South Asian Studies

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Bhīma and Purusamirukam in the Nayaka-period

Sculpture of Tamilnadu

Crispin Branfoot

To cite this article: Crispin Branfoot (2002) Bhīma and Purusamirukam in the
Nayaka-period Sculpture of Tamilnadu, South Asian Studies, 18:1, 77-81, DOI:
10.1080/02666030.2002.9628610

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2002.9628610

Published online: 11 Aug 2010.

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 Bhima and Purusamirukam in the
Nayaka-period Sculpture of Tamiinadu
CRISPIN BRANFOOT

As part of a wider study of architectural sculpture in
Nayaka-period Tamiinadu, a group of sculptures at a
number of temples in southern Tamiinadu have proved
difficult to identify. They depict a lion-legged figure
armed with a club, fighting another bearded, club-
wielding man. Though locally identified today as
depicting the fight between Bhima and Purusamirukam
in the Malmblmrata, I had been unable to confirm my
initial suspicion that this was a scene from a folk source,
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attached to composite columns or piers in the open
maiuiapas and corridors that are a distinctive feature of
Nayaka-period temples in Tamiinadu. In southern
Tamiinadu, these two figures are shown either on
composite columns that face each other, or in several
examples spreading around a single composite column.
The iconography is consistent with both figures waving
a club above their head, the difference being that
Purusamirukam has the lower torso of a lion, very like

a Tamil regional telling of the pan-Indian Malmblmrata. the ubiquitous yah. Purusamirukam is bearded, whilst
Anna Dallapiccola and Anila Verghese's identification of Bhima usually has only a moustache. The pair is found
similar sculptures of Bhima and Purusamrga (Tamil in six temples in southern Tamiinadu, the area with the
Purusamirukam) at the capital of the Vijayanagara
empire at Hampi lends support to this conviction (this
volume pp. 73-76).
The Nayaka period from the mid-16th to the early
18th century in the Tamil country was a very active
period of temple construction, far more so than in any
period since the decline of the Chola empire in the South
at the end of the 13th century. The 14th century marked
an important break between the period of Pallava,
Pandyan and Chola rule, and the subsequent
Vijayanagara rule over much of south India, in part
because of the disruption caused by a series of invasions,
and then direct rule, by Muslims from the north under
the Madura Sultanate. The break up of the Vijayanagara
empire from the mid-16th century onwards resulted in
the fragmentation of power among several smaller
kingdoms ruled by the Nayakas, after whom the period
c.1550 to c.1730 is named. Far from being an era of
stagnant late mediaeval culture at the tail end of the
Vijayanagara empire, whose cultural vitality is now
acknowledged, the Nayaka period is a dynamic cultural
period in its own right. This is despite the apparent
political and military weaknesses of the Nayaka rulers
themselves. The appearance of new figures and genres of
sculpture in the Nayaka period, such as representations
of Bhima and Purusamirukam, are evidence of wider
patterns of cultural change.
The four scenes depicting Bhima and Purusamrga
at Vijayanagara are small reliefs on the flat surfaces of a
column, vimana wall and mandapa plinth of temples,
dated by Dallapiccola and Verghese to the 15th century.
In Tamiinadu these two figures are depicted as major
architectural sculptures, 1.5-2 metre high figures I. Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple. Madurai: 1000-column mandapa.

77
 CRISPIN BRANFOOT

greatest number, scale and variety of subject matter of

architectural sculpture in the Nayaka-period. At three
of these temples Bhima and Purusamirukam appear
twice, at the other three only once. Therefore, nine
examples of this mythic pair in major architectural
sculpture in situ are presented here.
Two large architectural sculptures of Bhima and
Purusamirukam are found in the substantially Nayaka-
period Minaksf-Sundaresvara temple in Madurai. The
1000-column mandapa dated c.1572-95, in the northeast
corner of the 3rd prakara, has two rows of figural
composite column sculpture across the southern front,
with further figural, yaU and plain composite columns
lining the main central aisle, which leads northwards
u p a series of ascending levels to a low platform at
the rear of the mandapa.' At the middle of the west
side of this central aisle is a composite column with
Purusamirukam waving a club above his head, while on
the north side of the column is a smaller male figure
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waving a similar weapon (Fig. 1). The composite column

