Mamallapuram,
also known as Seven Pagodas or Mahabalipuram, is a
town in Chengalpattu district in the Southern State of India, Tamil
Nadu. It is on the coastline 58 kilometres (36 mi) south of the city
of Chennai. An ancient historic town and a bustling seaport in the 1st
millennium CE, is now a beachside tourism center with a group of stone cut
monuments declared as UNESCO world heritage site, it is one of the
most visited towns in South India. This is going to be the summit center for
the meeting of Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping, President of PRC during
October 2019.
Mamallapuram was one of
two major port cities by the 7th century in the Pallava kingdom. Along
with economic prosperity, it became a center of a group of battle monuments
carved out of rock. These are dated to the 7th and 8th
centuries: rathas (temples in the form of
chariots), mandapas (cave sanctuaries), giant open-air rock
reliefs such as the famous Descent of the Ganges, and
the Shore Temple dedicated
to Shiva, Durga, Vishnu, Krishna and others. The
contemporary town plan was established by the British Raj in 1827
(Wikipedia).
Though the rock relief
sculpture popularly known as “Arjuna’s Tapas” or “Descent of the Ganges –
Bagiratha’s Tapas”, it is a sculpture based on Jaina scripture “Trishasti
Shalaka Purusha Caritra” which talks about the 63 worthy persons of jain
legend. This hypothesis was presented,
before the Archaeological Society of South India in 1947 in the presence of Prof.
Rao Saheb A. Chakravarthy, by Tamil historian Mylai Seeni Venkatasamy and I was
published as a book, titled “Mahabalipurathu Jaina Sirpangal” in the year 1950.
His contentions were;
·
If the person in yogic posture of tapas is Arjuna and the
devta in front of him is considered as shiva, who are others represented by
rest of the images. What is the significance of Nagakumaras, deva ganas,
elephants, ganges river, temples, three headless bodies and other figurines.
·
As per legend, Shiva went before Arjuna doing penance in
the form of a hunter along with Uma devi in the form of hunter’s wife. There is
no such depiction in this image.
·
If the scene is that of Bagiratha’s tapas, the deity in
front of him is not depicted as Shiva as the figure has no symbolic trident or
shiva’s locks of hair. In fact, Ganga’s forceful descent was arrested by the
locks of shiva’s hair. Why Gangadara
Murti was not depicted here. In fact,
Gangadara’s beautiful sculptures were made by Pallavas in many other places,
including at Mahabalipuram in Dharma’s ratha.
·
The scene is a vivid depiction of the lift of Sagara
Chakravarti from the period of Jain Tirthankara Ajitanatha. This story is found
in jaina tamil literature viz. Sri Puranam, Jivasambodanai and in Hindi
Trishasti shalaka Purusha Caritra and its English translation by Helen M.
Johnson.
Sagara and Ságara’s Story
Long time ago, an emperor
named Jitasatru was ruling Bharata continent. He had two sons, the elder named
Ajita and the younger sibling named Sagara. The elder son renounced the worldly
life and became Ajithanatha, the second Jaina Tirthankara. The younger one, Sagara became the emperor
after his father. Once, Sagara along
with his retinue visited Kandaprabada mountains where he performed thee days of
fasting to propitiate an Indra by name Natyamalaka. In appreciation, the Indra appeared before
Sagara and granted bountiful wealth and promised to help whenever required. The
emperor again performed another fast for three days at the banks of Ganges and
obtained nine great boons (Navanidhi), viz.
1. Naisarpam – to build houses, villages, towns with embankments
and arsenal
2. Pandugam – a storage full of agro products, rice, wheat, pulses
and other food
3. Pingalam – a storage of ornamental materials for men, women,
horses and elephants
4. Mahapadmam – a storage of dress materials of soft silk in multi
colors and dresses of many shapes
5. Kalam – a device that presents past, present and future and
scenarios of outcomes in crafts and agriculture.
6. Mahakálam – which produces precious stones and metals, iron
implements, etc.
7. Mánavam – which creates armed forces of cavalry, elephants,
chariots, infantry and armaments.
8. Sangam – which creates objects of entertainment such as flute,
harps, etc.
