Parthasarathy temple, Parthivapuram

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For temple in Chennai or Aranumla, see Parthasarathy Temple, Chennai and Aranmula Parthasarathy Temple.
Parthasarathy temple, Parthivapuram
Parthasarathi and Krishna Temples, Parthivapuram. Kanyakumari.jpg
Religion
AffiliationHinduism
DistrictKanyakumari
DeityVishnu
Location
LocationParthivapuram
StateTamil Nadu
CountryIndia
Parthasarathy temple, Parthivapuram is located in Tamil Nadu
Parthasarathy temple, Parthivapuram
Location in Tamil Nadu
Geographic coordinates8°16′31″N 77°10′14″E / 8.275331°N 77.170554°E / 8.275331; 77.170554Coordinates: 8°16′31″N 77°10′14″E / 8.275331°N 77.170554°E / 8.275331; 77.170554
Architecture
TypeDravidian architecture, Square plan, Tritala Vimana
CreatorKarunandadakkan (Ay dynasty)
Completed857 CE

Parthasarathy Temple, also spelled Parthasarathi Temple, is a 9th-century Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, India. Spread over 2.5 acres, the temple is notable for the extensive records about it that have been discovered in Huzur Plates of Kollam. The inscriptions on these plates describe how the temple was built along with a salai (boarding school) for 95 students to study the Vedas and other subjects in the Taittiriya, Talavakara and Bhavishya sakhas.[1][2][3]

The temple has a square plan from adhisthana to its sikhara for the main shrine as well as smaller shrines in the compound. The main temple illustrates a tritala vimana with a Garuda namaskara mandapa in front. Inside the main temple is a raised mukha-mandapa that connects to the garbhagriha (sanctum). Around the sanction is an open pradakshina-patha (circumambulation path), which is surrounded by walls and a raised platform with rooms. Outside is spacious courtyards and smaller shrines. The Vimana is in Chola style, while the temple layout reflects the early Kerala Hindu temple architecture.[4]

The temple is maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India, Thrissur circle. It is a protected monument.[4]

Location and Date[]

Parthasarathy Temple, Parthivapuram

The Parthasarathy temple is located in the village of Parthivapuram (Tamil Nadu), about 50 kilometers northwest of Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu and 50 kilometers southeast of Thiruvananthapuram – the capital of Kerala. It is along Highway 179, east of the Thamiraparani river.[4]

The temple is attributed to Ay dynasty Hindu king Karunandadakkan, and completed on the fifteenth day of his ninth regnal year. The inscriptions mark its consecration with an image of Vishnu on the Kali day 1449087, which corresponds to June 22 of 857 CE.[1][5] According to these inscriptions, the king did not take the land from the villagers by force, but purchased it over time from the village sabha of Minchirai and provided them an alternate plot in lieu. Thus the planning and preparations for the temple's construction is estimated to have started in mid 9th-century. At the time of the consecration, the king renamed the village around the temple as Parthivasekharapuram (now Parthivapuram), from an area that was previously known as Ulakkudivilai.[1]

Architecture[]

A view of the Parthasarathy Temple sanctum from the circumambulation path

The temple architecture illustrates the tritala-vimana of Hindu temple architecture. It has a square plan from adhishthana (platform) to its sikhara (top crown) with a metallic kalasha. The main temple opens to the west, while the smaller shrines outside in the compound facing the main temple open west, south and north.[5]

The main temple is a mix of bricks and stone. All its talas (levels of the tapering spire above the sanctum) are of bricks, and they include the architectural features such kutas, panjaras and salas found in Hindu temples of South India. The second tala above the sanctum include four deities: Brahma on the north side, Indra on east, Dakshinamurti (Shaiva) on the south as is typical in Hindu temples, and Narasimha (half lion - half man avatar of Vishnu) on west. The square plan architecture of the shikhara has a nasika at each cardinal direction.[5] The sanctum's platform is made of granite and is moulded. The temple walls is built of laterite blocks, but over time the application of lime somewhat hides it. The simha mala and the kapota is also made from granite, unusual for temples so far in southern peninsula. The walls are decorated with makara-torana ornaments.[5]

One of the six smaller shrines in the temple compound.

Beyond the square sanctum with Vishnu inside, the temple features a mukha-mandapa (main pavilion) allowing devotees to enter from three directions, a portico with a few steps, and a namaskara-mandapa with Garuda. According to Sircar, some of the elements in portico and mandapa are likely later additions in the 15th or 16th-century.[5] These restorations or additions have preserved the original temple's classical sandhara vimana architecture, relatively common in much of Kerala.[5]

The smaller shrines are also from the 9th-century, and they have statues in them.[5] These are similar to most Hindu temples where all three major traditions – Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shakti – are revered together. The smaller shrines are dedicated to Krishna, Shiva, Bhagavati (Shakti), Dakshinamurti, and Shasta.[5]

The temple compound stones and the base mouldings feature minor inscriptions, with one that mentions a "Vira Chola" – likely Virarajendra. These record a donation of silver image and of gifts to the temples by merchants and wealthy patrons.[6]

Significance: Vedic school[]

Two of five 9th-century inscription plates in Tamil and Sanskrit about the school of higher studies at Parthasarathi temple.

