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Kodaganallur
(Kodanur Kulasekhara Chaturvedi Mangalam) On Tamraparni
(Footfalls
of its cultural past)
- K V Soundara Rajan
Additional Director
General (Retd.)
Archaeological Survey
of India
(Copyright reserved
with author)
1.
Physiographic background
2. Place-name and regional setting
3. Socio-cultural context and landmarks
4. Mahasabha of Kodanur and Periapiran temple & Abhimuktesvara -
Transcriptions
5. Art, cults and spiritual slant
6. After-word
Physiographic
background
I.
Riparian villages in India have been significant in ideas of the
traditional, cultural, spiritual and intellectual character of the
region in which they are located, and depending on the importance of
the river, the political status of the same and the architectural and
art effervescence of the temples nurtured in them by the agraharam of the village, had even developed into cases of national
cultural crystallisation - disproportionate sometimes to the physical
sizes of such villages.
Some of the these villages or town-ships had themselves a hoary
antiquity: others were of exclusively economic importance, by their
advantageous location on the cross roads of commerce; and quite a few
others, of modest but intrinsic elite of its citizenry, in the medieval
centuries mostly, permitting them to play a definitive role in the
regional geo-political or cultural ethos.
Kodaganallur, on the Tamraparni river, anciently called Kodanur and
subsequently by royal writ as Kulasekhara
Chaturvedi Mangalam, in the
Tirunelveli district of Tamilnadu, is one such village of the last
category above, which had a significant stamp of its milieu and duly
left its foot-prints on the sands of time.
Villages like Kodaganallur, in ancient India, being located on a
perennial river, attracted the citizens of other villages away from the
river banks towards it, is a linked camaraderie for the performance of
ritual-spiritual functions connected with traditional rites. Prosperous
ancient administrative centres like Seranmahadevi which extended its
revenue limits right up to the river Tamraparni to its north, built
renowned temples like the Bhaktavatsala shrine on this river
bank. By the unique turn of the river course, here it constituted
a Tirtha becoming appropriate for sacred days like
Maha-Vyatipada- falling on Bhadrapada Krishna Shashti annually, with
pilgrims and residents from far and near gravitating towards the ghat
here for a holy dip. Kodaganallur village is located just
downstream on the north bank. The railway bridge crossing just
above the Vyatipada ghat of Seranmahadevi adds a certain panoramic
value to the whole neighbourhood.
Kodaganallur
is, further, situated at the stage of the career of river Tamraparni
where it had just left the plateau-land (through which it has flowed in
several meanders from its very source on the Podigai hill at the foot
of the Western ghats). From Kodaganallur onwards the river flows
in wide staid flood-plain, picturesquely bankful during the rainy
season. The village is perched on the northern cliff-bank.
Its slip-of slope, correspondingly stretches across on the south bank
from Seranmahadevi downstream, through Tiruthu and beyond further
eastwards. The well-graded river carries heavy sand ballast in
monsoon but is liable to cut into its own vast bed in summer,
confirming the stream course mostly to its cliff sides, all along
Palavur, Suttamalli, Gopalasamudram, Tirunelveli, Srivaikuntam etc.,
down to Kayalpattinam where it debauches into the Bay of Bengal now,
though in the pre-Christian centuries, it joined the sea at Korkai, the
celebrated sea-port town of the early Pandyas, in the era of Indo-Roman
maritime trade.
Such a
physiographic history of the river course had tended to shed its
aggradational deposit of gravel and silt, in the distant past, further
to the north of the present village site. This might have been in
the geologically measurable stage after the end of the Quaternary era
of earth's history. The river would then have probably been
cutting its bed into the hard gravelly upland top terrace, in the
stretch between Kallur and Ucchi Perambu. The gradual shift to the
present bed of the river, to the south of the village site, should have
formed only during the Holocene stages, approximately around area.5000
B.C. Evidence of sea-level change along the south Tamilnadu coast
preserved in what are now called the "Teri" sand dunes stretching from
Kilakkarai to Kanyakumari with concentrations at Savyerpuram,
Megnanapuram, Kuttankuli, Kayamoli and Kudirameli dune sites, to
mention a few, dated to this period, had nurtured a Microlithic stone
tool-using culture by man. At this stage, the rise of the sea level was
about 50 feet higher than the present one and the ferruginised
consolidation of the lower part of these dunes had locked the stone
artifacts of Man within them - subsequently discovered during
archaeological explorations and study.
