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Chapter 66
Poetic Celebration of the Temple: Centrifugality
• Pivotalisation of the Temple in Devotional Poetry
• Temple, God and the Landscape in the Decads of Nammāļvār
• Temple, Lord Vişņu and Landscape in the Decads of Tirumangai
Āļvār
• Temple as Core of the Sacralised Geography
• Normalisation of Bhakti
• Eulogisation of Sri Vallabha
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The poetic compositions of Nammāļvar and Tirumangai Āļvār are two
of the works that hail the temple of Tiruvallavāl and the deity consecrated
there. The period of these compositions seem to mark the beginning of a new
era in the history of the temple. The period of the stalapurāņā —named Sŗī
Vallabha Kşētŗa Māhātmya—represents yet another significant phase of the
celebration of the temple.
The numerous compositions of the two poets—Nammāļvar and
Tirumangai Āļvār mentioned above—form part of the huge collection of
Vaişņavite devotional poetry. These compositions are argued to have provided
the ideological plane for making the temple self evident. Further it projected
the cult of the purāņic/Brahmanic religion represented by that institution.1 The
Stalapurāņā would enable us to see how the Vaişņavites reformulated the
relationships between the temples, the Brahmins and those with whom they
interacted. This reformulation in turn redefined the man-land relations; this
process gained centrality for the temple among them.
Pivotalisation of the Temple in Devotional Poetry
It may be necessary to make an overview of what is generally referred
to as the Bhakti literature before focussing on those Bhaktā-s who hailed the
deity of Tiruvallavāl and the geographical setting of the temple. This is done
to glean out the localness and heterogeneity within the meta-unity of the
Bhakti literature.
The composers of the various poems known as Alvāŗ-s and Nayanāŗ-s
were the saints acclaiming Vişņu and Siva and their exuberant devotional
songs were compiled into collections known as Dēvāram [Tevāram] and
1 For an closer understanding of the argument see Kesavan Veluthat., “Into the Medieval and out of
it : Early South India in Transition” Presidential Address, Indian History Congress Session II 1997, p. 30.
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Divya pŗabandham respectively.2 It is added that the “poems celebrate every
orthodox shrine they visited … and constitute the most priceless treasure in all
Tamil literature”.3 An important development associated with bhakti is
generally discussed as a departure from the cult of tribal or folk deities to the
universalism of godhead and the transformation of cult centres and extant
shrines to structured institutional forms for the practice of formalised religious
observances. It necessarily included the emergence of the temple as the focus
of the bhakti in the early works of the Heroic period such as Paripāţal and
Tirumurukkāŗŗupaţai. These transformations have been conceived in literature
first by the Alvārs and after a short time lag, by the Nayanārs. The expressions
of Bhakti arose and progressed and attained sophistication, extolling God
through melodious hymns and seeking emotional union of the self with the
absolute. The latter was signified by a local deity/temple image.
Bhakti literature has been viewed as part of a wider religious movement
initiated by the worshippers of Siva and Vişņu to stem the rising tide of
heresy.4 It is also being viewed as part of a temple movement wherein the
temple functioned as the institutional base for socio-economic and political
relations5.
2 For details see K A N Sastri, A History of South India.,(1976), O U P, New Delhi, p. 5. 3 Ibid. 4 The heretical religions implied are Jainism and Buddhism which have been wielding tremendous
influence in South India. See K A Neelakanta Sastri, The Pandyan Kingdom, Luzac and Co, 1929, p. 97, See also his The Colas, (1937), Reprint 2000, University of Madras, p. 635 and A History of South India, OUP, 1955, p. 423.
5 Scholars have been trying to outline the correspondence between the emergence and proliferation of the religious institution of the temple and the rise and spread of the religious ideology of Bhakti. They maintain that the composition of the bhakti hymns provided the ideological plane for making the temple central to all contemplation and that it projected the cult of the purāņic/Brahmanic religion represented by that institution. An accompanying inference found in historiography is that the picture of a temple-centred, ritual-bound, Brahmin-dominated functioning of the society could be explained as a stage of material development characterised by the reconstitution of the new mode of agrarian organisation initiated by the Brahmin house-hold which was capable of dominating the earlier modes by entering into relations with them in the processes of production. The emergence of the temples at the centre of these developments is in
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It is argued that the bhakti—vocalised in the Vaişņavite and Saivite
literature from the seventh to the ninth centuries—served as the dominant
ideology for the hierarchically structured agrarian society of contradictory
relations.6 Of late Bhakti has also been viewed as discourse7 wherein the
ritual, temple and their functionaries emerge as clearly discernible objects.
This has already been discussed in an earlier chapter.
The formulations of Friedhelm Hardy on the inter-relationship between
the ideology of Bhakti and the cultural contexts of the Vaişņava temples are of
immense value to us. He attempts a conceptual understanding of the ‘temple’
in the Ālvāŗ poetry and the subtle philosophical and theological
transformations that were taking place over a period of time. He also examines
the pattern of ideological and emotional responses that the temple movement
evoked.8 The major deductions of Hardy, relevant for our study of the
Vaişņava temple of Tiruvallavāl for the period from the ninth to the fifteenth
centuries are recapitulated here.
1. Though notions of Vişņu as a transcendental god beyond space and
time and the local temple as his abode already prevailed in the poems
of the Heroic period, the poems composed by the Ālvārs represent a
this case perceived of as the externalisation of a new ideological superstructure. Accordingly, the new ‘Brahmanical religion’ has been explained as the dominant ideology in the new social formation. This arguably stands in opposition to the heroic society and made itself the new religious sensibility. For details see Kesavan Veluthat., “Into the Medieval and out of it: Early South India in Transition” Presidential Address, Indian History Congress Session II, 1997, p. 30. Also see his “Temple base of the Bhakti Movement in South India”, PIHC, 1979, Waltair. Also see Rajan Gurukkal, Cultural History of Kerala, Vol. I, pp. 264-265.
6 Rajan Gurukkal, Cultural History of Kerala, Vol I, p. 265. 7 Also see Rajan Gurukkal., his “Towards a new Discourse: Discursive Processes in Early South
India”, Tradition, Dissent and Ideology, OUP, Delhi, 1996, pp. 313-327. 8 Friedhelm Hardy, “Ideology and Cultural Contexts of the Vaisnava Temple”, Indian Economic
and Social History Review, Vol. XIV, Jan-March, 1977, pp. 120-149.
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new era. A marked increase in the number of the temples had also
taken place and the ‘temple religion’ became complex.9
2. The phraseology employed by the Ālvārs to portray Vişņu’s presence,
“Vişņu is in the temple”, clearly affirms the notion of the temple as the
place where the god resides. The terms expressive of the places of
residence are iţam (house/residence/place), ūŗ (village/town), nakaŗ
(temple town), tālạ̣vu (resting place), kōvil (palace/temple) and iraipāti
(palace).10 It is noteworthy that the abodes of Vişņu or the ‘temple’
envisaged in the poems as discerned above, covers a range of places/
locations from a hill or foot of a hill to a palace. In all the cases the
figure in the temple is regarded as a manifestation of Vişņu and not
used in the sense of an ‘image’ or vigraha.11 The Ālvār poetry affirms
the local god as none other than the universal transcendental Vişņu.12
Nevertheless there is no dissolution of the individuality of the local god
altogether, rather the Ālvār-s took great care in describing the local
setting of the individual temple. They also began a trend, which in
course of time came to be standardised: to address the local god by his
own specific name.13
3. Temples figuring in the earlier phase of devotional literary
compositions sought to link a particular temple to the universal god
Vişņu. But compositions of the later phase engaged in the depiction of
9 It is argued that the notion of a place of worship is not widely found in Early Tamil poetry. Later
works in the Cankam corpus is argued to have been representing a new phase wherein Vişņu is being conceived as the transcendental god beyond space and time. See Friedhelm Hardy, Op cit, p.122.
10 Friedhelm Hardy, Op cit, p.123. 11 Ibid. 12 See Ibid, p.124. 13 Ibid. Hardy cites the example of Nammāļvār addressing the god of Tiruvinnakar as Oppar il
appan. It is pointed out that the temple came to be known by the name Uppiliyappan Temple.
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Vişņu as being present simultaneously in a number of temples in
numerous names. The multiplicity of the temples comes to be
expressed as Vişņu’s līla and also his eagerness to be in the vicinity of
as many people as possible.14
4. The concept of arcâvatāra was brought in to explain in philosophically
and theologically satisfactory terms, the question of Vişņu being
transcendent and at the same time being present in many temples as
Arca or temple image. By arcâvatāra is meant the incarnation of Vişņu
in the temple image. If avatāra meant to explain the notion of Vişņu’s
mythical manifestations, the concept of arcâvatāra explained Vişņu’s
presence in numerous temples lying spread out.15 It is also observed
that according to the arcâvatāra concept, each temple image was a full
avatāra and these have found their place in the genre Stalapurāņā.16
Of the 108 Vaişņavite temples of South India comprising the
Divyadēśam-s, 13 are in Kerala. These temples are collectively referred to as
the Divyadēśam-s of Malainadu or the Pāţalpeŗŗa Kşētŗańaļ of Kerala.17 We
may now proceed to evaluate the compositions of the two Bhaktās,
Nammāļvār and Tirumangai Ālvāŗ hailing the temple of Tiruvallavāļ and so
too the community around the temple. Of the twelve Ālvāŗ-s figuring in the
devotional literary movement of the early medieval period, two have sung of
the temple of Tiruvallavāl and the surrounding areas. However the period of
14 Ibid, pp.124-125. 15 See Ibid, pp.126-127. 16 Ibid. 17 The temple sung about in the devotional literature of the Vaisnava saints are Tiruvenparicaram
(Tirupatisaram), Tiruvarraru (Tiruvattar), Tiruvananthapuram, Tiruppuliyoor (Puliyoor), Tiruchenganroor (Trichittattu/ Chenganoor), Tiruvaranvilai (Aranmulai), Tiruvanvandoor, Tiruvallavāl (Tiruvalla), Tirukkudittanam, Tirukkadu karai (Trikkakkara), Tirumulikkalam (Mulikkalam), Tiruvittuvakkodu (Tirumattakkodu), Tirunavay For details see P Unnikrishnan Nair, Sŗī Vallabha Kşētŗa Caritram,1987, Tiruvalla, p. 399.
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these poets are topics of debate and dates ranging from the seventh to the tenth
centuries have been assigned to them.18 Their compositions are in the form of
decads written in the Antāti poetic scheme.19 According to this scheme, a
stanza begins with the last letter or word of the preceding stanza. Eleven
stanzas on the Temple and deity of Tiruvallavāl by Nammāļvār have been
included as the fifth decad in the collection called Tiruvāimoļị̣̣ and ten stanzas
of Tirumangai form the ninth decad of the collection entitled Tirumoļị̣̣.
