History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s6: Conjivaram.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s6
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Conjivaram.
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Conjivaram, or Kânchîpuram, is a city where tradition would lead us to expect more of antiquity than in almost any other city of the south. About the middle of the 4th century, or soon after, Samudragupta claims to have overcome Vishnugopa, the Pallava king of Kânchî; and about A.D. 640 Hiuen Tsiang visited Kânchîpura, the capital of Dravida, which he describes as a large city with ruins near it ascribed to Asoka. In the kingdom he speaks of "some hundred sanghârâmas and 10,000 priests of the Sthavira school" of the Mahâyâna, and there were some eighty Hindû temples and many Jaina heretics.¹ Epigraphical research, as stated above (page 306), has brought to light the names of the Pallava sovereigns ruling here about the 7th century, and their contests with the Chalukyas of Bâdâmi and other powers. Pulikesin II. of Bâdâmi had invaded the Pallava kingdom about A.D. 630; Vikramâditya II., fully a century later, took Kânchî, and has left an inscription in the Kailâsanâtha temple; and again, about 870, it was taken by Krishna III., the Râshtrakûta sovereign.² When the rule finally passed out of the hands of the Pallavas into those of the Cholas, probably about the end of the 12th century, Kânchîpuram became the capital of the latter dynasty. Be this as it may, the two towns, Great and Little Conjivaram, possess groups of temples as picturesque and nearly as vast as any to be found elsewhere.
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¹ Beal's 'Buddhist Records,' vol. ii. pp. 228-230, and 'Life of Hiuen Tsiang,' pp. 138-139.
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² 'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. iii. pp. 360ff, and vol. iv. pp. 280-281.
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But by far the most interesting of the Conjivaram temples is a very early one known as Kailâsanâtha standing in the fields to the west of the town.³ From its style when first seen by the editor in 1883, he at once placed it as about coeval with the "Seven Pagodas." Fortunately it contains several original inscriptions, the translation of which has established the fact that it was erected by the Pallava king Rajasimha or Narasimhavishnu, the son of Ugradanda-Lokâditya, who was a contemporary of Vikramâditya I. of Bâdâmi (A.D. 655-680), so that Râjasimha must have ruled at Kânchî in the second half of the 7th century. The temple is a Saiva shrine originally styled Râjasimhesvara, consisting of a vimâna and separate mantapam in a court surrounded by small cells, as shown in the plan, Woodcut No 209. At a late date the mantapam has been joined to the vimâna by an ardhamantapam, roofed on six pillars with the entrance on the south side, and the east face of the old mantapam is shut off by a wall with only a window through it. Further, an additional shrine has been inserted in the east wall of the court with a small porch and surrounding court; but this is evidently a very early addition, as are also, probably, the eight small shrines in front of the enclosure. The vimâna contains the usual Linga cell surrounded by a *pradakshina* passage; and round it are seven small attached shrines—with large Nandis between them—the three on the back facing west, and the others facing east. There are also two somewhat larger in front, by the sides of the entrance to the main cell. All these are occupied inside and sculptured outside by forms of Siva, Pârvatî, and other devatas of the same cult, and form the temple into a complete Sivâlaya—differing mainly in details of arrangement from what we have met with in the Kailâs temple at Elûrâ.¹ At the latter, too, the east end of the court is surrounded by a gallery or corridor containing fully forty Saiva sculptures, which are here represented by a series of small shrines quite round the court—all, except those on the east side, facing to the east and covered inside and out with Saiva imagery—mostly of Siva and Pârvatî. The little shrines had all sikharas over them appearing over the walls
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³ Mr Sewell did not notice this temple in his 'Lists of Antiquities' (p. 178). Indeed the notice there given of the Conjivaram antiquities is unusually meagre. From Sir Walter Elliot's MS. copies of inscriptions, four are noted (*Ibid.* p. 180) but without mention of the many earlier ones.
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¹ *Ante*, pp. 342ff.
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[Figure: 209. Plan of Kailâsanâtha Temple, Conjivaram. (From Mr A. Rea's survey.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
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This is a blank page; there is no text or printed matter to transcribe.
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VIEW OF MAIN SHRINE, KAILÂSANÂTHA TEMPLE, KÂÑCHÎPURAM.
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of the court, and with a bull or Nandi and an elephant placed alternately between the spires. On the fronts next the court these cells have each two pillars supported by rampant Vyâlis or horned lions in varied attitudes. The attached pillars at the corners of the cells round the main shrine are similarly supported; and the outer walls are ornamented by scores of pilasters, supported by the same conventionalised animals with riders on them. On the west side is a gopuram or gateway with a tower over it, but the entrance is blocked up—that on the east being alone used now. The roof of the old mantapam has been destroyed, but the style of the temple may be understood from the Plate No. IX., which, as was to be expected, is the same as that of the Mâmallapuram Raths, already described, and gives us a typical example of the Dravidian style about @H A.D. 680.
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A second example of this early Dravidian style is presented in the Vaishnava temple to the east of Conjivaram,
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210. Section of Vaikuntha Perumâl Temple, Conjivaram. (From a Drawing by Mr. A. Rea.) Scale 25 ft. to 1 in.
