Avudaiyar Koil (Pudukottai - Tamil Nadu)

The best way to depict the awesomeness of Avudaiyar Koil are the words in the ancient contract signed by any Vishwakarma Acharya who begins to build a temple.

Any temple can be built with any detailing except

"The Pillars of Tharamangalam

The Granite Grills of Thiruvalanjuzhi

The Tiled Terracotta Roof simulation of Avudaiyar Temple"

Its amazing how they built this temple. No where near the locality of this temple, was any granite hillock. So the granite must have been brought all the way from Pudukkottai!

The Lord Shiva here is Athmanabhar and his consort here is Yogambikai. However there is no actual granite representation of Lingam or Ambal, and that is why this temple is called the Avudaiyar Koil. Avudaiyar is only the base of the Shiva Lingam!!! The Lord here is an Aroopan - Formless!!! Behind the Aavudaiyar are 3 lights depicting Sun, Moon & Fire!!! The offering to God here is cooked boiled rice!!! This temple was built in 3 different periods with the latest being about 16th C in the Nayak Period. 

As soon as we entered right atop were these Kodungaigal - Tiled Terracotta Roof simulation. The planks, the nuts, the bolts, the wooden logs, everything is sculpted of rock! 

A bit above that is a relief of a Monitor Lizard and a Monkey!

As soon as we enter, just to the right and left are 2 pillars which together make 1000 mini pillars making this as Ayiram Kaal Mandapam. 

Just next to these pillars are the Akora Veerabadhrar with a Spear and 8 hands and Rana Veerabadhrar with a Knife and 10 hands to the left and right. 

Apart from these are 7 huge soldiers on horses of about 10 feet high, each styled in a different way - 1 in Tamil Style, 1 in Greek, 1 in Malayali, 1 in Marati etc. Each of these fighters are wearing unique outfits as well, about which I would be writing a separate post. Each of these sculptures are made of 1 whole rock!!! Astonishing - isn't it? The detailing is just mind blowing. Their nails, veins are all depicted, so realistically!!!

The whole of the ceiling has Vijaya Nagara Paintings all over. At one part it was like a saree design. At another part was Lord Nataraja painted on a relief sculpture. 

At another part was this Ganda Perunda Pakshi, a mythological creature with 2 heads, 2 tails, and 6 elephants in its 4 wings!!! Apart from these a complete section was painted with several murals in the 19th C under Thiruvavadithurai Aatheenam. 

In some locations these Vijaya Nagara paintings were done over inscriptions of the previous era!!!

The pillars had an assortment of several relief sculptures including Krishna Leela, Saniyai Adakkiya Anchaneya, Kannappa Nayanar, a wolf with 3 heads, single headed wolf with 3 bodies etc. 

Another important relief sculpture if of a tribal man & woman. They are actually Lord Shiva & Parvati who took part in this form at the Somasimarar Holy Pyre.
The terracotta styled roof was everywhere. At a particular point, there were a couple of holes in it. It was made by the English during the British rule when they doubted if it was actually stone sculpture, and shot it with the gun. If it was not, the gun shot would have shattered the roof. But it was, so just a couple of holes were made!!!
From there we ventured to Idumbanadu, built by Paranthaka Chola, as per the Sundara Pandyan's inscriptions. It was pretty late by the time we reached there, that's after sunset. At a secluded temple with no lighting, it was pretty difficult to enjoy the architecture & sculpture here! Hard luck!!!
Continuing with more on Pudukottai....



To Reach Pudukkottai:
From Chennai: 400 km via Villupuram, Trichy
Trains to Rameshwaram go via Pudukottai. 
Trains / Buses can be taken to Trichy and regular buses are available from Trichy.
From Trichy: 50 km. Regular buses are available.
From Madurai: 115 km via Tirupatthur
From Coimbatore: 300 km via Dharapuram, Dindigul


Avudaiyar Koil is located 50 km from Pudukottai on the SH26.


Dedicated to Prof. Swaminathan, Prof. Muthazhagan, Prof. Jambunathan, and the whole group...

