns of
ofthe
theVirupaksa
Virupaksatemple's
temple's
open
open
mandapa
mandapa
(ca. (ca.
151o)151o)
and those
and those
of theoflater
the Vitthala
later Vitthala
temple temple
(ca. (ca.
I554)
I554) are
are placed
placedalongside
alongside
composite
composite
columns
columns
demonstrating
demonstrating
considerably
considerably
greater
greater
sculptural
sculptural
skill inskill in
the
the stone
stonemedium
mediumwith
withseveral
several
completely
completely
detached
detached
colonettes.
colonettes.
The Ramaswami
The Ramaswami
templetemple
at Kum-
at Kum-
bakonam,
bakonam,referred
referredtotoabove,
above,
appears
appears
quite
quite
conservative
conservative
in early-seventeenth-century
in early-seventeenth-century
Tamilnadu
Tamilnadu
with with
high-relief
high-reliefsculpted
sculptedfigures
figures
when
when
further
further
south
south
at, for
at, for
example,
example,
Madurai,
Madurai,
Srivilliputtur,
Srivilliputtur,
and Krish-
and Krish-
napuram
napuram up
uptotofifty
fiftyyears
yearsearlier,
earlier,
artists
artists
were
were
creating
creating
major
major
composite
composite
columns
columns
with figures
with figures
fully infully in
the
the round,
round,with
witha ahigh
highpolish,
polish,
andand
almost
almost
completely
completely
detached
detached
fromfrom
the core
the column.
core column.
Many
Many of
of the
thedated
datedexamples
examplesofof
figural
figural
composite
composite
columns
columns
discussed
discussed
aboveabove
are inare
southern
in southern
Tamil- Tamil-
nadu,
nadu, and
andindeed
indeedititisisprimarily
primarilyin in
this
this
areaarea
thatthat
the the
greatest
greatest
number
number
of large
of large
figuralfigural
composite
composite
columns,
columns, with
withthe
thegreatest
greatestdetail
detail
andand
thethe
widest
widest
range
range
of subjects,
of subjects,
are toare
be to
found.
be found.
Some examples
Some examples
are are
to be
be found
foundinincentral
centralTamilnadu
Tamilnadu
along
along
thethe
river
river
Kaveri
Kaveri
and as
andfar
asafield
far afield
as Perur
as Perur
near Coimbatore,
near Coimbatore,
but but
in northern
northernTamilnadu
Tamilnadubyby
contrast
contrast
there
there
are are
fewer
fewer
major
major
examples
examples
of figural
of figural
composite
composite
columns
columns
and and
the
the range
rangeof
ofsubjects
subjectsis ismuch
muchnarrower
narrower
than
than
further
further
south.
south.
It is It
to is
that
to range
that range
of subjects
of subjects
sculpted
sculpted
from from
monolithic
monolithiccomposite
compositecolumns
columns
that
that
thethe
next
next
section
section
turns.
turns.
II.
GODS AND KINGS IN THE TAMIL TEMPLE
The range of subjects depicted in the figural composite columns of Nayaka-period Tam
The most common is the yali and related to it are the many composite columns with
a rearing horse. Other subjects include pan-Indian deities, local gods and goddesses, f
literature, guardian figures, and portraits of donors or kings. Illustration I indicates
temples with significant examples of figural composite columns mentioned in this ar
imately forty temples in the Tamil region I have seen around three hundred figural co
of deities and one hundred fifty royal portraits; yali composite columns are too nume
feature in many temples not on the map or discussed here. At some places on the ma
eral temples with figural composite columns, and within a single temple there may b
tions with such sculpture; both Madurai in general and its Minaksi-Sundaresvara
this point.
The figural composite columns in northern Tamilnadu are largely ofyalis and horsemen, with few
deities or portraits. In southern Tamilnadu there are far more examples of figural composite columns,
at numerous sites, and with a much greater range of types. With such a great volume of sculpture, a
complete description and iconographic examination of each figural composite column across the Tamil
region is beyond the scope of this article. The aim here is to indicate the locations of major examples
and the core themes that they illustrate as the basis for more detailed research, both at individual sites
and in the identification of further sites not referred to here.40
40 An example of a detailed iconographic study of the figurastl composite columns at an individual site is S. Gopala-
krishnan, "The Rangamandapa of the Tatikkompu Temple: A Study of an Iconographic Programme of the Vijayana-
gara Tradition," East and West 46, 3-4 (1996): 4I5-43I.
202

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Figural composite columns are generally placed in two main locations in Tamil temple complexes:
along corridors that surround and lead into the main shrine, and in detached festival mand'apas. In the
latter they feature both on the exterior - at the entrances or occasionally all round - and more usually
along the main interior aisle. Yali composite columns are the most widely distributed in temples, but
those of deities and royal portraits are more consistently located on the major festival procession routes
used by the temple's deities. Figural composite columns are invariably placed symmetrically, like
opposite like. Thus, along an aisle there may be a variety of composite columns, some with yalis, oth-
ers with deities, and others plain, but each of these types will be opposite a similar one. Another gen-
eral pattern is that sculptures of deities are often paired with a related deity, either with the figural
composite column alongside or the one opposite. Common pairs are Nataraja and Kali, Vyaghrapada
and Patanijali, and Manmatha and Rati. A figural composite column may also be paired with another
of the same deity but representing a different moment of the mythic action. A good example of this
is the pair of Narasimha composite columns in the late-sixteenth-century kalydnamandapa at Ala-
garkoyil, with one image ofVisnu's man-lion avatara seizing Hiranyakasipu and the opposite one tear-
ing his entrails out (fig. 5I, ill. 3).
Ydlis and Cavalry
The south Indian yali is a mythical animal, a combination of a lion and an elephant like the Sanskrit-
named vyala (fig. 27). Vyalas feature in north Indian temple sculpture in the narrow recesses of the
wall between the central (bhadra), intermediary (pratikarna), or corner offsets (karna).4' In earlier Tamil
art they appear at the base of columns and in miniature as one of the many architectural mouldings of
a temple's base. In the early thirteenth century at Tribhuvanam a ydali appears as part of a composite
column (fig. 12), a notable precedent for this composite column type in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, right through to the early eighteenth century in southern Tamilnadu, as at Ramesvaram.
Yali composite columns are quite varied, though the main animal is always shown rearing up clasp-
ing either its trunk or a stream of foliage issuing from its open mouth. It often stands upon another
smaller yali or an elephant, or indeed both, with their trunks intertwined. Ydlis may have a lionlike
head with a mane or long piglike ears and horns. Their eyes often bulge prominently and their mouths
are wide open displaying sharp teeth. They are usually ithyphallic and have pronounced ribs. Partic-
ularly in northern Tamilnadu and the Deccan, y/lis have human riders, and are thus related to the other
common figural composite column in these regions, the mounted cavalryman.
There are earlier precedents for these mythical animals but sixteenth-century yali composite
columns are still innovative in their size, location, and prevalence. Ydlis or vydlas feature in earlier
Tamil architecture either as a horizontal band (vydlamala) of sculpture or at the base of columns.
Vydlamdlas are a standard feature of Tamil Dravida architecture from at least the tenth century; in
Early Chola-period examples, a narrow row is placed as an architectural moulding above the kapotas
of the sub-base (upapitha) and base (adhisthdna), roughly equivalent to the joist ends of a floor. Later
41 M.A. Dhaky, The Vyala Figures on the Mediaeval Temples of India (Varanasi: Prithivi Prakashan, I965); Vishakha Desai
and Darielle Mason, eds., Gods, Guardians and Lovers: Temple Sculptures from North India, A.D. 700-200oo (New York:
Asia Society Galleries, 1993), 134, 162-3.
203

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
temples add a similar row above the eave-kapota and especially in the Nayaka period may replace the
vydlas with lions or elephants; the mid-sixteenth-century Kutal Alakar temple at Madurai clearly
illustrates this.42 Closer precedents in Tamilnadu for the sixteenth-century yali composite column are
the large seated vydlas at the base of the columns and the rearing vyalas that replace or overlay pilasters
in a number of earlier temples.
Many of the earliest rock-cut and structural temples in Tamilnadu at the seventh- and eighth-cen-
tury Pallava sites of Mamallapuram and Kancipuram have octagonal columns that rise directly from
the head of a squat, seated vyala facing outward, quite unlike the typical three- or five-part Dravida
column. Similar columns have been re-used in the entrance to the Antal shrine in the largely Nayaka-
period Pundarikaksa temple at Tiruvellarai north of Srirangam (fig. 28). The open man.dapa at the
front of the twelfth-century Airavatesvara temple at Darasuram also has these vyala-based columns, a
regional stylistic feature of the twelfth century in central Tamilnadu. The similarly Late Chola festi-
val mandapa in the third prakdra of the Vrddacalesvara temple at Vriddacalam also has such columns.
Closer precedents for the sixteenth-century y,li composite column are the pilasters or engaged columns
of vimdnas, and later of gopuras too, which have rearing vydalas replacing or overlaying the column or
pilaster shaft. The Pallava-period temples in northern Tamilnadu, such as the eighth-century Kai-
lasanatha temple at Kancipuram, are good examples of the former, with a vydla replacing the column
shaft. In central Tamilnadu are several examples of Late Chola-period gopuras with rearing vydlas
overlaying the engaged columns of the stone base, such as the twelfth-century outer east gopura of the
Tyagaraja temple at Tiruvarur and of the similarly Late Chola-period Somanatha temple at Kil Palai-
yarai near Kumbakonam. Whilst the earlier examples are without a rider, the later rearing vydlas have
human riders, anticipating some of the yali composite columns of the sixteenth century, particularly
those in northern Tamilnadu, which also have riders. At the Madhavaraya temple at Gorantla (ca. I354)
inh the southern Deccan on the border of the Tamil country are significant y/i columns of a transitional
nature.43 Like earlier ones, their shafts rise straight from the ydli's head, but in anticipation of later
sixteenth-century examples the yali constitutes most of the full height of the column and stands on
an elephant. That the yali composite column is a form developed in thirteenth-century Tamilnadu
and not early-sixteenth-century Vijayanagara is made certain, however, by the examples in the ard-
hamandapa of the Kampaharesvara temple at Tribhuvanam (fig. 12).
These examples provide some precedents for the widespread yai composite columns of the Nayaka
period. Later yalis, however, are much larger, growing both vertically and forward, and emerge from
a composite column with no architectonic function in themselves. This is in contrast to the Pallava-
period columns with a squatting vyala at the base, the column emerging from its head, or many of the
Late Chola-period rearing vyalas overlaying an engaged column. Only from the sixteenth century are
yali composite columns composed of several animals, including a further smaller yali or elephant on
which the larger one stands. Another regional variation in the northernmost parts of the Tamil coun-
try, in what is now southern Andhra, are doubled yd/i composite columns; instead of having one very
42 See Branfoot, "Approaching the Temple."