Temple, God and the Landscape in the Decads of Nammāļvār
The decads of Nammāļvār articulate the intense passionate love and
devotion of the poet to lord Vişņu, likened to the love of a girl towards her
lover. Expressing her agonising pain in the mysticism of separation, they seek
reunion with the lord who reigns over the region around the temple and who
abides in the temple. As such these decads are phrased as the sensuous and
angst expressions of a girl divulging to her attendants, intense desire to seek
reunion with her lover in his abode.20 The attendants on their part are shown as
trying to dissuade the girl from doing so. The alluring imageries in the poem
of both the landscape and the lord are the captivating melody and its repeated
singing could elevate the temple such that the devotees of Vişņu and the
temple remained within their fold with greater devotion.
The nature of interrelationship between the temple, its deity and the
landscape rendered in the stanzas may now be attempted. The last stanza—the
eleventh one—gives the name of the author and makes an assertion to the
poet’s guarantee of “fulfilment of life” in the repeated singing of the preceding
18 See M G S Narayanan., Perumals - - -, p. 189. Also R Champakalakshmi and S Gopal.,
Tradition, Dissent and Ideology, p.139. 19 For details see P Unnikrishnan Nair, Sŗī Vallabha Maha Ksketra Caritram (Malayalam), 1987,
Tiruvalla, p. 400. 20 See for details Fiedelm Hardy, Op. cit, pp. 136-137
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ten stanzas, since are verses praising the lord of Tiruvallavāļ. This is not
merely a guarantee for everything that a Bhaktā desires in this world, this is
also an affirmation of the broad eschatological position of the Vaişņava
scheme of things, which lays hold on such ideals as ‘fulfilment of life’ for all
humans. It can be seen that the act of singing the ten stanzas would be
tantamount to surrendering the self and everything that belongs to the Bhaktā
before the lord of Tiruvallavāl and consequently the ultimate realisation of the
destiny for which he is born in this world.21 Further, the singing of the stanzas
is a way of being with the lord of Tiruvallavāl in the temple and as such it is
claimed as a symbolic enactment of what the Bhaktā would continue to do in
heaven.22 Then, for all Bhaktās singing the stanzas to comply with the
exhortation is at once an act rational enough and an enunciation proper for
extolling Vişņu. This is not all. The exhortation for the regular recitation of
the poem or the singing of the song has to be construed as a direct invocation
to make it part of convention through repetition. A necessary outcome of the
same is the subjectification of the singers and the listeners.
Throughout the poem, Vişņu is invariably depicted as the invincible
and dear god and lord of Tiruvallavāl. Images in this ensemble are Kōnārai23
(yedukulēswara), Ninŗa pirān24 (one who gives his appearance), Nītuŗaikinŗa
pirān25 (one who reigns over), Nacchara vinaņaimel nambirāvitu26 (one who
reclines on the snake), Kaņņalangaţţi tannaikkani27 (one who is as sweet as
21 For an understanding of the Vaişņavite notion of surrender by the Bhaktā, see Ibid, p.134. 22 See Ibid, pp. 134-135. 23 Tiruvaymoli IX, 1. Translation as Yedukuleswara made by P Unnikrishnan Nair, Sŗī Vallabha---,
p.403. 24 Tiruvaymoli IX, 2. 25 Ibid: 3. 26 Ibid: 4. Translation as given by P Unnikrishnan Nair, Sŗī Vallabha - - -, p. 404. 27 Tiruvaymoli IX, 5. Here Kannalangatti has been translated as sugar candy See P Unnikrishnan
Nair, Op cit, p. 403.
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sugar candy), Mānkaral kōļappiran28 (one who came in the form of a dwarf),
one who has swallowed the whole world,29 one who measured out the land
with his feet30 and the one who gives vision holding the sudaŗsanacakŗa,31 and
Narayana32.
The poet’s illustration of ‘Tiruvallavāl’ over which Vişņu is conceived
to be invested with the right to be with supreme distinction (vāņaruļuka) is
made through a chain of absorbing and colourful descriptions of the
geographical space around the Temple. These may be listed as follows: (1) the
place where grows tall arecanut palms, jasmine flowers laden with nectar and
surrounded by sweet smelling rills33 (2) the place from where comes breezes
grazing the golden and sweet smelling flowers34 (3) the place where could be
heard the chanting of Vedic mantŗā-s like the rumbling of oceans and where
the scent of the sacrificial smoke would freely flow35 (4) the place where
green arecanut palms would come leaning on to the thatched roofs of the
houses36 (5) the place which is kept in the shade of the smoke coming from the
fire altars of the Brahmin households37 (6) the place from where comes the
melodious humming if the beetles which surpasses the beauty of the songs of
the pāņā-s, the gentle breeze and the tall and dense trees38 (7) the place which
has cool and deep ponds in which grows the red lotus and the black kūvaļam
28 Tiruvaymoli IX, 6. Here Mankaral kolappiran has been translated as Vamana murthy. See P
Unnikrishnan Nair, Op cit, p. 403. 29 Tiruvaymoli IX, 7. 30 Ibid, IX, 8. 31 Ibid, IX, 9. 32 Ibid, IX, 10. 33 Tiruvāymoli. IX, 1. 34 Ibid, IX, 2. 35 Ibid, IX, 3. 36 Ibid, IX, 4. 37 Ibid, IX, 5. 38 Ibid, IX, 6.
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flowers39 (8) the place which yields sugarcane from which juice is crushed
and which yields ripe red paddy and flowers40 (9) the place which
overfloweth of music produced by the beetles that outclass the sweet sound of
the vīņa41 (10) the place which is revered by the heaven and earth every day.42
Tiruvallavāl in the poem denotes simultaneously the proper name of the
temple and a given geographical space. A sense of territoriality concomitant
with the projection of the temple’s name as generally applied over a given
geographical and social space recurs in all the ten stanzas. If Tiruvallavāl is
the extension of the temple over a spatial continuum, it leads one to the
inference that Tiruvallavāl combines the temple and constitutes a spatial
continuum to have reach over it so that it enables the ‘master of the temple’ to
exercise power over those dwelling within it.
The conditions that permitted the projection of a temple-name over a
given domain are thus made foundational for the exercise of authority. This
has to be understood as the strategic manoeuvre whereby Tiruvallavāl comes
to be constituted and defined with the temple as the centre. While being
central to the region in the physical sense, it was also the ideological-ritual-
religious centre in the hymns. In the poetic depictions, Tiruvallavāl is a place
from where the chanting of Vedic mantrā-s could be heard and from where
arises the scent of the sacrificial fume. It is also referred to as a place, which
could be seen only hazily through the layers of fumes arising form the fire
altars of the Brahmin households. One finds in the above picturisation, a
strategic omission of several communities dwelling therein and as an
exclusive zone of brahmanic habitation and rituals. The picturisation permits
39 Ibid, IX, 7. 40 Ibid, IX, 8. 41 Ibid, IX, 9. 42 Ibid, IX, 10.
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no visibility of other doctrines, religions and even other castes in Tiruvallavāl.
In effect the carpet cover arbitrarily made by the poem transforms a given
geographical space with numerous peoples inhabiting it, into a composite
unity where the interests and observances of the Brahmins could prevail. The
geographical space is in this way reified as an exclusive zone of brahminical
authority.
Temple, Lord Vişņu and Landscape in the Decads of Tirumangai Āļvār
Of the 108 divyadēsam-s hailed in the whole corpus of Bhakti
literature, Tirumangai Āļvāŗ had composed hymns on only 89. The hymnist
has roughly been assigned a date later than Nammāļvār making no claims
regarding his exact lifespan.43 The ten stanzas sung in praise of Srī Vallabha
are presented in the ninth decad as the seventh Tirumoli of Nalāyiram
Divyapŗabandham.
As in the case of Nammāļvār’s composition examined above, the
decads of Tirumangai Āļvāŗ also conform to a particular narrative pattern. All
the ten stanzas draw a line of demarcation between the pleasures of the present
world and those of the other world. The hymns privilege the latter so as to
make the listeners ardent bhakta-s. Each of the stanzas reiterates the need to
embrace the lord of Tiruvallavāl after renouncing one’s associations with
worldly pleasures. This is a point that needs further elaboration.
The poet proceeds by presenting before the listeners of the hymns, two
separate paradigms drawn up of things that are of appeal to them from which
they would be compelled to choose from, during the course of their life. In the
first paradigm are the things that are synonymic of the lure and lustre of the
material world. In the second, the poet enlists the things characteristic of god
43 Champakalakshmi, From Devotion and Dissent to Domination - - -, p. 139.
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or which proclaim the glory and majesty of the lord of Tiruvallavāl. The latter
is persuasively weighed against the former along a ‘false into true’ opposition
so as to privilege the latter. Descriptions and illustrations of values, things, and
experiences that comprise the first paradigm can be listed: (1) Values centring
around blood relationship as the basis of all relationships44 (2) Pleasures derived
from wayward amorous relations with women45 (3) The transitory pleasures
obtained from pretty young women46 (4) Lascivious pleasures from the gentle
and honey-tongued women47 (5) The pomp of such kings who reign with the four
military divisions such as the elephantry48 (6) Life that is locked in and stays
in flesh, nerves and skin, vested with the five senses and which is destined to
endure unending pain49 (7) The words of mortal human body that is the home
of all ailments50 (8) The body that is made of the five elements and that which
is easily susceptible to the craving for water, landed property and children51
(9) Teachings of the Sivites, Buddhists and Jains.52
The descriptions, expressions and attributes of the lord of Tiruvallavāl
that make up the second paradigm are as follows: (1) The cowherd prince who
reigns over Tiruvallavāl 53 (2) The one who wears the jaded golden crown and
who went as the mediator for the Pāņdavā-s54 (3) The lad who begged for land
and who rules over Tiruvallavāl from the king who wears the white 44 Tirumoli:VII, 1. 45 Ibid: 2. 46 Ibid: 3. 47 Ibid: 4. 48 Ibid: 5. 49 Ibid: 6. 50 Ibid: 7. 51 Ibid: 8. 52 The terms used are (i) Piņdiyāŗ (to mean Jains see Tamil Lexicon, Vol. V. p.2657), (ii) Pōtiyāŗ
(to mean Buddhist as used in Tēvāram Collection. See Tamil Lexicon Vol. V. p. 2965. Pōtiyāŗ in the poems are referred to as false teachers), (iii) Veļļiyāŗ(to mean Siva and Sukra. See Tamil Lexicon Vol. VI, p. 3796). It is to be noted that Tevāram makes not much of a distinction between the Buddhists and Jains and both are regarded as false teachers.
