CONCLUSION

The Kampaharesvara or Tribhuvanaviresvara temple was

built towards the end of the long reign of Kulottunga III (1178-1218)

inasmuch as his inscriptions, including the two from the Pudukkottai

region, mention its construction at the end of the long list of

building operations (above p. 19). One of the Pudukkottai

inscriptions is dated to the thirty-fourth regnal year, and it is,

therefore, quite likely that the temple might have been

consecrated in circa A.D. 1212 or one or two years before this

date. It was a period when his earthly glory must have also

reached its heights.

There is a possibility that the outer prakara along with the

two gopuram came into existence at some later period. The mention of

the Kampaharesvara at the end of the epigraph may also suggest that

either the inscriptions on the gOpura8 were reengraved or their last

two lines have been incised in subsequent times.

The Sanskrit inscription' from the temple says clearly that

the consecration ceremony of siva and Parvati was performed by

Si5mAvara, who bore another name livara41va. As stated

earlier, (p. 19), he was an authority on the saiva-Darsana, and

eighteen vidyci8 and wrote Siddhanta-rainakara. It has been

surmised that Isvarasiva, is synonymous with Isanasiva, who was the

author of Siddhantasara But, as it will be shown presently, it is of

doubtful correlation.

Kulottunga III's period, from the point of view of

religious history, was full of significant developments. Various saiva

teachers from the north—it was certainly a two-way traffic — came

on pilgrimage. We have already stated about the visit of one

Omkaradeva Iravalar of Varanasi in 1214. In the epigraph, he has

been described as a disciple of Jnana-siva Iravalar of the santana

of Lakshadhyaya iravalar, of Varanasi's Kollamatha.' The name

Jnana-siva itself assumes significance, once we compare it with

names like isvara siva or Isana-iva. Perhaps names ending in Diva

or sambhu is a peculiarity of some Saiva sects, who had their spheres

of influence not only in the south but also in the north. If that be the

case, it is not proper to equate, without definite evidence, Isana-

siva with Isvara-siva. It is also apparent that members of the soot

was known not only by their real name but also by their assumed or

probably diksha-name. For example, Kulottunga III's guru was

known both as Somesvara and isvara-siva.

 According to the inscription from the Kampaharesvara

temple Somesvara was the son of srikantha Sambhu, who must have

flourished in the latter half of the twelfth century. We know of

one Srokantha who propounds a system of siva-Visishtadvaita, and

the only commentary Srikanta bhasya Appayya Dikshita's

sivarkamini dipika. His philosophy has many common points with

the Visishtadvaita of Ramanuja, who died in A.D. 1137 at

srirahgam. It is well-known that Ramanuja had to withdraw to

Karnataka in about A.D. 1098 and returned to srirangam only after

1122. None the le ss, it has to be admitted that s rikantha

sambhu, the father of Somesvara, was by no means a

contemporary of Ramanuia, though it is not known for certain if the

former and srikantha, the author of Brahmasuta-bhashyam, are one

and the same person. Yet another srikantha Siva Deika, a native of

Gaudesa (north Bengal) is mentioned by Agora sivacharya in his

Mahotsavavidhi. In all likelihood, each one is a distinct personality,

as the apparent dissimilarity in names may show. At the a me time.

it is clear from the Tribhuvanam inscription that the philosophy of

Somesvara bears close similarity with the siva Visihtadvaita

system of srikantha, the author of Brahma Brahmasutrabhasyam,

THE KAMPAHAB.ESVARA TEMPLE AT TRIBELUVANAM

Viviktam-atipanishadant viitvadhi - kaf tan& viboh Y ew s U ri

ilia aiva danktna dracii In his system, iva is the Supreme

Being, conterminous with the entire universe. He equates Prajdpati

with Paeupati; he identifies the " golden person within the Sun "

with iva, who is higher than Niirilyana. 1

rikap,tha, the exponent of the system of hiva -

Viiisitpdvaita, possibly belonged to Chidambararn, the mention

of which occurs several times in his Bhil8hya. An inscription

dated to 1041, of the time of RAjUndra Chtila I refers to the

eicluirya8 of the Lakshahriya-aantiina of the maiha of Patalijali-

devar situated in Mdlaichcht3ri of PerumbayNappuliytir

(Chidambaram); the inscription is from the Arugilohaloivara

temple at Kilaiyur. 2 Kul? ttuiiga III himself has been mentioned

(above, p. 19) in his inscriptions as a great devotee of the god of

Chidambaram. Evidently, Chidambaram continued to play a

significant role in the history of a i vi s m d u r in g t h e t i m e of t h e

la t er C h k la s . P er ha ps t h e p l a c e also attained renown as the

centre of giva-Visishtadvaita philosophy, and king

Kulottnhga III was possibly a protagonist of the new system.