opposite is similarly of another man holding a club
above his head. Another pair of these figures is
placed in the Kilikkuttu Mandapa, the open
mandapa on the west side of the 'Golden Lily' tank
(Porramaraikkulam) in front of the entrance to the two
prakdras of the Minaksi shrine, that is dated c.1580-1610
(Fig. 2). They are placed directly opposite the entrance
and face towards each other across the main axis leading
directly from the Astasakti Mandapa in the outermost
2. Minaksi-Sundaresvara temple, Madurai: Kilikkuttu mandapa.
prakara wall, through the Citra Gopura, along the north
side of the tank and in to the main shrine. Bhima is joined
in this mandapa by large figures of the other four
Pandavas - Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva and Yudhisthira -
interspersed with ydlis, that frame the open rectangular
space before the 2nd prdkdra's entrance. On a smaller
scale is the high-relief scene of the pair alongside the
gateway of the inner north gopura of the Sundaresvara
temple's 2nd prakara, dated to the late 16th century (Fig.
3). High-relief figures up to 1.5 metres high on the wall
surfaces of vimdnas and gopuras, rather than detachable
images in niches, are a common feature in the Nayaka
period: some of the finest examples are the women on
the exterior of the Gopalakrsna temple built in the
Ranganatha temple complex at Srirangam in c.1674.
Further south within the Nellaiyappar temple
complex at Tirunelveli are two further examples, both
dated to the mid-17th century. 2 One pair is located in the
3. Minaksi-Sundareivara temple, Madurai: inner north gopura.
Subramanya shrine on the west side of the
Nellaiyappar's outermost 3rd prdkdra, on separate
composite columns, and the other around a single
composite column in the Cankili Mandapa, the north-
south mandapa that links the Nellaiyappar temple with
the adjoining goddess temple to the south, dedicated to
Kantimati Ambal. At the nearby Venkatacalapati temple
at Krishnapuram, firmly dated between 1563 and 1578,