As this
event and the related trend of the river course were much remoter then
the advent of the historical Kodanur village, we see only a residuary
and terminal evidence of the heavy sandy cliff configuration upstream
of the Periapiran temple ghat in what we now call the
Periyattankarai. This high level sandy deposit has itself been
out into subsequently by the Periodai for Periyattankarai channel
joining the main river. The middle stretch of the river itself
had become 'graded' by this time, flowing in a vast sandy bed.
At this
point we may also briefly digress on the very name 'Tamraparni' for the
river. Without getting into the polemics of the 'Kumarikkanda' of
the fabled past, one could yet delve into the historical impact of the
name of the river, which became famous already around the 3rd
century B.C. when Roman maritime trade contacts with Tamilnadu first
began by circum-peninsular navigation, hopping from coastal mart to
mart up to the Gulf of Mannar (interrupted there by the Palk strait),
by which reason Korkai port on the Tamraparni estuary, as a terminal
point, became important. Whatever was farther south of Tamraparni
was anciently deemed as identifiable with Srilanka of today and was
accordingly designated by the name 'Taprobane' (a seeming classical
corruption of the term Tamraparni by the Mediterranean geographers from
Pliny, Strabe downwards to Ptolemy). This tradition is seen
followed actually by the Mauryan Emperor Asoka as well, in his south
Indian edicts wherein he denotes Cholas Pandyas etc. as his friendly
border kingdoms stretching up to Tambapanni. The term, it could
be noticed, was not intended for a river but to a land mass which is to
be seen, soon after the Pandyan kingdom is passed. The Lankadvipa
was familiar to Asoka but he followed the traditional term by which it
was designated by geographers then, namely, 'Tambapanni'- a term found
used in the Srilanka chronicles also anciently and spelt as 'Taprobane'
by the Classical geographers.
The Pandyas of yore of the 'sangam' period, as we know, were succeeded
by the First Pandyan empire beginning with Kadungon (circa. 550
A.D.). It ended by c. 925 A.D. It was in this period that
Kurukur Satagopan or Nammalvar born in the Tamraparni basin and
glorified as 'Vedam Tamil seyda Maran Satagopan', flourished. The
period between c. 925 A.D. and 1218 A.D. saw the conquest of the
Pandyan kingdom and the northern part of Srilanka by the Imperial
Cholas, the last of whom, Raja Raja III was subjugated by Maravarman
Sundara Pandya I, to re-establish the resurgent second Imperial Pandya
empire. The prelude to this was from c. 1162 when Tribhuvana
Chakravartin Kulasekhara was ruling, up to 1178 A.D.
Kodaganallur, then called Kodanur, (and in the Mel-vimbu nadu division)
had the special privilege of having the inscription of this king in its
Periapiran temple, of his 4th year which was the oldest
record of the Imperial medieval Pandyas that history records. Kodanur
was a township of Brahmadeya class with the Vishnu temple of the Devadana
type, owning land in the name of
Periapiran and granted by the
king, the name Kulasekhara
Chaturvedi Mangalam on that
score and the God Himself named also as Kulasekhara Vinnagar Alwar.
We do not really know yet as to how much earlier than 1162 A.D. was the
advent of the settlement of Kodanur. One might not be too far off
the mark if one places the coming into being of the village by the
early 11th century A.D. when Vishnu temples around like
Rajasimha Chaturvedi Mangalam (Mannarkoil); Ten Tirumalirunjolai
(Sivalapperi) not to mention the Nava-Tiruppatis in the Tamraparni
basin itself, were all well established.
PLACE NAME AND
REGIONAL SETTING
II
As noted earlier, the original name of the present day Kodaganallur was
Kodanur and subsequently Kulasekhara Chaturvedi Mangalam. We may
give some attention to each of these three names. To the first,
namely, Kodanur.
On the face o fit, the name strikes one as an ethno-cultural
appellation. We know that 'kodu' in pristine Tamil means
'hill'. Correspondingly, Kodan will be applicable to a God
of the hill. Now, this qualified title is generally given to two
divinities under Hinduism, namely, to Vishnu and to Murugan or
Skanda. To Vishnu because he has been known for ages as the Lord
of Venkadam hill, or simply as 'Tirumalai'. To Skanda, as in
Sengodan, as he was having his abode mostly on hills, as in
Tirupparamkunram, Palani, etc. However, by a simple process of
elimination, since we do not have any temple celebrated for Muruga at
or around Kodaganallur (the nearest being at Tiruchendur on the
seacoast), we should derive the name Kodanur as pertaining to the
hill god Vishnu. Apparently, there is a relationship between the
place name and the inscriptional name of the god of temple here,
namely, Periapiran which incidentally is analogous to other names given
to the deity in the sanctum of temples on the Tamraparni, in the Divya
Prabandha, as in the case of Adipiran at Kurukur, Kallapiran at
Srivaikuntam etc. It is only much later that a samskritisation of
the name into a direct translation as "Bruhan Madhava" occurred, as
popularly used now. But in the inscriptional record of the
temple, the god is known as Periapiran. We will come to this later.