43 See George Michell, ed., Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture: South India, Drdvidadesa, Later Phase, ca. A.D.
I28g -1798(New Delhi: American Institute of Indian Studies, 2001), 36-38, pi. 27.
204

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
tall yali stretching the full height of the composite column, these composite columns have one yali
standing upon another of similar scale. Such doubled yali composite columns may be seen at the
Venkatesvara temple at Tirumalai and the nearby Govindaraja temple at Tirupati, but such a practice
is unknown elsewhere in southern India. Nayaka-period yalis also tend to be fiercer in appearance than
earlier ones. An unusual example in the kalydnamandapa at Alagarkoyil is shown attacking a man from
behind, placing its paws on his shoulders while biting his head (fig. 29). In Nayaka-period temples,
yalis and lions are closely associated, seen most clearly in the seated lion capital element above the
monolithic composite column, which at the corners becomes a leaping yali projecting diagonally.
A purely sixteenth-century development with no clear precedent is the rearing horse with a rider
armed with a sword or spear, and with a number of other figures beneath. These include more soldiers,
musicians, elephants, or lions; often these men are fighting or killing a lion. This composite column
type is well known from the late-sixteenth-century examples at the north end of the Sesagiriraya
Mandapa on the east side of the Ranganatha temple at Srirangam's fourth prkadra (fig. 30). The rider
always turns to one side, towards the entrance or main axis of the mandapa, whilst brandishing his
sword or spear, his horse rearing up high like the related y/li composite columns. An imaginative and
unusual variation at the kalydnamandapa in the Varadaraja temple at Kancipuram is the cavalry com-
posite column with a differently armed and dressed rider on each side. On one side the rider waves a
sword, a spear on the other; one rider has tight-fitting striped trousers, the other a flaring tunic. Horse-
man composite columns always appear in groups, normally in pairs around the entrances to man.dapas,
alongside the more common yali composite columns.
Percy Brown has suggested that the appearance of horseman columns was linked to the Vijayana-
gara period's character as a martial 'age of chivalry', a view repeated by J.C. Harle.44 This characteri-
sation of Vijayanagara as a defender of the Hindu South against the incursions of Islamic political power
and cultural influence from the North is not entirely accurate, however, as Philip Wagoner has noted.45
In a discussion of the adoption of Islamic dress and titles at Vijayanagara, he notes that Hindu culture
at Vijayanagara was far from the conservative preserver of'classical' forms but was in fact deeply trans-
formed by its interaction with Islamic culture. Warfare and militarism were notable features of
Vijayanagara and indeed Nayaka society, but other imperial formations such as the Cholas have also
been profoundly militaristic. If these composite columns of mounted cavalrymen are considered a
reflection of a martial society, then this has more to do with the numerous conflicts between the
Vijayanagara empire and its regional subordinates and later rivals, the Nayakas, in the later sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, than any Hindu-Muslim conflict.46 The appearance of cavalry in Nayaka-
period sculpture may, however, be related to its prevalence and importance in the armies of the six-
teenth century and later in southern India. Good-quality horses were in short supply in southern India,
44 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu), 2nd ed. (Bombay: D.B. Taraporevala and Sons, I942), 113 and
J.C. Harle, The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent (London: Penguin, I986), 332.
45 Philip Wagoner, "'Sultan among Hindu Kings': Dress, Titles and the Islamicization of Hindu Culture at Vijayana-
gara," The Journal of Asian Studies 55, 4 (1996): 851-880.
46 On the art of war under the Nayakas, see Velcheru Narayana Rao, David Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Sym-
bols of Substance: Court and State in Nayaka Period Tamil Nadu (Delhi: Oxford University Press, I992), 220-241.
205

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
and so from the thirteenth century they were imported in significant numbers from the Middle East
through the ports of the western coast between Goa and Mangalore.47
Though often considered characteristic of Vijayanagara-period art, as suggested by Percy Brown,
the mounted cavalryman composite column is rare at the capital itself, featuring only in a small
mandapa just east of the Vitthala temple and at the entrance to the same temple's tank (fig. 31). The
pair at the latter location both rear over smaller yalis and are very similar to the larger yali composite
columns described above. Only in northern Tamilna and adjacent areas of southern Andhra in the
later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries is the horseman ever a common figural composite col-
umn, and even then it is less prevalent than the yali composite column. Horseman composite columns
feature alongside yali composite columns in a group of similar festival mandapas all dated to around
600oo in northern Tamilnadu, such as at the Jalakantesvara temple at Vellore (fig. 32), the Margasa-
hayesvara temple at Vrinjipuram, the Bhaktavatsala temple at Tirukkalukundram, and the Varadaraja
temple at Kanchipuram. At Vellore and Vrinjipuram, horseman composite columns are placed in
pairs only at the entrance to the mandapa alongside yali composite columns. At Tirukkalukundram
they line the main interior aisle leading to the festival mandapa's throne platform, with yali compos-
ite columns dominating the exterior. At the Varadaraja temple at Kancipuram both types are widely
represented in the temple's kalyanamandapa, here joined by images of the deities Kama (Manmatha)
and Rati either side of the southern entrance. The iconographic distribution of figural composite
columns is indicated on the plan of this man.dapa with a mixture of yali and horseman composite
columns facing out all round, lining the main aisle leading in from the southern stepped entrance and
the three subsidiary aisles on the remaining sides of the throne platform (ill. 4). While the layout of
this mandapa is typical for northern Tamilnadu, the density of yali and horseman composite columns
is unusually high.48
The horse composite column is much less common in southern Tamilnadu, where a variety of
deities are more commonly depicted alongside yalis. The four horse composite columns at the east and
west ends of the Putu Mandapa in Madurai (ca. 1630), the four at the north end of the Astana Mandapa
at Tirupparankundram (ca. 1690-1700), and the six more in the mandapa preceding the southern
entrance and the festival mandapa in the third prakra of the largely Nayaka-period Atmanatha tem-
ple at Avadaiyarkoyil are some of the latest examples from the far south.49 The cavalryman on a rear-
ing horse sculpted in stone from an architectural composite column is rare throughout Tamilnadu from
the later seventeenth century. However, the imagery of a mounted warrior rearing over several war-
riors on foot has been retained in the painted terracotta village shrines to the Tamil folk deity Aiyanar
made in the past century.
47 Burton Stein, Peasant State and Society in Mediaeval South India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994), 400-2;
S. Jeyaseela Stephen, Portuguese in the Tamil Coast: Historical Explorations in Commerce and Culture, I507-I749
(Pondicherry: Navajothi, 1998), 94-96.
48 For a plan of this temple see K.V. Raman, Sri Varadarajaswami Temple, Kanchi: A Study of its History, Art and Archi-
tecture (New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, I975).
49 For a plan and discussion of the iconography of the Putu Mandapa see Branfoot, "Tirumala Nayaka's 'New Hall"'; for
Tirupparankundram see Crispin Branfoot, "The Madurai Nayakas and the Subramanya Temple at Tirupparankun-
dram," Ars Orientalis (forthcoming).
206

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Pan-Indian Deities
A wide variety of deities appear in the figural composite columns of Nayaka-period Tamilnadu. These
include pan-Indian deities - both those well known in Tamilnadu before the sixteenth century and
those rarely seen in sculpture before - local Tamil deities, and a variety of figures from folk literature.
The range reflects both continuity with past practice and cultural changes associated with the period,
including the migration of new social groups into Tamilnadu from further north and the development
of new literary genres, such as the site myth (talapurdnam). Both Vaisnava and Saiva temples have
figural composite columns and there is no sectarian distinction in the quantity or variety of such sculp-
ture. There is, however, a stronger regional basis for such a distinction, the central and especially south-
ern areas of Tamilnadu being far richer in figural composite columns than the northern areas. Nor is
there a clear sectarian distinction in subject matter within a temple: a Saiva temple is not limited to
Saiva sculpture.
Visnu is most commonly depicted in one of his avatdras. At two temple sites, in the kalyd-
namandapa at Alagarkoyil and the rangamandapa of the tayar shrine at Tatikkompu, there are a wide
range of Vaisnava images sculpted from composite columns. The kalydnamandapa at Alagarkoyil is a
late-sixteenth- or early-seventeenth-century addition to this eleventh-century temple foundation,
which was substantially expanded in the Nayaka period; the iconographic distribution is indicated
on the plan (ill. 3). The Saundararaja Perumal temple at Tatikkompu, a small village north of Dindigul,
is a wholly Nayaka-period foundation striking for the scale and elaboration of its figural composite
columns.50 In both temples' mandapas are composite columns with Visnu seated on Garuda, and at
Tatikkompu on Adisesa as well (fig. 33). At Alagarkoyil, Visnu also appears as Trivikrama with his
left leg high above his head and as Varaha with Bhu on his shoulder; both Garuda and Hanuman stand
alone in an-jali. More widespread, however, are figural composite columns of Visnu as Gopalakrsna
playing the flute, as Narasimha defeating Hiranyakasipu (fig. 34), and as Rama. Gopalakrsna is found
as a sculpted composite column at the two temples mentioned above, as well as further south in the
main corridor of the Antal temple at Srivilliputtur and the Olakka Mandapa of the Saiva Kasi
Visvanatha temple at Tenkasi (fig. 35). Narasimha features at Alagarkoyil, Tatikkompu, and also at
the front of a festival mandapa in the second of the three prdkdras of the Alakiya Nambirayar temple
at Tirukkurunkudi in the far south of Tamilnadu. In all three temples Narasimha is shown twice, rep-
resenting two moments in the myth: first seizing Hiranyakasipu and then tearing out his entrails. The
two are placed alongside each other at Tirukkurunkudi, and opposite at Alagarkoyil and Tatikkompu.
The myth of Narasimha emerging from a column is particularly well adapted to figural composite
columns, since the deity is indeed sculpted from the same stone as the monolithic column.
There is a similar variety of Saiva subject matter in figural composite columns of the Nayaka period,
though again certain deities appear more often, notably Nataraja with Kali, and Virabhadra. Figural
composite columns of multiarmed Nataraja dancing in a ring of fire and in his form as Urdhvatandava,
his left leg high above his head defeating Kali in the dance contest at Chidambaram, are some of the
most striking examples of Nayaka-period sculpture, both for the sculptures' scale and the complexity
50 Gopalakrishnan, "Rangamandapa."
207