78 South Asian Studies 18

 BHIMA AND PURUSAMIRUKAM IN THE NAYAKA-PERIOD SCULPTURE OF TAMILNADU
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4. Venkatacalapati temple, Krishnapuram.
there is a fine depiction of this myth."' It spreads around
a single composite column on the south side of the
corridor leading from the entrance to the inner of two
prakdras towards the main shrine, alongside other
composite column sculptures of Rati, Virabhadra and
yalis (Fig. 4). An additional figure, similar to that of
Bhlma, features on the inner, left side of the column,
identified by Natarajan and Kasinathan as Dharma. 4
In another cluster of three temples to the south of
Tirunelveli, on the way south to Kanyakumari, at the
southernmost tip of India, are a further four examples of
composite column sculptures of Purusarnirukam and
Bhlma. Two examples of the pair spread around a single
composite column in each of the open mandapas before
the entrance to both the Siva and adjacent Amman shrine
in the 17th-century Satyavagisvara temple at Kalakkad.
They appear on separate composite columns at the
entrance to the south-facing festival mandapa in the third
prakara of the largely 17th-century Vanamamalai
Perumaj temple at Nanguneri. Finally, they are placed in
the same location in the Nayaka-period, south-facing
festival mandapa in the second prakara of the Nampirayar
temple at Tirukkurunkudi, alongside many other figural
5. Nampiraya temple.Tirukkurunkudi.
composite column sculptures including Garuda,
Hanuman, Narasimha, royal portraits and a kuratti
(Fig. 5).
A further example is to be found in the only
museum collection of Nayaka-period composite column
sculpture, the Philadelphia Museum of Art's re-
assembled mandapa from Madurai. These columns were
purchased in Madurai in 1912 and entered the museum
in 1919. Though found in the Madana Gopalaswami
temple, they were probably originally from the Kutal
Alakar temple, dated c.1550, and placed directly in
front of the Kutal Alakar's goddess shrine dedicated
to Maturavalli tdydr? In his 1940 publication of this
mandapa, Norman Brown confused Purusarnirukam with
the similarly lion-legged Vyaghrapada, who with
Patanjali witnessed the dance of Nataraja at
Chidambaram. Though the right arm is broken and the
club unclear, the Philadelphia sculpture is clearly not of
Vyaghrapada, but of the very similar sculptures of
Purusarnirukam seen in the contemporary mandapas
mentioned above. Within the reconstructed mandapa is
also an image of Bhlma waving a club, though again the
right arm is damaged. That the lion-legged figure and
79
 CRISPIN BRANFOOT
the man waving a club are connected is clear from the
above examples, where the figures are placed around a
single composite column, or are placed opposite. This
suggests that the Philadelphia mandapa has been
incorrectly reconstructed, for it is more likely that the
composite columns with Purusamirukam and BhTma
would have been placed opposite, rather than
on the same side of the mandapa's aisle. Similar pairings
of figural sculptures in Nayaka-period corridors or
mandapas include Nataraja and Kali and the
aforementioned Vyaghrapada and Patanjali. Two
moments in the mythic narrative may also be shown in
pairs of figural composite column sculptures, such as
Narasimha grabbing Hiranyakasipu on one side, and
tearing his intestines out in the opposite composite
column. A good example of this is seen in the early
17th-century kalydna mandapa at Alagarkoyil. In
mandapas such as the 1000-column mandapa at Madurai,
the presence of a club-wielding man alongside the figure
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of Purusamirukam, and on the composite column
opposite, may then represent the same figure twice,
rather than two separate figures.
Priests and local informants in Tamilnadu today
were adamant that Purusamirukam and Bhima are
present in the Mahabharata. The absence of these figures
from the Sanskrit Mahabharata suggested a local Tamil
telling of this pan-Indian epic. A striking feature of
composite column sculptures in southern Tamilnadu is
the great numbers of figures locally identified as from
the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata is not new to 16th-
century Tamilnadu. References to the epic are made in
early Tamil texts of the 4th to 6th centuries, the Cankam
literature and the Cilappatikaram. In the mid-9th century
a Tamil version was composed by Peruntevanar, only a
portion of which survives. An inscription of 1210 from
Tiruvalankatu refers to an officer of Kulottunka III
translating "the Pdratam into sweet Tamil" producing a
Saiva version. The finest of all Tamil versions, the
Villiparatam, was composed by a Vaisnava brahmin,
Villiputturar (or Villiputtur Alvar) in c.1400.6 In a similar
manner to the Tamil tellings of the Ramayana, these texts
express a distinct regional, Tamil understanding of the
Mahabharata that incorporate folk themes. While the
Mahabharata itself may not be new to Nayaka-period
Tamilnadu, depicting the main figures from the epic in
major sculpture certainly is. It is difficult to identify some
of the figures, such as those currently identified as
Arjuna or Kama, for they are all shown as warriors,
usually with a sword or bow, with or without a beard or
moustache. Bhima, however, is clearly identified by the
distinctive use of a club, for which he is well known in
the Mahabharata.
Anna Dallapiccola and Anila Verghese's article in
this volume confirms that the myth of Bhima and
Purusamirukam comes from a regional, south Indian
80
telling of the epic Mahabharata. The four narrative reliefs
they have identified at Vijayanagara illustrate an episode
in the Kannada version of the Mahabharata,
Kumaravyasa's 15th-century Kannada Bhdrata. In the
Kannada myth, Bhima has invited Purusamirukam to
the royal consecration ceremony of Yudhisthira.
Purusamirukam agrees to attend but chases Bhima all
the way, threatening to kill him. Bhima narrowly
manages to elude his pursuer only by dropping three
hairs, that miraculously produce a thousand lihgas each.
Purus amirukam, as a great Saiva devotee, pauses to
worship each lihga. Bhima is caught, however, as he
reaches the threshold of the sacrificial hall, but is
declared safe by Krsna because his head was inside the
hall. In the Vijayanagara scenes, Bhima is running
away with his distinctive club, pursued by
Purusamirukam holding an arati and a bell before a lihga.
Whilst there are similarities between this Kannada
version and the Tamil sculptures outlined above, the
latter are clearly different, depicting not so much a chase
but a fight, with both participants waving clubs above
their heads. In modern Tamilnadu these figures are
known to be of Bhima and Purusamirukam, but the
related explanatory myth is less well known. Tamil
priests in Madurai suggested two meanings: first, that
Purusamirukam was sent by Visnu to disrupt a sacrifice
in the Ramayana (no mention was made of Bhima);
second, that Purusamirukam inhabited a forest within
which he terrorised the inhabitants, killing and eating
them. He was only able to do this within the confines
of the forest. Meeting Bhima in the forest,
Purusamirukam chased the club-wielding hero to the
edge of the forest where Bhima thought he would be
safe. Purusamirukam caught up with him when Bhima
had one foot outside forest and declared himself safe, but
Purusamirukam rejected this, the dispute being resolved
by Dharma. There is a similar pattern of motifs: the
circumscribed power of a deity challenged on the
threshold of a forest or building, like the demon
Hiranyasipu defeated by Narasimha, and the chase of
Bhima by Purusamirukam. A clearer understanding of
these Tamil sculptures may be gained through a closer
study of the whole composite column, as the small relief
figures on the sides occasionally relate to the main figure
attached to the front. This is not, however, the case in the
KiUkkuttu Mandapa example (Fig. 2).
In their scale and prominent location within these
southern Tamil temples, largely built in the Nayaka
period, this group of sculptures indicate the artistic
vitality of the period. They are also one element in the
exchange of architectural forms and sculptural subject
matter between the imperial centre of the Vijayanagara
empire in the Deccan and the peripheral territories of
Tamilnadu. In Nayaka-period Tamilnadu, some elements
of temple architecture and sculpture derive directly from
South Asian Studies 18
 BHIMA AND PURUSAMIRUKAM ΓΝ THE NAYAKA-PERIOD SCULPTURE OF TAMILNADU