The legitimacy for the suggestive name of Periapiran for Vishnu
Trivikrama or the Purusha of Purusha-sukta cannot be gainsaid.
Hence, the great-god, in standing posture (as seen in the temple at
Kodanur in the sanctum) is the iconic encapsulation of supreme
Vishnu, in the role of an archa deity. It is even more so appropriate
under the Vaikhanasa mode of Agamic worship, as even followed at
Kodaganallur, where Para and Vyuha manifestations are more popularly
seen adopted than Vibhava or Puranic forms, as in the Pancharatra mode
for the deities in the sanctum. With Tamraparni already in the
earlier centuries as the abode of Nammalvar of Kurukur, prior to the
adoption of Pancharatra mode of rituals, when the Vaikhanasa mode had a
precedence of usage the place name Kodanur and the deity name,
Periapiran seem, as it were, made for each other. Thus Kodanur as
the name of the village, (prior to its modification, at the instance of
royal patronage as Kulasekhara Chaturvedi Mangalam, in 1166 A.D.)
should have been prevalent, at least perhaps from the 11th
century A.D; and the latest name for it as Kodaganallur should have
accrued probably not earlier than the 15th century
A.D. following the resuscitation of religious worship in
Tamilnadu after the Islamic invasion and rule of the Madura sultanate
between 1331-1378 A.D. This significant addition of the
suffix "nallur" to the name and the mythical complexion given to it by
the first part "kotak" related to Karkotaka kshetra, are both of
a piece with the state of resurgence of the religion, at the hands of
the Vijayanagara potentates who were ruling then and several hundreds
of riparian villages in Tamilnadu got this name 'nallur' added to their
main name. There was, of course, a land mark change in the
character and advent of inhabitants of Srivaishnavas into the village,
after the establishment of a new Matha and Pontificate of Ahobila
matha, commencing from the holy order and divine ordainment to fits
first Pontiff, Sri Adivan Satagopa Yatindra Mahadesika of Melkote at
Ahobilam and immediate spread of the Srivaishnava devotees in different
parts of Tamil Nadu, especially in the Tamraparni basin, hallowed by
the birth of Nammalvar of Kurukur. This happened in the 14th
century. As we know, after the earliest significant immigration
of brahmanical devotees in the early Pallava period, consequent on the
diffusion of this dynasty from its erstwhile homeland in the Krishna
valley of Andhradesa, the rule of this dynasty from Kanchipuram and
that of the almost coeval dynasty of the early Pandyas, under Kadungon,
in South Tamilnadu ruling from Madurai, there was a great exodus of
Vedic-affiliated elite from Andhradesa into the Kaveri Vaigai and
Tamraparni basins. This was further facilitated in the Imperial
Chola period also and the Imperial second Pandya dynasty and later, the
reign of the Vijayanagar culture, all over South India, had been a
further important stage in the patronage of religion and its art and
architecture. One would be tempted to associate, in a way, the
transformation of the pristine name of Kodanur, first into Kulasekhara
Chaturvedi Mangalam, and later into Kodaganallur, as relatable to the
above-cited three major socio-political and socio-cultural stages of
religious and civic life in South Tamil nadu.
We had mentioned earlier about the Ahobila matha and its founder Adivan
Satagopa yati. Hagiological accounts have it that this great
monk, soon after his ordainment, had hastened to Kurukur in the
Tamraparni basin to seek out and savour the holy inspiration of
Nammalvar, and was responsible for the discovery of the archa murti of
Nammalvar which had been lost, establishment of the same properly in
the temple of Adinatha, besides additions and renovations to several
parts of the temple and organization of the festive schedule in the
temple. This visit should have galvanized not only the activities
of his Matha, but also Srivaishnavism itself in the Tamraparni
Zone. This would explain how in the village of Kodanur religious
life among the Srivaishnavaites should have gone on at an even pace,
whether of the Ahobila matha affiliates or the other brands like the
Muni-traya (followers of the codes of Nathamuni, Yamunacharya and Sri
Ramanuja) who had also formed a part of the elites of Kodanur
Vaishnavism. This might explain why we have not got any
inscriptional references to the later medieval activities in the
township of Kodaganallur.