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known as the Vaikuntha Perumâl temple.¹ It stands in a court 79 ft. 2 in. wide and 108 ft. from east to west, but at 29 ft. from the east end it is contracted to 63 ft. 3 in. wide. To this is attached an entrance hall or portico 44 ft. 4 in. by 50 ft.—more modern than the rest, and roofed on twenty-four pillars. A pillared verandah runs quite round the inside of the court, the walls of which are covered with sculpture. The outsides of the court walls are divided by pilasters on rampant Vyâlîs into bays in which are niches with sculptured pediments. The vimâna in the centre of the west portion of the court measures 47 ft. square over the walls, with a mandapam in front, having two rows of four pillars each across the floor. The shrine is of unusual arrangement, being of three storeys (Woodcut No. 210); round the lower are two passages, in the inner of which is a stair leading to the upper floor, and the outer has a door and two windows on each of the three exterior sides. On the first floor is a somewhat larger shrine with one covered passage or *pradakshina*, round it, and an open balcony on the roof over the outer passage of the ground floor. In the third storey is also a shrine with an open balcony round it over the roof of the first passage below. In the fourth storey there is again a chamber under the large octagonal dome that crowns the sikhara. The walls of the lower storey of the temple are divided by pilasters into panels filled with Vaishnava sculptures.
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¹ Vaikuntha is the heaven of Vishnu, who is usually styled Perumâl (the great one) in the Tamil country.
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There are three or four other old temples of the same style at Conjivaram, but they are small and considerably ruined, and hardly come under our notice here.¹
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¹ The editor is indebted to Mr. A. Rea of the Archæological Survey, who, with the consent of the Government, has favoured him with a proof of his volume on Pallava Architecture now in the press, on which the above remarks are based.
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The more modern great Saiva temple of Ekâmranâtha at Great Conjivaram possesses some first-class gopurams, though no commanding vimâna. The largest gopuram is on the south side of the outer enclosure, and has ten storeys and a large top; it was built by Krishnadeva Râya of Vijayanagar (1509-1530) and is 188 ft. high.² It has, too, a hall of about 540 columns, several large and fine mantapas, large tanks with flights of stone steps, and all the requisites of a first-class Dravidian temple, but all thrown together as if by accident. No two gopurams are opposite one another, no two walls parallel, and there is hardly a right angle about the place. All this creates a picturesqueness of effect seldom surpassed in these temples, but deprives it of that dignity we might expect from such parts if properly arranged.
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² "The like model of these lofty towers elsewhere introduced, procured for them the designation of Rayer gobaram, or a tower after the Rayer's fashion—that is, a large and lofty tower."—W. Taylor's 'Oriental Historical Manuscripts,' vol. ii. p. 125; Campbell's 'Teluga Grammar,' introd. p. xii.
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In Little Conjivaram is the Vaishnava temple of Varadarâja-swâmî or Arulâla-Perumâl, which—though smaller than the Saiva shrine—is the wealthier, being the principal seat of the Visishtâdwaitya school of Râmânuja. The principal gopuram of seven storeys and about 100 ft. high is plain in style and not plastered over like so many others. Within, to the left, is a hall of pillars, carved in the style of the Vellor and other temples, with figures riding on horses or hippogriffs. North of this is the usual Teppa-kulam or sacred tank and other buildings. Inscriptions of the beginning of the 13th century show that the temple was then in existence, and it is probably of still earlier date.
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The Kâmâkshî¹ temple, by its architectural style, suggests
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¹ Kâmâkshî is a name of Durgâ or Pârvatî, in the character of Manmatha or Muruga: in some parts of southern India the worship is connected with the Holi festival.
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[Figure: 211. The Shore Temple at Mâmallapuram. (From a Plan by Mr. A. Rea.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
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that it is of considerable age, and an inscription of Harihara II. of Vijayanagar mentions the gift of a copper door for the shrine in 1393, but till a survey with sufficient illustrations is published we cannot speculate on its age. Two miles south, in the hamlet of Tiruppadikunram, is a Jaina temple, dedicated to Vardhamâna, of which the shrine has an apsidal back—which is covered with sculptures of a somewhat superior character. It probably dates from the 11th century, and contains inscriptions of Chola and early Vijayanagar kings—one commemorates a grant to it by the general of Bukka II. in 1387.
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Another structure of some interest in connection with these early Dravidian temples is what is known to Europeans as the "Shore temple" at the "Seven Pagodas." Standing on a point of land that juts out into the sea, it has suffered much from high tides and sea air, and is seriously damaged. The surrounding walls of the court have been much ruined, but excavations made in 1884 revealed the lines of these where they had fallen, and of other buildings in the west half of the court. The plan (Woodcut No. 211) will show the disposition of the whole, and the photograph of the temple itself from the north-west (Plate No. X., *Frontispiece*) gives a view that makes the style intelligible. It may be somewhat later than the two earliest temples at Conjivaram, described above, but if so it can hardly be ascribed to a later date than the 9th century A.D. At present, it contains two shrines unsymmetrically disposed—the smaller, facing the west, being dedicated to Vishnu, and the larger, entered from the east, now contains the Saiva Lingam.¹
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¹ The temple is sometimes called Sthalasayanaswâmî, perhaps because in a chamber about 12 ft. long, behind the larger shrine, but accessible from it, is a gigantic figure of Vishnu lying on the floor.