Pallava Architecture, Part I (MASI 17) c2.92

c2.92

Although short, much information is incidentally recorded. In the first place, the ‘biruda,’ or title Vichitrachitta or Vichitachittena, is a well-known ‘biruda’ of Mahēndravarman I, it also occurs in the Pallavaram inscription. Mr. Dubreuil informs us that the word means in English ‘curious minded.’ In other words, ‘original minded,’ the inventor or originator of the art of carving Hindu temples out of the natural rock instead of building them in the usual way with bricks and lime, wooden pillars and roofs decorated with metal finials. The most casual visitor to the wonderful group of Pallava monuments at the Seven Pagodas must have noticed that all of the monolithic free-standing temples, locally known as “rathas,” are obviously only stone models of buildings constructed of brick and mortar with timber-framed roofs decorated with copper-gilt ornaments like those referred to in the inscription quoted above. It is also equally clear that it was Mahendra himself who introduced this new idea into Southern India, with regard to rock-cut Hindu temples and that he had no intention of allowing his Tamil masons to claim the right of authorship: otherwise, he would never have adopted such a ‘curious-minded’ biruda. The latter clearly shows that he was feeling exceedingly pleased with himself at the time and the results achieved in this direction by his Tamil masons perhaps under his own personal supervision. The inscription proves at any rate the direct influence that the Pallava kings had over the art of the period, also that structural temples, presumably Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina monuments alike, built of brick and mortar, with timber-framed roofs and walls, existed prior to Mahendra’s introduction of the rock-cut Hindu temple into Southern India in the early part of the 7th century A. D. This is a very important point, because, so far, no remains of such buildings have been discovered belonging to the early Hindu period of South Indian Architecture. If such buildings did exist, then all trace of them has since disappeared.