SOCIO-CULTURAL
CONTEXT AND LANDMARKS
Inscriptional
references to the existence of the Mahasabha in the "brahmadayas"
township of Kodanur, together with the Periapiran temple having
"devadana" lands on either side of the river, would seem to indicate
the civic leadership that the place had assumed for the immediate
zone. It is also recorded that the temple was affiliated to the
Nellayappar temple of Tirunelveli for revenue purposes, from the
inception of the village Assembly (Mahasabha). It is interesting
to note from the inscriptions that the members of the Sabha and the
priests of Periapiran temple were able to secure a personal hearing
from the king who, in the first such case in the 4th year,
243rd day of his reign (1165 A.D.) was mentioned as seated
in his throne Cholakulantaka Chaturvedi Mangalam (Solavandan of
today). Two years later, in 1167 A.D., when again the Mahasabha
members approached the king, he is mentioned as seated on his throne at
Madurai. The reason for the above difference of the place of his
throne is the fact that in the earlier instance in 1165 A.D., the king
had not acquired his full control of the throne at Madurai - the period
being one of civil war in the dynasty for the Madurai throne. The
royal orders, in the first case, in 1165 A.D., sanctioning the
provision of suitable resources for the daily expenses and the apparel
items of the deity , should not only have given Kodanur a new status in
the neighbourhood, but also show that perhaps only in that year or a
little earlier in the reign of this king that the new name for the
village of Kodanur as Kulasekhara Chaturvedi Mangalam and the deity as
Kulasekhara Vinnagar Alvar, was given by the king, lending to an
upswing of the fortunes of the village Mahasabha. It enabled
Kodanur Mahasabha to receive appropriate relief from the taxes to the
crown on certain items connected with the temple of Periapiran, which
obviously was growing into a popular religious center. The
Mahasabha of the township itself was called upon to assume certain
advisory roles in the area, as seen in the case of the Matha at
Kalijeyamangalam (now called Karisulndamangalam, across the river
downstream) the details of which would be seen further down these
pages. All this would itself reinforce the fact that even before
deserving the royal patronage, Kodanur had been probably functioning as
a "Brahmadeya" township during the period of the administrative control
of the Imperial Cholas, through local Chola-Pandya viceroys, as in the
case of Mannarkoil. Thus, the temporal association of the temple
of Periapiran and the Mahasabha of Kodanur with the historical
transformation in the Pandyan political power soon to take place under
Maravarman Sundara Pandya I, was a significant coincidence.
In this
context, we may devote some attention to the layout of the village of
Kodanur and its landmarks. Much of these appear to have survived
till recent times. The features adhere to traditional Agamic
usages. The village had two main temples, that of Vishnu at the
head of the West street, and that of Abhimuktesvara Siva at the
south-end of the East street which had a flourishing Smarta
agrahara. These two temples were more or less of the same period,
thought the Periapiran temple could have been slightly earlier.
According to the Agamas, the Vishnu temple should have a control
position in a village or should be aspecting into the village,
consistent with the protector role of Vishnu for any settlement.
The Siva temple, on the other hand, should be either in the Isanya-kona
(north-west) of a village or should be looking away from the village in
its orientation. At Kodanur, the Siva temple, though at the
southeast of the village due to the exigencies of having to be on the
riverbank is indeed aspecting away from the village. "Abhimukta "
means broadly , one 'who released with great force'. This could
either relate to Siva's role as Gangadhara, or his release of the
"retas" which Agni received and nursed into Skanda through the six
krittikadi divine mothers. The south-east is the Agni-kona
and this would suit the 'birth of Skanda legend'. The position of
Ganesa shrine which should be on the southwest side of an Agraharam is
properly located opposite to the Siva temple on the riverbank and as
part of the Sankara Matha here, under the Asvattha tree. The
tadaga or pond (or lake) of a village is best located
on the northern side and we find the 'lotus pond' intended for the use
of lotuses for temple needs is actually on the north-side wherefrom the
road to Kallur is starting. The location of Durga or Kali should
be on the northern entrance into the temple and facing north; and this
is exactly how the "Nangaiyar Amman" shrine is situated. There is
even a provision of a "Kshetrapala" demigod, in what goes by the name
of "Taradi-Madan" south of Periapiran temple, on the flood-plain limit
of the river. There is a Garuda sannidhi, outside the Vishnu
temple with a stone pillardhvaja in front - which has a potent link with the
later appellation for the temple as Kodaganalur (or Karkotaka kshetra)
seemingly for mitigation of harm from the Nagas to the village.