53 Tirumoli:VII, 1. 54 Ibid: 2.
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umbrella55 (4) The one who reigns over Tiruvallavāl the place of unending
prosperity far exceeding the glories of heaven56 (5) The little one who sucked
the life out of Pūtana’s poison-smeared breasts57 (6) The one who embraces
the four Vedas, the five fires and the eight organs58 (7) the one who is the sun
which emits fire, the moon which emits pleasant light, the one who dwells as
the blue-skied59 (8) The lord who reigns over Tiruvallavāl and the one before
whom the soft-breasted goddess Lakshmi and we bow every day (9) The one
before whom the wise men prostrate and the one who wheedled out amŗut
from the ocean.60 The last decad ensures the devotees of Vişņu that they can
get rid of their sins, gain kinship and reach at the proximity of the feet of the
god almighty, provided they sang the above hymns which hail the glories of
the lord.
Temple as Core of the Sacralised Geography
The hymns provided a new way of recognising truths of the present
world and the next. Commitment to bhakti through the devotional hymns
invested the composers, singers and listeners with new statuses and
responsibilities. The composers and singers became bearers and messengers of
‘truths’. The listeners on their part were to adore the hymns, their composers
and the singers and also to defend and perpetuate passionately the ‘the truths’
that the hymns contained. In other words these were ‘truths’ transmitted
through the vocal reiteration of the decads regarding the Tiruvallavāl Appan,
the universal godhead and that complete submission to him is the definite
guarantee for benefits both in the present and in the future. We are left to
55 Ibid: 3. 56 Ibid: 4. 57 Ibid: 5. 58 Ibid: 6. 59 Ibid: 7. 60 Ibid: 8.
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recognise this as the advance of a regime of power in which the Bhakti
regulates the Bhaktā for his/her well-being and guarantees eternal bliss. It
involves the realisation of a sacred geography with an ontological status where
the god reigns supreme and in which all else—to include people, property and
the various constituents of the geography. For those who were the devotees of
this cosmic god, the temple is inevitably the centring force/institution.
Of late Bhakti has come to be viewed as a new norm surfacing in the
Tamil heroic poems of Paripāţal and Tirumuŗukkaŗŗupaţai that started
producing the persuasive force which have reached its culmination in the ninth
and tenth centuries.61 The ritual, temple and their functionaries had already
become the subjects of the discourse of bhakti. The presence of earlier
devotional practices, which cannot be categorised as religious, and their
locations of worship were62 either wiped clean of existence or were fully
accommodated into a new pattern of Vaişņavite religious practice in
conformity with the ordering principles of the new discourse of Bhakti.
Accordingly, a distinction between the “self” and the “other” became
perceivable’. Here the Sivite, Buddhist and Jain devotees were made to
constitute the latter category and the Vaişņavite Brahmins became the ‘self’
in contrast to the above. A religio-social stratification takes place in this
instance, effecting a hierarchisation of power relations between them.
61 This has been dealt with in detail by Rajan Gurukkal. See his “Towards a new Discourse:
Discursive Processes in Early South India”, Tradition, Dissent and Ideology, Delhi, OUP, 1996, pp. 313-327.
62 Evidences of pre-Brahmanical temples may be hard to come by. But there are ever so many cases of cult centres with no shrine. Just an image or a totem served the purpose. There are several cases of the base of tree trunks being regarded as worshipping places in the region of Tiruvallavāļ. Among them the yakşi tara s were numerous. So were the rituals associated with these centres ranging from simple to complex to include, animal or even human sacrifices. For details see Chapter II entitled “The Locale”.
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We may now proceed to see the thematic realignments made by the
bhakti and what they mean for the region of Tiruvallavāl.63 Explanations and
interpretations of the various scholars have come a long way in elaborating the
implications of the references to Bhakti found in the devotional literature and
their impact on the temples in some of the kingdoms of South India.64 We
intend to make use of insights from the above for examining the literary
materials available for the situation, specific to the region of Tiruvallavāl.
One can find three ways in which the notion of god has been projected
in the two hymns referred to above—associating the lord with his residence or
abode, ascribing to him verbs denotative of human action, depicting him as
one with a certain form or appearance. The expressions that associate him
with his abode or residence are “urai”65 (in) and “nakarul”66 (residing in). The
verbs ascribed to him denotative of human action are “vāl” (rule) and
“nēdulāikinŗa”67 (reigning over). The words that associate him with his
attributes, form and appearance are ninŗapirān68 (gives appearance to),
naccaravinaimel nambiranatu69 (one who rests on snakes), nātaniňňālamuņda
nampiranŗannai70 (one who contained the earth in his mouth), pirān nīlantāviya71
(one who has measured out the land etc. The projections of the lord with his
features and appearances are kaņņņalāngaţţi tannaikkaniyainnamutantanai72 (one
who is as sweet as sugar candy), culalil māli cakkaŗapperumānatu73 (one who
63 These would partake of the conceptions of god, temple, the places around the temple and the new
notions and schemes to which they were made committed. 64 For details see Friedhelm Hardy, Op. cit, pp.122-130. 65 Tiruvaymoli, IX, 1. 66 Ibid: 2. 67 Ibid: 3, 8. 68 Ibid: 2. 69 Ibid: 4. 70 Ibid: 7. 71 Ibid: 8. 72 Ibid: 5. 73 Ibid: 9.
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wears the wheel as the weapon) etc. The binding made between the temple as
the sacred core of the region and the surrounding spatial continuum with the
people and property with all the constituents such as land, fields and rills,
flowers and crops, beetles and palms contained therein have already been
examined. The imaginations made possible in the depiction of god, temple and
the region may now be interrogated.
In the first place, the god is one who dwells with supreme distinction—
as the name of the place itself is made to declare—and Vallabha or Vallava is
the one who rules over the place. The descriptions provided in the two hymns
are those of the local setting of the particular temple and the adjoining place
taken together. But Vallabha or Vallava is at once conceived of as the
universal or transcendental god Vişņu. That is, the depiction is that of the
universal godhead in the particular. This is shown to be the pattern followed in
the entire corpus of Tamil devotional literature of the South.74 Tiruvallavāl
pictured in the hymn is much more than a casual place of residence of the lord
but the sacred space from where he demonstrates his presence in all pomp and
majesty.75 As for the lord, he is one invested with the otherworldly powers to
measure out the three worlds. As the lord, he is the owner of Tiruvallavāļ and
his control and authority over it is total. He is in possession of all royal powers
and prerogatives and displays them as well. He is synonymous with
Narayana76 and many more, which are flaunted all along the chain of antāti-s
in the hymn. These images attributed to the lord conform the purāņic
74 It is argued that localisation of the god rather than its universalisation applied as a rule to the
structure of the Tamil devotional literature from the 6th century to the 10th century. This is further argued as the point of difference between the religious/ literary movements of the South and North India. For discussion on the general representation on the notion of the local god as the derivative of the universal god. See Friedhelm Hardy, Op.cit, p.122. Also see Champakalakshmi, “From Devotion and Dissent to Domination” in Op. cit, p. 138.
75 Tiruvaymoli: 5. 76 10th Antati of the 9th Vaymoli makes the clear reference to Narayana.
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representation of Vişņu —the one who reclines on the serpent,77 the one who
is the dwarf vāmana,78 one who has measured out the three worlds with his
feet,79 the one who wears the wheel as the weapon,80 one who went as
messenger for the Pāņdavā-s,81 one with the colour of the ocean,82 one who
begged land from Mahabali,83 etc. Exclusive devotion to the universal god in
the locality has also been asked for and the teachings of the Veļiyāŗ (saivites),
Piņdiyāŗ (Jains) and Pōtiyāŗ (Buddhists)84 are desecrated by depicting the
latter as ‘illusory’ as against the former, which is affirmed to be the ‘real’.
It is quite clear that all the stanzas in Tirumangai Āļvāŗ’s hymn are
resolute in privileging the lord of Tiruvallavāl —given visibility as one of the
incarnations of Vişņu —by drawing the contrast between the experiences and
associations of the material world with the majesty and greatness of his
tutelary god. But the ninth stanza goes even further. It is not just the false
lustre of the pleasures of the poet that he calls upon to renounce, but even the
influential Aryan doctrines of the Buddhists and Jains. It is no surprise that the
Ālvāŗ poetry had been brutal in its denunciation of Buddhism and Jainism as
‘false’ or ‘hoax’ or ‘bogus’. These were incidentally religions that emerged
with the strong resolve to fight the ritualistic Brahmanical religion in the
Gangetic basin in the sixth century BC. It is also a significant factor that these
religions were better organized and had stronger doctrinal foundations than
most of the other religious sects and creeds in South India during the period of
the later Sangam works. This will naturally raise the question—how come that
77 Ibid: 4. 78 Ibid: 6. 79 Ibid: 8. 80 Ibid: 9. 81 Tirumoli: VII, 2. 82 Ibid: 4. 83 Ibid: 5. 84 Ibid: 9.
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the Saivites (velliyāŗ) came to be classed along with their traditional
enemies—Jains (Piņdiyār) and Buddhists (Potiyāŗ) and condemned on the
same persuasiveness? This has to be construed as a strategic manoeuvre to
make Tiruvallavāļ an unambiguous zone of Vaişņavite influence. If the Jains
and Buddhists were the serious impediments for the establishment of
Vaişņavite domination, then the role of the Saivites was virtually not different.
We may make an overview of the notions regarding the ‘cosmic’ as a
background for examining the nature of the relationship between the cosmic
god, temple and its adjoining places. This Brahmanic and Sanskritic concept
of transcendental absolute or cosmic god, who is an amalgam of Vişņu,
Narayana and Kŗişņa, is drawn from the wider referential field called the
Purāņā-s. This is to be construed as the strategy of inter-textuality employed
by the Bhaktās to integrate the local cult of Sŗī Vallabha to the purāņic
religion and to normalise the same. The act consists in the production of new
texts with the potential for altering the existent practices and conventions, but
all the time conforming to the limits set by the myths and iconographic forms
provided by the Purāņā-s and Āgamā-s.
What is brought to bear on this universal godhead in a local setting is
the establishment of an exclusive and absolute identity of the locality with all
its specificities and associations, as one incorporated within the conceptual
frame of the purāņic cosmology. What is meant is that the hymns seek to
reinterpret the generalised myth by incorporating the local idol into the
purāņic scheme. In so doing, not only the temple, but the region also gets
sacralised as the abode of the god.85
85 For an understanding of the multifarious dimensions of this sacralisation, one has to look at the
principal notions of the supreme/cosmic god from which the images used in the hymns has been drawn.
