Usually Kanchipuram is associated with the Pallavas. It was their capital, and they ruled from there for over 400 years. However, Kanchipuram also has another side to it, one that runs parallel to the Pallavas - Buddhism and Jainism.
There were 4 parts to the city of Kanchi, split on religious lines - Shaivism, Vaishanvism, Buddhism and Jainism. Nowadays, the Jain sphere of influence is extremely small, and not many know of the existence of Tamil Jains. Our tour that day was being led by a Tamil Jain in fact. The Buddhist region no longer exists, though a Buddhist revival is happening - that will be mentioned later.
Our first stop for the day was the Kachabeswar temple. The temple is relatively old, though it has some Chola and Pallava elements. The Buddhist connection here is that in the Gopuram, there are a couple of images of the Buddha. In the pillars in one of the mandapams as well, Buddhist images can be seen.
This temple has very interesting sculptures, not least of which is a set of horsemen on some pillars. These horsemen could have been military leaders, or local chieftains at the time of construction of the temple, though that is just my thoughts.
Location: Kachabeswar temple
Location: Kachabeswar temple
The Buddha in the Gopuram
The Buddha in the pillar
The warrior on horseback, on the pillar
From here we went to a school, the C M Subbaraya Mudali High school. This school has within it an old British era structure, probably a government building. But the reason we were there was to see, sitting under a tin roof, a Buddha. This Buddha was carved out of stone, in the 6th century. Discovered in the 80s, years of schoolchildren running their hands over its face had eroded the features somewhat, but it was still magnificent,.with a broad nose, thick lips and curly hair, sitting cross legged.
Location: CMSM High School, Kanchipuram
Location: CMSM High School, Kanchipuram
The Buddha statue, under a tree
Next we went to the famous Kanchi Ekambareswar temple. We did not go in, but merely stood within the enclosed space outside the Gopuram, within the entrance. Apparently there was once a Buddhist mandapam there, but at some point in history, it had been demolished, and use to build a part of the compound of the temple. Buddhist images could still be seen on that part of the wall, as well as a Chola inscription fragment. It was said that on the outer side of the wall there was once a reclining image of the Buddha. But at some point, claiming to conduct renovations, it had been removed by somebody.
Next we went to a special temple. The speciality being, it had the bust of Manimegalai. The daughter of Kovalan and a dancer, the sequel to the epic Silappathigaram is all about her, titled Manimegalai, said to be written in the Sangam era(3rd cent BCE - 3rd cent CE)
This temple, known as the Karunginil Amarnthaval Amman temple, has some Pallava influences left, like a Pallava lion and elephant. There are a couple of Buddhist images here as well.
From here we crossed the Palar, driving through fields, and came to the village of Kanikiluppai. This village is interesting, for two reasons, one, because the Buddha statue sits inside another temple(the reason being interesting). A few years ago, the Buddha statue sat out under a tree. But one day, someone stole it and drove off. When the theft was discovered, it was immediately reported, and luckily enough, the idol was found not far off, dropped by the thief. However, its elbow had been damaged. From that time onward, the Buddha statue sits inside the local temple, alongside 2 Jain Thirtankaras.
Down the road is the second reason. Here there is a two and a half feet tall stone, with markings, and a line of Grantha text at the bottom. We were told that this stone is a Dharmachakra. In the time before images of the Buddha were carved, and for those the sect of Buddhism that does not want to worship the idol of the Buddha, they worship a symbolic form. This is a Dharmachakra, that symbolises the Buddha, probably from the 4th/5th century. The other symbolism of the Buddha that is used is the feet of the Buddha.
Location: Kanikiluppai village
Location: Kanikiluppai village
Dharmachakra
After this interesting piece of trivia, we headed to what would be the wow-factor: Thiruparuthikunram.
Thiruparuthikunram is a Telugu Chola temple, with embellishments from the Vijaynagars, with the Nayaks giving it the final touches - of paintings on the ceiling of the 16 pillared mandapam in front. One of the pillars has the image of the Vijaynagar General who commissioned the paintings. These piantings are descriptive of the lives of a few of the Thirtankarars.
This temple has 3 shrines, with the Thirtanakaras in different colours, each over 7 feet high. There are various bronze idols, and inscriptions abound, with Tamil and Grantha merging freely. The temple has inscriptions from the time of Kulothunga Chola, all the way up to the Nayak rulers.
The caretaker to the temple is an elderly lady, whom I will not talk about, but redirect you to an article by Kombai Anwar. on the same temple, written earlier this year. She sat in the temple and kept a quiet eye on us all the time we were there.
We had our lunch in the Santhi mandapam. Lunch was a traditional Jain Elai potta sappadu(a meal served on a banana leaf) and had something for every part of the palette, without using non-veg or anything that grew underground.
After lunch, we continued looking around the temple, and finally, moved on to the Pallava style temple next door.
It is uncertain who built the temple, but the inscriptions found here(we could not find any) were from Rajendra I's period. The temple was built up at a height, and access is through stairs that go to the sanctum on the first floor level. There are Pallava lions all around.
Location: A Compound away from the previous
From here, our heritage stops were over, But we still had one more place to go - a modern Buddhist Viharam. As i had mentioned earlier, there was a revival of Buddhism in Kanchipuram region. Less than 20 years ago, a modern Buddhist Viharam, with a Bodhi tree and architecture that borrowed from Nalanda and Buddhist monuments in the far east had been constructed. Here, they also want to keep alive the memory of Bodhidharma, a Buddhist from Kanchipuram, who transmitted Buddhism to the East. We sat in the meditation hall for a while, and meditation video was played for 10 minutes.This was the intial stage of Vipasana, we were told, but to do a full Vipasana course would take too long.
Location: Buddhist Vihara
Location: Buddhist Vihara
We were running late as it was, and so rushed straight back to Chennai after this, with no more detours.
Special Thanks to Prof Kanaka Ajitadoss for these trips on Jainism and Buddhism, Kombai Anwar for organising it, and Veludharan, who'sblog is a good refresher if I forget anything.
Special Thanks to Prof Kanaka Ajitadoss for these trips on Jainism and Buddhism, Kombai Anwar for organising it, and Veludharan, who'sblog is a good refresher if I forget anything.
