A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.78

c21.78

The Mūvarkōil (‘Temple of the Three’,) in Koḍumbāḷūr (Pudukkoṭṭai) is another early Chola temple-complex notable alike for the fineness of its architecture and the beauty of its sculptures. These three *vimānas* forming the central shrines amidst a group of sub-shrines were built in the second half of the tenth century by Bhūti Vikramakesari, a feudatory of Chola Parāntaka II. A big monastery in charge of the Kālāmukha preceptor Mallikārjuna was attached to them. The three central shrines are all 21 feet square at the base. They are separated from one another by about 10 feet and stand on a north-south line and face west. The central and southern shrines are intact, but of the northern only the moulded basement remains. Each of these shrines had an *ardhamaṇḍapa*, about 18 feet square. Common to all the three and at a distance of 8 feet from the edge of the *ardhamaṇḍapas* was a *mahāmaṇḍapa*, 91 feet north to south by 41 feet east to west. In front of the *mahāmaṇḍapa*, placed centrally at a distance of less than 2 feet, was a small *nandi* shrine, a square with sides of a little over 11 feet. Midway between the *nandi* shrine and the main entrance is a plinth 5 feet 9 inches square—either the *balipīṭha* or *dhvajastambha*. Around the whole group was a covered cloister with fifteen sub-shrines of slightly varying dimensions but all miniatures of the main shrines. The fifteen sub-shrines are distributed as follows: two on either side of the main entrance of the western wall, four each on the inside of the northern and southern walls, and three on the eastern wall behind the main shrines. The outer enclosure was a massive stone wall 3 feet 4 inches thick with an entrance *gōpura* on the western side which must once have been a fair-sized structure, though smaller than the principal *vimānas*. The doorway below is 4 feet 6 inches wide. There was another entrance 4 feet wide on the north-east corner leading down a flight of steps to a circular stone well 10 feet in diameter just outside the wall. The three principal shrines have been conceived as *padmakōśas*, one of the lowest mouldings in the basement simulating the petals of a full-blown lotus. The other architectural features are the same as in other temples, only more finely wrought. The frieze of *gaṇas* below the cornice has been made particularly interesting by the variety which the craftsman has introduced into the attitudes, actions and countenances of its members. Noteworthy among the sculptures on the walls of the *vimāna*, or on loose-lying slabs, are several forms of Śiva such as Ardhanārī, Viṇādhara Dakṣiṇāmūrti, Gajāri, Andhakāsura Samhāramūrti, Kirātamūrti, Gangādhara, Harihara, Umāprasādana, Chandraśekhara and Kālāri, besides Chandra, Sūrya, Umā, Jyeṣṭhā, Saptamātrikas and Mohini.