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As already mentioned, Vişņu is accorded a distinguished position in the
Hindu pantheon as the ruler of the cosmos, presiding over the creation,
protection/preservation (of the dharma) and destruction and is taken as a
composite deity born out of an amalgam of Vişņu, Narayana and Krishna.86
The earliest of the images of this god associate him with the sun and so also
with the one who strides across the universe. This has been stretched to mean
the god of the unbounded capacity of motion and pervasiveness, who could
traverse the triple spaces, and who possessed the capacity to trounce mortals.
Living beings are conceived of as having their existence and movements only
within his three strides or footsteps (tŗi-vikŗama). Residing in heaven—which
is beyond the limits of all human conception—he is understood as the one
acting as the pillar of the universe. He is also identified with sacrifice and is
regarded as imparting his all-pervading power to the sacrificer who imitates
his strides.87
The power and kingly majesty of Vişņu are expressed through the
purāņic representation of the god in the Vaikhanas āgamā forms, i.e. standing
and sitting forms. The standing Vishnu is attired in royal garments and holds
in his hands, the sankhu (conch), cakŗa (discus), gada (club), or padma
(lotus). On his chest is the curl of hair known as the sŗīvātsa mark, a sign of
his immortality, and around his neck he wears the auspicious jewel Kaustubha
and is shown as having as his mount, the bird Garuddha (eagle). A major
aspect of the Vaişņava cult is the concept of avatāra or incarnations which
engage in explaining the social role of Vishnu in intervention in earthly
matters after departing from his heavenly abode of Vaikuņţha and incarnating
in an earthly form to restore the good order in the wake of any danger 86 Champalakshmi, The Sovereignty of the Divine: The Vaisnava Pantheon and the Temporal
Power in South India” in Sreenivasamurthy, et.al, Essaya on Indian History and Culture - - -, p. 53. 87 These impressions of the sacrifices offered to Vişņu as laid down in Satapatha Brāhmana.
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threatening the dharma or universal law and order.88 The imageries found in
the poetry on Tiruvallavāl are the exact replays of the standardised notions of
Vişņu available in the Purāņā-s.
Having looked at the nature of the poetic depiction of the universal god,
we may examine the nature of the relationship between the cosmic god, the
temple and its adjoining places.89 Historians have been able find close
correspondence between the sovereignty of the divine and the temporal power
in the monarchies of the South during the early medieval period.90 The
necessary ideological foundations for the control of territory and people are
argued to have been drawn from the purāņic-cosmological worldview and
divine authority enshrined in the Tamil devotional literature.91 Presented as a
hero, master, chief, king and lord, Vishnu was regarded as taking control of
the temple and the region around. The argument has been stretched further to
content that the status accorded to the devotee of the lord is that of a subject,
servant or slave.92 Parallels have also been drawn between the depictions of
Vishnu in the Tamil devotional literature and the nature of political power
exercised in some of the new kingdoms like those of the Pallavas and the
Pandyas.93
88 The number of incarnations in the Vaişņava cult is 10 ranging from theriomorphic to fully
anthropomorphic manifestation. They are the Fish (Matsya), Tortoise (Kurma), Boar (Varāha), Man-Lion (Narasimha), Dwarf (Vāmana), Rāma-with-the-Axe (Paraśurāma), King Rama, Krişņa, Buddha, and the future incarnation, Kalkin. Thus Vişņu as the cosmic god has been attributed all-inclusive mastery and unquestioned authority over space and time.
89 The narrative scheme of the bhaktās as a rule is one which proceeds by conceiving the divyadesam under discussion, as a sacred space where the god reigns supreme. This may be sufficient to conceive of the cosmic god, as having absolute claims over any stretch of imaginable space and moments of time.
90 For a representative study see Champakalakshmi, The Sovereignty of the Divine: - - -. 91 Ibid, p. 56. Also Champakalakshmi, “From Devotion and Dissent to Domination” in Op. cit,
p.156. 92 This is the reading made in Friedhelm Hardy, Op. cit, p.132. This reading has been further
stretched to make find a landlord-vassal parallel in contemporary political practice. Also see Champakalakshmi, “From Devotion and Dissent to Domination” in Op. cit, p.155.
93 For detailed discussion on the parallel realms of the religion temporality, see Idem.
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It has been elaborated by Hardy that in the early bardic poetry,
indications can be found of a symbolism by which Vişņu in the temple is
treated like a chieftain or king. But in the context of a total collapse of the
power structures that existed in South India during the third century, Vişņu
was emancipated from any association with the chief or king and grew to be
the sole entity that commanded /educed the praise and submission of the
devotees.94 The dimensions added to this authority are the notions of
protection, extended by Vishnu to his devotees and the total surrender, loyalty
and service offered by the devotee to the god. This has been likened to a
feudal relationship.95 The argument is that the portrayal of the above
relationship is reflective of the rules that determined the political order. Hence
the overlord-vassal relationship in the domain of polity was the exact parallel
to the god-devotee relationship in the domain of divinity.96 Friedhelm Hardy
also finds the king-subject relationship in the domain of the secular space as
the exact parallel to the god-devotee relationship of the domain of religion. In
either case the logical link between the two is ‘service’.97 It follows from this
that the status of the former as the ‘master’, determined the nature of the
‘service’ that had to be rendered by the latter as the ‘servant’.
The emergence of the bhakti tradition focussing on the image and the
temple and asserting an assimilative quality of purāņic Hinduism has been
dealt with by Romila Thapar as well. She lays hold on the inevitability of an
ideological assimilation to knit together socially diverse groups, particularly
when the diversities are sharper. According to her the significance of the new
cults and sects may lie in part in the focus on loyalty to a deity parallel to the
94 Friedhelm Hardy, Op. cit, p.132. 95 Ibid. 96 Ibid. 97 Ibid.
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loyalty of peasants and others to an overlord.98 In the historiography of Kerala
also, the composition of the Tamil Devotional literature, has been dealt with
basically as a temple-based one which legitimised and strengthened the
emerging social formation where an essential loyalty to a deity parallel to the
loyalty of peasants and others to an overlord is envisaged.99 If the image
produced by the poets of this deity is that of the supreme lord or king, then his
abode—the temple—is an imperial mansion that commands the respect of the
devotees as servants.
The inferences found in the historiography listed above need to be re-
examined from a different vantage point. Given the pantheistic order prevalent
during that time, as evident from the composition of the idols, architecture etc,
it is doubtful whether literary references would lead us to inferences around
the overlord-vassal model. This imagination of Vishnu could be related to the
social order and social formation, but it need not be a materialised real. A
devotee is not merely a devotee of a particular god even if he/she has a
‘tutelary god’ or an işţadaivam; any one who enters into the womb of the
temple is at once a devotee of several other gods and idols within it or even
outside it.
Finding a mirror image of the relationship between devotee and god on
the vassal-lord relation seems to be a misnomer in our case. In the first place,
in the relationship between god and the devotee, what matters is bhakti and in
the latter case the considerations are things that are mundane/ evident or could
98 See Romila Thapar, Interpreting Early India, (1992), O U P, New Delhi, p.132. 99 M G S Narayanan, Perumals - - -, p. 202, M G S Narayanan and Kesavan Veluthat, “The Bhakti
Movement in South India” in S C Malik (ed.), Indian Movements: Some Aspects of Dissent Protest and Reform,(1978), Simla. passim Kesavan Veluthat, The Temple Base of the Bhakti Movement in South India” in K M Shrimali (ed), Essays in Indian Art, Religion and Society, 1987, Delhi, passim. Also his Political Structure of Early Medieval South India, pp.169, 240-241. Rajan Gurukkal, The Kerala Temple and the Early Medieval Agrarian Order, p. 67.
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be things that are immanent in material processes. Secondly, in the former, the
propelling forces are not only things of this world but of the other world as
well. This makes the conception of a god-devotee relationship as the exact
parallel to the lord vassal relationship expressively untenable. If one finds
such a parallel or mirroring, then it could be extended to any level of
relationship which men may enter into.
Another dimension that needs to be highlighted here is that birudu-s
that were foisted on rulers or sovereigns either by the devotees or vassals need
not reflect a single relationship. For instance a tenant may lay unfathomable
long birudu-s to his overlord, suggestive of the latter’s status of feudal
dominance. However this is not seen repeated at the lower levels similar to the
god-devotee relationship.
As for the region of Tiruvallavāl, what has been realised is the
foundational notion of a distinct sacred and spatial unity of ‘Tiruvallavāl’, by
virtue of it being the domain of Lord Vishnu. The temple has centrality in
Tiruvallavāl as far as the bhaktā-s are concerned. Anyone singing the hymns
or anyone listening to it could wake up to dis-cover that the various
constituents of the landscape—all such things that are perceivable to the
public—are things that belong to the cosmic god and that his power pervades
through them. It is to be remembered that the descriptions of the two poets on
Tiruvallavāl very well match the constituents of the geography of the region
and are characteristic of the eco-type where the rivers flowing down the
uplands suddenly slow down as they reaches there.
What one is made to imagine through Tamil Devotional literature is the
celebration and hailing of bhakti as a way of being with god in this world. The
perception of a sacred space necessitated a redefining of the social relations in
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the locality. In other words the temple by virtue of its status as the abode of
god comes to take up the pivotal place. Within the narrative scheme of bhakti,
the temple is made the core around which all forms of life and property are
made derivative and subordinate. Suffice it to say that this sort of a coupling
of the temple, god and geographic space were inconceivable before the
composition of the poems.
Normalisation of Bhakti
What has been made possible through the singing of the hymns of
bhakti is the adherence to a notion of the unity of the universal god, temple,
Bhaktās and landscape. As such this is a discursive reality. From the moment
of real-isation of the imagined reality, bhakti is recreated and perpetuated not
only by repeated invocation of the hymns as prescribed by the hymnists, but
through giving permanence to the rituals conducted on an everyday basis as
well as on occasional and periodic basis.
The anchorings already made by the Tamil devotional literature could
be summed up as the veneration of ritual worship, recognition of the temple as
the house of god and the authentication of the iconographic descriptions of the
purāņic deities. These may be close to the Āgamā and Tantrā,100 but clearer
indications of the same may be found in the later documents such as the
Tiruvalla Copperplates and the Stalapurāņā entitled Sŗī Vallabha Kşētŗa
Māhātmayam. The former lays bare the multifarious roles of the temple—
serving as the core of the region with its various institutions, rituals, workforce
and abundant resources and subordinating the various cults and doctrines
hostile to and alien to classical Vāişņavism.
