Vatapi statue: various opinions

Vatapi statue: various opinions

 

One group of researchers point to some more things. When periya puranam lists what all paranjyoti brought from vatapi, it only mentions the nine gems, gold coin pouches, elephants, and horses, but does not mention the ganesh statue. Therefore, in their view, he did not bring the ganesh statue. Another group argues that that particular sentence does not describe what he brought from vatapi, but merely what he offered to the king. The line reads that he brought the "gems, coins, elephant, and horses in front of the king." That is, it says that he offered these to the king. Because he kept the ganesh statue for himself there is no mention about it and perhaps for some reason sekkizhar decided not to explicitly mention it.

 

Those who have the view that paranjyoti did not bring the vatapi ganesh also make another argument. In those days, there was a practice for kings to remove statues, pillars from the enemy kingdoms and install them in their temples. For example, the "gangai konda chola king" went all the way in the north until the Ganges and won over the Bengal dynasty of balas. This king, Rajendran, built a temple in gangai konda chola puram equal to the brahadeeswar temple in tanjore, and in the neighboring towns, with statues from other kingdoms. The mahishasura mardini statue belongs to the chalukya art – the statue is unique and different from those in our region – the mahishasura is the feet of the goddess running with his back turned. The goddess pierces his back with her spear in one hand and pulls his tongue with her other hand. – There is a statue like this in gangaikonda chola puram. In the main temple campus, the statue of durga in the side temples seems to belong to the chalukya art. Some say that the unique navagraha in the kamala yantra in the main temple also belongs to another region. In that town, when we see the bhairava and bhairavi statues in red color stones in another place, we can immediately know that they came from elsewhere. Rajendran had brought them from kalinga in Orissa. In triloki near gangaikonda chola puram, there is a stone statue of the parvati and parameswaran sitting on the bull. This was brought by him after winning over the nulambars. Nulambars were ruling the rayalaseema region. A vigneswar statue belonging to the bala dynasty in Bengal has also come to Tamil nadu. He is called "gangai ganapathi". He is in kumbakonam's nageswarar swami temple. Among the balar style of statues brought to Tamil naud the most outstanding one is the nataraja. Normally we think that nataraja is the property of Tamil nadu. But this nataraja has come from Bengal. It is a copper statue. The lord dances on top of the nandi bull. This dance is not the familiar pose that we know, with the left foot lifted. In this both feet are lifted and folded with a square gap in between the legs – like a cake – he is dancing with folded legs. This dance pose is called square dance. This pose is also present in very old statues that belong to Tamil nadu as well. They can be found in the statues in kooram, nallur and kotumudi. The Bengal statue that I told you has very nice decorations with good work manship, and it is in mela katambur near Chidambaram.

 

Among the chalukyars, there are two groups west and east chalukayars. West chalukayars ruled vatapi. East chalukayars ruled in the capital at kalyani. Rajendran's son, rajathirajan won over the east chalukyas and had brought the pillars and dwara palars in their temples to Tamil nadu. The second raja rajan had installed them near kumbakonam in the town called tarasuram, which he named as rajarajeswaram. He had inscribed at the bottom that these were brought from kalyani after the victory there. In the thiruvaiyar temple also we have the pillars of the nulambar style. There is one window of that style, in the tanjore brahadeswarar temple also.

 

What the contenders say is that – when a statue or art work was brought from another kingdom after a victory and was installed in our kingdom, either they themselves mentioned it stone inscriptions or poets of their times sang praises referring to these. If not these, at least the literature of later times would mention the evidence. But in thiruchengattankudi there is no inscription, the periya puranam that elaborates the story of siruthondar also has no mention about vatapi ganapati. So there is no evidence that the vatapi ganapati came from there.

 

We should note one point here. Other kings or their army chiefs were proud about bringing some thing from the enemy kingdoms and installing them in their lands. Because if their pride their wanted to record their name and achievements. So they inscribed these to satisfy themselves. But paranjyoti was the opposite to these; after his victory he left the war field, surrendered his position and humbly took the title "siruthondar", transforming himself totally seeking "no recognition". I think that why would such a person inscribe his achievements.

 

Another set of iconography experts have pointed to me that the vatapi ganapati statue in thiruchengattankudi is not of the chalukya style, and resembles the pallava style statues in Tamil nadu. They say that the crown and the pasankusam (mace) in the hand do not look like chalukya art; they look like Tamil art only. I asked them, "The feet of the legs are facing each other in this pose- which is novel." For this question, they replied, "The ganesh in pillaiyar patti is also like this." They added, "The two soles are even closer in that statue, the crowns are similar in both." It is sure that the pillaiyar patti statue is pallava art. That temple is one of the pallva's "kudaivarai", cave temples. But the unique aspect of that statue is that the ganesh has only 2 hands. He has kept his left hand on his hip. No body was able to give me an explanation for this difference.

 

"After winning in vatapi which has connection with the lord ganapati, paranjyoti could have become much devoted the lord there; later when he settled in his town, he may have got our sculptors and made a statue in the pallava style itself. Because he took inspiration from vatapi, he could have named it vatapi ganapathi," told one expert.

 

I have heard one more view. "Paranjyoti may have indeed brought a ganapati statue from vatapi. But they think that he would have installed it in thiruvaroor because that was the main location for the lord. In fact the vatapi ganapati there is of the chalukya style.

 

Anyway, with all these views, I am not giving any judgement. I am only sharing with you the various views so far.

In the 16 names, we are in kapila name. "Kapilar" is red in color like honey. The cow with that color is called kapilai. Kapilar is also the person who gave the sankya sastra. Bhagiratan brough the Ganges to take to heaven the 60 thousand sakara sons that kapilar destroyed to ashes. Our vigneswarar who turned the vessel of agastya and let the river Cauvery flow is called kapilar. The Tamil poet who had sung a lot during the old Tamil times is called kapilar. He is also attached to the lord vigneswarar. He was the court poet of the pari vallal king. After pari died he was the guardian for the king's daughters. He wanted to get them married and then end life by fasting until death (called prayopavesam—or vatakkiruttal in Tamil). But no one came forward to marry those orphan daughters. Kapilar also could not live without king pari. So he handed over the daughters to good Brahmins and ended his life by fasting. This story comes in the ancient Tamil works and their annotations. Before ending his life, kapilar had prayed to the lord Ganesha. The prayer is called "moota nayanar thiru irattai malai" it is the 11^th thirumarai in the 12 thirumarais. It is recorded as made by kapila theva nayanar. There is also view that this kapilar is different from the ancient Tamil poet kapilar. What ever may be the view, we know that a poet with the name kapilar has prayed in praise of the lord Ganesha with the name kapilar. After the ancient Tamil poet kapilar died, it was the great devotee of the lord Ganesha, the auvaiyar, who got the three daughters of the king pari married. So the wish of kapilar before his died was fulfilled by the grace of the lord Ganesha.