The Parthasarathy Temple at Parthivapuram is notable for the detailed description about the history, motivation, construction and scope of the temple in the copper plate inscriptions among the Huzur Plates of Kollam (s 42), also called the Palayam sasanam. These plates were piled in an almirah and ignored through the early 20th-century. T.A. Gopinath Rao found them, translated and understood their significance, then published them to scholarly audience.[1]

Only 5 of the copper plates have survived, and they are inscribed on both sides. The language and script is Tamil on 9 of the 10 faces, and it is Sanskrit in Grantha script on the last face.[1] The first plate mentions that the land was purchased or exchanged for in-kind land by the king over time for the temple and school from the farming community of Minchirai (now about 2 kilometers of the temple location). Then the temple and salai (boarding school) for 95 sattars (Skt: chatra, students) were built.[1] [2] According to Jayadevan, this aspect of temple and school construction as recorded by the Ay king is notable and suggests that the farming community in Travancore region of India had highly developed land rights in the 9th-century. The king respected those rights.[7]

The king announces a land grant for the college in the first plate.[1] The second and third plates state that the temple will maintain a sacred perpetual lamp, a garden with gardener, temple musicians, assigns temple servants to maintain the temple and school at state expense, and provides resources of annual seven day community festival in the month of Panguni ending in a chariot procession to bathe the Vishnu statue in nearby river.[1] The fourth plate calls upon the communities in the kingdom to protect and support the temple, the school and its students.[1]

The fourth and fifth plates provide the Vedic and related studies focus and constitution for the school:[1][2][8]

  • it will host 45 students for higher studies in Paviliya-Bahv-rc (Bhavisya) sakha studies[note 1]
  • it will host 36 students for higher studies in Taittiriya sakha studies[note 2]
  • it will host 14 students for higher studies in Talavakara sakha studies[note 3]
  • the hostel and school expenses will be paid in part from the taxes collected from the following villages: Omayanadu, Singulunadu, Mudalanadu, Padaippanadu and Valluvanad
  • it states that no visitor, no staff and no student will interfere in the daily operations of the temple and school
  • it lists the rules of conduct for temple and school servants and teachers
  • it lists the rules for selection and admission for students, and their behavior while at school; for example, it states that five senior students or teachers must test the candidate's ability to recite fluent Sanskrit and examples of Vedic passages;[12] the students should not possess or carry weapons inside the school; the students should not keep female companions or concubines inside the school; minor infractions by the student would lead to fines and loss of meals in the school[1]

The temple illustrates and follows the guidelines given in the Hindu text Karanagamma. It states that temples dedicated to worship of deities should serve many more social purposes, such as including and managing schools. These include the teaching elementary studies and alphabet, to higher studies for chatra such as the various Vedic philosophies. This was not the only temple with such a school, states T.A. Gopinath Rao – a Sanskrit scholar known for his many books on Hindu iconography and temples.[13] Rao states that inscriptions evidence points to similar schools in 9th-century Kanyakumari, called Srivallabhapperunjalai, another in the temple at Tiruvorriyur. In other parts of Tamil Nadu, the in Venketesaperumal (Vishnu) temple provides very detailed inscription about a Vishnu temple whose Jananatha mandapa operated and managed a Vedic school for 95 students, a 15-bed hospital and a hostel. These schools were supported by a combination of state financing, wealthy donors and the daily food and others donations of the Vishnu devotees.[13][14]

Preservation[]

The Parthasarathy temple, Parthivapuram is an ASI protected heritage monument and is managed by the Thrissur circle, Kerala.[4]

Gallery[]

  • A mandapa in the main temple

  • Brahma on the second tala of Vimana

Notes[]

  1. ^ This is one of the Rigveda sakha.[9]
  2. ^ This is one of the Yajurveda sakha.[10]
  3. ^ This is one of the Samaveda sakha, the Jaiminiyas.[11]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k T.A. Gopinatha Rao (1910), Travacore Archaeological Series, Volume 1, pp. 1-14
  2. ^ a b c SR Rajakrishnan and Ajit Kumar (2016), Heritage, Volume 4, University of Kerala, pp. 454-458
  3. ^ Hartmut Scharfe (2018). Education in Ancient India. BRILL Academic. pp. 175–176. ISBN 978-90-474-0147-6.
  4. ^ a b c d ASI Thrissur Circle, Tamil Nadu:Parthasarathi Temple, Parthivapuram, ASI, Government of India
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h H. Sarkar (1978), An Architectural Survey of Temples of Kerala, Archaeological Survey of India, Number 2, pages 135–138
  6. ^ T.A. Gopinatha Rao (1910), Travacore Archaeological Series, Volume 1, pp. 287–289, 295–296
  7. ^ Podmaja Jayadevan (1986), Land Rights of Ay Kingdom based on inscriptions, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, volume 47, pp. 188-189, JSTOR 44141540
  8. ^ Justin Wilson (1998), Education in Medieval Tamilnadu: An Epigraphical Peep into its nature, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Volume 59, pp. 1057-1064, JSTOR 44147081
  9. ^ Hartmut Scharfe (2018). Education in Ancient India. BRILL Academic. p. 175 footnote 62. ISBN 978-90-474-0147-6.
  10. ^ Hartmut Scharfe (2018). Education in Ancient India. BRILL Academic. p. 175 footnote 63. ISBN 978-90-474-0147-6.
  11. ^ Hartmut Scharfe (2018). Education in Ancient India. BRILL Academic. p. 175 footnote 64. ISBN 978-90-474-0147-6.
  12. ^ Hartmut Scharfe (2018). Education in Ancient India. BRILL Academic. p. 175. ISBN 978-90-474-0147-6.
  13. ^ a b T.A. Gopinatha Rao (1910), Travacore Archaeological Series, Volume 2, pp. 137–138
  14. ^ Veluthat Kesavan (1975). "The Cattas and Bhattas". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 36: 98-109. JSTOR 44138839.
Retrieved from ""