Swami Vedantadesika had composed a Dandaka type of prose work called
"Garuda-dandaka" and the Garuda sannidhi and the preferred acceptance
of the "Amrita-kalasa" offering by Periapiran, have a common import in
the Garuda-Naga legendary myth, so much intertwined into Puranic
Vaishnavism.
MAHASABHA OF
KODANUR, AND PERIAPIRAN TEMPLE AND ABHINUKTESWARA - TRANSACTIONS
IV.
When a "Devadana" grant of land is made to an existing "Brahmadeya"
settlement of Vedic families, this land is also liable to be either
augmented or parceled out by the granter-king or his successors for any
collateral requests from affiliated donees or institutions. It
would be seen that Kodanur or Kulasekhara Chaturvedi Mangalam was
paying "kadamai" to the Nellayappar temple of Tirunelveli. Such a
situation arose also in the face of the temple lands of Periapiran, the
details of which will be stated further below. Before that, we should
mention that inscriptional data from the Vishnu temple predominantly
and from Siva Abhimuktesvara temple supplementarily help us in the
understanding of the character and functioning of the Mahasabha of
Kodanur town-ship and the temples.
In the 4th year of the King Tribhavanachakravartin
Kulasekhara (1165 A.D.), the priests of the Periapiran temple and the
members of the Mahasabha of Kodanur waited on the king at his
Solavandan palace and requested for a grant of Devadana Irayili
(tax-free endowment for the deity) to meet the daily expenses of
offerings and for the deity's apparel items. This needed one
kalam of paddy per day by way of the annual paddy yield from the temple
land resumed by the king. The revenue was till then being paid in
cash ('kasukkadamai tiruppaga'). These were to be paid henceforth
in paddy. The land involved measured three-fourth Veli (15 ma) and one
Mamundirigai araikkal in extent, as measured by the Virapandya kol
(measuring rod). Due to
the inadequacy of the existing provision for the deity, of a kalam of
paddy per day was desired to be separately sanctioned (365 kalams per
year) of paddy yield from
the concerned land, already belonging to the Mahasabha. Two
persons occupying important offices of State in the kingdom had
recommended it to the king. They were Mahabharana mangalattu
Nambi (the place cited was a western hamlet of Seranmahadevi) and
Uttama Solan. The king sanctioned the request and ordered that
the grant take effect from the main crop ('pasanam') of the 14th
year - the date of the grant itself. The actual royal command was duly
attested by two State officers (Vadatalai Chembil natty
Manavilududaiyan Velan Alagiya pandya Vilupparayan and Venbaikkudi
nattu Elur mannai ke Srivallavanatha…..). As extract of the
Registry in the Land Register was to be given to the beneficiaries,
namely Srivaishnavas and the temple priests of Periapiran of
Kodanur. This was in 1165 A.D.
A record, two years later, in the same king's 7th year of
reign (1168 A.D.) it is stated that at the instance of one Ayyan
Malavarayan, a further request of the priest and Srivaishnavas of
Kodanur was granted and the king ordered that they will continue to pay
'kadamai' and 'antarayam' (the principal land dues to the State) on the
occupied holdings in land of the deity of Kulasekhara Vinnagar alvar at
Kodanur, but certain other levies like 'vetti-pattam' (free labour for
community service leased for a lumpsum), 'Panjuppili' (Fluff of cotton
for oil lamps), oil-seed and oil-cake crushing cess, 'pon-vari' (gold
cess, Sandhi-vigrahapperu (levies of war and peace) were to be exempted
from the lands of the deity located in Seranmahadevi Chaturvedi
Mangalam, across the river. The Sabha of Kodanur was ordered to
forego the collective contribution levied till then by the Sabha on the
deity's occupied land holdings. The order was seen attested by a
host of officials. The Sabha then duly endorsed the royal order to the
temple priest. This document had been signed by more than 56
signatories, all Brahmin land-holders of the Kodanur township,
constituting the Sabha among whom are seen Somayajis, Atiratra yajis,
Vajapeyis, Bhattas etc. There are both Sanskrit and Tamil personal
names, the latter like Alvar,
Solai piran, Alagan, Tiruvarangaselvan, Alumpiran, Pandavaduran,
Ulagamundan etc., recalling divine names from the Divyaprabhanda. There were also Smarta (Saiva) names like
Sankarnarayanan and Nagasvamin. Some names reveal the original clan
names (from outside Tamilnadu like Irunganti,
Mudumbai, Irayar Settai, Vangipuram etc., ) while some others had dropped the clan names.
Another record in the 10th year of the same Kulasekhara,
showing the king seated in his throne at Madurai, purported to be the
royal sanction for the request of the Srivaishnavas of Kodanur, for the
enlargement of the tax-free content of the land yield, which was
specified in the King's 4th year order. The sanction
order of the same by the king was conveyed by the Accountant of
occupied lands (named in the record) and the extract of the Land tax
register was signed by a number of officials.
