Tiruchy: Researchers stumble on rare panel

 

The RCHR director, Dr R. Kalikovan told DC that Sankaranarayanan of Madurai informed the centre of a fragment inscription engraved on the damaged wall of the said temple. Based on it, he and Dr M. Nalini, Associate Professor, Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, with the help of Dr. John Karuppaiya, leading orthopaedic surgeon from Leonard hospital, Vattalakkundu, undertook an explorative study at the village and found one more inscription from the temple’s basement and the rare sculptural panel, he said.

 

Dr. Kalikovan said that the panel depicts ‘capital punishment’ in which a male elephant tramples down an individual and a team of dancers celebrate the punishment. The individual, who is lying down stretching his hand, is crushed by the pachyderm’s legs, while its trunk winds around his neck. The dance team has two percussionists and a dancer, all males. The dancer showing ‘katakhamuka mudra’ in his left hand is holding an arched stick (chendu) in his right hand. His head is adorned with a fan like gear and has large studs and bangles. The drummers have long empty ears and a tied up headgear. The right one has armlets whereas the left one is provided with special attire with tussles spreading on the sides and in front, he added.

 

Though sculptures depicting elephant trampling down an individual were found by the scholars of the centre elsewhere also (in Meenakshi Sundaresvara temple, Madurai), presence of the celebrating team makes this find rare. This may be presumed as a thread of continuation of the ‘Sangam tradition’ wherein the musicians commemorate the victory of their king in the battlefield, Dr. Kalaikovan said.

 

According to Dr. M. Nalini, the fragment inscription noted on the wall mentions the gift of the mercantile group ‘Pathinenvishayam’ in the form of tax on their east-bound commodities to two temples namely Maduraiuthaya Isvaram and Kannudaip perumal temple towards worship and offerings.

 

“One kasu per bundle was paid to the Siva temple where as half kasu was paid to the Vishnu temple,” she said. The partially buried basement inscription is a royal order that reveals the tax-free gift of certain amount of land along with a pond to the above said temples, identifies the village as Keluntakam alias Desivilankupattanam that was included under Nerkuppainadu. 

 

Both the records and the sculpture may belong to 13th CE or 14th CE on palaeographical grounds and stylistic features. Dr. R. Kalaikkovan adds that a detailed study of the area and the excavation of the buried parts of the temple may provide more information on the medieval mercantile village Keluntakam.