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
of sculpting the many arms and attributes fanning out from the figure. The degree of undercutting in
Nayaka-period figural composite columns of Nataraja is all the more remarkable given that Chola-
period stone images tend to be in relief, or use struts to support the outstretched leg, as in the vimdna's
niche image of this deity at the mid-eleventh-century Brhadisvara temple at Gangaikondacolapuram.
Figural composite columns of the dancing Siva with Kali are located alongside each other in the
Kampattati Mandapa (ca. 1572-95) in the Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple at Madurai and opposite in
the Putu Mandapa (ca. 1630) of the same temple; in the Astana Mandapa of the Subramanya temple
at Tirupparankundram (ca. I690-I700); 5Iin the late-sixteenth- or early-seventeenth-century Olakka
Mandapa in the Kasi Visvanatha temple at Tenkasi (fig. 19); and in the festival mandapa of the
Pattisvara temple at Perur. The two rsis who witnessed Nataraja and Kali's dance contest at Chi-
dambaram, the lion-footed Vyaghrapada and Patafnjali with a ndga hood, also appear as a pair in relief
on the Nataraja composite column, as for example at Tenkasi, or as large figural composite columns
themselves in the Iooo-Column Mandapa and Putu Mandapa at Madurai, and nearby in Tiruppa-
rankundram's Astana Mandapa.
Other forms of Siva include Bhiksatana walking with a dog and a skull-cup in his left hand in the
Iooo-Column Mandapa at Madurai (fig. 36), at Ramesvaram, and at the Pattisvara temple at Perur;
slaying the elephant-demon as Gajasamhara in the Putu Mandapa at Madurai and again at Perur; sit-
ting on Mount Kailasa with Parvati being disturbed by Ravana as Ravananugrahamurti in the Putu
Mandapa at Madurai; joined with Devi as Ardhanarisvara, joined with Visnu as Sankaranarayana, and
joined with both Visnu and Brahma as Ekapadamurti, all in the Putu Mandapa. This mandapa is par-
ticularly striking for the variety of Saiva myths depicted as figural composite columns, both pan-
Indian, such as the ones mentioned, and the specifically local variations discussed below.52 As
Tripurasamhara, the defeater of the demon of the Three Cities, Siva is shown in the Putu Mandapa
riding in a four-columned open ratha drawn by horses with Brahma as the charioteer. Though known
from the Chola period, this Nayaka-period sculpture marks a striking contrast with eleventh-century
depictions of the same myth, as it features Siva at the moment of doing battle rather than the earlier
relaxed posture of Siva standing with the bow used to fire the single arrow that would destroy the Triple
City.53 A similar figural composite column of Subramanya, also standing in a ratha, features at the north
front of the Astana Mandapa at Tirupparankundram. The same iconography is used for another deity,
very popular in the Nayaka period, Manmatha.
The deities referred to above are all well known from earlier periods of sculpture within Tamil-
nadu and indeed from elsewhere in India, but some of the figural composite columns in Nayaka-period
temples in Tamilnadu are of deities unusual before the sixteenth century. Of these, Siva as Virabhadra
and the god and goddess of erotic love, Manmatha (or Kama) and Rati, are the most common. They
are furthermore both the most numerous and the most geographically widespread of all the deities
51 The date of this structure can be determined by the presence of a portrait sculpture of the Madurai queen Mangam-
mal, regent from I690-1706. See Crispin Branfoot, "Mangammal of Madurai and South Indian Portraiture," East and
West 5I, 3-4 (200oo): 369-377.
52 Branfoot, "Tirumala Nayaka's 'New Hall."'
53 Gary Schwindler, "Speculations on the Theme of Siva as Tripurantaka as it Appears During the Reign of Rajaraja I in
the Tanjore Area, ca. Iooo," Ars Orientalis 17 (I987): 163-178.
zo8

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Ill.
Ill. II
Map
Map of
of Tamilnadu
Tamilnaduindicating
indicatinglocations
locations
of major
major temples
templeswith
withfigural
figuralcomposite
composite
columns.
(Vijayanagara)
Pennar
. Gorantla
Tirupati/
Lepakshi ? Tirumalai .. Kalahasti
Palar
Vrinjipuram
Tiruvannamalai
*
Kaveri
Vriddachalam
Tiruvellarai
Perur
Tatikkompu
Alagarkoyil
*
Avaidaiyarkoyil .
0 20 40 60 80 100 km
I

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Ill. Ill.
2 2
Elevation
Elevation
of Tamil Dravida composite of Tamil Dravida compo
column
column
(adapted from the Journal of (adapted
Indian from the Journal o
ArtArt
and Industry, I899).
and Industry, I899).
I t
Puspapotika
Detached beam
Seated simha
Puspapotika 1-
5
J,
2
A B
Base I - I
/ /' /j-ip ^
Section at A-B
1/ I I
J//

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Ill. 3
Plan of kalyainaman.dpa at Alagarkoyil.
Y ~~~~~~~kln ~~~~~~~~I
Y I ~
11 __ 11 D
Dv Dv
* ?
* :
* 0
0 10 20m.
I I ?
Y Yali 1 & 10. Narasimha 4. Garuda 7. Trivikrama
Dv Dvarapala 2. Visnu seated on Garuda 5. Hanuman 8. Arjuna

P Portrait 3. Rati on hamsa 6. Varaha & Bhu 9. Krsna Gopala

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Ill. 4
111.4
Plan of kalyanamandapa at the Varadaraja
temple, Kancipuram.
Y H
H a
Y 0I
Y E
YH
H
Y E
Y E
Y El
EN
Y E0
.I
[21
Kama Rati
Y H Kama Rati Rati Kama H Y

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
I11. 5
Plan of Tirumala Mandapa at Alagarkoyil.
P P
* E rm .
* I EU.
* I cE .
* C E3 .
* WI EL U
* E [A U
Ep * p E U
IC
EoE1
N EJE
?
0 5m

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
3 6

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Fig. I
Entrance corridor of Antal temple,
Srivilliputtur.
Fig.2
Detail of two figural composite columns.
Antal temple, Srivilliputtur.
Fig. 3
Southwest corner of Antal temple's vimdna
with empty niches.
Fig.4
Detail of nasi of second east gopura with
high relief of ratha (ter) procession. Alakiya
Nampirayar temple, Tirukkurunkudi.
Fig. 5
Detail of wall between engaged columns
of second east gopura with high relief of
Krsna stealing the gopzs' clothes. Alakiya
4
Nampirayar temple, Tirukkurunkudi.
Fig. 6
High-relief women on vimana of Gopala-
krsna temple in the Ranganatha temple
complex at Srirangam.
Fig. 7
Yali and basic composite columns. Kutal
Alakar temple, Madurai.

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
9
I0 II

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Fig. 8
'Musical' composite column on the
corner of iooo-Column Mandapa, Minaksi-
Sundaresvara temple, Madurai.
Fig. 9
Proto-composite column in outer colonnade
of Airavatesvara temple, Darasuram.
Fig. Io
Nilagirisvara temple, Srirangam.
Fig. II
Bhojesvara temple at Kannanur (Samayapu-
ram).
Fig. I2
Kampaharesvara temple at Tribhuvanam.
Fig. I3
Composite columns. Vitthala temple,
Vijayanagara.
Fig. 14
Figural composite column of Krsna

dancing on Kaliya. Open attached mandapa,
Vitthala temple, Vijayanagara.
12
I3 I4

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
I5
i6

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
I7 18
Fig. I5
Main aisle of Iooo-Column Mandapa,
Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple, Madurai.
Fig. I6
Figural composite columns.
Iooo-Column Mandapa, fifthprakara,
Arunacalesvara temple, Tiruvannamalai.
Fig. I7
High-relief composite columns ir
ruined festival man.dapa, Virabhaara temple,
Lepakshi.
Fig. i8
High-relief composite column of Trivikrama.
Ramaswami temple, Kumbakonam.
Fig. 19
Nataraja composite column. Olakka Mandapa,
Kasi Visvanatha temple, Tenkasi.
I9

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
20
Fig. 20
Figural composite columns. Firstprdkara,
Venkatacalapati temple, Krishnapuram.
Fig. 21
Virabhadra composite column. Krsna temple,
Srivilliputtur.
Fig. 22
Detail of gopura base with high-relief
monkeys between naszs with Narasimha.
Kallapiran temple, Srivaikuntam.
Fig. 23
22
Unfinished jambs of fifth east gopura,

Jambukesvara temple, Srirangam.
Fig. 24
Harihara in split-column niche. Brhadisvara
temple, Gangaikondacolapuram.
Fig. 25
Column at southern entrance to Comavara
Mandapa in the form of a gopura. Nellaiyappar

temple, Tirunelveli.

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
IZ

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Fig. 26
Lingodbhava in split-column niche,
flanked by high-relief images of Visnu
and Brahma. Kampaharesvara temple,
Tribhuvanam.
Fig. 27
Yali composite columns along central
aisle of festival mandapa, third prakara,
Kallapiran temple, Srivaikuntam.
26
27

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Fig. 28
Reused Pallava-type vydla/yili columns.
Antal shrine, Pundarikaksa temple,
Tiruvellarai.
Fig. 29
Yali attacking man (far left) and Rati on
hamsa behind. Kalydnamandapa, Alagarkoyil.
28
29

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Fig. 3o Fig. 3I
Rearing horse composite columns. North Horseman composite columns. Entrance to
end of Sesagiriraya Mandapa, Ranganatha Vitthala temple tank, Vijayanagara.
temple, Srirangam.

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Fig. 32 Fig. 33
Rearing horse composite column. Visnu on Adisesa. Saundararaja Perumal
Kalyanamandapa, Jalakant.esvara temple, temple, Tatikkompu.
Vellore.

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Fig. 34 Fig. 35
Narasimha killing Hiranyakasipu. Gopalakrsna. Olakka Mandapa, Kasi
Saundararaja Perumal temple, Tatikkompu. Visvanatha temple, Tenkasi.

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Fig. 36 Fig. 37
Siva as Bhiksatana. Virabhadra. First prakara, Venkatacalapati
Central aisle of Iooo-Column Mandapa, temple, Krishnapuram.
Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple, Madurai.

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
38 39
40 4I

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Fig. 38
Manmatha in ratha. Antal temple, Srivilli-
puttur.
Fig. 39
Rati on hamsa. First prakara,
Fig. 40
Rama. Festival mandapa, third praka-ra,
Kallpiran temple, Srivaikuntam.
Fig. 4I
Laksmana severing Surpanakha's breasts.
Entrance corridor in secondprdkara, Antal
temple, Srivilliputtur.
Fig. 42
Arjuna with bow. Festival mandapa in
second prdkara, Adinatha temple, Alvar
Tirunagari.
Fig. 43
Bhima and Purusamirukam. First praka-ra,
Fig. 44
Alli Arjuna. Nellaiyappar temple, Tirunel-
veli.
42
?_
?_' *^'-c~Y~P
' *^'-c~Y~P
~ 01 \IWa,
~ 01 \IWa,
43-.~~ 44*-*'N .'4il
43 44

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
4>

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
wll'l
- I
11
:<
-I
1
-~~~- I
M.adu ra'
) f - 'T -.
I. .
47 48
N , 05
(.
Fig. 45
Divine marriage of MinaksT and Sundaresvara
with Alakar (Visnu) in attendance. Putu
-q. .
Mandapa, Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple,

Madurai.
Fig. 46 '
Manikkavacakar and local ruler. Atmanatha >_i

4
[, --
temple, Avadaiyarkoyil.
Fig. 47
Kuratti. Third prdkra, Jambukesvara temple,
Srirangam.
Fig. 48
Kuravan. Iooo-Column Mandapa, Minaksi-
Sundaresvara temple, Madurai.
Fig. 49
'Kidnapping' composite column with woman
running off with man on her shoulders.
Second prdakara, Venkatacalapati temple, .0?
Krishnapuram.
49

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Fig. 50
Ten portrait groups. Third prakara,
Nellaiyappar temple, Tirunelveli.
Fig. 5I
Two portraits in kalyanamandapa,
Alagarkoyil.
Fig. 52
Interior of Tirumala Mandapa,
Alagarkoyil.
50
51
52

