Lepakshi

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INSIDE STORY

Where tales resonate

Lepakshi has history written all over it — from the Ramayana to a merchant’s devotion to the lord

Photos: Lakshmi Sharath

Architectural wonder Lepakshi

“Le pakshi’, (get up ,bird ) said Lord Rama to the fallen Jatayu who lost its wing to Ravana’s sword,” says my guide , a bit dramatically “and that is why the village is called so. See this sculpture, there are more stories...” his voice trails off.

I am in this small village, Lepakshi, near Hindupur in Anantpur district, looking at some of the rare mural paintings from the Vijaynagar era that adorn this ancient Veerabhadra temple.

The largest monolith Nandi stands here as a testimony to the building skills of ancient artisans. The sun’s rays touch the large sculptures in the unfinished kalyanamantapam of the temple.

Gods as artistes

The Gods are depicted as artistes — Brahma is on the cymbal, Narada on the tampura, and Shiva in his Nataraja avatar amongst others.

Stories myths and local lore resonate from almost every wall here. For instance, the hill on which the temple is built is called Kurmasaila as it resembles a tortoise. The giant multi-hooded Nagalinga was said to have been constructed out of a single boulder really fast — even before the cook finished preparing food for the workers. But the praise of the sculptor’s mother caused an “evil eye” and a crack in the boulder — the sculpture looks like it is split in the middle. The unfinished kalayanamandapam was built where Shiva and Parvati were believed to have got married.

Or, look at the carved large feet on the ground perennially filled with water — they are believed to be Seetha’s feet. “They also say it is Goddess Durga’s feet,” says the guide and shrugs when I ask, “Who is they?” Instead, he shows me the carved thali-like plates on the ground. “The locals were fed here,” he says.

While the panels, the sculptures and the paintings narrate stories from the Puranas and the epics, the heart wrenching story of two red marks on the walls of the shrine tell a sad tale. Virupanna, a merchant and treasurer of the Vijaynagar emperor, Achutadevaraya, decided to build a temple here when he found a sculpture of Veerabhadra here. He used the money from the treasury for the same when the king was away. The temple was almost completed, except for the kalyanamandapam, when the king returned to find his treasury empty and the temple built without his permission.

He ordered that Virupanna be blinded, but the merchant decided to punish himself by banging against the wall near the Kalyanamandapa.

The two red marks are said to be the stains left behind when the merchant gouged out his eyes. The village is also said to be called Lepa-akshi, because of this — village of the blinded eye.

The melancholy is a bit addictive, but the beauty of the pillars takes you away from the tragedy. The silence is mesmerising and the solitude seductive.

Chennai Musuem II

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Stone lends itself to delicate work

PRADEEP CHAKRAVARTHY

The Government Museum has several stone sculptures which are of great importance, architecturally and historically.

(This is the second of a five-part series on the Government Museum, Chennai.)

The Indian tradition has always been known to reserve the best for the divine. References to ancient temples and palaces in works such as the Silappadikaram show that they were predominantly brick, wood and stucco structures elaborately painted and c arved. The Pallavas (600-850 A.D.) were not content with such transient buildings and chose a more permanent material for their construction – stone.

Found in abundance in most parts of Tamil Nadu except in the Thanjavur belt, granite and sandstone became the preferred mediums.

Cave temples were the first attempt and they morphed into free standing monolith temples such as those in Mahabalipuram. These in turn gave way to full scale stone structures. The trajectory of the bronzes applies here too. Chola (850-1350 A.D.) temples, except for Brihadeswara, Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Thribhuvanam, were modest but delicately crafted structures.

PHOTOS: S. Thanthoni

Poetry: Samples from the gallery — (from left) Vijayanagar crest, Bikshatanamurti-Mahishasuramardini and a section of the Amaravati stupa.

Nayak vintage

The Vijayanagar Nayaks (1350–1600 A.D.) made up in quantity what they lacked in quality. Nayak stone work is massive and gigantic.

Think of the tallest gopurams in Tamil Nadu that stand as gateways to large and complexly planned out temples, be they in Thiruvannamalai, Kanchipuram, Madurai or Srivilliputtur, they are all of Nayak vintage. Royal buildings continued to be built in perishable material and none have survived.

