Vatapi ganapathi: historical details

Vatapi ganapathi: historical details

 

Afterwards, vatapi ganapathi came to that town itself. Vatapi ganapathi is one of the forms of Ganesha. He is the ganapathi that sage agastya prayed in order to digest the demon vatapi. It was agastya who came to tiruchengattukudi. The town where he came to kill vatapi is also called vatapi. The name of vatapi (the demon) who lived in the town became the name of the town itself in the later years. It became the capital of the chalukya king dynasties.

 

Among the chalukya kings there were two with the name pulakesi. People wrongly call pulikesi. (puli in Tamil means tiger). It is neither tiger nor rat? (Rat in Tamil means eli). The copper plate records of chalukya kings are in Sanskrit. The stone carvings will be in Kannada. In Kannada the name is polekesi. Several people read this name in different ways. They same that po-le has Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada origin. But, in that dynasty, all persons kept names in Sanskrit after becoming the king – therefore, the historians have taken this name as "pulakesin and pulakesi", and write in English in the same way.

 

Pulakesi means the one who make us happy with "hair rising feeling" (goose pimples). The rishikesan (one of the names for Siva) also has such a meaning. Rishikam means senses of the body. The one who controls senses is called rishikesan – this one of the meaning given by sankara in the sahasranama. When god is in the forms of sun and moon, he gives happiness through the rays of the sun and moon, and so has the name rishikesan. The root word "hrush" means to give happiness that gives goose pimples. The king performs valorous feats with his hair rising, and he can make those watching it also to feel their hair rising. The one who does that is the Pulakesi. The one who has hair that is rising (i.e Pulakam) is pula + esa and is king is called pulakesi – we can split in this way also to get the same meaning.

 

Something comes to my mind. One of the two kings who competed with the second pulakesi who comes in the story that we will review now, is mahendra varma pallavan. A bigger competitor than him is harshavardhanan who are king for larger kingdom in the north. The name Harsha also comes from the root hrush. That is, harsha also has the meaning the one with hair rising due to happiness. Pulakesi made that harsha run away showing his back. Therefore, he may have kept for himself a name that has the same meaning – i.e. pulakesi. His name before becoming king was erayamma. That is a Kannada name. after becoming king when he chose a Sanskrit name, he would have noted his grand father's name was pulakesi, and that name also another name for his arch rival harshan – and so chosen that name. – This is what I think.

 

Hair is called "alakam". The god of wealth, who is the king of the yaksha, i.e. kubera is also called alakesan. His treasurer is called alakapuri. The glory of hair is in the names alakesan, hrishikesan, and pulakesi.

 

Let me come to the second pulakesi's matter. First he suffered from the betrayal by his father's brother and lost his right to rule the kingdom. Subsequently, with his physical strength and valour he ousted his father's brother and ascended the throne. He got the best name among the chalukya kings. He ruled with the title "sathyacharan" meaning that he is the embodiment of truth. He ensured that the great king of kings harshavardhanan could not fight against him, and made him return limiting his kingdom's boundaries to the north of river Narmada.

 

At that time in Tamil Nadu, a pallava king, mahendra varma was ruling a large empire. Mahendra vikrama varman is he name that he uses for himself in the comedy drama written by him called matta vilasa prahasanam. He was talented at sculpturing, music and was a also a great fan of all times for these arts. Pulakesi invaded and won over him, forcing the pallava armies to be confined into the fortress of kanchipuram. This is confirmed by official records checked by historians. After many generations of mahendra varma, the kingdom was not inherited by his direct lineage, but by nandi varma, a descendent among his relatives. When he donated land to a bharadwaja gothra Brahmin who had performed soma yaga, the set of copper inscriptions recorded are famously called the "kasakkudi plates". This is special because, in these the ancestral details of the king who gave the donation are all available. In this there is mention that mahendra varma got a great victory in pulluru. While it states that he got victory, it does not say victory over whom. My guess is that it must a victory over the life long enemy of pallavas—the chalukyas. It is only a guess, not certain. But there is confirmation that mahendra varma lost to pulakesi. Though the pallava army may have won over the chalukya army in pulluru, that must have ended with chasing back the army that came into our own boundary. While chalukya cames into the pallava boundary and won over them, the pallavas did not chase them into the boundary and win over them. It is ofcourse, more pride worthy to win over a foreign king in the latter's land.

 

Therefore, the loss at the hands of pulakesi was quite an unforgettable wound for the pallavas. Royal blood? Wanted to take revenge in a tit-for-tat. Howver, mahendra varma died without achieving it. The revenge was possible during the time of his heroic son, narasimha varma, who had won the title "great wrestler". He invaded vatapi and ravaged a victory. While, pulakesi made mahendran remain inside kanchi fortress with gates closed, and won over him. Narasimha varman reciprocated with worse rage by going into the chalukya kingdom of vatapi and destroying the entire town.

 

There is a word called "kshatram". In Tamil - aathiram, kshatram – are said together. The attitude to take revenge over some one because of hatred that has not ended – is called kshatram. The direct meaning for that word is "kshatriya gunam" – that is the basic quality of the king (kshatriya) is anger/ revenge. While there may be several good qualities among the royal members, only from their unending qualities of anger/ revenge one can see how their rule is spoilt—and when the hands wield the sword the mind only aims to behead people.