Thirumayam (Pudukottai - Tamil Nadu)

Continuing with Thirumayam in the Pudukottai Trip. This name is derived from Thiru Meiyyam. Thirumayam temple complex has 2 temples - one of Lord Shiva and another of Lord Vishnu. 

We first ventured to the Vishnu Temple. 

Copyright: Ashok Krishnaswamy

First, right inside, the huuuuuuuuuuge reclining Vishnu, its amazing... Thanks to Ashok Krishnaswamy for letting me use this pic shot & edited by him. In real, its a 3 walls scene with 2 pillars in between. Ashok's fabulous editing has made what you're seeing now, possible! This is the most unusual, exquisite and complicated Vishnu I've ever seen in 15 ft length! Vishnu was reclining on a 2 tiered Adhiseshan the snake. The Adhiseshan here is the most furious, I've seen so far. 3 of its 5 heads, have their mouths open and fire is flying from its mouth to Madhu, Kaidaba who are at the extreme right. Vishnu's right hand is on Adhiseshan trying to calm it down. His consorts Sridevi and Bhoodevi are on his head and foot. Brahma, Ayudha Purusha-s, Celestials, Naradha, Tumburu, Surya, Chandra are all seen atop. Garuda is at the extreme left. This cave temple is age old - most probably of 7th - 8th C. However the rest of the temple was constructed later on in bits. The Gopuram is very much of the Late Pandya style.

Purusha Mirugam spotted.. Ever since came to know of Raja Dikshathar's
research on this, I manage to spot one everywhere...

The Maha Mandapam has several huge, larger-than-life sculptures protruding from pillars of the Nayak Style (16th C). There were Manmatha, Rathi, Kuravan, Kurathi, Man on Horse etc etc etc... The best part is that each sculpture is of just 1 stone on the whole!!! Apart from these there are separate shrines of Chakrathazhvar, Andal, Krishna, Lakshmi Narasimha etc.

The separate shrine for Sathyamoorthy Perumal is present which was also built during the Late Pandya era. However anything that was supposedly built by late Pandyas, also has a little controversy that says it was built by Mutharaiyars. An old inscription says that 'It was renovated by Perumpirugu Mutharaiyar'. However, what he renovated and where is unknown. The imp. things to be noted here are of the pillars. A particular pillar infact reminded me of a lamp-post? Doesn't it!!! 

However no confusion about the Pillars. Its all Nayak Era - thanks to the epitome of the Naga Bandham on the Pillars!

From there, our next target was the Shiva Temple located in the same area, just a few metres away. That's Sathya Girishwarar. Here again the exquisiteness of the Dwarapala should not be missed. It cannot be missed, even otherwise, its so prominent and compelling! 

Here, the Dwarapala-s have 2 hands unlike the later depictions with 4 hands. They do not have vampire teeth too. The club in their hand has a python twisted on it. So this must have been sculpted before Raja Raja Chola's era, thanks to the iconography, that's must be 7th or 8th C. 

The sanctum sanctorum had a Shiva Lingam which was sculpted from the rock of the cave itself, so its practically attached to the cave and not separately kept. The ceiling has a beautiful carpet design which is now almost gone. On the right is fabulous relief sculpture of Lingothbhavar. He unusally has the hair which is generally not shown in the later depictions. Here he also doesn't have the swan and boar shown later on, as well. This must have been sculpted before the legend came up. Legend is that Brahma and Vishnu took the shape of Boar and Swan to search the feet and hair of Lord Shiva, as he's considered endless!!! Here again the front Gopuram is of Late Pandya era.

Out of the sactum santorum to the left was this narrow passage. In that was the inscription of major importance - 'Parivadhinitha' sculpted in a  bordered rectange! 

There are just 3 musical inscriptions and 1 dance inscription in the whole of Tamil Nadu, and all the 3 are in Pudukottai. In all these 3, is this rectangular heading called 'Parivadhinitha'. What does it mean? Could be a musical instrument! Or it could be a heading! Or Lord Shiva's another name is Parivadhini, so this could be something that denotes something Given by Lord Shiva! Or this could be the style of the music that evolved here! 