100 See Champakalakshmi and Gopal (Eds.), Tradition, Dissent and Ideology, p.152.
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Eulogisation of Sri Vallabha
The composition of the Stalapurāņā may be considered as a significant
landmark in centring the temple among the devotees. The remaining part of
the chapter will be set apart for evaluating the text of the Stalapurāņā and also
for explaining the manner in which the text enters into cultural negotiations
with local social groups and still further for laying bare the ways in which
these negotiations led to the establishment of the Brahmanical social order,
and still further the establishment of the domination of the Vaişņavites.
It has been pointed out in an earlier chapter that the Purāņā-s emerged
at different periods with the explicit purpose of articulating devotion. Their
effectiveness in dealing with the anti- vedic, semi-vedic, and non- vedic
religious sects ever since the post-vedic period has been underscored earlier. It
is being reiterated that they have been vigorously contesting those sects which
were hostile to the two essential constituents of the Vedic-Brahmanical
religion, viz., recognition of the authority of the Vēdā-s and the supremacy of
the Brahmans. The role of the Purāņā s in this context is considered to be of
crucial importance as the Brahmanical response to counter the challenges
posed by the above sects must have become strong. Thapar’s view of the
Purāņic texts is that they were translated from oral Prakrit to literal Sanskrit
and that they attempted to provide an integrated worldview of the past and the
present, linking various events to the emergence of a deity or a sect.101
Obviously this textual tradition made the life-world of a corporate or a
community reducible to purāņic perceptions. This narrative structure and the
textual tradition continued for long in India.102 The assimilative character of
the purāņic culture as shown above is argued to be antithetical to the pattern
101 Romila Thapar., Interpreting Early India, p. 152. 102 For a view on the assimilative capacity of the Purāņic texts see Ibid, p. 160.
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of cultural expansion seen in Western Europe. As against the assimilative
attribute of the Purāņic culture, the latter flourished by pursuing a strategy of
‘exclusion’—homogenising and erasing little traditions.103
The genre called stalapurāņā-s or kşētŗa Māhātmyam-s which
mushroomed in South India in the post-twelfth century period conforms to the
same old textual tradition of the Purāņā-s and the strategy employed is that of
accommodation or assimilation. Friedhelm Hardy views stalapurāņā-s as a
genre that explained an individual temple complex and justified the same by
reference to (mythical) history from the point of view of a devotee.104 To him
this meant ‘the creation of a meaningful whole out of a set of elements which
appear to be accidental, arbitrary and disconnected by utilising the genre of
the pan-Indian Purāņā into a coherent and therefore meaningful structure of a
narrative about past events’.105 In the process it connects the local temple with
universal Vaişņavism and normative Hinduism.106 But this is not all. There is
a preoccupation with the caste oriented, Brahmin-dominated social structure in
the Stalapurāņā-s which the genre is keen to foreground. We find striking
parallels between Kunal Chakrabarti’s portrayal of the context of the Bengal
Purāņā s and the context of the stalapurāņā-s in South India. In the backdrop
of what Chakravarthi calls the “Purāņic Process”.107
103 See M Muralidharan., “Community Formation, Colonial Habitus and the Brahmanical Life
World”, Haritham, Kottayam, (1996), p. 30. Also see Kunal Chakrabarthi., Religious Process: The Purāņas and the Making of a Regional Tradition, p.53.
104 Fiedhelm Hardy, Op. Cit, p. 121. 105 Ibid. 106 Ibid, pp.148-149. 107 Kunal Chakrabarti, Op. cit, p. 32. It is argued that the Puarnas were composed with a view to
revitalise the brahmanical social order which was seriously undermined during the early centuries of the Christian era. The brahmanas attempted to meet this challenge by drawing people from the non-brahmanical fold into their sphere of influence. It is also maintained that this interaction between the brahmanical tradition and many local traditions was initiated, which resulted in the creation of a composite, syncretic socio-religious system delineated in the Purāņā s. But the level of assimilation achieved in these Purāņā s must have proved inadequate to suit the needs of a particular region, for when, from the post-Gupta period, large-scale brahmana migration started
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When it comes to the specific Stalapurāņā invoked here, yet another
process could be observed. We will demonstrate that there were strategies
which can be named as non-exclusivist. This strategy might have been more
performative within the broader condition of the existence of negotiational
possibilities for Vaişņvites to relate with other little traditions, Saivism,
Buddhism and Jainism.
For the present, the stalapurāņā or kşetŗa māhātmya as a document is
viewed in three ways, (1) as an articulation of bhakti or devotion, (2) as a
constitutive factor of human consciousness and an instrument of the social
production of meaning and (3) as material reality and a product of culture
reflective of specific historical events. In the process we highlight the new
strategies that are at work in the articulation and re-articulation of the features
attributes and functions of a given temple and the ‘temple-region’ through the
deployment of historical/quasi-historical materials as given in the
Stalapurāņā. Given the premise that ‘centralifugality’ is an effect of power as
well as a condition for its exercise, we feel that by tracing the trajectory of
centralisation and cenrtrifugalisation, we will be tracing the course of the
power relations as well.
Rather than providing a recorded memory of the inception of the
temple and the rituals therein, the claim of the Stalapurāņā is more towards a
constructed memory of the same. With mixes of fact and fiction, the kāvyā at
once incorporates the period of the Ceras with the material conforming to the
post-Cera period. This grand play of anachronism would go a long way in
explaining how the genre caters to the contemporary need for legitimising the
reaching areas peripheral to their influence, such as Bengal, a new category of regionally identifiable Purāņā s was composed, which offered a balance between Purāņic brahmanical tradition and the exclusively local traditions of a region.
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autonomy of the sankētam or the temple-settlement, for which the temple is
the centre.
The Sŗī Vallabha Kşētŗa Māhātmyam provides a myth concerning
Vişņu and the shrine in which he resides, philosophical dialogues, ritual
prescriptions to propitiate the deity and so on. As has already been indicated,
the kāvya may be regarded as belonging to the category of normative texts
with claims on historical tradition, but is not to be construed as a pack of
materials providing empirical information on events. What is taken here as the
premise is that any given age is dominated by a privileged form and genre
which was the best suited for expressing and conceiving the truths of that
particular period. The explanatory devices in the present case are viewed as
proceeding by sacralising the geography and bringing the region within the
gamut of the purāņic scheme of things, linking it up with themes and
personalities that are conducive to the said scheme.
Not less than five copies of the text have been obtained from the private
collections of different families in Tiruvallavāļ /Tiruvalla. The central theme
in this kāvya is the founding of the temple and the rituals instituted therein. It
is found that there is consistency in the main stem of the kāvya. But certain
variations have been noticed by scholars in places where individual elite
families are made to appear. It is presumed that most of the elite families in
Tiruvallavāļ had a copy of this kāvya, obviously with variations as mentioned
above. The situation is quite similar to our experience with the Brahmanic
Chronicle Keraļōlpatti which is a Brahmin version of the history of Kerala,
where individual Keraļōlpatti-s differ about the status of individual Brahmin
settlements.
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There is no mention whatsoever, of the author of the book or to the
period of its composition.108 The book is narrated in the form of questions and
answers between two imaginary characters Sutan and Souńakań and is divided
into four chapters of 62, 58, 89 and 35 slōkās each.109 The opening
benedictory stanza or vandana sļōka of the kāvya is in the Sragdharā meter
and the remaining 243 slōkās are in the anuşţupp meter.110 This laudatory
verse is phrased as a solemn assurance of protection to all by the god who
dwells in the temple of Tiruvallavāl.111
The first chapter of the kāvya starts with graphic descriptions of the
much-celebrated river Niļā (Ponnayi river/Bharatapuzha) which is located
several hundred kilometres away from Tiruvallavāļ and the places around,
such as Tirunāvāy and Tiruvillāmala located on the north and south of it.112
These were key locations of Brahman settlements. There is a sudden change
of location from the Nila valley to Tiruvallavāi (Tiruvalla) obviously marking
the former as the point of reference for the latter. In addition to introducing the
place of the founding of the temple, the first chapter relates the reader to the
devotion and goodwill of the Sankaramangalatamma, the childless Nambutiri
widow, who had been regularly observing fast on all dwādaśi days (eleventh
day of the moon)113 and gratifying the Brahmins by offering them one half of
the food set apart for Vişņu the next morning.
The second chapter portrays the compelling circumstances that made
Vişņu appear in the house of Sankaramangalatamma. The story goes that
108 P Unnikrishnan Nair, Sŗī Vallabha p- - -, p. 433. 109 Ibid. 110 T K Joseph in K S P, pp.87-90, also P Unnikrishnan Nair, Sŗī Vallabha - - --, p. 434. 111 For an abstract of the same see T K Joseph in K S P,pp.87-90 and P Unnikrishnan Nair, Sŗī
Vallabha Ksera Mahatmyam, pp. 432-440. 112 K S P, p. 87. 113 Explained as the 11th day of the moon. See K S P, p. 87.
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Brahmin inhabitants of the place had been fleeing Tiruvallavāļ in the fear of
the Asura of Toliya and that finally to the dismay of the lady, no one turned up
one day to receive the offerings. But god Vişņu himself appeared as a guest in
the guise of a Brahmin boy. He gave out his name as Vāsudevan. Despite the
strong warnings from his hostess, young Vāsudevan went to take a bath before
the meal in the River Vişaghna.114 On the way he encountered Tukalāsura.
The latter dived down into the river only to be followed by the former’s
invincible weapon, the Sudaŗsana cakŗa. Having slain the Asura, the Brahmin
boy made Brahma offer puşpāňjali (worship with flowers) to the Siva linga,
which had been set up by the Asura of Toliya and worshipped by him
regularly.
On his return to the house of Sankaramangalatamma, the lady served
the food before young Vasudeva which was offered to Vişņu that morning.
Immediately Rişi Duŗvāsa and four of his disciples appeared before the guest
who in turn divided up the food offered to him, without tasting it himself.
Soon Lakshmi also appeared before the five guests and she served amļam to
Vişņu.115 Overcome by the astounded scenes mentioned above, the hostess
made enquiries regarding the whereabouts of the young Brahmin boy.
Vāsudevan’s reply was “neither father, nor mother have I … nor do I belong
to any particular place. Everything is possible for me. What can I do for you?”
The revelation of the boy’s identity followed by the question evoked the
humble but persuasive plea from the Brahmin widow—“Be my son”. Young
Vāsudevan agreed to the plea, upon which the Brahmin widow fell on the
114 The reference is to the Manimala River. 115 Amlam is explained as the sour dish called Trippuli. It has been pointed out that Trippuli is part of
the regular dishes served in association with the Midday puja at the Sŗī Vallabha temple and is believed to have certain medicinal properties. See P Unnikrishnan Nair, Sŗī Vallabhamaha ksetra Caritram, p.270.
