National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

TEMPLE TO SIVA ON THE SRIRANGAM ISLAND, NEAR TRICHINOPOLY.

The Temple to Siva on the Srirangam Island, near Trichinopoly, known as "Jambuishwar," is smaller than the Great Temple to Vishnu at the same place, but with the greater interest of earlier date, it surpasses it also in beauty and architectural dignity. There are many inscriptions on its walls, one dating A.D. 1481-82; but if as the late Dr. Burnell says, all the great temples to Siva in Southern India were built in the 11th century A.D., we may expect something earlier to be recorded among the inscriptions not yet read or yet to be discovered.

Mr. Lewis Moore, in his Manual of the Trichinopoly District, says the Jambuishwar Temple is not a rich one. It had in A.D. 175o an endowment of 64 villages, but in 1820 owned only 15. In 1851 an annual money allowance of Rs 9450 was given to the Pagoda in lieu of the lands, and this sum, sufficient to keep the buildings in good order, is paid every year to the trustees.

There are six courts to the temple; none but Hindus are admitted to the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. The walls of the first court are in disrepair and overgrown with vegetation. The principal entrance is on the west side by the Gopuram at D ; there is here a stone with an inscription. The northern gate at A is built up to the first storey only. The eastern tower at B is finished to a height of 1 o feet. The southern Gopuram at C is built up to the first floor. The first enclosure measures 2,42o feet by 1,490 feet. The so-called thousand-pillar Mandapam, with its tank, is in this court, and has to be traversed on entering from the west.

The second court measures 1,37o feet by 52o feet. It has only two entrances—the gate at K on the west, and the Gopuram to the east at E ; both are overgrown with vegetation.

The thousand-pillar Mandapam with its tank, called the Surya Tiratham, measures 525 feet long by 13o feet wide. The tank is said to be fed by a perpetual spring. The total number of columns in the hall is 707, and round the tank 132, making 8J9 in all. The Mandapam runs nearly due north and south, and has four sets of floors rising one above the other to the north. The columns at F and G are elaborate in design, the scrolls of

foliation carved in panels being specially effective. Column E is plainer and more primitive in outline.   (See
Plates 65 and 66).

Once a year the god is brought from the Great Vishnu Pagoda at Srirangam and placed in the porch of the Indar Tiratham. The visit is accompanied with great ceremony, and the priests assemble round the small tank.

The two columns B and C in the building (see Plate 65) were detailed by Hindu draftsmen, who alone were permitted to pass beyond the fourth enclosure. Column B resembles those in the Subramanya Temple at Chillambram. Column C is an edition of those at the Seven Pagodas, but the building from its position appears to have been added after the fourth enclosure walls were erected.

The Maisur Raja's Pavilion is a square building supported by 24 columns. The detail A (Plate 66) shows the elaborate design and sculpture of one with its scrolls and quaint figure devices. The Anjal Mandapam is a small pavilion at the south-west corner of the fourth court. The detail D of one of its columns (Plate 67) looks more modern in style than the rest of the temple architecture. The gate H leading into the third court has a handsome wooden door studded with iron knobs, which is also detailed in Plate 67.

The name " Jambuishwar" is derived from fambu (Xylia Dolabrzformis—the iron wood tree), and Isvara, a name of the god Siva, but the temple is also known as Tiravanaika, or sacred grove of the elephant, by which name the position of the building is indicated on a map of Trichinopoly, dating A.D. 1688, reproduced in M. Langlé's "Monuments Anciens et Modernes de l'Hindoustan."

The central sanctuary, called the Jambunath Swami, contains a stone lingarrl ; the building is of small size, irregular in outline, and with a flat roof. The goddess Lakshmi has a temple to herself in the north part of the fifth enclosure. Besides these, there are numerous pillared halls and choultries, a tank and a pavilion for the special use of the god and goddess, and a tank and Mandapam dedicated to Brahma.