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
depicted as large-scale figural composite columns in Nayaka-period Tamilnadu. There is also an in-
creased emphasis in Nayaka-period figural composite columns on epic figures from the Rdmayana and
the Mahdbharata, and figures from local Tamil folk myths and literature.
Virabhadra is a fierce form of Siva, created in anger after Siva's consort Sati had killed herself and
her father Daksa had insulted Siva. Daksa's sacrifice was destroyed by Virabhadra in a frenzy, and after
killing Daksa and severing his head, Daksa was reborn with a goat's head. Virabhadra appears in figural
composite columns as a fierce and energetic figure, usually two- but sometimes eight- or ten-armed,
with a sword and shield or a sword and bow, killing a small figure of Daksa underfoot (fig. 37). In the
Iooo-Column Mandapa of the Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple at Madurai, Daksa is shown twice:
beneath Virabhadra's feet and on the side of the composite column standing in anjalimudra with a
goat's head. A notable feature of the Virabhadra figural composite columns in Nayaka-period temples
is that two versions of the same deity are often placed either opposite or alongside each other, named
Agni and Aghora Virabhadra. Good examples are the two three-metre tall figural composite columns
in the Kampattati Mandapa of the Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple at Madurai dating, like the o000-
Column Mandapa, to around I572-95.54
The dramatic appearance of huge figural composite columns in Nayaka-period temples, both Saiva
and Vaisnava, may be partly explained with reference to wider cultural changes in Tamilnadu between
the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries.55 Virabhadra is rarely depicted in the sculpture of earlier peri-
ods in Tamilnadu, but was commonly worshipped in the Deccan.56 The cult of Virabhadra attained
considerable popularity at the capital of the Vijayanagara empire from the fifteenth century with many
shrines to the deity there, and a major temple to the deity was built further south at Lepakshi between
1530 and I542.57 From the fifteenth century the history of south India is marked by mass migration and
settlement to a greater degree than at any other time. The appearance of Virabhadra images in south-
ern Tamil temples in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is no doubt connected with the migra-
tion ofTelugu speakers from the eastern Deccan south into Tamilnadu as far as the Tirunelveli region.58
They came as both agriculturalists, settling in previously marginal areas, and as warriors, eventually
exerting considerable power as the later Nayaka dynasties of the seventeenth century. Virabhadra com-
posite columns in Nayaka-period temples are found in the southern districts of Tamilnadu, at Madu-
rai, Tattikompu, Srivilliputtur, Tenkasi, Tirunelveli, Krishnapuram, Srivaikuntam, Avadaiyarkoyil,
54 The Kampattati Mandapa is conclusively dated ca. I572-95 during the reign of Krishnappa Nayaka; see the accu-
mulated source material in Devakunjari, Madurai, 239. However, the twenty-four images of Siva on the composite
columns surrounding the Nandi, balipztha and dhvajastambha are part of the renovations carried out by the Nattuk-
kottai Chettiars in the I87os before the 1878 mahdkumbhabhisekam (reconsecration) of the temple, and are good exam-
ples of post-Nayaka architectural sculpture.
55 See:[. Job Thomas, "Cultural Developments in Tamil Nadu during the Vijayanagara Period," in Vijayanagara - City
and Empire: New Currents of Research, ed. Anna L. Dallapiccola (Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, I985), 5-40 for a summary
of the main cultural differences pre- and post-fourteenth century.
56 H. Krishna Shastri, South Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses (Madras: Govt. Press, 1916; reprint, New Delhi: Asian
Educational Services, 1986), I59.
57 Anila Verghese, Religious Traditions at Vijayanagara as Revealed Through its Monuments (New Delhi: Manohar and
American Institute of Indian Studies, I995), 23-25.
58 Ludden, Peasant History, 50-52 and Stein, Peasant State and Society, 394-6.
233

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
and Ramesvaram, with a further example at Perur in Kongunadu (ill. i). Even though there are few
temples dedicated to Virabhadra, the distribution of figural composite columns of this deity suggests
a link with the migration of Telugu speakers to Tamilnadu. The iconography is quite distinct, how-
ever: the passive stance of Deccani sculptures of Virabhadra is replaced by the energetic postures of
the much larger Tamil Nayaka-period figural composite columns.
Manmatha and Rati are the most common and widespread figural composite columns in Nayaka-
period Tamilnadu after the yali and horseman composite columns, with examples from Kancipuram in
northern Tamilnadu to Sucintiram in the far south. They may appear alone but are usually depicted
together, facing each other across an aisle or alongside each other at the entrance to a man?dapa. Man-
matha is generally depicted in a similar fashion to the many active warrior composite columns, stand-
ing with a bow in one hand, but in this instance the bow is made of sugarcane. In two examples in Kanci-
puram, in front of the utsavamandapa in the southwest corner of the secondprakara of the Ekambaresvara
temple and on the south side of the kalyanamandapa in the Varadaraja temple, Manmatha rides on a
large parakeet. But in the more widespread sculptures of southern Tamilnadu he is shown stepping for-
ward holding a sugarcane bow in one hand and a flower arrow in the other, and often riding in a four-
columned ratha. The latter arrangement is like some figural composite columns of Tripurasamhara and
Subramanya, such as that found in the Antal temple at Srivilliputtur (fig. 38). Manmatha's consort Rati
is almost uniformly shown riding on a hamsa and holding a mirror in one hand. Great attention to detail
is often paid by the sculptors to the feathers of Rati's mount or her jewellery: at Krishnapuram a small
hole in Rati's nose is apparently for the addition of a separate ornament (fig. 39). Rati and Manmatha
are sculpted in relief on the composite columns of the early-seventeenth-century open mandapa of the
Ramaswami temple at Kumbakonam in central Tamilnadu, but greater numbers are to be found in
figural composite columns further south; I have seen an additional thirteen large figural composite
columns of either Rati alone or Rati with Manmatha in the southern areas of Tamilnadu.59
Sculptures of these two deities feature occasionally in earlier Tamil art, for instance in the gopuras
of the Late Chola-period Nataraja temple at Chidambaram, and in small-scale reliefs at Vijayanagara
from the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, but their prevalence in the Nayaka period is strik-
ing.60 Manmatha is also associated with Vasanta, the Spring, personified as an attendant. The cele-
bration of Vasanta festivals appears to have become more common in this period in southern India,
and structures for their celebration make a notable appearance. For example, a number of vasan-
tamandapas in temples in central and southern Tamilnadu were built in the sixteenth or seventeenth
century specifically for the celebration of a festival in Vasanta, such as at Srirangam (Ranganatha and
Jambukesvara), Alagarkoyil, Tiruvellarai, and Tirunelveli. However, few of the examples have any
images of Manmatha or Rati, or indeed any figural composite columns, as part of the architectural
scheme. The only mandapa of this type with figural composite columns is the Natakacalai Teru
59 These include Rameshvaram, Avadaiyarkoyil, Kudumiyamalai, Tatikkompu, Madurai (Minaksi-Sundaresvara), Tiru-

mohur, Alagarkoyil, Srivilliputtur (Antal), Tenkasi, Sankarankoyil, Tirukkurunkudi, Krishnapuram and Sucintiram.
60o The depiction of Kama and Rati and the celebration of a Vasantotsava at Vijayanagara are discussed in Anila Verghese,
Archaeology, Art and Religion: New Perspectives on Vijayanagara (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000), 222-238. For
Manmatha/Rati see R. Champakalakshmi, Vaisnava Iconography in the Tamil Country (New Delhi: Orient Longman,
1981), 172-3.
234

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Mandapa on the northwest corner of the Antal-Vatapatrasayana temple at Srivilliputtur. It is square
with a deep, water-filled trench around the central throne platform and two royal portrait figures in
anjalimudrd by the entrance. Nor is the association of the two deities of erotic love clearly reflected in
the location of their images in kalyanamandapas or marriage halls, as might be expected. The Varadaraja
temple at Kancipuram's kalydnamandapa is unusual in this respect, having Rati and Manmatha com-
posite columns at the front entrance, in addition to a relief of the two shooting feathery arrows at each
other in a small panel on the basement.
Rama features in earlier Tamil sculpture from the tenth century onwards, chiefly as a metal pro-
cessional image rather than as a stone image in an architectural niche,6i but in several Nayaka-period
temples major figural composite columns of this deity are placed in prominent positions. In Kum-
bakonam, the early-seventeenth-century Ramaswami temple is unusually dedicated to Rama as the
main deity; the Ramacandra temple at Vijayanagara two centuries earlier is one of the few other exam-
ples of temples dedicated to Rama as the principal deity in south India after the twelfth century. At
Kumbakonam, the open mandapa just inside the north-facing main gopura has a cruciform internal
structure like many of the Nayaka-period temples in the town. The composite columns of this mandapa
have high-relief images of many Vaisnava deities, notably Rama and Sita facing Laksmana across the
aisle at the centre of the cruciform aisle, with royal portraits adjacent to them. The prevalence of divine
royal imagery here - and indeed the almost life-size metal images of Rama, Sita, Laksmana, and Hanu-
man in the temple's main shrine - emphasises the connection between human kingship and divine
power in the body of Rama, noted by Vivek Nanda, Anna Dallapiccola, and George Michell in their
study of this temple.62 A temple cult of Rama and his role in the ideology of kingship is a compara-
tively late phenomenon throughout India, as Sheldon Pollock has noted, being almost totally non-
existent before the twelfth century.63
Figural composite columns of Rama also feature in the Antal temple at Srivilliputtur, the Ka-
lamekaperumal temple at Tirumohur, and the Kallapiran temple at Srivaikuntam (fig. 40). At all
these sites Rama does not appear alone but with his brother Laksmana, and at Srivaikuntam with Sita,
Hanuman, and Sugriva as well. The sculptures of Rama and Laksmana at Srivilliputtur are in the cor-
ridor leading between the gopura at the entrance to the second prAdkra and the gateway to the first.
Rama stands holding a bow and arrow, much like earlier bronze images, but with a greater sense
of energy in his posture. Laksmana stands on Surpanakha, Ravana's sister, holding her hair whilst slic-
ing off her left breast with a sword, having already cut off her nose (fig. 4I). The mutilation of
Surpanakha is a key event in the Rdmdyana leading to Sita's abduction; the severing of Surpanakha's
breasts in addition to her nose and ears is a regional variant from Kampan's twelfth-century Tamil
Rdmdyanoa, the Irdmdvatdram.64 This example illustrates the local Tamil emphasis in much of the sub-
6I See, for example, the Chola-period images in Sivaramamurti, South Indian Bronzes, pls. 39a, 4oa and 43b. For a fifteenth-
to sixteenth-century example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IM 7I-I927) see Michell, Architecture and
Art of Southern India, pil. I45. On the iconography of Rama see Champakalakshmi, Vaisnava Iconography, II6-I25.
62 Nanda, Dallapiccola and Michell, "The Ramasvami Temple, Kumbakonam."
63 Sheldon Pollock, "Ramayana and Political Imagination in India," The Jornal of Asian Studies 52.2 (I993): 261-297.
64 See Kathleen Erndl, "The Mutilation of Surpanakha," in Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in
South Asia, ed. Paula Richman (Los Angeles and Berkeley: University of California Press, 199I), 67-88.
235