In a record two years later of the same king (12th reginal
year 0 1114-75 A.D.) there is an indirect involvement of the Kodanur
Sabha. The context was a request made by new Matha erected at
Kanyakumari temple ('kumari piratti') and named after the king as
'Kulasekhara Matha', in the record. For the 'paradesis' (what are
called 'desantaris' in Srivaishnava temple parlance), to be fed and
provided with amenities, it was requested that 50 kasu, out of the cash
revenue yielded by the 'Devadana' village of Kodanur and forming the
grant portion of the 'antaray' paid to the Crown, be sanctioned to the
'Sattar' (students) of Kumarimangalam (Kanyakumari), so that with this
resource, they could buy paddy from time to time for feeding the
mendicants and pilgrims to the temple Matha for the above cited
festival. The request was made to the king by the Superintendent
of the kitchen, assigning duties to the kitchen servant
('adukkalayarkku kuri'). The king ordered the assignment of 50
kasu from the revenue due to him from the land-holders o Kodanur, as
'Madappuram'. This indicates that Kodanur Sabha fulfilled some
community obligations also as and when they arose.
In a 5th year record of Maravarman Sundara Pandya (1221
A.D.) it is stated that the king gave up his royal right to receive the
share of the first produce ('china mudal peru') realized from the
oil-mongers of the oil-press ('chekku') which supplied oil for the
lamps of Periapiran temple at Kodanur, in order that the oil-lamp
service ('tirunandavilakku sesham') be properly maintained. One
kulasekhara Kaduvetti had signed the order conveying the royal
sanction. The personage who was responsible for this royal
initiative is mentioned in the inscription as Sendalangara
Mamuni. It is tempting to identify this Vaishnava ascetic as the
monk of the same name (c.1209-1258 A.D.) who is seen taking an active
part in the construction of a shrine for Kulasekhara alvar in the
temple of Rajendra Vinnagar (Mannarkoil), about 22 km west of Kodanur.
In a further inscription from Kodanur Vishnu temple, of the 13th
year of Maravarman Sundara Pandya, it is seen that the Mahasabha of the
township, of its own accord, had also made voluntary contributions, out
of its land yield, towards a new deity installed in the Nellayappar
temple, Tirunelveli. The gift constituted 15 kalams of paddy, by
the 'Vira Pandyan' measure, per crop, beginning from the 'pasanam' of
that year. The Sabha agreed to provide this to the merchants to
whom they delivered the 'kadamai' paddy for every crop, and were to get
the receipts from the merchants for the same. The grant is
attested by a number of Brahmin signatories. These names of the
year 1230 A.D. of Maravarman Sundara Pandya I, when compared with the
large number of signatories to the document relating to the 7th
year of Kulasekhara (1168 A.D>) show that quite a few of the names
repeat themselves. They could either be the same original
signatories in both cases (of an interval of a good sixty years), or
were acceptably, in the alternative, of the grandsons of the former who
might have come of age, noting that it was customary for the
grandsons to be named after the grandfathers.
In a third inscription, in Sundara Pandya I probably, it is stated that
one Kandiyattevan addressed the Sabha of Kodanur. This letter recounted
all the levies ordered and exempted by 'Nayanar' (the king), namely
that except 'kadamai' and 'antarayan', all other levies like 'pon-veri'
etc., had been remitted on the lands held with 'karamai' rights by the
Periapiran temple; and by an express command through this letter
('prasadam seidarulina tirumugamum niyogamum undayirukka') it sternly
prohibited only innovations (i.e., new or additional levies) being made
('ippodu sila pudumaigal seiyakkadavargalalla') and enjoined on the
Sabha to the 'niyoga' already issued and endorsed by the
sabhaiyar. Obviously, the cause of action, through this royal
reproof, arose against certain over enthusiastic revenue officers who
might have demanded higher rate of levies from the Sabha and this
should have come to the notice of the king.
A record - whose date portion is lost from Abhimuktesvara Siva temple
of Kodanur relates to a resolution of the Mahasabha of the
township. This refers to a benefactor, named as 'Podiyir
pillar Srivallabhadevan' of Madurai having installed in this Siva
temple a goddess ('tirukkamakettattu nachiyar') and named as
'Angayarkkanniyar' after his mother. The Sabha of Kodanur, in
pursuance of their resolution, sold 6 ma (1.98 cents) of its land to
the benefactor as 'Devadana Irayili' and duly reduced the demand in the
Land tax register ('variyil Kalittu') and attested it also in the Land
Register. The signatories to this again were both Srivaishnavas
and Smarta Saivas among the landholding gentry of Kodanur, the former
being seen more in number than the latter. This goes to show how the
two dvija communities of the village were living in harmony and mutual
understanding in spiritual matters.