Apart from the Siddhantins, there were several other

gaiva sects like Pampatas, I apalikas, Kii4gmukhas (also

called Mahavratins), 3 Mattamaytiras etc., in the Tami .1 country.

There are enough epigraphical evidence to show—some of the

examples have already been cited (above, p. 49)--that contact

between the north and south continued unabated.

TheMattamayf ira sect exercised great influence throughout

India, and also over the rulers of the Kalachtiri and KAkatiya

dynasties. Branches of t h i s sec t w er e f ou n d ed i n s ev er a l

p la c es of A n dh r a a n d T a m i l country. 2

But the religious history of the Ch5Aa country might not

have been one of uninterrupted peace and tranquility. An

inscription dated in the second regnal year of R iijarAja III

(11464173) embodies a reference to guhai.ifiikalaham a "

"3
revolt in which monasteries were demolished. The incident took

place in the twenty-second regnal year (A.D. 1200) of Kulottuhga III,

It is stated there that the property belonging to guhai in

Tiruttuyaipticali suffered considerable damage. Unfortunately it is not

possible to infer anything positive from the meagre reference

supplied by a solitary inscription. But we cannot rule out the

possiblity of the presence of various rival groups, be they gaivite or

Vaishtavite. It has also to be decided how far the philosophical

developments of the time influenced the temple-rituals. At least, in the

Tribhuvanam temple, we are unable to detect any change in rites and

rituals.

It is generally held that the Amman shrine or

Tirukkeimakoffam is " a new and significant addition introduced in

thi) time of Rajondra I. "1 Such a shrine was added later on in the

Great temples of Thanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram. So far as

the latter is concerned, the temple of goddess Brihanniiyaki appears

originally to be a iva temple enshrining the giva-lifiga, the image of

the goddess being a later installation. 2 The temple seems to

have been built on a square plan. Now the question arises if the

conversion of the giva temple into a Devi shrine took place in the

later years of Rrtiendra I. Frankly speaking, we have no evidence to

substantiate it. It is equally doubtful if the Devi shrine became an

indispensible adjunct to a temple-complex from the time of R.I.Ondra I

onwards. For, even in the Airavateivara temple at Darasuram, the

Devi, shrine did not come up as a part of the original layout.

Srinivasan writes abo

the shrine as follows : "This Devi shrine or

tirukkamakI5ttam as it called seems to be a slightly later

"3
addition, perhaps of the time Kuli5ttfiga HI. In the light of

all this evidence, the Amman shrine of the Kampaharefivara alone

may be taken as one of the earliest such shrines which came up as a

part and parcel of the original scheme and layout. As a corollary,

we may say that it was Kulottu ilga, III who introduced this

feature as an inalienable part of a temple -complex. That it

was non existent in the time of Riijadhirija II is evident from the

extant ruins of the AgastyeAvara temple at Atti, in North Arcot,

which is a fairly big complex without any subsidiary shrine. It will be

reasonable to conclude that the Amman shrine as a necessary

adjunct became popular from about th e last quar t er of the

tw elf th c entu r y. U ndoub t ed ly, as the use of rectangular plan

discloses, the Amman shrines were inspired by the temples

dedicated to Saptamiltrikas. It is noteworthy that

rectangular shrines -assumed considerable popularity in the west

coast, and this architectural trend might have been derived there from

the Maitraka and the Saindhava, traditions of Gujarat.