9. Sarva nidhi – gives seven types of wealth which are living beings (jivaratna) and seven
types of wealth that are inanimate (ajivaratna).
Enjoying such wealth and
happiness for a long time, Sagara begot 60,000 sons known as Ságara Kumaras,
the eldest of them is known as Janu.
These sons at an appropriate age approached their father and requested
his permission for going on a tour of their empire. Sagara gave them the permission and sent with
them six jivaratnas (excluding the 7th, viz. maids) and seven
ajivaratnas. After touring many
countries and towns under their dominion, the Ságara Kumaras reached Ashtapad mountain which is the Mount Kailash where their
forefather and the first Tirthankara Bagawan Rishabadeva attained mokasha. Emperor Bharata, son of
Rishabadeva had constructed a temple here with an image of himself listening to
the discourse of Risihabadeva.
After visiting this
temple, the Ságara Kumaras felt that the wealth of the temple may be plundered
in the future era of Dushama and wanted to fortify it. Hence, using the one of the ajivaratna, viz.
Danda ratna, they dug out a mote around the temple. As the Danda ratna was very
powerful, it disturbed the subterranean world.
Its inhabitants, Nagas became terrified and their king named
Jwalanapraban came over and looking at them angrily asked why are they
destroying their abode bavanaloga and
their behavior is inappropriate for the sons of Sagara who is the
brother of Tirthankara Ajitanatha. Janu,
the Ságara Kumara, replied that it was unintentional, and they wanted only to
fortify the temple and assured the Naga kind that no harm will come to
them. Then they used Danda ratna again
to bring the water of the Ganga. The
water filled the deep mote and also flooded the Nagaloga. Nagaraja, the Jwalanapraban got angered as an
elephant pierced with the elephant goad (ankus) and came near the Ságara
Kumaras. Due to anger, the poison in his eyes burnt all of them to ashes. The
waters of Ganga, after filling the mote started to flood villages and countries
around Mount Kailash. Hearing their plight, the grief stricken emperor Sagara,
ordered his grandson Bagirata to take the Dand ratna and divert the Ganga to
the sea. And Bagirata completed this task.
It is this story that is
depicted in the Mahabalipuram rock panel.
Discovering Sagara’s story in
the Mahabalipuram rock panel sculpture
 |
| Figure 1 |
The above picture is the
left panel of the sculpture for the viewer.
The yogi with sunken belly, over grown hair and beard, standing on one
leg with raised hands is Sagara chakravarti performing tapas at Kandaprabada mountains.
Indra Natyamalaka is standing before him with four hands and holding his vajra
dandayuda weapon. In various Jain literature Indra is depicted with four hands.
But in Saiva or Vaishnava sculptures Indra is depicted with two hands only.
(Refer; Saiva Vaishnava Baudha Jaina Sirpakalai, p.101-105, published as article in 1008th
publication commomerative issue of Saiva Siddantha Noorpathippu Kazagam, 1961. Author
– Mylai Seeni Venkatasamy).
Also seen near Sagara and Natyamalaka are six dwarf figures. There are
two more dwarfs on top left of the panel totaling eight dwarf figures. Along
with these eight boodha gana one can also count 8 pairs of deities which appear
to flying in the sky. These eight pair deities and boodha gana represent the
eight of the nine nidhis or boons received by Sagara through tapas. Each nidhi
had one deva leading it with a force of thousand boodhas. Thus there were eight
devas and eight thousand boodhas serving Sagara. The devas are depicted with
their consort devis and thousand boodha ganas are represented by one dwarf
figure. On account of space constraint eight thousand boodha ganas are
represented by eight dwarf figures. While
deities are shown as hovering in the sky, the ministers and other members of
the king’s retinue are shown with arms standing on the ground. The forest environment of the Kandaprabada
hills is shown by animal figures of lion, tiger, deer, monkeys, etc.
 |
| Figure 2 |
The picture above is the
panel on the viewer’s right. This represents Sagara’s ninth nidhi, viz. sarva
ratna which includes seven jiva ratnas and seven ajiva ratnas. Jiva ratnas are, gruhapathi, senapathi,
viswakarma, prohit, horse, elephant and maids. Ajiva ratnas are chakra,
imperial umbrella, sword, danda (shaft), choodamani (precious stone) and kakini
(for illumination). The nidhi for entertainment
and musical instruments is depicted as kinnaras, half bird half human figures. So far we have seen about Sagara
Chakravarthi’s tapas and his getting nine boons by that austerity.