The influence of Kodanur Township and Sabha was seen outside its limits
also in the neighbourhood. We learn about it freeman
inscriptional record noticed at Kalijeyamangalam (now known as
Karisulnda mangalam). In the year 1312 A.D., the Head of the Parahamsa
parivrajaka Sripadasvami matha, Mukundananda Sripada had appealed to
the Mahasabha of Kodanur to intervene and regulate the defaulting and
incompetent Manager of the properties of the Matha. This,
however, did not succeed and the Head of the Matha had eventually to
change to incumbent.
ART, CULT,
SPIRITUAL SLANT
V.
The nodal point of the township of Kodanur was the temple of Periapiran
with its external guard-post of the Garuda sannidhi. The temple
had blazed its trail as a Vaikhanasa center of religious worship mode
of Vishnu as supreme Lord - a feature that typified the ancient spread
of this tradition in the Tamraparni basin. Further, from the post-Alvar
and Acharya stage of Southern Vaishnavism (from Yamunacharya and his
successor Sri Ramanuja, as a preferred metaphysical base by the later)
Pancharatra agamas and worship ritual modes gained profuse currency in
lower South India, though vaikhanasa traditions were already seen in
Tamilnadu from 8th century A.D. at lest in the Alvar
period. This pristine Agama format tended to integrate its
theistic-iconic trends into a unified mould and in that process
included iconic elements which Pancharatra mode clearly eschewed.
We have thus the images of ganesa (Vishvaksena) of Vaishnavaites) and
Durga-Narayani seen on the southern and northern niches of the ardha
mandapa exterior in very ancient temples like Srirangam, Tiruvallur
etc. In the Periapiran temple at Kodanur, the presence of the
tradition of showing a Dakshinamurti image on the southern upper Vimana
keshta is noticed. This usage is also current in the Vishnu
temple in the West street of Pattamadai as well.
The prime importance given to the Mula-bhera in the sanctum,
notwithstanding the deputisutsava/kautuka murtis in bronze for
abhisheka - (especially where the image in the sanctum is of sudha
(stucco) - is another feature under the vaikhanasa mode. This
Agama represented by four Samhitas of the disciples of Vikhanas, namely
Marichi, Atri, Bhrigu and Kasyapa, was known in Tamilnadu from the 7th-8th
centuries A.D. as seen in its iconic forms in several early temples
sung by the Alvars. Sri Ramanuja, while reforming the temple
religious ritual authority, established the Pancharatra tradition
uniformly, except at Vengadam - owing to the supremacy of that deity -
where the Vaikhanasa mode still prevails. Another element of the
Archa character of Pancharatra temples was the establishment of
separate Sri-Lakshmi shrines in a temple complex. Vaikhanasa mode
prescribed a subshrine for this goddess in the southwest corner of the
third avarana of a large temple, the classic example of which is still
to be seen at Srirangam complex. At Kodanur, in the Periapiran
temple, the Sridevi shrine separately is not to be seen, since the
ubhaya-nachiyars are integrated in the mula-bhera of the sanctum.
Indubitably, the charismatic impact of Nammalvar born in the Tamraparni
basin and the propounding of the Ramanuja siddhanta subsequently, had
resulted in the twin modes of Vaikhanasa and Pancharatra flourishing
side by side in Vaishnava temples, enriching the archa iconography of
Vaishnavism. The introduction of bhakta-bimbas like those of
Alvars, Ramanuja, Vedanta Desika etc. as noted mainly from the
post-Ramanuja time again form an interaction of these two Agamic ritual
modes. Kodaganallur temple was just an index of this situation.