But the stone carving tradition continued though the figures lacked the realism of the Chola/Pallava/Pandya periods. Great attention was paid to the ornamentation but the features of the face were angular and stern in nature.

The gallery of stone artefacts at the Government Museum has many important pieces such as stone antiquities from the Amravati excavations of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. The early Buddhist sculptures date back to about 200 B.C. to 250 A.D., and that of the Jain and Hindu ones from about 600 A.D. to recent times.

The Amaravati findings

Among the stone sculptures, those from Amaravati are of importance. Amaravati was an important Buddhist settlement on the banks of the Krishna.

The buildings, particularly a ruined stupa, were documented by the British in 1801. From then on, most of the important stone sculptures and panels were removed from there and brought to the Madras Museum or taken to London. The collection in the museum numbers to around 300 pieces and it depicts the development and progressive finesse of Buddhist sculpture from 200B.C. to 250 A.D.

There are over 600 specimens of stone sculptures belonging to the period from about 600 A.D. to recent times in the section. Of these, about 50 are Jain, about 25 memorial or hero stones, about a dozen Buddhist figures and about 10 snake stones. The rest are of Hindu deities. Several artefacts also have inscriptions on them that make them invaluable from the historical point of view.

The collection includes a group of door lintels that date from the 13th century. They have fine bas reliefs of auspicious signs that include the ashtamangalas. The hero stones are also worthy of mention for their finesse.

The Museum is open from 9.30 a.m.-5 p.m. It is closed on Fridays and national

holidays. For more information, visit www.chennaimuseum.org/

Chennai Musuem II

Source

Stone lends itself to delicate work

PRADEEP CHAKRAVARTHY

The Government Museum has several stone sculptures which are of great importance, architecturally and historically.

(This is the second of a five-part series on the Government Museum, Chennai.)

The Indian tradition has always been known to reserve the best for the divine. References to ancient temples and palaces in works such as the Silappadikaram show that they were predominantly brick, wood and stucco structures elaborately painted and c arved. The Pallavas (600-850 A.D.) were not content with such transient buildings and chose a more permanent material for their construction – stone.

Found in abundance in most parts of Tamil Nadu except in the Thanjavur belt, granite and sandstone became the preferred mediums.

Cave temples were the first attempt and they morphed into free standing monolith temples such as those in Mahabalipuram. These in turn gave way to full scale stone structures. The trajectory of the bronzes applies here too. Chola (850-1350 A.D.) temples, except for Brihadeswara, Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Thribhuvanam, were modest but delicately crafted structures.

PHOTOS: S. Thanthoni

Poetry: Samples from the gallery — (from left) Vijayanagar crest, Bikshatanamurti-Mahishasuramardini and a section of the Amaravati stupa.

Nayak vintage

The Vijayanagar Nayaks (1350–1600 A.D.) made up in quantity what they lacked in quality. Nayak stone work is massive and gigantic.

Think of the tallest gopurams in Tamil Nadu that stand as gateways to large and complexly planned out temples, be they in Thiruvannamalai, Kanchipuram, Madurai or Srivilliputtur, they are all of Nayak vintage. Royal buildings continued to be built in perishable material and none have survived.

But the stone carving tradition continued though the figures lacked the realism of the Chola/Pallava/Pandya periods. Great attention was paid to the ornamentation but the features of the face were angular and stern in nature.

The gallery of stone artefacts at the Government Museum has many important pieces such as stone antiquities from the Amravati excavations of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. The early Buddhist sculptures date back to about 200 B.C. to 250 A.D., and that of the Jain and Hindu ones from about 600 A.D. to recent times.

The Amaravati findings

Among the stone sculptures, those from Amaravati are of importance. Amaravati was an important Buddhist settlement on the banks of the Krishna.

The buildings, particularly a ruined stupa, were documented by the British in 1801. From then on, most of the important stone sculptures and panels were removed from there and brought to the Madras Museum or taken to London. The collection in the museum numbers to around 300 pieces and it depicts the development and progressive finesse of Buddhist sculpture from 200B.C. to 250 A.D.

There are over 600 specimens of stone sculptures belonging to the period from about 600 A.D. to recent times in the section. Of these, about 50 are Jain, about 25 memorial or hero stones, about a dozen Buddhist figures and about 10 snake stones. The rest are of Hindu deities. Several artefacts also have inscriptions on them that make them invaluable from the historical point of view.

