Introduction

The present volume is another chapter of Chola Art and Architecture. It deals with the monuments built during the period covered by the reigns of Parantaka I and his successors up to the accession of Rajaraja I. It is a detailed study of more than sixty temples with sketches of some more, pending fuller treatment after field study. A scientific study of the subject is important, as style is a function of time and space. What is attempted here is a critical history of art-objects, not their aesthetic appreciation. The problem of authorship and the dating of monuments bristles with difficulties and there is bound to be difference of opinion among scholars, but wherever I differ from others, I have stated my reasons based on unimpeachable evidence and my appreciation of the original sources as in the case of Tiruvaduturai and Kodumbalur. I may mention that some early Chola temples have been built over more ancient Ganga, Bana or Pallava foundations and some temples begun in one reign have been completed in a later reign. According to tradition, there were in the ninth century a.d., 275 Siva temples and 108 Vishnu temples in the Tamil Nadu. Of these, 230 temples were in the original Chola Desa. This will prove that the Cholas were the greatest temple-builders of South India, perhaps even of the whole of India. Some important and early Chola temples have not been included in the survey for lack of adequate historical data, especially epigraphical evidence, for fixing their age. Much of what has survived the ravages of time and the vandals has suffered by unscientific renovation. The use of drab colours over temple walls containing inscriptions of great historical value and sculptures of great artistic merit cannot be too strongly condemned. Modern renovators of temples would do well to ponder over the well-meaning and salutary observations of James Fergusson on the then condition of the Jambukesvaram temple at Tiruvanaikka. He writes; “One of the charms of this temple when I visited it was its purity. Neither whitewash nor red or yellow paint had sullied it, and the time-stain on the warm coloured granite was all that relieved the monotony, but it sufficed, and it was a relief to contemplate it thus after some of the vulgarities I had seen. Now all that is altered like the pagoda at Rameswaram, and more so at Madura (of course before the recent renovation) barbarous vulgarity has done its worst, and the traveller is only too fully justified in the contempt with which he speaks of those works of art of a great people which have fallen into the hands of such unworthy successors”. It is to be viewed as an expression of outraged artistic sensibility.

I am happy to record that the Government of Tamil Nadu have completed the scientific renovation of the Sokkesvar temple at Kanchi and Gangaikonda Cholisvaram at Kulambandal. It is hoped that the conservation of the twin shrines at Kilaiyur, the temple at Nalur-Mayanam, the temple at Brahmadesam and the Vishnu temple at Ukkal will receive the early attention of the State Department of Archaeology. It is of happy augury that the celebrated temples of Sri Ranganatha at Srirangam and the Rajarajes-varam at Tanjavur will receive the benefit of scientific conservation with the advice and financial help from the UNESCO.

Some hold the view that “in Hindu temples worship is individual in nature and there is never a congregation worshipping in unison” (V.A. Smith). It is a misconception. In Hindu temples, worship is both individual and congregational. In addition to the daily periodical worship (kalam) there it congregational worship during temple-festivals, celebrations of Virabhisheka, Vijayabhisheka, coronations, Hiranyagarbha and Tulabhara ceremonies performed by the Kings of the land, the bhajans in the temples and the visits of religious teachers (Acharyas).

Sir Mortimer Wheeler has stated that “like the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean is an essentially unitary culture-pool”. The monuments of the Pre-Khmer civilization in the earlier capitals of Funan, the early temples at Bayan, the temple known as Phimeanakas in the city of Angkor Thom, the ruins of the Hindu temples in and around the Isthmus of Kra, the ancient temples in ruins near Prambanam in Java, and those of the Far East have to be carefully studied before mutual borrowings and influences between the two sectors skirting the Bay of Bengal could be established.

None of the standard works of Indian Art and Architecture deals with the early phase of Chola art. Prof. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, the great Chola historian admits that “in fact Chola architecture and sculpture have remained neglected fields, and comprehensive monographs on the best extant temples are an urgent desideratum”. Chola temples recall what Plutarch said of the buildings in the Acropolis in Athens, “they were created in a short time for all time, buildings human in scale, yet suited to the divinity of their Gods”. A comprehensive survey of our rich heritage of Chola Art and Architecture on the lines of this book is long overdue.

I am greatly obliged to the Ford Foundation and in particular their former representative in India, Dr. Douglas Ensminger and his colleagues for their kind interest in this project and for making available to me a generous grant towards the expenses of this publication which they “considered to be a significant research effort contributing to the preservation of knowledge of an important phase in the development of Indian art.”

I am grateful to the French Institute of Indology, Pondicherry, and its officers, Dr. J. Filliozat, its Director, Prof. F. Gros and Mr P.Z. Pattabiramin, for their valuable help for field study and for their generous supply of the photographs used as illustrations in this book.

I am thankful to the American Academy of Banares, Varanasi, its Director, Dr. Promod Chandra, and his colleague Mr. M. A. Dhaky for their help in the promotion of my project.

The Government of India and the Government of Tamil Nadu have all along given me great help and encouragement and I render them my sincere thanks. The Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious Endowments Board and the Executive officers and the trustees of temples have given me the necessary facilities for the on-the-spot study of the temples. I pay my homage to the Jagadguru of the Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham for his valuable advice and encouragement to my work at every stage. It was he who drew my attention to the Seethesvara temple at Kanchi. I am equally indebted to the heads of the three Saiva Maths of Tamil land for their encouragement to my research studies.

It is very kind of Dr. Karan Singh, Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation, Government of India, to have written the Foreword to this book and of Mr. Karl Khandalavala, Editor of Lalit Kala, and Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademy, New Delhi, to have written the Preface. I am under a deep debt of gratitude to both of them.

It is a great pleasure to express my thanks to my brother scholars whose advice I greatly value, Mr. C. Sivaramamurti, Dr. Benjamin Rowland of the Harward University, Dr. James C. Harle of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Mr. B. B. Lai and Mr. M. N. Desh-pande of the Department of Archaeology, Government of India, Mr. R. Nagaswamy, Director of Archaeology, Tamil Nadu, Dr. G. S. Gai and Mr. K. G. Krishnan of the Epigraphical Department, Dr. N. Venkataramanyya, Deputy Director of Archaeology, Hyderabad, and Mr. K. Nagarajan. My son, B. Venkataraman, was all along closely associated with this scheme.

Messrs Thomson Press (India) Limited have done the printing of the book admirably well and expeditiously. In particular, I appreciate greatly the valuable services of Mr. R. S. Rawal and the staff of the Production Department in doing this fine piece of work in record time.

I thank Mr. R. N. Chhabra of the Calcutta Giris Half Tone Co. for having made the blocks for the illustrations in this book.

I have great pleasure in expressing my sincere thanks to Mr. P. H. Patwardhan for including this book as a publication of the Orient Longman Ltd., New Delhi.

It is very kind of Mr. S. Balakrishnan and Mr. V. Natarajan to have read and corrected the proofs of my book, and Mr. K. Radhakrishnan to have undertaken the tedious work of preparing the Index. I am deeply thankful to them.

I have received considerable technical help from Mr. G. Sunda-resan, Mr. D. N. Dube, Mr. N. C. Kapur, Mr. R. S. Varma, Mr. K. K. Malhotra and Mr. A. Govindan Kutti. A few other friends who prepared the plans and the map would like to be anonymous; my debt to them is all the greater for it.

I shall be failing in my duty if I do not place on record the valuable help and cooperation of my sons Natarajan, Venkataraman and Ramachandran and all the other members of my family including the young and the old in this arduous labour of love.

S. R. Balasubrahmanyam

CI/9, Humayun Road
New Delhi,
30th January, 1971.