On the Saiva side, it is to be noted that a separate Devi image got
consecrated (in the premises of Abhimuktesvara temple in the east
street of Kodanur by a donor and mentioned as Tirukkamakottattu
nachiyar) as detailed earlier above in the time probably of Maravarman
Sundara Pandya I. It is noted generally that a separate Devi Shri
in a Siva temple is not coming into being before the period of the
Imperial Chola king Rajendra I, as seen in his Brhadisvara temple at
his capital town of Gangaikondacholapura datable to c. 1014-25
A.D. The advent of Tirukkamakkottam, as it is always called, in
the Abhimuktesvara temple at Kodanur, is thus of a piece with this
trend in Tamilnadu. The fact that the donor for this addition
hailed from Madurai is itself significant, as even the expansion of the
Original Sundaresvara Temple there into the Minakshi-Sundaresvara
complex of twin enclosures, was essentially a development of the 13th
century A.D. Kodanur was in step with the feature of Siva
temples, the name of this Devi addition as 'Angayarkkanni' is an
appropriate diffusion of the Minakshi (the Sanskrit synonym to
Angayarkkanni) form, from Madurai to other parts of Tamilnadu in the
Pandyan period. It is likely that this trend at Kodanur might
have enabled the temple to perform the 'Tirukkalyana utsava' annually
thereafter.
Given the riparian situation as nature gift and with residents imbued
with Ubhaya-Vedanta traditions in the Srivaishnava agrahara, and in the Sankara matha established by the
Sringeri Matha of Karnataka - the only one existing at that time in
Tamilnadu - in the Smarta
East street, there was a spiritual, intellectual ambience at
Kodaganallur in the 14th century A.D. and thereafter, which
was reflected in its having produced men of god like the Sundara
Swamigal, aesthetic like Sundara Bhagavatar proficient in both
gottuvadya and vocal music, and traditional masters of Vedic learning
like Sundara Ghanapatigal of west street - on among the few experts in
Ghanapatha of the Vedanga lore in the region then. The temples
and the Matha continued to be the chief rallying points for the resides
for establishing their cultural identity and legitimacy to the ancient
legacy.
AFTER-WORD
VI.
Kodaganallur, in its halcyon period from the beginning of the 12th
century onwards, and for a long while, run by the Mahasabha of the
Township was an archetypal 'Brahmadeya' center of some significance,
which had a wide ambit of impact and influence in the neighbourhood and
beyond, as with Tirunelveli, Madurai, Kanyakumari, and closely
Seranmahadevi and Karisulnda mangalam.
It reflected every major stage in the development of Srivaishnavism and
Smarta Saivism, in the main stream of both metaphysical and Pontifical
kind. The Periapiran temple carries six inscriptional records and
the Abimuktesvara temple carries one, of the time range of circa. 1165
A.D. to around c. 1230 A.D. (noticed
in the Annual Reports of Epigraph of the year 1933, Nos. 203-209 - well
before in time to the renovation of the Vishnu temple decade). The chronological data followed in this
Brochure is essentially following the best, updated and perceptive work
on the 'Imperial Pandya' by N. Sethuraman in 1978; and for the
analysis of the data is indebted to the studies on the inscriptions of
the place; besides those at Karisulndamangalam, Mannarkoil etc., by my
respected friend and scholar, R Tirumalai (of the I.A.S. Retd.).
An explanation to one term, namely Vira Pandyan kol, noticed in the
inscription might not be out of place, owing to its wide implication in
temple art. Such a term for the linear measure current in the
realm was common from the Imperial Chola times and are often met with,
like 'Raja rajan kol', 'Kulottunga kol' etc., not only in inscriptions
but was also engraved, to a prescribed length, on one of the stone
mouldings of the plinth of temples. It became the yardstick, as
it were, for the preparation of the ground plan and the elevational
dimensions of temple construction, as the South Indian 'Vimana' order
of temple is noted for its proportionate measurements of its various
parts in plan and elevation. This is why it had been engraved on
the temple itself, with a label in words as 'Kulottungan kol' etc. also
written on it alongside, in some cases. While the reference to
the 'Virpandyan kol' in the Kodaganallur inscription was to the linear
measure for ad measurement lands, for revenue purposes, the same was
often made to apply to temple constructional situation as well.
Incidentally, the references to 'Vira Pandyan kol' here, would relate
to the king of the same name in the 10th century A.D., and
not to the 'Vira Pandya' who succeeded (in the civil war years between
1179-1187 A.D.) Kulasekhara/under our reference, since the record
where this term 'Vira Pandyan kol' occur is of the time of this
earliest Kulasekhara who was closely associated with Kodanur and
renamed it as Kulasekhara Chaturvedi Mangalam. The other term for
'volume' measure which designated as 'Kulasekharan' is the record,
belongs to the donor king Kulasekhara himself.
A gradual urban-ward migration in the late Colonial times had led to
the depletion of the Srivaishnava population in the village, as
compared to the Smarta gentry in the East Street of the village,
whereas the inscriptions in the Periapiran temple consistently attest
to a well populated Srivaishnava land holder-scholar families across
the centuries upto the end of the 15th century.
- K. V. Soundara Rajan
Additional Director General (Retd.)
Archaeological Survey of India
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