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
ject matter of Nayaka-period figural composite columns. At Tirumohur two composite columns in
the open porch leading to the enclosed mahdmandapa and the main shrine have sculptures of Rama and
Sita together on a single composite column with Laksmana alongside; Rati and Manmatha face each
other across the porch. At Srivaikuntam, two composite columns at the south-facing front of the fes-
tival mandapa in the secondprkadra are of groups rather than a single figure, with Rama and Laksmana
attended by monkey-warriors at their sides. Figural composite columns tend to have a single figure
on a composite column, but examples such as these have two or even three figures. Multiple figures on
a composite column become more prevalent in the course of the seventeenth century, mythic action
between deities taking place around a single composite column rather than between two of them.
A striking feature of figural composite columns in southern Tamilnadu is the great number of
figures locally identified as originating from the Mahdbhdrata. The Mahdbhdrata was not new to six-
teenth-century Tamilnadu. References to the epic are made in early Tamil texts of the fourth to sixth
centuries, the Cankam literature and the Cilappatikdram; in the mid-ninth century a Tamil version
was composed by Peruntevanar, only a portion of which survives; an inscription of 1210 from Tiru-
valankatu refers to an officer of Kulottunka III translating 'the Pdratam into sweet Tamil' producing
a Saiva version; and the finest of all Tamil versions, the Villipdratam, was composed by a Vaisnava Brah-
min, Villiputturar (or Villiputtur Alvar) around 1400.65 Like the Rdmdyana, these texts express a dis-
tinct Tamil understanding of the Mahdbhdrata that incorporates folk themes. While the Mahdbhdrata
itself may not be new to Nayaka-period Tamilnadu, depicting the main figures from it in major sculp-
ture certainly is.
Standing images of a bearded or moustached Arjuna and Karna holding a bow are the most com-
mon, but in some temples whole groups of noble warriors are shown alongside each other on com-
posite columns. Arjuna and Karna are found in the Antal temple at Srivilliputtur, the Nellaiyappar
temple at Tirunelveli, the Venkatacalapati temple at Krishnapuram, the Adinatha temple at Alvar
Tirunagari (fig. 42), the Satyavagisvara temple at Kalakkad, and, at the southernmost tip of India, in
the Sthanumalaya Perumal temple at Sucintiram. At both Madurai and Tenkasi, open mandapas are
framed by composite columns with multiple figures from the Mahdbhdrata. In the Kilikkuttu
Mandapa on the west side of the 'Golden Lily' tank in the Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple are compos-
ite columns with large figures of the five Pandavas - Arjuna, Bhima, Nakula, Sahadeva, and Yudhist-
hira - interspersed with yilis. Similar figures are identified as the first four of these, along with Dharma
and Karna in the open mandapa at the entrance to the Balamurukan shrine in the Kasi Visvanatha tem-
ple at Tenkasi. Establishing identities for these figures is problematic for they are all shown as war-
riors, usually with a sword or bow, with or without a beard or moustache.
Bhima, however, is identified by the distinctive use of a club, for which he is well known in the
Mahdbhdrata. A notable theme in the figural composite columns of southern Tamilnadu is the battle
between Bhima and a lion-legged figure also armed with a club, called in Tamil Purusamirukam (San-
65 Alf Hiltebeitel, The Cult of Draupadi I - Mythologies: From Gingee to Kuruksetra (Chicago and London: University
of Chicago Press, I988), I3-IS; David Shulman, The King and the Clown in South Indian Myth and Poetry (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, I985), I3-I4; M.S.H. Thompson, "The Mahabharata in Tamil," Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society (1960): 115-123; Kamil Zvelebil, Lexicon of Tamil Literature (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 995), 395-6.
236

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
skrit,
skrit, Purusamrga),
Purusamrga),occasionally
occasionallydepicted
depicted
with
with
another
another
warrior
warrior
with
with
a club.
a club.
ThisThis
fightfight
is shown
is shown
eithereither
on composite
compositecolumns
columnsthat
thatface
faceeach
each
other
other
or or
in in
several
several
examples
examples
around
around
a single
a single
composite
composite
column.
column.
Nine
Nine examples
examplesof
ofthis
thismyth
mythasasfigural
figural
composite
composite
columns
columns
have
have
beenbeen
seenseen
in six
in temples,
six temples,
including
including
the the
Iooo-Column
Iooo-Column Mandapa
Mandapaand
andthe
theKilikkuttu
KilikkuttuMandapa,
Mandapa,both
both
in the
in the
Minaksi-Sundaresvara
Minaksi-Sundaresvara
temple
temple
at at
Madurai;
Madurai; in
in both
boththe
theSubramanya
Subramanyashrine
shrine
and
and
thethe
Cankili
Cankili
Mandapa
Mandapa
(both
(both
mid-seventeenth
mid-seventeenth
century)
century)
within
within the
the Nellaiyappar
Nellaiyappartemple
templecomplex
complex
at at
Tirunelveli;
Tirunelveli;
around
around
single
single
composite
composite
columns
columns
at Krish-
at Krish-
napuram
napuram (fig.
(fig.43)
43)and
andthe
theSatyavagisvara
Satyavagisvaratemple
temple
at Kalakkad;
at Kalakkad;
andand
at the
at the
entrance
entrance
to the
to south-facing
the south-facing
festival
festival man.dapas
man.dapasininthe
thethirdprdkdra
thirdprdkdraofof
thethe
largely
largely
seventeenth-century
seventeenth-century
Vanamamalai
Vanamamalai
Perumal
Perumal
tem- tem-
ple at
at Nanguneri,
Nanguneri,and
andthe
thesimilar
similarmandapa
mandapain in
thethe
secondprdakra
secondprdakra
of the
of the
Nampirayar
Nampirayar
temple
temple
at Tirukku-
at Tirukku-
runkudi.
runkudi. Another
Anotherexample
exampleisistotobebe
found
found
in in
thethe
only
only
museum
museum
collection
collection
of Nayaka
of Nayaka
architectural
architectural
sculp-sculp-
ture,
ture, the
the Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaMuseum
MuseumofofArt's
Art'sreconstructed
reconstructed
mandapa
mandapa
from
from
Madurai,
Madurai,
where
where
Purusamirukam
Purusamirukam
has been
been confused
confusedby
byNorman
NormanBrown
Brownwith
with
thethe
similarly
similarly
lion-legged
lion-legged
Vyaghrapada.66
Vyaghrapada.66
The myth
The myth
is notis not
in Sanskrit
Sanskrit versions
versionsofofthe
theMahdbhdrata
Mahdbhdrataand
and
is probably
is probably
a local
a local
Tamil
Tamil
folkfolk
theme.
theme.
This This
is supported
is supported
by the
the identification
identificationofofa asimilar
similarmyth
mythdepicted
depicted
in in
fifteenth-century
fifteenth-century
reliefs
reliefs
at Vijayanagara
at Vijayanagara
that has
thata has a
source
source in
in the
thecontemporary
contemporaryKannada
KannadaMahabhdrata.67
Mahabhdrata.67
Site
Site Myths,
Myths, Folk
FolkLiterature,
Literature,and
andLocal
Local
Deities
Deities
Alongside
Alongside the
thedepiction
depictionofofdeities,
deities,both
both
those
those
known
known
from
from
earlier
earlier
periods
periods
of sculpture
of sculpture
in southern
in southern
India India
and
and those
those given
givengreater
greateremphasis
emphasisinin
this
this
particular
particular
period,
period,
are are
figural
figural
composite
composite
columns
columns
of local
of local
figures
figures in
in Tamil
Tamilfolk
folkliterature.
literature.It It
has
has
already
already
been
been
noted
noted
thatthat
locallocal
variations
variations
of pan-Indian
of pan-Indian
literature,
literature,
such
such as
as the
the Rdmdyana
Rdmdyanaand
andMahabhdrata,
Mahabhdrata,may
maybe be
reflected
reflected
in sculpture,
in sculpture,
for for
instance
instance
Laksmana
Laksmana
at at
Srivilliputtur
Srivilliputturmutilating
mutilatingSurpanakha
Surpanakhaand
and
thethe
fight
fight
of of
Bhima
Bhima
with
with
the the
lion-legged
lion-legged
Purusamirukam.
Purusamirukam.
A similar
similar Tamil
Tamilemphasis
emphasistotothe
theMahabhdrata,
Mahabhdrata,is represented
is represented
in sculpture
in sculpture
in the
in Nellaiyappar
the Nellaiyappar
temple
temple
at Tirunelveli.
Tirunelveli.Two
Twofigural
figuralcomposite
composite
columns,
columns,
each
each
with
with
multiple
multiple
figures,
figures,
stand
stand
on either
on either
side of
side
theof the
corridor
corridor leading
leadingnorth
northtotothe
theComavara
ComavaraMandapa
Mandapain in
thethe
outermost
outermost
third
third
prdkdra
prdkdra
builtbuilt
in the
inmiddle
the middle
of the
the seventeenth
seventeenthcentury.68
century.68The
Thewest
westgroup
group
is of
is of
a standing
a standing
man,
man,
approximately
approximately
2.5 metres
2.5 metres
tall, with
tall, with
conical
conical headdress
headdressand
andflowing
flowinghair,
hair,hishis
right
right
hand
hand
on on
thethe
shoulder
shoulder
of aof
woman
a woman
standing
standing
at ease
at next
ease next
to him
him (fig.
(fig. 44)
44)and
andother
otherfemale
femaleattendants
attendants
on on
each
each
side.
side.
TheThe
main
main
malemale
and and
female
female
figures
figures
are locally
are locally
identified
identified as
as Arjuna
Arjunaand
andAlli.
Alli.The
Thecolumn
column
opposite
opposite
shows
shows
four
four
women
women
sheltering
sheltering
beneath
beneath
a huge
a huge
tree tree
with
with birds,
birds, branches,
branches,and
andleaves
leavesclearly
clearly
depicted.
depicted.
OneOne
of of
thethe
four
four
women
women
is much
is much
larger
larger
than than
the other
the other
three
three and
and isis identified
identifiedasasPavalakkoti.
Pavalakkoti.This
This
column
column
is on
is on
thethe
same
same
scalescale
as the
as one
the opposite
one opposite
but the
butbase
the base
is lower
lower to
to accommodate
accommodatethe
theheight
heightofof
the
the
tree.
tree.
TheThe
scenes
scenes
are are
related
related
in their
in their
subject
subject
matter,
matter,
both both
coming
coming from
fromTamil
Tamillove
loveballads
balladsabout
about
Arjuna,
Arjuna,
thus
thus
explaining
explaining
their
their
location
location
in the
in temple
the temple
opposite
opposite
each
each other.
other. The
Thefirst
firstballad
balladconcerns
concerns
Arjuna's
Arjuna's
love
love
forfor
Alli,
Alli,
thethe
queen
queen
of Madurai.
of Madurai.
In the
In second,
the second,
Arjuna
Arjuna
is sent
sent by
by Alli
Allito
toget
geta acoral
coraltoy
toychariot
chariot
forfor
herher
sonson
Pulantiran
Pulantiran
to the
to the
landland
of Pavalakkoti
of Pavalakkoti
ruledruled
by the
by the
66 Brown,
Brown, Pillared
PillaredHall.
Hall.
67 Anna
Anna Dallapiccola
Dallapiccolaand
andAnila
AnilaVerghese,
Verghese,"Narrative
"Narrative
Reliefs
Reliefs
of Bhima
of Bhima
and and
Purushamriga
Purushamriga
at Vijayanagara,"
at Vijayanagara,"
and Crispin
and Crispin
Branfoot,
Branfoot, "Bhima
"Bhimaand
andPurusamirukam
Purusamirukamin in
thethe
Nayaka-period
Nayaka-period
Sculpture
Sculpture
of Tamilnadu,"
of Tamilnadu,"
SouthSouth
AsianAsian
Studies
Studies
i8 (2002):
i8 (2002):
73-76, 77-82.
68 T.A. Kumara Raj, "The Temple of Nellaiyappar at Tirunelveli," Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society 65.2 (1974):
12-23 and P.P. Umamahecuvari, Nellaiyappar Koyil (Madras: Saiva Siddhanta Publications Ltd., 1990).
237