231
ground saying, Vāsudevatvamēvadya gatih.116 This implies the final settling
down of Vasudeva as the guardian deity of Tiruvallavāļ, which marks a new
era.
The third chapter goes back to narrate how Vişņu engaged his weapon,
the discus, to cut off the head of the Asura and got the weapon back in his
hands after the intended task. Duŗvāsa, another hero of the purāņic poetry,
requests Vasudevan to stay back in Tiruvallavāl itself, which was consented
to, as the latter felt that he was bound to stay there as he had already become
Sankaramangalam lady’s son. He added that there was already an image of
him—exactly as himself—made by Visvakaŗma for Satyāki and kept in the
depths of a river which had been well guarded by Garuddha, yet another
common character of Purāņās. Vasudevan instructed that the image be brought
by the Tuļu Brahmins and consecrated there for the sake of his devotees. The
young Brahmin boy then consecrated the Sudaŗśana cakŗa to face the Matham
of Sankaramangalam and disappeared. The poem then describes an allegory
which the consort of ‘King Kulasekhara’ had, in which she was asked to have
her husband consecrate the image of at ‘Cakŗapura’ after raising it from the
depths of the river. Accordingly Sŗī Vallabha was consecrated in the presence
of the fictional, omnipresent and immortal character Duŗvāsā and the mortal
human being ‘King Kulasekhara’.117 The Brahmin from Tuļu nāţu who carried
the image took the form of the eagle/Garudda and set itself upon the dhwajā
or mast. Vişņu occupies the place in the north-western portion of the
116 See T K Joseph,. K S P, p.88. To Joseph the expression is regarded as a double entendre. One
meaning is, Oh Vasudeva, Primeval Being, thou art my refuge. The other meaning is I now become Vasudeva himself.
117 This popular belief on the mediation of Durvasa seems to have crystallized. The canonization of this belief may be evidenced in a reference to the institution of the pujas by Durvasa in a temple Granthavari. Quoted by P Unnikrishnan Nair, Sŗī Vallabah Maha Ksetra Catithra, p.315.
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nālambalam or the vāyu kōņ. The positions accorded to the angadēvās are
given in the Kāvya as follows:118
1. Lakshmi Devi embodying prosperity resides in the temple called
“Vişatīram”119
2. Dakşhiņāmūŗti is consecrated at the South of the srī kōvil
3. Vişņu as Vaţakkumtēvaŗ is consecrated at the vāyu kōņ (north west)
4. Viswakşēna is consecrated at the Īsāna corner (north east).
5. Śāsta and Vighnēswara are consecrated outside the nālambalam on the
southern side
6. Bhūmi on the niryātikōņ (southwest).
7. Lakshmi on the Vāyu kōņ (northwest)
8. Varāhamūŗti inside the outer sanctum (in the second prākāram)
Having made all the permanent arrangements for the daily pūjās and the
yearly festivals, ‘King Kulasekhara’ and his consort are said to have left for
his capital city.
The fourth chapter lists the various offerings to be made for pleasing
the god and so too the ritual prescriptions associated with the temple. These
include prayers, construction of the temple walls and gōpurām-s, gifts of
plantains, garlands, decorative items and attire for the god such as red silk,
saffron clothing etc. The kāvyā considers the prayers, offerings and even the
very cry of submission and dedication as capable of ensuring the deliverance
of even the most evil of the mortals.
Having gone through the contents of the kāvyā, we may now attempt an
evaluation of the various ways in which the temple gained centrifugality. We
118 For an idea of the positions of the various deities see Diagrams 1 and 2. 119 None of the editors have been able to identify the location mentioned in the Kavya as Vişatīra.
See KSP, p.89. Also see P Unnikrishanan Nair, Sŗī Vallabha Kşetra Māhātmyam, p.438.
233
may also pursue the ways in which the prerogation of the Vaişņavite Brahmins
takes place in the process of narrating the Kāvyā.
In the earlier section it was shown that in the Āļvār poetry,
“Tiruvallavāl” combines the temple and the spatial continuum within the
range of power relationships of the former and denotes simultaneously, the
proper name of the temple and a given geographical space. This is carried out
further with still greater strength in the Kāvyā. However one finds that in
addition to the techniques in the sacralisation of geography, new streams of
techniques join in.
The kāvyā draws the picture of Tiruvallavāl and the region; the
portrayal of the region is not merely as a region reigned over by Vişņu and as
the place where he resides, but as the specific place where Vişņu came to
incarnate as Vāsudeva. In other words the temple in question is much more
than the abode of Vişņu as viewed in a general sense, but as a unique site
where Vişņu chose to incarnate at a specific moment. The universal form of
Vişņu thus takes a local and unique form which is not manifest in any other
place. The mutual relationship between this local manifestation of the
universal god and his devotees is therefore more intimate and not made
available easily to people from other localities.
The Sŗī Vallabha Kşētŗa Māhātmya enables or even necessitates the
devotees to proceed from the standard notion of an avatāra to move on to
arcāvatāra.120 We may turn to Friedhelm Hardy’s arguments on the
120 The theological/philosophical Vaişņavite of arcāvatāra is essentially the worship of Vishnu and
his various incarnations or avatārās. It is construed in the Veda as the god of far-extending motion and pervasiveness. Visnu is also understood as the god of the pillar of the universe and is identified with the sacrifice meant for conquest. The performer of a sacrifice is here regarded as imitating the three strides in his attempt to seek identity with the god and thus trying to conquer the universe. Satapatha Brāhmaņa views the ‘sacrifice’ as the attempt of any individual to accomplish three things—“the goal, the safe foundation and the highest light”. The extensive
234
Stalapurāņā s to examine how the Kāvyā had been used as a stronger and
more contemporary technique in the process of the sacralisation of geography
and the centralisation of the temple. It is argued by Hardy that it is in the same
explanatory mould of the Paňcarātŗā circles, that the concept of aŗcāvatāra
had been developed to explain Vishnu’s presence in the temples.121 This new
concept perceives Vişņu’s incarnation in the temple image or aŗcā. Thus each
temple image could be a full avatāra.122 The avatāra are distinguished from
the aŗcāvatāra in the sense that the former were distributed over different
periods in the past while the latter are spatially distributed at the same time
period.123 A further distinction made between the two is that many of the
incarnations in the former class are human beings, possessing a human body
and are capable of action which took place in the past while the aŗcāvatāra
cannot move or act physically and are dependent on the officiating priest.124
Despite the lack of “reality”, the life and actions of the arcāvatāra rested
entirely on poetic conceit and conventions.125 In the wake of the waning poetic
support, a new structure of meaning attempted to explain the significance of
the temple in mythical terms, overcoming thereby the difference in the two
types of avatārā-s.126 Further more, there had been a host of other questions
that sprouted in the minds of the devotees regarding the respective temples
which the earlier doctrines and religious attitudes failed to satisfy. Hardy finds
the Stalapurāņā-s as the newly emergent genre that comprehensively dealt
mythology that is attached to Vishnu is largely that of his avatārās and is incidentally fundamental to Vaişņavism whereby each incarnation of Vishnu in an earthly form serves to restore good order. The concept of the avatāra thus answered the theological and philosophical question of how the same being of Vişņu could be transcendent and at the same time present in his mythical manifestations. The idea is seen explained in Friedhelm Hardy, Op.cit, p. 126.
121 See Friedhelm Hardy, Op .cit, p. 126. 122 Ibid. 123 See Ibid. 124 Ibid. pp.142. 125 Ibid. 126 Ibid .p.143.
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with all the questions.127 Accordingly the Stalapurāņā-s conceive of Vişņu as
manifesting himself in the locality at some point in the past, displaying his
divine attributes, fulfilling the wishes of a particular devotee of the region and
deciding to reside permanently as the aŗca.128 The Sŗī Vallabha Kşētŗa
Māhātmyam is being taken here in the same format which finds “the
perpetuation of the real, acting Vishnu”129 in the temple of Tiruvallavāl. The
entire region thus gets recognised as the field of presence of god and as his
protectorate. For this sacred space, the temple is its core and the vantage point
from which statements about the locality could be made.
The Kāvyā describes the temple as having been consecrated at the
instance of King Kulasekhara’ and Rişi Duŗvāsā. While the initiative of the
‘King Kulasakhara’ in the entire affair is ample certification of the political
patronage extended to the temple, Duŗvāsā’s role authenticates its ritual
authority. It is contented that the name ‘King Kulasakhara’ evoked in the
kāvyā is not the proper name of the Cera ruler and that this could be the title
used by the rulers of Perumpadappu—the descendents of the Cera line of
rulers by matrilineal succession130. Yet another picturisation of Tiruvallavāl,
as found in the Kāvyā, is as a place where ‘the altruistic, prosperous, tolerant
Brahmin benefactors’ dwell.
The purāņic elements form a major category of inputs working for the
sanctification of the temple and the sacralisation of the geography. In addition
to Lord Vishnu, his mount or vehicle (the garuddha) and his consort Lakshmi
(the goddess of prosperity), a host of deities as angadēvatā-s are specified to
be venerated such as the Varāhamūŗti, Dakşiņāmūŗti, Viswaksēna, Śāstā and
127 Ibid. 128 Ibid. 129 See Ibid. 130 See K S p, p. 89. F.N 3.
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Gaņapati. Still further the Rişi Duŗvāsā and Satyāki make their place
conspicuous in the Stalapurāņā. The Rişi appears along with his disciples the
moment young Vasudevan reveals his identity. Once the old priest finds that
the dangerous Asurā had been done away with, he pleads with Vasudevan to
stay in Tiruvallavāļ itself and also asks “king Kulasekhara’s” wife to arrange
for the image of Vişņu to be set up in Cakŗapuram.131 Finally it is none other
than Duŗvāsā who supervises the entire range of arrangements for the
organisation of the temple-rituals.132
In addition to the centralisation of the Temple, we also find strategies at
work in the Stalapurāņā on three crucial themes, which call forth elaboration.
First, the Kāvyā proceeds by assigning a place of primacy to the family of
Sankaramangalam, downplaying if not erasing, all earlier memories about the
antecedents of the temple. Secondly, there is an outright prerogation of the
Tuļu Brahmins over various other types of Brahmins. Thirdly, there is seen the
accommodation of non-Vaişņava elements into the Purāņic scheme.