NEW ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENTS

 It is difficult to surmise if the absence of pradakohipd -

patha inside the sanctum in the temple-complexes at Darasuram

and Tribhuvanam is due to some change in the ritual. It is

present in the temples of ThInjavur and

Gangaikondacholapuram. Beautiful murals on the walls of the

pradakshioi.patha in the former proves that it was very . much in

use. An intermediary wall was also a necessity to distribute the

thrust and load of the superstructure. But in the temples of Airavatavara

and liampahareivara, the' ciroumambulatory path has been

completely dispensed with. It was not a structural necessity,

for the construction of a thicker wall must have cost more

material and money.. In the last two temples no attempt has

been made to raise the height of the eiditala by providing more

than one functional storey. Indeed, what one sees in the

Airavatavara and the liampahareivara is the amalgamation of

iintarabhitti and bahya-bhitti without a madhya-nci(ii. This is

prescribed in some of the Ripa-texts for smaller shrines' but

why this construction was followed in the two gigantic

temples is not known. One may detect in this innovation some

change in outlook—some change in ritual, for by this time the

provision of an inner ambulatory around the garbha-griha was

considered redundant. It is, however, an interesting development in

south India because in contemporary Kerala temples the number of

cironmambulatory path rose from one to four—two inside the

sanctum and two outside, including the outer pradakshittd-vari.9

The KampahariAvara temple shares several architectural

features which are common more in the succeeding rather than in

the preceding phases. For instance, the corbels here are in the form of

pushpa-p6tika, which replaces completely the bevelled and tenon

type of the ChOla tradition. It was the tenon projecting out of the

bevelled surface that was transformed into a small lotus bud. The

Great temple, either of Thanjavur or Gangaikondacholapuram, has

bevelled corbels with tenon projecting out of it. On th e oth er

hand, th e A ir a va. ta vara t em p le at D ara s i lra m s h ow s th e

emp loym en t of the taran ga or r olled c orb els with

proj ect in g t en on. i t is in the P a r v a t i . s h r i n e of th e

A i r a v a t g va r a , t e m p l e - c o m p l e x , b u i l t b y Riljaraja II (1146-

1173), that we come across the use of pushpa-pdtikCi. Corbels

here display " the gradual transition to the next stage of

their evolution' with the central tenon assuming a

campanulate floral form —t h e t p a la s t a r a ' a n d t p r i m u n a i '

t h e p r ec u r s or of t h e la t er e l a b or a t e
 pushpa-bodigais ' of t h e P a tA ya, V ij a yan a ga ra, N ii ya k

and m od er n times." That the pushpa -patikc i8 soon

r e p l a c e d t h e e a r l i e r t r e n d completely is evident from their

exclusive employment in the AgastyiAva,ra temp le a t A tt i, i n

C h eyya r Ta lu k, D is t ri ct N or th A r c ot. In w as b ui lt, as the

inscription on th e tripaya-kuntada show s, in the sec ond

regnal year (1175) of Mit - Whir - 10a T.I. It is a fairly big

complex without any subsidiary shrine, and its

superstructure, now complet ely lost, seems to have been built

of brick.

Based on the evidence of the AiriivatiAvara temple, the

appearance of the pueltra•pOtik4 - 8 may, therefore, be dated

towards the close of the t h i r d q u a r t er of t h e t w e lf t h

c en t u r y. T h e d a t e d o e s n o t d i f f er s u b s t a n t i a l l y f r o m t h e

on e p r op ou n d ed b y J ou v ea u - D u b r eu i l. H e d a t es t h i s t yp e

t o t h e t h i r t een t h c en t u r y a n d gr ou p s i t u nd er t h e P 5n c i ya

s t y l e . E v e n t u a l l y t h e l o t u s -b u d t a k e s t h e s h a p e o f

w h a t m a y b e termed as plantain-flower.

Almost similar development takes place in the ease of

pratteilas u s ed f or J et t i n g ou t t h e la va t i on w a t er . A t t h e
b e g i n n i n g i t w a s j u s t a c hann el led s t on e, w h ich was

pr ovid ed la t er on w it h s om e s ort of a l i p o r , i n s o m e

c a s o s , a m a r k e d c u r v a t u r e . T h e pravillas o f s o u t h Indian

temples did show a line of evolution but this aspect need

not d e t a i n u s h e r e . S u f i c ° i t h e r e t o s a y t h a t i n t h e

l a s t s t a g e o f development the lipped end, which has been

termed in various

.i(istras a q6mukha, ws r ep la ced b y a k t u s - bu d. N ei t h er t he

gamulcha n or th e makara or si?iiita-mukka w hich in la t er

ti m ed. h old s th e shaf t of th e anzbu-nuirga or w ater -chut e,

are ear l y f ea tur es of th e prawila. The ailitha-mukita m ot i f

i s a b s en t i n t h e Gr ea t t em p l es of T h a n j a vu r