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
queen of the same name, Pavalakkoti ('the coral creeper'), and duly falls in love with her too.69 These
are major sculptures in the temple, yet the subjects depicted are very local, southern Tamil ones.
In the Madurai region as well, composite columns often depict figures from local myths and lit-
erature. The place-history (sthalapurdna, talapurdanm) is an important genre of Tamil literature, as
David Shulman's study of the Saiva material has demonstrated, and there was an outpouring of such
literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.70 The best-known place-history in Madurai asso-
ciated with the Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple is the Tiruvilaiyd.tarpurdnam ('the story of the sacred
games'), written by Paraficoti around the early to mid-seventeenth century using a number of earlier
sources. Its sixty-four episodes or 'games' (Tamil, vilaiydtal; Sanskrit, lila) describe Siva's appearance
in Madurai, the most famous episode being his marriage to the local Pandyan warrior-princess
Tatatakai or Minaksi. Other myths describe how Siva saved the city of Madurai from various threats.
The events described in these texts specifically associated with Madurai are part of the sacred land-
scape of the city and its surroundings.
Many events in the Tiruvilaiyadtarpurdnam are depicted in the figural composite columns of the
Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple in Madurai, in the Iooo-Column Mandapa and the Putu Mandapa (fig.
45), and at nearby Tirupparankundram in the Astana and Tiruvacci Mandapas of the Subramanya tem-
ple.7' All these structures containing major figural composite columns were built from the late six-
teenth to the latee seventeenth century, roughly the same period as when Paraicoti's text was written.
Though many of the sixty-four myths were known earlier, they were not depicted in sculpture or
painting until the Nayaka period from the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, once again illus-
trating the local sources for the subject matter of many Nayaka-period figural composite columns.
Connected to the site-myths of Madurai are further figural composite columns in the south-fac-
ing Nayaka-period Atmanatha temple at Avadaiyarkoyil, located in the open mandapa on axis between
the second and thirdprdkdras; they depict four key figures of the temple's talapuranam (fig. 46).72 The
poet-saint Manikkavacakar grew up near Madurai, becoming chief minister to the Pandyan king. Sent
by the king with enormous sums to buy horses from a trader in Perunturai (Avadaiyarkoyil), he was
instead initiated by Siva disguised as an ascetic, and gave away all the king's wealth. Figural compos-
ite columns of Manikkavacakar, the Pandyan king, Siva as a guru-ascetic, and the horse trader on a
rearing horse are found at the site.73
69 M. Arunachalam, Peeps into Tamil Literature: Ballad Poetry (Tiruchitrambalam: Gandhi Vidyalayam, 1976), 95-I00,
104-105 and Hiltebeitel, Cult of Draupadi, 215-223.
70 David Shulman, Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, I980).
71 Branfoot, "Tirumala Nayaka's 'New Hall."'
72 On this temple and its site-myth see Glenn Yocum, "Brahmin, King, Sannyasi, and the Goddess in a Cage: Reflections
on the 'Conceptual Order of Hinduism' in a Tamil Saiva Temple," Contributions to Indian Sociology n.s. 20.I (1986):
I5-39. The Nayaka-period construction of much of this temple is suggested by inscriptions in the two gopuras dated
to ca. I589-93 (Madras Reports on Epigraphy nos. 502-7 of 1925).
73 The horse-trader composite column figure is now identified as Siva and, with Manikkavacakar, is under worship.
However, it is probably the figure standing in anjalimudrd alongside Manikkavacakar who should be identified as Siva
as the guru-ascetic. Here, as in other examples, the identity of figures is neither absolutely certain nor fixed upon
creation. Two of these figural composite columns are illustrated in R. Dessigane, Z. Pattabiramin and J. Filliozat, La
Legende desJeux de 9iva a Madurai, 2 vols. (Pondicherry: Institut Francais d'Indologie, 1960), vol. 2, pls. 49 and 50.
238

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Other examples of figures from regional folk literature in Nayaka-period architectural sculpture
are the female Kuratti and male Kuravan from the Kuravanci dance-drama. This was a productive genre
of Tamil literature between i680 and 800oo, originally performed in a temple context at festivals.74 The
drama centres on two love affairs, with the Kuravanci or Kuratti, a woman from the Kuravar caste, pro-
viding the link. In one part of the drama, the Kuratti tells the fortune of a high-caste woman who has
fallen in love with a passing prince, while the other centres on her own love for a man from her own
group. Though this genre does not become prominent in written literature until the late seventeenth
century, examples of the main protagonists feature in temple sculptures from the I56os, notably in the
iooo-Column Mandapa at Madurai and at Krishnapuram. The appearance of these sculptures again
reflects the migration of new social groups through southern India and the increasing representation
of previously marginal groups in the public sphere.
Figural composite columns of the female Kuratti are more common than the male Kuravan and are
striking for the standard iconography that is rapidly established (fig. 47). The Kuratti is shown in a
dance posture, her hair in a bun on one side of her head, and wearing a long pleated skirt like those in
the occasional dancer sculptures of the period. However, the Kuratti additionally holds a distinctive
woven basket in the crook of her left arm and a baby in one hand, and often has a small child on her
right; she may hold a small cup for begging food. The figural composite column of the Kuratti at the
entrance to the Iooo-Column Mandapa at Madurai has an additional baby in a sling across her breasts.
The Kuravan alongside her in this mandapa exhibits the standard iconography for these figures: with
a moustache and 'gypsy' clothing, he paces forward on tiptoes, his head cocked to one side. In one hand
he holds a staff and often in the other a small pouch containing the aphrodisiacs and medicinal herbs
that he sells, or a sling for catching birds (fig. 48). Large figural composite columns of a Kuratti or both
the woman and the man together appear in the following temples: the Venkatacalapati temple at
Krishnapuram (I56os), the Iooo-Column Mandapa of the Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple at Madurai
(ca. 1572-95), the east side of the third prakdra of the Nellaiyappar temple at Tirunelveli (ca. I650),
the four-column mandapa on the east side of the Jambukesvara temple's third prakdra on Srirangam
island, the festival mandapa in the second prdkdra of the Alakiya Nampirayar temple at Tirukku-
runkudi and in the entrance corridor of the Satyamurti Perumal temple at Tirumayam (both seven-
teenth century), and the eastern entrance to the early-eighteenth-century third prakdra around the
Ramalingesvara temple at Ramesvaram. On a smaller scale, images of Kurattis are also seen in the ndsi
reliefs of the mid-sixteenth-century Kutal Alakar temple at Madurai and on the roof eaves and the base
of the outer festival mandapa of the seventeenth-century Kallapiran temple at Srivaikuntam. The
majority of these examples are in southern Tamilnadu, again emphasising the variety of figural com-
posite columns in this area. This was the area ruled by the pdlaiyyakdrars ('poligars'), the local rulers
and landowners in the southern districts who were the main patrons of the Kuravanci and other impor-
tant literary genres in the eighteenth century.
74 Indira Peterson, "The Evolution of the Kuravafici Dance Drama in Tamilnadu: Negotiating the 'Folk' and the 'Clas-
sical' in the Bharata Natyam Canon," South Asia Research i8.i (1998): 39-72 and "The Drama of the Kuravaiici
Fortune-teller: Land, Landscape and Social Relations in an Eighteenth-Century Tamil Genre," in Tamil Geographies:
Cultural Constructions of Space and Place in South India, ed. Martha A. Selby and Indira Peterson (Albany: SUNY Press,
forthcoming).
239

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Depicting
Depicting another
anotherlocal
localfolk
folktheme
theme
in in
Nayaka-period
Nayaka-period
figural
figural
composite
composite
columns
columns
are the
are'kidnap-
the 'kidnap-
ping'
ping' sculptures
sculpturesthat
thatappear
appearatat
Krishnapuram
Krishnapuram
alongside
alongside
the the
Kuravan
Kuravan
and Kuratti,
and Kuratti,
in theinIooo-Column
the Iooo-Column
Mandapa
Mandapa at
atMadurai,
Madurai,ininthe
thethird
third
prdkira
prdkira
at Ramesvaram,
at Ramesvaram,
and and
on aon
smaller
a smaller
scale scale
in theincomposite
the composite
columns
columns and
androof
roofeaves
eavesofofother
other
temples
temples
in in
southern
southern
Tamilnadu,
Tamilnadu,
suchsuch
as at as
Srivaikuntam.
at Srivaikuntam.
These These
columns
columns feature
featurea alarge
largeman
manrunning
running
offoff
with
with
a smaller
a smaller
woman
woman
on his
on shoulders
his shoulders
or indeed
or indeed
the reverse,
the reverse,
a large
large woman
womancarrying
carryinga asmall
smallman.
man.Other
Other
figures
figures
appear
appear
on either
on either
side side
of the
ofmain
the main
scene scene
and often
and aoften a
mounted
mounted horsemen
horsemenrears
rearsupup
toto
one
one
side,
side,
as at
as Krishnapuram
at Krishnapuram
(fig.(fig.
49). These
49). These
figures
figures
are locally
are locally
identified
identified
as aa Kuravan
Kuravankidnapping
kidnappinga aprincess
princess
and
and
a Kuratti
a Kuratti
running
running
off off
withwith
a prince.
a prince.
Whilst
Whilst
these these
'kidnapping'
'kidnapping'
themes
themes do
do not
notfeature
featureininthe
the
later
later
literary
literary
portraits
portraits
of these
of these
groups
groups
in the
in Kuravanci
the Kuravanci
dance-drama,
dance-drama,
the the
accuracy
accuracy of
ofthe
thelocal
localidentification
identification
is is
suggested
suggested
by by
other
other
details
details
on the
on figural
the figural
composite
composite
columns.
columns.
A A
central
central narrative
narrativeininthe
theKuravanci
Kuravancidrama
drama
involves
involves
a Kuratti
a Kuratti
reading
reading
the palm
the palm
of another
of another
woman;
woman;
on theon the
back
back of
of one
oneof
ofthe
thecomposite
compositecolumns
columns
at at
Krishnapuram
Krishnapuram
is a is
relief
a relief
of such
of such
an event.
an event.
Another
Another
example
example
of aa 'kidnapping'
'kidnapping'figural
figuralcomposite
composite
column
column
appears
appears
at Tirumayam,
at Tirumayam,
alongside
alongside
a composite
a composite
column
column
of of
a Kuravan
Kuravan and
andanother
anotherofofa Kuratti
a Kuratti
in in
thethe
iconographic
iconographic
poses
poses
described
described
above,
above,
suggesting
suggesting
the figures
the figures
are all connected.
The association of a Kuravan or a Kuratti to the 'kidnapping' scene and to a rearing mounted war-
rior is made clear at both the Sesagiriraya Mandapa in the Ranganatha temple at Srirangam (fig. 30)
and at the west end of the Putu Mandapa at Madurai, where all these figures appear beneath a rearing
horse composite column. Each of these scenes or figures is depicted as a separate composite column,
but subsidiary figures on the sides or base enhance the complexity of the whole figural composite col-
umn. This suggests an alternative meaning for the presence of horseman composite columns in some
south Indian temples.
Royal Portraiture
Though there are earlier precedents for the depiction of kings as devotees or donors in south Indian
art, one of the most distinctive features of Nayaka-period sculpture is the prevalence of life-size por-
trait images of kings and donors, standing in anijalimudrd. The seventh-century relief of two Pallava
kings in the Adi Varaha cave at Mamallapuram is unusual before the sixteenth century for it depicts
the two approximately life size. Twelve temples in the Kaveri delta in central Tamilnadu from around
the late ninth and tenth centuries have reliefs of kings shown in devotion before an image of Siva or a
li?nga on the walls of the main shrine or the attached mandapa. They are of small scale, in low relief,
and most have inscriptions identifying the figures. Few further portrait sculptures of kings or major
donors are known in the intervening centuries until their proliferation in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.75
75 On south Indian portraiture see T.V. Aravamuthan, Portrait Sculpture in South India (London: The India Society, 1930);
Crispin Branfoot, "Royal Portrait Sculpture in the South Indian Temple," South Asian Studies i6 (2000): 11-36 and
Branfoot, "Mangammal of Madurai," 369-377; Padma Kaimal, "The Problem of Portraiture in South India, ca.
870-970 A.D.," Artibus Asiae 59 (1999): 59-133 and "The Problem of Portraiture in South India, ca. 970-1000 A.D.,"
Artibus Asiae 60o (2000): 139-I79; K. Palacuppiramaniyan, Colamantalattu Varalarru Ndyakarkalin Ci4pankalum
Oviyankalum (Tancavur: Saraswati Mahal Library, 1987).
240