Giving primacy to the family of Sankaramangalam could be seen as a
game of recovery of its imagined past starting with its founding. Primacy is
given to it by referring to the devotion of the lady of Sankaramangalam, the
hospitality extended to lord Vişņu and the latter’s acceptance of the request to
stay in Tiruvallavāļ permanently and the enormous fortunes that had been
bequeathed to the temple in connection with its founding. It is at the instance
of the devout lady of Sankaramangalam that Vişņu had to appear as a Brahmin
boy, kill the Asura and make the place a haven for the Brahmins and their
rituals. Further, pantīraţi pūjā, which is incidentally the second pūjā in the
131 See K S P, p. 88. 132 Ibid.
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temple and performed on a daily basis, is called Sankaramangalam pūjā133.
This pūjā offered to sudaŗśanacakŗa, is considered the most important one.
According to the Kāvyā, Vasudevan, the incarnation of Vişņu—consecrated
his invincible weapon sudaŗśanacakŗa, facing the maţham of
Sankaramangalm before disappearing. Again, according to the Kāvyā,
Vasudevan consents to be the son of the rich, widowed Brahman lady of
Sankaramngalm. Thus by extension he is the sole rightful claimant to the
proverbial wealth of the former. The Kāvya builds a binding between the
family of Sankaramangalam and the temple of Sŗī Vallabha, making it
impossible for the two to be dealt with in mutual exclusion. The oft-quoted
local code of conduct called Sankaramangalam Kaccam134 and the numerous
references to the huge properties mentioned in the revenue records even of the
post-Marthanda Varma period vouch for the power wielded by the expression
‘Sankaramangalam’.135 According to tradition the lady of Sankaramangalam is
said to have entrusted the property bestowed to the temple in the hands of
three Brahmin families which are assumed to be the principal illams of
Mecheri, Ilaman and Vilakkili. Of these, the Vilakkilies were the most
prominent. It is significant that there are oral traditions which try to link
Vilakkili mangalam with the family of Sankaramangalam.
As important as the primacy of the family of Sankaramangalam in the
Stalapurāņā, is a dual and complex process of affirming brahmanical
superiority and more specifically, the prerogation of the Tuļu Brahmins and so
too the accommodation of non-Vaişņava elements into the Purāņic scheme in 133 See K S P., p.74. 134 This is the Kaccam that regulated the affairs of the temple and the management of its property in
the post –Cera period. 135 A cadjan leaf manuscript recovered from Kulikkattillam, Tiruvallavāļ and kept in the Oriental
Research Institute and Manuscript Library, Kerala University, Trivandrum No. 17822 furnishes details of the properties of the various temples and families in Tiruvallavāļ. The document refers to the property that had been handed over by the family of Sankaramangalam.
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the locality. The above functions carried out through the Stalapurāņā in the
case of Tiruvallavāl is comparable with what Chakravarthi calls the “Purāņic
process”, which he explains in relation to the region of Bengal. The Purāņā-s
marked the beginning of a new literary tradition with newer Purāņā-s
following in succession. The number of traditional Purāņās is put at eighteen
with the lesser and multiple Purāņā-s borrowing the format of the earlier
major Purāņā-s.136 These purāņic compositions were viewed as having
surfaced in areas where the Brahmins as a newly emigrant and favoured group
received the political patronage amidst a predominantly non–Brahmin
community. The distinction between the dominant and the subordinate
cultures continued, but had left some room for proximity and a certain degree
of absorption.137 It is further maintained that the rhetoric of the Great Tradition
and the systematisation of the substratum cultures are well reflected in the
Purāņā-s. But they made the literature acceptable to the audience for
mobilising social political action.138
We may now return to examine how Sŗī Vallabha Kşētŗa Māhātmayā
serves the function of a normative text performing the complex function of
affirming brahmanical superiority, prerogating the Tuļu Brahmins and
accommodating non-Vaişņava elements into the Purāņic scheme in the
locality. It is from the vantage point of the Tuļu Brahmins that the story of the
founding of the new temple is narrated. It is an affirmation of brahmanical
superiority through constituting difference enabling the making of value
judgements about the “Other” from the vantage point of the “Self”. The
authentication of the superiority of the “Self” is also made up in the act of
reiterating the qualities of the Brahmins. These are qualities that needed no 136 See Romila Thapar, Interpreting Early India, p.151. Also see Kunal Chakrabarti, Op. cit, p. 44. 137 Romila Thapar, Interpreting Early India, p.160. 138 Ibid.
239
certification regarding their desirability and superiority. Accordingly the
Brahmins are described as affluent, well versed in sŗuti and smŗiti, proficient
in śastŗā-s (in the arts of war) and śāstŗā-s (in various sciences), saintly,
liberal, even-tempered and generous. In the opening slōka-s, the Kāvyā
attributes these qualities to the Brahmins on the banks of the Niļā, but are soon
extended to the Brahmins of Tiruvallavāl by strategically classing them
together.139 It is the same function that is performed as the Kāvyā explicitly
gives out the caste identity of Vasudevan who is on the mission to do away
with Tukalasuran. He is not just any slayer or even a kşatŗiya prince or a
warrior hero but a Brahmin pupil observing the tenets befitting a distinguished
Brahmin lad.
A privileging of the Brahmins is discernible in several other instances
also. Say for instance, the Kāvyā abounds in phrases such as “Brahmaņa
Pŗīya” put into the mouth of lord Vishnu and ‘offer of half the portion of food
to the Brahmanas’ reserved for Vishnu by the lady of Sankaramangalam. The
consensus sought from the Brahmans on the issue of adopting Vasudevan as
the son of the lady of Sankaramangalam is a more conspicuous case of
clinching the supremacy of the Brahmins. Yet another image in this ensemble
is the gift of dhana, dhānya, vastŗa and bhūmi by the king “Kulasekhara” to
the Brahmins before leaving for home.
A closely related and significant function of the Kāvyā is the
idealisation of the brahmanical social order. This is being done by drawing a
clear distinction between the Brahmins and the rest, making them perceivable
as mutually exclusive entities in descriptions. The former is assigned ontic
priority in a variety of ways. Throughout the Kāvyā, the Brahmins as a class
139 These are the attributes of the Brahmanas as laid down in the first chapter of the Kavya.
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are conceived as unique and deservedly assured of safety and security in the
‘zone’ freed from the hands of Tukalasuran, by none other than Lord Vişņu
present in the temple as the Brahmin boy, Vasudevan. Still further it is the
brahmanical life world that the narrative ingenuity of the Kāvyā upholds. It
makes up the idea of Vasudevan as perpetually available in the locality, as per
the request of Rişi Duŗvāsā for the protection and perpetuation of the Brahmin
order.
Enunciative strategies apart, an important aspect, concomitant with the
composition of the Stalapurāņā, is the incorporation of the little narrative of
the region into the brahmanical mega-narrative. Apart from Vishnu, the Kāvyā
brings in a chain of Purāņic characters as major players in the Stalapurāņā,
such as Satyāki—the friend of Lord Krishna, Viswakarma—the maker of
images, Rişi Duŗvāsā—the revered priest etc. This would mean that the
Purāņic characters were widening the circle of their operation and in the
process incorporating new elements in it. This enfolding course has a
tremendous creative power function inherent in it.140 The above condition of
getting positioned in the mega narratives is never construed as an activity
presided over by human will but as the natural outcome of pre determined
sequences in human and godly ‘becoming’.141 It is hence possible to sum up
its multi-pronged functions as an instrument for the propagation of
brahmanical ideas, social reconstruction and sectarian interests and as a
medium for the absorption of local cults and associated practices and as a
140 This has been construed as and a standard phenomenon in the narratives in the pre modern period
in India. The way in which it operated in the narratives had been elaborated in Raju S, We and You in Devising India and South India, Lateral Studies.1, 2001, School of Social Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, pp. 18-22.
141 See Ibid, p. 21.
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vehicle for popular instruction on norms governing everyday existence.142 The
Stalapurāņā links up the scripture and the social codes of the smŗitīs and
proceeds by incorporating as many local elements as possible without
compromising on their principal objective of establishing the Brahmanical
social order.143
But even as the idealisation of the brahmanical-ritualistic social order is
effected, the Kāvya resorts to a further privileging of the Tuļu Brahmins. This
is done by bestowing on them the status of a ‘providential delegation’ to
search for the image of Sŗī Vallabha in the Netravati River, lifting it up after
and carrying it all the way to Tiruvallavāļ to be consecrated here. This also is
made to account for their right to traditional priesthood in the temple of
Tiruvallavāļ. Above all, the image of the garudda set up on the top of the flag
mast or dhwaja is made to represent the Tuļu Brahmins. As per the paňca
prākāra scheme of temple-building followed broadly in Kerala, the dhwaja is
located in the bāhya hāra or puŗattē balivaţţam with the chief deity facing
it.144 The dhwaja symbolises kuņdalini sakti and the vāhana at the top
represents the sahasŗāra cakŗa.145 The underlying idea is that the deity is
seated above the vāhanā and this is a reason, great enough, for it to be revered.
This brings us to yet another function of the Stalapurāņā, namely the
accommodation of non- Vaişņava elements into the Purāņic scheme.
The Kāvya is keen to draw dreadful pictures of the ‘Asura’ called
Toliya (Tukala) as a slayer of the Brahmins. The Tukalasuran mentioned
142 It is possible to equate the situation in the locality with how the Purāņā s functioned in Bengal.
See Kunal Chakrabarti, Op. cit, p. 53. 143 The range of developments as discerned in the case of Bengal as what has been called the
Purāņic Process apply to Kerala as well. Ibid, p.52. 144 For details on the scheme of temple construction and the place of the dhwaja K Jayasankar,
Temples of Kerala, Directorate of Temple Operations, Trivandrum, II, 1997. 145 Ibid, p. 98.
242
above seems to be a powerful Saivite chief who held sway over the adjacent
hill called Toliyamali. It is also likely that he controlled the traffic through a
major branch of the Manimala River flowing through the foot of the
Toliyamalai. The presence of a huge stock of megalithic monuments and
burial articles in the place indicate that it had been one of the earliest human
habitats, the beginnings of which can be traced to the pre-Brahmin era. This
will probably explain why there has been some stigma attached to this Siva
temple, about which references has already been made in the previous chapter.
This habitat seems to have been abandoned later and it remains a mystery that
Toliyamalai remained a dense jungle before it came to be called the
Cheranallur hamlet or the Bhaţţatiri grāma. The hamlet has been called so for
reason that all the three prominent tantŗi families of Tiruvallavāļ are put up
there. It is presumed that the tantŗi families came to occupy the region only
after the thirteenth century. While we are in receipt of information about the
paddy growing waterlogged regions in the TCP, information is scanty about
Toliyamalai and the resources there from. It is also significant that we have a
palm-leaf document of the 740 Kollam Era corresponding to 1565 AD giving
details of the income due from various residents of the Toliyamalai region to
the Tarayil Kulikkatuu Illam.146 The latter is one of the tantŗi families of the
Sŗī Vallabha Temple. This would suggest that not only the hilly slopes of
Toliyamali, but the plains below the hills came to be cultivated like the
waterlogged regions at least by the sixteenth century.