 

The title used by royal people is varma. Varmam means body shield. Because the royal warriors wear shields often they are called varmas. Not just that, as how a shield takes blows and protects the body inside, the royal warriors are ready to even risk their lives, to protect the nation from any danger- therefore they are varmas. Nevertheless, when we praise varmam do we think of this good interpretation? We normally connect varmam only with revenge. The qualities indicated by the words, kshatram and varmam, in daily practice, refer to those bad qualities that emerge when power and position mislead a person.

 

Kings cannot be very gentle and soft always. According to our sastra on code of conduct for king, a king should not be like that. The righteous war against one who has defeated them, to win over him is listed as one of their valorous duties. However, there must be control in that. He should not take demonic actions against the enemy king or his army. He should never attack demonically the people who are not involved in the war, or the town. Because the dwellers of lankapuri were in actual fact demons, hanuman burnt that town. That would not be appropriate for town with civilian population.

 

Even great king narasimha varma who had supported generously Vedic scholars, installed Sanskrit schools, promoted worship in temples, and in that regard significantly sponsored sculptural activities to the acclaim of the world, was not free of anger and revenge. Therefore, he destroyed the chalukya capital vatapi and tore it down to the ground. He took the title, "the narasinga poththaraiyan who vanquished vatapi". In the town of vatapi itself, there is a statue record in praise of his victory of that town.

Will chalukyas give up that easily and have any lesser revenge? Their constant thought was on how to take revenge on pallavas and destroy to ground the capital kanchipuram. Nearly 100 years, after the victory of narasimha varma, the chalukya king by name second vikramathitan won over the pallavas as desired. He captured kanchipuram. At that time, had he been adamant to take revenge he could have completely brought kanchipuram to the dust. In fact he could have set the town to fire and sent it to ashes.

 

At that time, there was a kailasanathar temple which had the most exquisite sculpture works that have ever been made. The beautiful temple had been erected during the time of the predecessor to the second parameswara varma, i.e. raja simhan. Vikramaditan could have broken the temple to the ground.

 

One may wonder, whether a Hindu king will demolish a hindu temple—blinded by revenge and anger such events have happened. It has happended in one of our sankara mutts – may be difficult to believe. A Muslim king had great devotion and respect for the mutt. The Hindu commander of the hindu king who was the enemy of the muslim king decided that the head of the mutt is receiving the respect and devotion of our king's enemy - so he sent his army to attack the mutt. The army also did not think – all are Hindus and the mutt bears the name of sankara who have given a new life to our religion – they went inside and rampaged the entire mutt. After that the muslim king noted that those who had incurred wrath to a holy place and to a master's place will not prosper and will certainly be destroyed. He sent his own resources to assist in rebuilding the mutt. I wanted to show you where anger and revenge lead to.

 

To exhaust the load of anger and revenge from the heart, kanchipuram fell in the hands of the chalukya king vikramadityan. It was a good opportunity for him to take revenge for destroying vatapi. The first temple built by his enemy king dynasty stood front him with all the sculptural brilliance and beauty – the kaisanatharalayam. Had he said yes, his army would have pulverized the temple. At that situation only his mind changes surprisingly. Suddenly, perhaps as he had already had Siva mantra initiation, and as if due to that perhaps his devotion to shiva increased, or his appreciation for art out poured, or both came out in combination – he ordered "do not touch the temple". It is not that he developed some good feelings for a few statues scultupured on stone. He developed good feelings towards the people in the town of the enemy. He had elevated thoughts "when once I won over this town, the people of this town become my citizens. How can I harm my own citizen?" therefore, instead of setting fire to kanchipuram to the sorrows of people, he started to do generous good deeds to the people. He did many things to the kailasanathar temple. Not only did he not swindle anything from them, he even donated a lot of wealth, including that he may have swindled elsewhere, to the temple. All these he listed on a stone pillar in the mantapam at the front of the kailasanathar temple, in Kannada language.

 

After the kalinga war king Asoka's mind changed – this is a story to all. I told you another story that I knew, similar to Asoka's.

 

Enchanted by the beauty of the kailasanathar temple vikramdityan did not just leave the temple intact. He built, upon returning to his kingdom, a pair for this temple, nearly its replica, at a place called pattatakkal—it is named virupakshar temple. He respectfully took sculptors from Tamil Nadu for that purpose.

 

In the Kannada nation's bijapur district the three towns, Vatapi (now people call it badami), i-ho-le, and patta—takkal are near each other. Ihole was chalukaya's first capital, later vatapi became the capital, some say. People also respected the nearby town, pattatakkal as the second capital. When some new kings ascended the throne the ceremony was conducted at pattakkal. Perhaps, therefore the name of the town became pattatakkal (pattam in Tamil means ascending the throne)—I guess.

 

You may wondering why after starting with vigneswar I am going round and round about vatapi—is there any connection – yes there is a lot of connection.