the Deccan. O t h e r s , s u c h as the c o m p o s i t e c o l u m n , h a v e Thompson, M.S.H., 1960, "The Mahahharata in Tamil" in journal
a Tamil o r i g i n b u t w e r e t r a n s f o r m e d t h r o u g h their of the Royal Asiatic Society, pp. 115-123.
Umamahesvari, P.P., 1990, Nellaiyappar Koyil, Saiva Siddhanta
a d o p t i o n a n d d e v e l o p m e n t a t the Deccan capital at
Publications Ltd, Madras.
Vijayanagara before r e t u r n i n g to T a m i l n a d u . F u r t h e r
Zvelibil, Kamil, 1995, Lexicon of Tamil Literature, EJ. Brill, Leiden.
forms or subjects, such as the fight b e t w e e n B h i m a a n d
P u r u s a m i r u k a m , are p a r t of a b r o a d e r S o u t h I n d i a n
m y t h i c tradition given a distinct regional e m p h a s i s .

NOTES

1. Taylor (1835 volume II, p. 116); Devakunjari (1979, p. 243),

presents further evidence for the construction of this
mandapa in the reign of Krishna Virappa Nayaka.
2. For the dates of these structures, see Umamahesvari (1990,
p. 91).
3. Epigraphia Indica IX (1907-8, pp. 328-341) for five copper
plates in Sanskrit dated 1567/8 describing the construction
of the temple by Krishnappa Nayaka of Madurai (1564-72)
and the grant of villages and land to the temple by the
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Vijayanagara king Sadashivaraya. Two inscriptions (Madras

Reports on Epigraphy 16-17 of 1912) on either side of the
entrance to the main shrine of the temple are dated 1563/4
and 1577/8. There is no reason to suggest that this temple
was not built entirely between c.1563 and 1578. George
Michell's suggestion that the sculptures in this temple, and
similar ones at Tirukkurunkudi and Tenkasi, date to the
earlv 18th century places them one hundred and fifty vears
too late. Cf. Michell (1995, pp. 186-9) and Michell (2000, p.
184).
4. Natarajan and Kasinathan (1992), pp. 35-39.
5. Brown (1940) and Branfoot (2000).
6. On the Mahabharata in Tamil, see Hiltebeitel (1988, pp. 13-
150; Shulman (1985, pp. 13-14); Thompson (1960); Zvelibil
(1995, pp. 395-6).

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

Branfoot, Crispin, 2000, "Approaching the Temple in Nayaka-

period Madurai: The Kutal Alakar temple" in Artibus
Asiae LXno.2, pp. 197-221.
Brown, W. Norman, 1940, A Pillared Hall from a Temple at Madura,
India in the Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia,
University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
Devakunjari, D., 1979, Madurai through the ages: Yrom the. earliest
times to 1801 AD, Society for Archaeological, Historical
and Epigraphical Research, Madras.
Hiltebeitel, Alf, 1988, Tlie Cult ofDraupadi 1 - Mythologies: From
Gingee to Kuruksetra, University of Chicago Press,
Chicago and London.
Michell, George, 1995, Art and Architecture in Southern India:
Vijayanagara and the successor states, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge.
Michell, George, 2000, Hindu Art and Architecture, London:
Thames & Hudson.
Natarajan, Avvai and Natana Kasinathan, 1992, Art Panorama of
Tamils, State Department of Archaeology, Madras.
Shulman, David, 1985, The King and the Clown in South Indian
Myth and Poetry, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Taylor, William, 1835, Oriental Historical Manuscripts in tlie Tamil
Language, 2 volumes, Madras.