While hostility to the ‘Asura’ is made manifest in the Kāvyā, it is quick
to mark the difference when it comes to the approach to Siva. In other words
claims on the slaying of the Tukalasuran, the consecration of a new deity, the
146 See document no. 17982 kept in the Oriental Research Institute and Manuscript Library, Kerala
University, Tiruvananthapuram.
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institution of new rituals and the listing of a new range of sub deities do not
portend the complete obliteration of the earlier ones. Rather what we find is
the absorption of the non- Brahmanic elements into the Brahmanic pantheon
and their consequent relegation as lower notations of the pan-Brahmanic
order.147 That is, there is an exaltation of Vişņu among the pantheon. As per
the oral traditions, Tukalasuran, the ‘asura ruler’ of Toliyamalai148 was a
devotee of Siva but the slaying of Tukalasuran is not given to signal the
wiping out of the vestiges of Sivite influence, for the Stalapurāņā speaks of
Vasudevan consecrating the Siva linga worshipped by Tukalasuran. What is
found is the accommodation of Saivism within the Vaişņavite and
Brahmanical control. The listing of the angadēvatā-s would even carry us
further to contend that even non-purāņic deities have been taken in, to
constitute the new pantheon. This argument may be seen highlighted by
Padmanabha Menon when he says that the deities prior to the present ones in
the various temples were not the purāņic trio (tŗimūŗtī-s) or their
incarnations.149 The worship of deities such as Duŗgā and Śāstā are being
construed as part of the ‘Aryan’ strategy to influence Dravidians by positing
‘purāņic attributes’ on these cult forms, deities and observances of the earlier
period.’150
147 For a discussion on the assimilative character of the Brahmanic order see M Muralidharan.,
“Community Formation, Colonial Habitus and the Brahmanial Life World”, Haritam. 1996, Kottayam, pp.30-31.
148 The name Toliyamalai is found to have been used even in the palm leaf documents of c. 800 M E (1625 AD). See for instance document no. 17982 kept in the Oriental Research Institute and Manuscript Library, University of Kerala, Tiruvanathapuram. Toliyamalai located on the banks of the river Vishghna (Manimal) was for a long time called the Bhattatiri grama. This had the region where the Tantri families of Kulikkattu and Parampur and the Agnihotri family of Mulavana were put up.
149 K P Padmanabha Menon, KociRajya Caritram, 1996, Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Ltd., Kozhikode, 97-98.
150 See K P Padmanabha Menon, Koci Rajya Caritram, 1914, Mathrubhumi, Calicut, p. 98.
244
The narrative scheme has a preoccupation with king Kulasekhara right
from the point where it speaks of the search for the Vishnu image kept
protected in the depths of the Perumpula River. It is likely that the
Kulasekhara mentioned in the Kāvyā must be Sŗī Vira Raghava Chakravarti of
the Kottayam Plate. Historians have assigned different dates to the document,
ranging from the second century to the thirteenth century AD.151 Elamkulam’s
inferences based on a comparative study of the documents of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, that the document had been issued by the mūppu of
Perumpadappu—Vira Raghava Chakravarti—appears to be reasonable. It is
possible that the chief mentioned above could have been associated with some
major development in the trajectory of the Brahmin migration seeking new
settlements and the temple.
The crucial points of the main stem of the story linked to the proverbial
political authority of ‘king Kulasekhara’ may be listed as follows: (1) As a
sequel to the story of Vişņu’s killing of Tukalasuran, Garuddha gives
instructions through allegory to the ‘Vallabha’—the ‘queen’ of the Cera
ruler—to get her consort set up the image of Vişņu in Cakrapuram. (2) The
same night, the Tuļu Brahmins are given the instruction to take out the image
from the river Perumpula and take it to King Kulasekhara. (3) The moment the
image had been recovered, ‘the Kulasekhara’ arranged for the image to be
carried to Tiruvallavāl to be consecrated there. (4) The consecration of the
image was overseen by the ‘King Kualsekhara’ himself. (5) He made gifts to
the Tuļu Brahmins (6) He made provisions for the daily, monthly and yearly
pūjā-s of the god. (7) He made the rulers of his line, protectors of the temple. 151 For detailed discussion on the Vira Raghava Plates See K N Daniel., “Vira Kerala Chakravarti”,
in K S P, p.95. Also see Elamkulam P N Kunjan Pillai., Vira Raghavapattayam, (Mal.) in Elamkulam Kunjan Pillayute Tiranjetutta Kritikal, pp.747- 763. Also refer story of Garuda informing Vira Kerala in a dream of the Vishnu image being kept safe in the depths of Bhadrakkayam in the Perumpula river in the Tuļu country in K S P., p.71. fn.71.
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(8) The place came to be called Vallabha Grama after the name of the king’s
wife, Vallabha.
It has rightly been pointed out by T K Joseph that Kulasekhara is not
the proper name of a king152 and that only a couple of the Cera rulers are
known to have used ‘Kulasekhara’ for their coronation name or as a second
name, such as Sthanu Ravi and Rama Kulasekhara.153 But the rulers of Venad
are seen to have used the name later.154 The kind of relationship between the
Cera rulers and the temples/ religious institutions had been worked out with
the aid of the traditional chronicle, Kēraļōlppatti even though the statements
in the text are not being accepted at face value. It has been argued that the
Cera rulers have been different from their counterparts elsewhere in South
India in the sense that the kings had been subservient to the brahmanas and
that the nāţū-s enjoyed a considerable amount of autonomy.155 In several parts
of Kerala there were religious institutions obtaining the necessary sanction as
well as assistance for the construction of their respective places of worship
from the rulers. A case in point is the Pallippāţţu explaining the antecedents of
the founding of the church of Kallooppara.156 The above church is claimed to
152 T K Joseph, K S P, p. 88, note, 3. 153 M G S Narayanan, Perumals of Kerala, p.80. 154 See Ibid. 155 M G S Narayanan, “The State in the Era of the Ceraman Perumals of Kerala” in R
Champakalakshmi, Kesavan Veluthatt, et. al, State and Society in South India, (2002), Cosmobooks, Trissur, p.114 . Also see his Perumals of - - -, pp. 18-20. It has also been pointed out that the existence or prosperity of the traditional Brahmin settlements remained independent of the fortunes of the ruler in the capital city. This stands affirmed in the light of the fact that the Brahmin settlements continued to be strong and prosperous for several centuries after the decline of the Cera line of rulers. Hence the Perumāļ in the political context of the Cera period is being regarded as only a ritual sovereign to ensure legitimacy and unity among the various natus. It is further argued by M G S Narayanan that what prevailed was a bold and visible oligarchy thinly disguised as a monarchy.155 But within the purview of this ‘ritual sovereignty’ fell the veneration of the various temples, ensuring the protection of their assets and providing for their maintenance. This explains why the explanatory scheme of the Stalapurāņā had carved out space for the ruler.
156 For the text of the Pallippattu, see Alex Mathew (ed), Joseph Panickarute Kallooppara palli Caritram, (2004), C S S, Tiruvalla, p.56.
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have been founded while the territory was under the control of Elangalloor
Swarūpam. The latter incidentally, claimed the status of ‘Ceramar’.157
We may read these in the background of certain rights and
responsibilities of the raja of Kochi in connection with the affairs of the
western deity in the temple of Tiruvallavāļ until 941 (M E).158 Then it may be
possible to place the major event of dedication or the rededication of the
present image of the main deity or the rebuilding of the temple or the erection
of a particular monument within the temple complex, to the thirteenth century.
The story of the Vişņu image that concurs with Kulasekhara and the
Tuļu elements in the Stalapurāņā is that there was an image of Vişņu in the
temple and that the Pōŗŗī-s of the place had already made an image of Vişņu
for their new temple.159 But when the Satyaki’s new Vişņu image came, the
original one was sent to Malayinkil, and set up in a temple there.160 Details of
the above story have already been discussed in the previous chapter.
Ethnographic information as well as references in granthavari-s also point to
the consecration of a new image. Yet another view is that, earlier both the
chief deity and the shrine were small and that changes came about since the
consecration of a new image. It also seems likely that there had been some
kind of an exodus of the local Brahmins from Tiruvallavāļ and an influx of
Brahmins form the Tuļu region soon after. Probably the Brahmin community
migrating from Terovolas to Malayinkil might have taken the original image
along with them to be consecrated in the new shrine there. Yet another version
157 Ibid, pp. l-5. Also see Ibid, Introductory chapter, p.13 This is in keeping with the Keralolpathi
tradition which acknowledges the benefactor as the immediate head. Legitimacy for the benefactor is pitched in his claim of succession from the legendary ‘Cheraman Perumal’.
158 For details see K P Padmanabha Menon., Kocci Rajya Caritram, p.101. 159 See the version of Villivattaom Raghavan Nambiar on the tradition relating to setting up of the
new image in K S P., p.71. 160 K S P., p.71.
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is that the image taken away to Malayinkil was not that of Sŗī Vallabha, but
that of Tiruvambadi (Krishna)—one of the incarnations of Vişņu. The basis of
the latter identification is the distinct feature of the image holding in his four
hands, the Sankhu (conch), Cakŗa (Discus), gada (club) and Padmam (lotus
flower). It is significant that the image of Tiruvayambadi (Krishna), to which
mention is made in the TCP161 doesn’t figure in the list of deities in the
Stalapurāņā and is not present among the other deities in the temple at
present.
We consider the Stalapurāņā as an interface between myth and history
wherein it may be seen as an intermeshing of events and personages of the
historical past to generate picturesqueness and force to the narrative.
Protagonists and actions as dealt with in the narrative prompt the reader to
make complex semiotic identifications with hallowed persons and events.
These identifications made through the text mark a crucial phase wherein the
Tuļu elements assumed great importance in matters associated with the
management of the temple. The narrative normalises an integrated worldview
which consists in making Tiruvallavāl a transcendental reality that straddles
empty time in which this reality is given possession of a past, present and
future.
On the basis of the above elaboration of information from the TCP and
the narrative, we can state that the centrifugality of the temple processes was
dynamic and endemic, all along its trajectory, involving constant articulation
and re-articulation of its features, attributes and functions. Centrifugality is not
seen to poses an eternal and unchanging essence and had to be reworked to
cohere the shifting contexts and situations.
161 See TCP., l.412.
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