The collection includes a group of door lintels that date from the 13th century. They have fine bas reliefs of auspicious signs that include the ashtamangalas. The hero stones are also worthy of mention for their finesse.

The Museum is open from 9.30 a.m.-5 p.m. It is closed on Fridays and national

holidays. For more information, visit www.chennaimuseum.org/

Tholpavakoothu-- Shadow of the Original

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Shadow of the original

SUGANTHY KRISHNAMACHARI

Tholpavakoothu demands expertise in various fields, knowledge of three languages being one of them, says Ramachandra Pulavar..

Shadow puppetry: K.K. Ramachandra Pulavar flanked by his puppets Rama and Ravana . He chooses verses from Kambaramayanam, a rich source of material, which he has mastered.

“Let the interview be in Tamil. I can speak pure Tamil. After all the songs in our shadow puppet shows are mainly from the Kambaramayanam,” says K.K. Ramachandra Pulavar, whose mother tongue is Malayalam.

He does speak pure Tamil, but rather haltingly, and this slows down the tempo of the conversation, and Ramachandran is in a hurry to finish the interview, because he has a programme that evening. So after sometime, he switches to Malayalam.

Tholpavakoothu, the form of puppetry in which Ramachandran is trained, originated in the 9th century A.D. As in the case of many other folk arts, Tholpavakoothu too is a part of temple rituals. “Goddess Bhadrakali was busy fighting the demon Tarakasura, when Rama was fighting Ravana. So she could not see the Lanka war. Lord Siva advised her to visit temples where the battle would be re-enacted in puppet shows. Our puppet shows are, therefore, staged in Bhagavati temples. And since the whole thing is only a re-enactment, a shadow of the original, we have shadow puppetry. The curtain on which the shadows are projected faces the deity, so that she can watch the show,” says Ramachandran, explaining the ritual aspect of his art.

All Bhagavati temples have permanent stages for puppet shows. The stage is called the ‘Koothu Madam.’ It is 42 feet long, 12 feet wide and 8 feet high. The puppets are behind the curtain and oil lamps are used to light up the scene behind the curtain.

Deer skin

Rama

Originally, puppets were made of palm leaves, and later deer skin was used. There used to be six sangams or associations of puppeteers in Kerala — Mathur, Puthur, Kavalapara, Kuthanur, Palapuram and Payaloor.

They all had leather puppets. The sangams died a natural death. Fortunately, some 400-year-old puppets are still kept in the Kavalapara palace. Every year during the temple festival, the puppets are brought out and used in the shows. The puppets, however, are not taken to temples outside Kavalapara, informs Ramachandran.

Ramachandran makes his own puppets, which he uses to perform in 105 temples in Kerala. These days the puppets are made of goat or buffalo hide. Different types of chisels are used to cut out features of the puppets.

The puppet is moved by a stick fixed on it vertically. The puppets are in different postures. They are 180 cm high and 45 cm wide.

Ramachandra Pulavar is from the Koonathara Tholpava school, and trained under his father — K.L. Krishnan Kutty Pulavar. Pulavar is an honorific that is given to a puppeteer who is also a scholar. The puppeteer has to study Kamba Ramayanam.

Ramachandran, for example, chooses verses for each show, from among the 3,100 Kambaramayanam verses that he knows. He has also written some lyrics himself.

A puppeteer must be familiar with Sanskrit, well read in the Vedas, Agama Sastras, Puranas, ithihasas and Ayurveda, and trained in classical music too. Since classical music requires years of study, some puppeteers give it a miss.

Instruments such as chendai, madhalam, kuzhal, thattam, bombu, chellinga and ezhupara are used. In the course of the show, the audience might have some questions for the main puppeteer. “The questions could be on anything, from Ayurveda to current events. So one must be well read,” says Ramachandran.

Long duration

Ravana

Tholpavakoothu is staged continuously for 7, 14, 21, 41, or 71 days, depending upon the custom practised in the temple. Earlier, shows used to be of ten hours duration. Now they have been reduced to five. “We perform because it is the tradition to, but there is no audience,” Ramachandran observes sadly.

