CHENNAI: When Ganga flows down from the heavens with all her might as the answer to Bhageeratha’s penance, Lord Shiva catches her in his matted hair, gently lowering her to the earth as he knows only too well the earth would, otherwise, crumble under her fury. As Gangadharan sits holding Ganga in his hair at the rockfort temple in Trichy, overlooking the beautiful Cauvery, Uma devi, is ill at ease. The Lady of the mountains leaves her abode at the Himalayas to sit beside the Lord at the rockfort, whispering into his ear that Cauvery is not his to take.
“She belongs to the Pallavas,” she says, afraid that the Lord who is already holding Ganga, will fall in love with Cauvery’s teasing curves.
When the inscriptions and the stories in stone come together as one, the scenes that form are almost magical like the story above, according to Kudavayil Balasubramanian, renowned archaeologist and author.
He spoke on the heritage of Tamil art and the impact that it continues to have today with generous doses of mythical folklore and imagery — in short, a story of stories.
He believes that the Tamil practice of ‘kolam’ and teaching children to write Tamil letters by allowing them to transform the letters into pictures were passed down by this very heritage of telling stories.
“It’s in the genes. During my time, when we learnt the Tamil alphabets, we would always draw a parrot from the letter ‘S’ on our slates,” he said.
They were not the first ones. Saint Apparswamy, who lived in Mahendravarman’s time, used ‘M’ as the first letter in his poem ‘Sitha thogai, thirukurunthogai’ as opposed to the usual agara varisai.
After days of research, Balasubramnaian found that the way in which the letter ‘M’ was written in the time of Mahendravarman resembled the figure of the bull, the insignia on Shiva’s flag (from its nose to the beginning of its tail), establishing the poem’s reference to Shiva.
More than what meets the eye
Beyond the stories that the sculptures and art have etched on them, there are little pieces of history tucked away in the depths of detail. In the Airavatesvara tample in Darasuram built by Rajaraja Chola, the walls have several stories. One such image is a scene from the sangam period, Balasubramanian said. This scene is etched in a corner (where two walls meet).“On one side, there are four scholars and in the other part, stand nine men,” explained Balaubramanian. “The scene had to depict 49 scholars but in the space allocated, it was impossible. The artist has created the image of four men in this turn of the wall to depict 40 scholars. Along with the 9 men on the other side, it adds to 49.”
Breathing life into stone
The idea that to the artists of yore, it was never merely a stone is reflected in designs that brought the piece of art alive. The fact remains that it is seldom seen for what it really is. A gold ring, believed to be over 2,300 years old, bearing images of Chandran and Rohini, the star, in their human form, was discovered in Karur. “Look at the life in this image — Rohini coyly turning the other way as Chandran tries to pull her close,” said Balasubramanian, pointing to the image. “Every stone will tell a story. Every stone will sing songs,” he ended.