There
is also a scene depicted wherein, before a temple a sage is worshipfully
listening to the lord. This is a
representation of the Rishabadeva’s temple at Kailash built by Bharata
Chakravarti. It is his image which is worshipping at the temple. Thought it is contemporarily explained as some
sage, It should be noted that in ancient India even kings and emperors grew
hair and beard. Near this temple a river
and images of naga raja and devi are sculptured. It is wrongly interpreted as Ganges, whereas
it is the deep mote dug by Sāgara Kumaras. The snake figures are
Jwalanapraban, his queen and other
nagas. This is the scene capturing their
first warning to Sāgara Kumaras. It can
also be seen that there are three headless bodies and facing them are
elephants. Pallava king Mahendra Varman was a scholar in Sanskrit. This
sculpture perhaps elucidates his signature involvement in sculpting this. The headless bodies represent the death of
Sāgara Kumaras. As all the sixty thousand sons of Sagara king have died, three
headless bodies are shown to signify multiple people based on Sanskrit grammar
which has three counts viz. single, dual and multiple. Similarly, the leading
elephant is beautifully sculptured to show its anger in the eyes. The elephants represent the deities of
Nagaloga led by Jwalanapraban. In the story, when the nagaloga gets inundated
by flooding waters of the Ganga, Jwalanaparaban came out with fury in his eyes
and the fire in his eyes were so poisonous, it burnt all the sixty thousand
sons of Sagara. Sculpting nagas as
elephants instead of snakes in the
second instant is also the poetic liberty of the sculptor as the word “nāgam”
in Tamil can mean either elephant or snake as per context.
In picture 3 above, we find few men.
One of them is carrying a pot over his left shoulder. People call it a priest
carrying water for temple ceremonies like abhishek. But the person carrying the
ashes/bones of the dead people to disburse in the water. While Bagiratha diverted the Ganga waters
towards sea, the ashes of the dead were washed away the river. Tirthankara
Ajithanath swamy puran states that the practice of disbursing dead people’s
ashes in the Ganga started with Sāgara Kumaras. Another man nearby is seen holding something
long and heavy on his shoulder. People
misinterpret it as a man squeezing his wet clothe and some as a Greek
cornucopia. However, more appropriately
it is the Dandaratna which was used to dug the mote and also used by Bagiratha
to divert the Ganga.
While carving the Rishabdev temple at
Kailash, it is seen that image of Vishnu had been sculpted. The reason could be that in Srimad Bagavad,
it is said that Rishabdev is an avatar of Vishnu and thus we find here Rishabdev
in the form of Vishnu.
Apart from the images relevant to the
story of king Sagara, some animal figures such as monkeys, tiger, a cat in
meditation with mice playing around were also done to beautify the panel.
This story of Sagara could have been
popular in 7 AD when Jainism was at its peak in Tamil Nadu and almost everybody
would have been aware of this. Also the
motive behind sculpting this story would have been to emphasize on jaina
principle of jain principle of karma, be it the sons of a powerful emperor who
has greatest of the boons such as navanidhis.
The sculpture reminds the viewers
about one of the twelve meditations enjoined upon jains, viz. Anitya bhavana
(meditation on transient nature of life). The meditating cat and mice running
around signifies the jain characteristic of samata bhava (equanimity) while
observing austerities. One has to give up desires and hatred to be a true yogi.
The sculptor once again proves his intellect in selecting cat and mice as
characters to show forgotten enmity and also satirically bring before the
viewer the tamil proverb rudraksha poonai (rudraksha cat). Mahendra Varman was
famous for his satirical work on contemporary religions “Mathavilasa
Prahasanam” written in Sanskrit. He was a follower of Jainism before converting
to Shaivism.