The irony is that there are lots of sponsors for the shows, because it is believed that Goddess Bhagavati will bless those who contribute to Tholpavakoothu. Villagers make their contributions, and their names will be read by the puppeteer, who will invoke the blessings of the Goddess for the donor.

“While villagers don’t come to the shows, there has been an excellent response in colleges,” says Ramachandran. To him goes the credit of introducing secular and contemporary themes, to make the art more appealing to the younger generation. He has performed one-hour shows to packed auditoriums in colleges, on themes such as ragging and Hindu-Muslim unity. Ramachandran has done shows based on the Panchatantra for school children.

Dakshinachitra gave Ramachnadran an award sometime ago. Ramachandran has translated the Bala Kandam (Kamba Ramayanam) into English. He has taken his show to Israel, Sweden, Russia and Greece.

Ramachandran’s wife makes leather puppets that are much sought after not only here but abroad. “In fact, my wife makes more money through the export of her puppets than I make through puppetry,” Ramachandra Pulavar laughs.

Shades of truth

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Shades of truth

Koodiyattom On Margi Madhu’s interpretation of Ravana’s love. Soudhamini

Photo: K.K. Mustafah

Margi Madhu.

Between August 16 and September 2, 2008, in the small sleepy village of Moozhikulam in Kerala, an epic unfolded. Margi Madhu performed ‘Ashokavanikankam’ for students of Hebrew University, Jerusalem. In accepting this commission, he and his small band of performers at Nepathya, including wife and co-performer, G. Indu, have been able to realise their dream of building a traditional Koothambalam full of light and air.

For the six students, two teachers – of Sanskrit and Malayalam – and for David Shulman, Head of the Department of Indology, this was a chance to experience the language they know intimately from books, as a living tongue capable of endless elaboration and interpretation.

As for me, I have been working with Madhu on a film based on the Ekalavya myth for the Prince Claus Fund in the Netherlands, and it was a thrilling experience to witness the range of this quiet, unassuming artiste.

Final overture

As I could only attend for a day, it was suggested I watch the performance on August 31, the 14th day and first evening of the ‘Udhayanapravesam,’ Ravana’s entry into the Ashoka grove to make his final overture to Sita. Every day until then, the performance had begun with the ‘Kesadipadam’ – the head to foot description of Sita. Today was the culmination. Set to Dhruva tala, Ravana, for the first time, pulling rank with all his royal accoutrements, enters the stage and glides forward over the next half hour or so with a barely perceptible movement, describing and savouring each exquisite feature of Sita’s.

Madhu, speaking of it the next morning, said that from about the third day onwards Ravana’s entire relation to Sita had changed in his mind. She was not just a pretty woman he was looking at erotically. She was now an integral part of Ravana. He felt it was because Ravana’s character was capable of such unconditional passion.

Has he portrayed any other hero in love, I asked. Yes, Arjuna in ‘Subhadra Dhananjayam.’ In the light of Ravana’s love, that is very superficial, quite male chauvinist. Even Rama never really expresses or explores the various dimensions of love the way Ravana does. The fact that Sita is never on stage, only represented by a flame, further heightens the abstraction.

A repeated refrain over the 15-day performance, as I saw from the Attaprakaram – the performance manual – was Ravana’s boast about his valour and his perplexity regarding Sita’s power over him. As his relationship with Sita changes, explained Madhu, it is not the fact that she is another man’s wife; it is not even her innate chastity, that binds Ravana.

It is because he has begun to acknowledge her individuality that he cannot reach out and touch her as a mere object of his desire. Through an inner conflict, which is honestly faced, Ravana overcomes his lust to reach true love – and it is this that stays his hand. Madhu’s own conflict lay in admitting that both the dictates of Koodiyattam grammar, regarding how a character is to be portrayed, and many of the original verses themselves, seriously limit this interpretation. Yet as a contemporary traditional artist this is his insight and he must express it.

Many thoughts pass through my mind. How it would be interesting to explore Sita’s state of mind during this same period? How our perception of others – men, women, rakshasas heroes – are all conditioned and politically implicated, even politically manipulated. And how as a thinking artiste Madhu was able to gently unhinge my set notions even about chauvinism and love.

Meanwhile life’s lessons seem very precious and need to be cherished and reflected upon, even as the actor looks deep into the undying flame and shares with us the eternal truths he sees reflected in it.

(The writer is a documentary filmmaker)