But the sad part is that the inscription was scrapped off during 13th C, as they did not understand it then, and they deleted it to inscribe a judgement that tells that two-fifth of the fund goes to the Vishnu temple and three-fifth must go to Shiva temple, during the Pallava-Hoysala unrest.

Saw something like Mahab's Krishna's Butter Ball

The whole hill houses a fort, the Thirumayam Fort. This was originally built in 1687 by Ragunatha Sethupathi of Ramanathapuram. 

Pudukottai wil continue...

To Reach Pudukkottai:

From Chennai: 400 km via Villupuram, Trichy

Trains to Rameshwaram go via Pudukottai. 

Trains / Buses can be taken to Trichy and regular buses are available from Trichy.

From Trichy: 50 km. Regular buses are available.

From Madurai: 115 km via Tirupatthur

From Coimbatore: 300 km via Dharapuram, Dindigul

Thirumayam is located 20km from Pudukottai towards Thirupathur.

Photography of the Reclining Vishnu by Ashok Krishnaswamy and the rest by yours Bhushavali...

Dedicated to Prof. Swaminathan, Prof. Muthazhagan, Prof. Jambunathan, and the whole group...

Ezhadipattam - Navachunai (Pudukottai - Tamil Nadu)

The ticket counter at Ezhadipattam would close by 5 PM. So from Sittannavasal, some of us sprinted to Ezhadipattam, our next target. Many opted out of it, thanks to the flight of several stairs. I did not count, might have been about 600... Safety rails have been put on the slope side of the hill. The climb up made me breathless and the view from atop was breath taking!!!!!

This again like Arnattan Malai and Alurutti Malai, was a Jain Cavern with Jain Beds and inscriptions, but this one was much more devastated with the ravages of humans! But no more, its caged by Archaeological Survey of India. 

The Jain beds here belong to the 2nd C BC. Ancient Tamil Inscriptions are around these beds. Much higher than the other Jain Bed spots, this one has 17 beds!!! Around one of these beds is the inscription that says 'Erumi Naatu Kumuzhuur Pirantha Kavuti Eethendru Sithuppovil Ilaiyaar Seitha Adhittanam'. This informs that the beds were carved by Ilayaar of Thenku Sithuppovil.

A few of us tried to walk further atop from Ezhadipattam, in search of Navachunai. Nava-ch-chunai, like Talai-Aruvi-Singam Sunai in Narttamalai, is another cave temple located beneath the eternal spring and can be seen only if the whole of water is pumped out. See that claver shaped Jamun tree? The eternal spring is beside this and the temple is in it. Ofcoure, our dreams of trying to reach there were shattered at that point of time. But then, its not actually inaccessible. But if I reached there by 3 or so and had a few hours in hand, this place could also have been covered!!! That too, with an retd. Army Major in the team, definitely possible!!!!!

The temple inside was built in Late Pandya period (13th C). This too has only a Sanctum Sanctorum with a single Shiva Lingam inside. Locally this is called Jambunathar Cave.

From here, we trekked back down and by the time, sun had started to set. A water in a distant pond was glistening with the setting sunrays!!!

Continuing with more on Pudukottai...


P.S: Click here for my Pudukottai outfit post.

To Reach Pudukkottai:

From Chennai: 400 km via Villupuram, Trichy

Trains to Rameshwaram go via Pudukottai. 

Trains / Buses can be taken to Trichy and regular buses are available from Trichy.

From Trichy: 50 km. Regular buses are available.

From Madurai: 115 km via Tirupatthur

From Coimbatore: 300 km via Dharapuram, Dindigul

Sittannavasal & Ezhadipattam are located about 16km from Pudukkottai in the Kulithalai - Manapparai Road towards Annavasal.

Dedicated to Prof. Swaminathan, Prof. Muthazhagan, Prof. Jambunathan, and the whole group...