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
Nayaka-period
Nayaka-periodfigural
figuralcomposite
composite
columns
columns
of of
kings
kings
havehave
a standard
a standard
iconography:
iconography:
they are
theylarge
are large
scale
scale and
and often
oftenlife-size,
life-size,standing,
standing,
rigidly
rigidly
frontal,
frontal,
with
with
no suggestion
no suggestion
of age
oforage
mood.
or mood.
Individuality
Individuality
is is
suggested
suggested by
bytheir
theiranatomy,
anatomy,facial
facial
detail,
detail,
dress,
dress,
andand
ornament.
ornament.
Headwear,
Headwear,
for example,
for example,
is the is
chief
the chief
distinguishing
distinguishingfeature
featureofofthe
the
ten
ten
Nayakas
Nayakas
shown
shown
in the
in the
PutuPutu
Mandapa.
Mandapa.
The well-known
The well-known
imagesimages
of of
Tirumala
Tirumala Nayaka
Nayakaare
arenotable
notablefor
for
their
their
depiction
depiction
of the
of the
king's
king's
round,
round,
well-fed
well-fed
stomach.
stomach.
Much Much
of the of the
previous
previous scholarship
scholarshipononportrait
portraitsculpture
sculpture
in southern
in southern
IndiaIndia
has focussed
has focussed
on the
onidentification
the identification
of indi-
of indi-
vidual
vidual sculptures,
sculptures,but
butthis
thisis is
complicated
complicated
by by
thethe
almost
almost
complete
complete
lack lack
of associated
of associated
inscriptions,
inscriptions,
par- par-
ticularly
ticularly for
forthe
thenumerous
numerousNayaka-period
Nayaka-periodexamples.
examples.
A more
more productive
productiveapproach
approachtoto
portrait
portrait
sculpture
sculpture
is toisexamine
to examine
its general
its general
location,
location,
function,
function,
and and
aesthetic
aesthetic characteristics
characteristicswithin
withina temple
a temple
setting.
setting.
TheThe
large-scale
large-scale
stonestone
figures
figures
on composite
on composite
columns
columns
are
are consistently
consistentlylocated
locatedalong
along
the
the
major
major
routes
routes
usedused
by devotees
by devotees
going
going
into the
intotemple
the temple
and deities
and deities
com- com-
ing
ing out
out of
ofthe
thetemple
templeononprocession,
procession,
as as
well
well
as along
as along
the the
interior
interior
aislesaisles
of festival
of festival
mandapas
mandapas
in front
in of
front of
the
the platform
platformwhere
wherethe
thedeities
deities
areare
placed
placed
temporarily.
temporarily.
Portrait
Portrait
sculptures
sculptures
are located
are located
at places
at places
where where
deities
deities are
arenormally
normallyabsent
absentbut
but
at at
certain
certain
times
times
during
during
the the
temple's
temple's
festivals
festivals
are present.
are present.
Thus an
Thus an
appreciation
appreciationof
ofa atemple's
temple'sfestival
festival
function
function
helps
helps
explain
explain
the the
location
location
and iconography
and iconography
of portrait
of portrait
sculptures
sculpturesin
inthe
thelarge
largetemple
temple
complexes
complexes
of of
Nayaka-period
Nayaka-period
Tamilnadu,
Tamilnadu,
which
which
are processional
are processional
spaces spaces
for both devotees and deities.
Portrait sculptures are uniformly in anfjalimudrd, the gesture of greeting and devotion, and often
appear above eye-level. When one considers that during festivals deities are carried through the tem-
ple on vahanas or palanquins, both the iconography of portrait sculptures and their location make
sense: they are placed to greet deities which move through the temple on procession and rest in
ma.dapas temporarily during a festival. In the Nellaiyappar temple complex at Tirunelveli there is a
row of ten portrait groups, each of a king in anjalimudrd with one or more male attendants, on the
south side of the corridor that encircles the third prakdra of the Siva temple to the north of the Kan-
timati (Amman) temple (fig. 50). Each group is attached to a composite column and is above our eye-
level, but at Nellaiyappar's (Siva's) level when he is carried past in a palanquin. Nellaiyappar passes
this way and on through the south gopura every day to spend the night with his consort, Kantimati
(Amman), in the bedchamber (pa//iyarai) of her adjoining temple. Nellaiyappar also goes past this
group during the periodic temple festivals, for before exiting the temple through the east gopura he
proceeds all round the third prdkdra past the portrait sculptures.
In the open prdkdras of the Alakar temple at Alagarkoyil, north of Madurai, are two festival
man.dapas containing portrait sculptures of kings. The kalydanamandapa lies immediately outside the
gopura leading to the enclosed second prakdra. The basic structure consists of a long enclosed aisle of
figural composite columns leading to a throne platform, with narrower and lower aisles to both sides
and steps on to the basement at each end (ill. 3). This structure is designed to be viewed from inside,
like most festival mandapas, which have little exterior impact. A stone throne platform is located at
the western end with a wooden frame to support a cloth canopy. During the modern-day marriage fes-
tival (kalydnotsava) in the Tamil month of Pankuni, Perumal, Bhu, Sri, and Antal come to this mandapa
and are placed on the throne platform for the duration of the five-day festival, receiving worshippers
along the aisle in front of them as honoured guests. Perumal alone comes to the kalydnamandapa on
the first day only of the ten-day Ati brahmotsava. The raised ceiling of the central aisle emphasises the
24I

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
approach
approach to
to the
thedeities
deitiesononthe
thethrone
throne
platform,
platform,
butbut
it isitthe
is the
figural
figural
sculpture
sculpture
on the
ontwenty
the twenty
compos-
compos-
ite columns
columns on
oneither
eitherside
sideofofthis
this
aisle
aisle
that
that
make
make
thethe
space
space
so striking.
so striking.
Large
Large
three-dimensional
three-dimensional
figures
figures
of Vaisnava
Vaisnava deities
deitiesalternating
alternatingwith
withyalis
yalis
leap
leap
forward
forward
from
from
the the
columns
columns
toward
toward
the worshippers
the worshippers
pro- pro-
ceeding
ceeding towards
towardsthe
thedeity.
deity.AtAtthe
the
eastern
eastern
end,
end,
facing
facing
both
both
the the
mainmain
shrine
shrine
and the
and place
the place
wherewhere
the the
deities
deities are
are enthroned
enthronedduring
duringthe
the
marriage
marriage
festival
festival
are are
twotwo
life-size
life-size
images
images
of kings,
of kings,
theirtheir
handshands
held held
together
together greeting
greetingthe
thegod
godatatallall
times
times
(fig.
(fig.
51).51).
The
The Tirumala
TirumalaMandapa
Mandapaisisa asmall
smallnorth-facing
north-facing
structure
structure
in the
in the
outer
outer
fortfort
beside
beside
the route
the route
leading
leading
into
into the
the temple
templecomplex
complexfrom
fromMadurai
Maduraiand
and
thethe
south
south
gate.
gate.
A high
A high
basement
basement
supports
supports
a composite
a composite
columned
columned aisle
aislewith
witha arow
rowofofouter
outer
columns
columns
either
either
sideside
leading
leading
to a to
narrower
a narrower
enclosed
enclosed
platform
platform
at theat the
south
south end.
end. The
Theinterior
interiorisisnotable
notablefor
for
itsits
life-size
life-size
portrait
portrait
sculpture:
sculpture:
two two
kingskings
at the
atnorth
the north
end face
end face
towards
towards the
theenclosed
enclosedplatform
platformand
and
a king
a king
ndnd
a queen
a queen
on each
on each
sideside
of the
of platform
the platform
face inward
face inward
(ill. 5,(ill. 5,
fig.
fig. 52).
52). The
Thesimilarity
similarityofofthe
thetwo
two
male
male
figures
figures
by by
thethe
platform
platform
to other
to other
portrait
portrait
sculptures
sculptures
identified
identified
as Tirumala
Tirumala Nayaka
NayakaofofMadurai
Maduraigives
gives
the
the
mandapa
mandapa
its its
name.
name.
TheyThey
also also
sugest
sugest
a ses aeventeenth-century
ses eventeenth-century
date
date for
for the
themandapa,
mandapa,asasdodostructural
structural
details.
details.
Although
Although
in ain
poor
a poor
statestate
and not
and in
not
use,
in this
use, isthis
another
is another
festival
festival mandapa
mandapafor
fordeities.
deities.When
Whenone
one
visualises
visualises
thethe
deities
deities
on the
on the
platform
platform
(marked
(marked
* in ill.
* in5) ill.
the5) the
poses,
poses, locations,
locations,and
andelevation
elevationofof
allall
thethe
portrait
portrait
sculptures
sculptures
make
make
sense,
sense,
for they
for they
all face
all the
facedeity
the deity
in an in an
attitude of devotion.
The presence of life-sized royal portraiture in many south Indian temples in the later sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries is a distinctive feature of the Nayaka period, and is related to the changing
nature of kingship in Tamilnadu at the time. The shared sovereignty of kings and deities is a consis-
tent theme in south Indian history from the Pallava period onwards. The growth of stone temple con-
struction coincides with the shift from the sacrifice to the gift or endowment as the major constituent
of the king's sovereignty, and kingship or political authority has been associated with deities and tem-
ples ever since. The nature of kingship and authority is not, however, static or uniform. There is a
notable contrast between Chola kingship and that of the Vijayanagara or Nayaka kings, and this is
reflected in the production and use of images of those kings.
David Shulman notes that Chola kings 'are less important to us as individuals (we know little
enough about their personal realities) than as symbolic foci.'76 Their titles in royal inscriptions are for-
mulaic with a tendency towards conventionalised, grandiose phraseology in theprashasti or introduc-
tory portions:
We remain largely ignorant of the personal histories, the small but crucial details that alone can
give a sense of a real, developing person, affecting the rule of Chola kings. The great kings men-
tioned in the thousands of mediaeval inscriptions are far less palpable, seemingly less real figures,
than the much less powerful warrior-heroes sung by the ancient Cankam bards. The Cankam heroes
often achieve, in the compositions of their poets, a winning individuality conveyed by unique, dra-
matic details; we would be hard pressed to find anything so convincingly individualised in the
Chola eulogies. In short, the mediaeval south Indian king eludes us as a person.77
76 Shulman, The King and the Clown, Io.

77 Ibid., 15-I6.
242

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
This
This contrasts
contrastswith
withthe
the
later
later
Vijayanagara
Vijayanagara
period
period
when,when,
as Burton
as Burton
Stein notes,
Steinthe
notes,
pervasive
the pervasive
anonymity
anonymityofofChola-period
Chola-periodleadership
leadership
is replaced
is replaced
by anby
increasing
an increasing
stress on
stress
namedonindividual
named individual
lead- lead-
ers.78
ers.78 This
Thisisistrue
true
for
for
thethe
king
king
as well
as well
as other
as other
leaders:
leaders:
Vijayanagara
Vijayanagarainscriptions
inscriptions
of of
thethe
fourteenth
fourteenth
century
century
onwards
onwards
depict depict
the Vijayanagara
the Vijayanagara
king, his king,
son, his son,
or
or preceptorial
preceptorialagent
agent
making
making
gifts
gifts
to temples
to temples
or to or
Brahmans,
to Brahmans,
adjudicating
adjudicating
disputes disputes
among such
among such
personages,
personages,ororre-establishing
re-establishing
temple
temple
worship
worship
long long
interrupted
interrupted
by Muslim
by Muslim
depredations
depredations
or other or other
disorders.
disorders.There
Thereis is
in in
thethe
Vijayanagara
Vijayanagara
records
records
an immediacy
an immediacy
of the of
royal
thepresence
royal presence
that is largely
that is largely
absent
absentfrom
frommost
mostChola
Chola
inscriptions.79
inscriptions.79
If
If the
the Vijayanagara
Vijayanagarasources
sources
suggest
suggest
an immediacy
an immediacy
of theofroyal
the presence,
royal presence,
then this
then
is even
thistruer
is even
in the
truer in the
Nayaka
Nayakaperiod.
period.The
Thedistinctive
distinctive
character
character
of Nayaka
of Nayaka
kingship
kingship
compared
compared
with that
with
of earlier
that of periods
earlier
is periods is
discussed
discussedby
byVelcheru
VelcheruNarayana
Narayana
Rao,Rao,
David
David
Shulman,
Shulman,
and Sanjay
and Sanjay
Subrahmanyam.
Subrahmanyam.
They point
They
to the
point to the
personality
personalityand
andindividual
individual
character
character
of Nayaka
of Nayaka
kingskings
illustrated
illustrated
in a popular
in a popular
literary literary
genre (abhyu-
genre (abhyu-
dayamu)
dayamu)that
thatdepicts
depictsa highly
a highly
ritualised
ritualised
and strictly
and strictly
patterned
patterned
view ofview
a dayofinathe
daylife
in of
thethe
life
king
of at
the king at
court.
court. This
This'day
'dayinin
the
the
life'
life'
literature
literature
'is articulated
'is articulated
in apuja
in mode
apuja of
mode
worship,
of worship,
with thewith
king the
cast king
as cast as
the
the divine
divinesubject,
subject,hishis
daily
daily
routine
routine
a framework
a framework
of ritualised
of ritualised
revelation.'80
revelation.'80
The inflation
The inflation
of the Nayaka
of the Nayaka
king
king to
todivine
divinestatus
status
in in
thethe
period's
period's
literature
literature
is a recurring
is a recurring
theme.8I
theme.8I
Nayaka Nayaka
kings arekings
still subservient
are still subservient
to
to the
the deity
deityininthe
the
traditional
traditional
manner,
manner,
but the
but deity
the deity
is nowisfar
nowmore
fardependent
more dependent
on the king.
on the
The king.
tem- The tem-
ple
ple and
andcourt
courtare
are
merged
merged
to atomuch
a much
greater
greater
degree
degree
than before,
than before,
with the
with
kingthe
elevated
king elevated
to a kind to
of a kind of
divinity.
divinity.Deities
Deitieshold
hold
court
court
likelike
a Nayaka
a Nayaka
king,king,
and kings
and kings
assumeassume
the identity
the identity
and the ritualised
and the ritualised
rou- rou-
tine
tine of
ofthe
thegod
godinin
the
the
shrine.
shrine.
Narayana
Narayana
Rao, Rao,
Shulman,
Shulman,
and Subrahmanyam
and Subrahmanyam
note that
note
'we that
are used
'we to
are used to
thinking
thinkingof
ofthe
thetemple
temple
as patterned
as patterned
after
after
the royal
the royal
court,court,
its godits
served
god in
served
the idiom
in the
of idiom
kingship;
of kingship;
but but
the
the Nayaka
Nayakapolitical
politicalcentre
centre
hashas
reassimilated
reassimilated
the regal
the regal
structure
structure
of the of
sacred
thecentre
sacredand
centre
then and
pro-then pro-
claimed
claimedthe
theprimacy
primacyof of
its its
ownown
form
form
of the
of divine
the divine
- not -the
not
frozen,
the frozen,
immobile
immobile
image carved
imageout
carved
ofstone,
out ofstone,
but
but the
thehuman
humanavatar
avatar
who
who
moves,
moves,
breathes,
breathes,
and desires.'82
and desires.'82
This transformation
This transformation
in the nature
in the
ofnature
king- of king-
ship
ship isisparalleled
paralleledinin
the
the
depiction
depiction
of royal
of royal
figures
figures
in stone
in stone
sculpture.
sculpture.
The king,
Theabsent
king,inabsent
his palace,
in his
is palace, is
given
given aapermanent,
permanent,accessible
accessible
presence
presence
in the
in portrait
the portrait
sculptures
sculptures
of himself
of himself
includedincluded
in the structure
in the structure
of
of temple
templecomplexes.83
complexes.83
78
78 Stein,
Stein,Peasant
PeasantState
State
andand
Society,
Society,
434. 434.
79 Ibid., 383.
80 Narayana Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, 58-59.
8I Ibid., I69-2I9
82 Ibid., 27.
83 The appearance of life-size portraiture in south Indian temples in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is further
evidence for the changing representation of the individual, alongside the growing depiction of previously marginal
groups such as the Kurav1ar referred to above.
243

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
CONCLUSION
The
TheNayaka
Nayakaperiod
period
fromfrom
the mid-sixteenth
the mid-sixteenth
to the earlyto
eighteenth
the early
century
eighteenth
in the Tamil
century
countryin
was
the Ta
aa very
veryactive
active
period
period
of temple
of temple
construction,
construction,
far more prolific
far more
than any
prolific
other since
than the
any
decline
other
of the
since t
Chola
Cholaempire
empirein the
in South
the South
at the end
at the
of the
end
thirteenth
of the century.
thirteenth
Although
century.
the Nayaka
Although
period isthe
usu-Naya
ally
allyrelegated
relegatedto the
to tail
theend
tail
of end
one significant
of one significant
era, whether era,
the Vijayanagara
whether the or the
Vijayanagara
mediaeval period
or the
as
as aawhole,
whole,or indeed
or indeed
to theto
start
theofstart
another,
of the
another,
Colonial the
period,
Colonial
it was inperiod,
fact a dynamic
it wascultural
in fact a dy
period
period in in
its its
ownown
right,
right,
regardless
regardless
of the political
of the andpolitical
military weaknesses
and military
of theweaknesses
Nayaka rulersof
them-
the Nay
selves.84
Sculpture and architecture are important evidence for cultural change in south India. The devel-
opment of the figural composite column as an important element of the many large temples built in
sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Tamilnadu establishes the Nayaka period as distinctive in art-his-
torical terms from earlier art and architecture in southern India. The composite column itself devel-
oped from the twelfth century out of the simple Tamil Dravida column of the seventh century and
later. After the adoption of Tamil Dravida as the Vijayanagara 'imperial' tradition in the Deccan in
the fifteenth century, the figural composite column became a standard element of the major temples
built at the capital and elsewhere in the Deccan from the early sixteenth century. But the largest num-
ber, finest quality, and widest range of types of figural composite columns were produced in Tamil-
nadu from around 1560, as a number of dated examples in southern Tamilnadu demonstrates. This
regional distinction in the development, dating, form, and variety of subject matter reinforces the
importance of not only treating the Vijayanagara and Nayaka periods as distinct but also recognising
the regional variation within these periods between the Deccan, northern Tamilnadu, and southern
Tamilnadu.
The South Asian conception of 'expanding form', of a figure emerging from a column, is demon-
strated by both individual figural composite columns and the broader development of this sculptural
type over the course of the sixteenth century. Nayaka-period architectural sculptures on composite
columns are quite unlike contemporary niche sculptures or processional icons in size and style; the
great sense of volume in this type of sculpture is similarly absent from Nayaka-period painting, with
its emphasis on narrative linearity. The location of figural composite columns in outer corridors and
mandapas allowed greater flexibility in both depiction and subject matter, as they were freed from the
relative rigidity and frontal aspect of sculptures in garbhagrhas and niches to become the bold, sinu-
ous, energetic figures discussed here. The role of location is important to any interpretation of sculp-
ture in its architectural context; with Nayaka-period figural composite columns it is essential, given
that these sculptures cannot be moved. The importance of this is clear from the discussion of royal por-
traiture, a distinctive Nayaka-period artistic contribution in itself. Placed along corridors and in
mandapas, sculpted portraits greet the deity during festival processions, thus underlining the impor-
tance of understanding festival ritual when analysing Tamil temple architecture and sculpture. These
84 Narayana Rao, Shulman, and Subramanyam, Symbols of Substance is an exception to the general scholarly prejudice
against the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in southern India, for in political, economic, social and literary terms
they see this period as distinctive from the preceding two centuries of Vijayanagara rule in Tamilnadu.
244

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC
two-
two- to three-metre-high
to three-metre-high
figures bursting
figures
forth from
bursting
a core monolithic
forth column
fromare
a remarkable
core monolithic
ex- column a
amples
amples of sculpture
of sculpture
that demonstrate
that demonstrate
the Nayaka-period artists'
the Nayaka-period
great sculptural skillartists'
and confidence
great sculptural sk
in
inthe
the
stone
stone
medium,
medium,
and the vitality
and ofthe
the vitality
sixteenth and
ofseventeenth
the sixteenth
centuries in
and
Tamilnadu.
seventeenth centuries i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the British Academy, the School of Oriental and African Stud
University, and the Society for South Asian Studies for their financial support of
which this article is based. I am grateful to Adam Hardy, Elizabeth Lambourn, Caro
Anna Dallapiccola, Samuel K. Parker, and the editors ofArtibus Asiae for their comm
trations are by the author except Illustration 2, which is adapted from the Jornal
Industry (I899).
245

80.145.241.81 on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:09:39 UTC

Expanding Form - The Architectural Sculpture-South Indian Temple - 1500-1700 - Branfoot

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Expanding Form - The Architectural Sculpture-South Indian Temple - 1500-1700 - Branfoot

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

'Expanding Form': The Architectural Sculpture of the South Indian Temple, ca.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3250266

This content downloaded from