Sittannavasal (Pudukottai - Tamil Nadu)

I have this partiality towards Frescoes. Frescoes are wall painting, murals done in a particular technique. Here it is Fresco Buono, not Fresco secco. A well known eg. is Da Vinci's Last Supper. Here in India, I'm kinda dying to see Ajanta Frescoes. Hard luck on that yet, but as I walked towards Sittannavasal, considered the next best to Ajanta, I could feel my heart go 'Yippeee!!!'. I could write 4 to 5 posts just about Sittannavasal, but I'm restricting myself to write just 1 post...

Sittannavasal has 3 important places to be visited. The Arivar Koil which is the face of Sittannavasal, and Ezhadipattam and Navachunai about which we'll see in the next post.

Arivar Koil is located atop the hill, its ofcourse a cave temple. Inside are 3 thirthankaras in the sanctum sanctorum and in the ardha mandapa are 2 people on either sides - a thirthankara and a aasiriyar (teacher) - all relief sculptures. Its not the sculptures that's celebrated here - the paintings, the frescoes, belonging to the 7th-9th C. A 17 line , 9th C inscription here says that the paintings were done by Ilan Gauthaman, a Jain Acharya, under the reign of Pandya King Sriraman Srivillabhan aka Avanipasekhara.

As we entered on either sides are 2 pillars with 2 dancing women on them. Today only till their torso is seen, rest are gone. On the right pillar is another important painting of a Pandya King with his wife, under whom this place was constructed. 

The cornice of the pillars and the space between them are very beautifully decorated with floral designs, swans, other patterns, lotuses at different stages of blooming etc.

In the ardha mandapam atop the 2 relief sculptures are a floral carpet design. The whole centre portion is where my heart lies! I lied down on the floor to stare at this. I could just be there for atleast half a day, but time constraints... Ok, that's where the huge scene of Samavasarana is depicted. So, what's this Samavasarana? Its an important step in the sainthood of Jainism. There are 5 steps for a Jain to undergo before becoming a monk and in that the 4th step is First Sermon for which the would-be monks (bhavya) pass through a pond filled with all animals & birds & flowers called Ghatika Bhumi. That is what is depicted here. 

It shows 3 Bhavya's collecting lotuses & lillies. There are lotuses everywhere on lotus leaves and lotus stalks fills the background completely. There are elephants, bulls, fishes, swans, that fill the whole space. In Samavasarana, the complete pond and the leaves are seen in a top angle, the flowers and animals in profile, and in every individual unit in a different size scale - You thought cubism belongs to the 19th C? Sorry, you're a millenium late (or make it two as such cubist treatment is also seen in Ajanta)!!!!!

Inside atop the 3 thirthankara, is another carpet design of intertwined ribbon design with minute line drawings inside each compartment. One was of Dharma Chakra and diagonally opp. was of a cross with 2 humans and 2 lions on its 4 sections. This kept on repeated. 
I am so so tempted, right now to explain about each and every painting in detail, but that would make this post more art history class-like. So period.....
Will come back with Navachunai & Ezhadipattam.

P.S. 1: All the images in this blogpost were shot by and copyrighted to Ashok Krishnaswamy

P.S. 2: If you like the frescoes of Sittannavasal so very much, why not have it at your home. No, am not asking you to do anything illegal... Here's a much simpler way - Ashok has come up with a 2012 calender with the reproductions of 6 paintings from Sittannavasal. Here's the thumbnail and contact detail in the pic itself, if you wanna purchase the same...

To Reach Pudukkottai:

From Chennai: 400 km via Villupuram, Trichy

Trains to Rameshwaram go via Pudukottai. 

Trains / Buses can be taken to Trichy and regular buses are available from Trichy.

From Trichy: 50 km. Regular buses are available.

From Madurai: 115 km via Tirupatthur

From Coimbatore: 300 km via Dharapuram, Dindigul

Sittannavasal & Ezhadipattam are located about 16km from Pudukkottai in the Kulithalai - Manapparai Road towards Annavasal.

Dedicated to Prof. Swaminathan, Prof. Muthazhagan, Prof. Jambunathan, and the whole group...