The corridors of history

Her thirst for knowledge and pride in her heritage has taken researcher Chithra Madhavan across some of the most magnificent places of worship down south. Hema Vijay talks to the enthusiastic historian about new discoveries in ancient structures.

At times, Chithra Madhavan does live in Chennai, in 2014. But more often than not, she finds herself transported into historical times, into the life and times of erstwhile Chola, Pandya, Chera and Vijayanagara emperors, who built some of the most magnificent temples the world has ever seen. These towering, sprawling and intricately-carved structures stand intact and functional, even today.

Believers or atheists we may be, but walking through an ancient temple does cast this spiritual charm on us. As we walk by the carved pillars and over the stone floors of ancient temples, we feel connected to those vishwakarmas (architects) and staapathis (sculptors) who must have stood in that very spot centuries before, creating structural marvels with a passion and vision that art inspires in every generation; of craftsmen who chiselled messages on temple walls, telling us of their lives in eras when kings were rulers and life had a different hue about it; on the passage of time; on transience and permanence.

It strikes us that they, the creators, have lived and gone, and so will we, but the temple will still be around. All of us do experience this time spin, but in Chithra, the fascination goes deeper, inspiring her to spend a lifetime unravelling intriguing facets of history from ancient temple architecture.

An independent researcher who was awarded two grants from the Central government for studying temple architecture, someone who has contributed to the World Encyclopedia of Hinduism, written seven books on temple architecture, and is widely appreciated for her TedX talks and heritage walks on temple architecture, Chithra decided that she would study ancient history even as an eighth grader. She went on to do her PhD in ancient history and archaeology from the University of Mysore, with her doctoral dissertation published as a book.

It was a family visit to the Srirangam and Belur-Halebid temples that sparked off this inspiration. “We now hear it said that children are not interested in history. How can they get inspired if history is limited to textbooks that reel off names and dates? If parents would take their children to ancient temples, and explain a little about its history and architecture...,” she points out.

From caves to complexes

Chithra loves every one of these gopurams, mandapams, praharams, vimanams, pillars and arches. Temples in South India began as caves, moved on to monolithic cave temples and later to the massive temple complexes of later times.

“There came to be a wonderful logic and grammar to it, with the iconography of idols fashioned according to the shilpa-shastra, the temple architecture executed according to the agama shastra, and yet, they created wonderfully divergent structures. Where in the world are there temples like these? The achievements of South Indian architecture is stupendous... picture the temples of Srirangam, Belur-Halebid, Madurai, Chidambaram,” muses Chithra.

Perhaps, nothing in world architecture comes close to the huge gopurams of South Indian temples either; nor the beautifully-carved vimanams (the superstructure above the main sanctum sanctora).

“It was an evolution that happened across centuries, from the 5th century onwards,” says Chithra adding, “South Indian temple sculpture takes your breath away. So generous were these sculptors and artisans with their artistic skills, they carved away on passages and pillars, not just on idols. Just think of the Hoysala temples of Karanataka. These were done on chloritic schist or soft stone that abounded in the region while the Tamil Nadu temples used granite,” she adds.

“These temples are also massive in scale. In temples like the Srirangam temple, a lay person wouldn’t know his way out, the scale is mindboggling, even for current times.” Apart from these, there are hundreds of lesser known temples across South India that probably hold a treasure trove of art and information.

The writing on the wall

And because one can’t study temple architecture in isolation, Chithra got drawn to studying inscriptions. “How else can we know the age when the temple was built, by whom and why and how?” In these inscriptions, she discovered an even more riveting world. She went on to do a thesis on Sanskrit inscriptions in the temples of Tamil Nadu. These inscriptions brought to her view amazing information on the cultural, social and political life of those eras.

“For instance, many of the temples in South India were also centres of education that taught the Vedas, Vedanta, logic and grammar, among other subjects. A case in point is the Thirumukkudal Temple in Tamil Nadu’s Chengelpet district. The 11th century Chola inscription in this Vishnu temple runs a length of several metres, and talks about a centre of education that existed in the temple then.

The inscription actually lists the subjects taught, the number of students and teachers in the centre then, the salary given to the teachers, the stipends given to some of the students. Whew...now you know why the subject is addictive,” she remarks. Incidentally, she discovered Sanskrit in Grantham script, Telugu, Kannada and even Oriya script in South Indian temples. Apparently, linguistic chauvinism was not something that existed then, probably because languages were not thrust down people’s throats.

Chithra’s fascination extends to free-standing copper plate inscriptions too. Sometimes these copper plates get accidentally discovered in fields while digging; sometimes, they come down the family as family heirlooms and reache researchers like her. “These inscriptions are basically sheets of copper held together by a ring, much like palm leaf manuscripts. They were favoured by the Pallava, Chola and Vijayanagara kings,” informs Chithra.

Something that irks her now is that temples across the country are being ‘modernised’ and ‘renovated’ unnecessarily. Across the country, we see temple authorities sticking glazed tiles on temple walls and floors, even on priceless inscriptions — all in the name of easier upkeep and renovation.

“How can they do this? Not only does it spoil the ambience of the temple’s original stone walls, we are losing precious historical communication that shed light on civil, military, administration, life, education, culture and religion of the people of those times,” she says.

So, how do we preserve temples then? “Don’t stick anything. These walls and floors have been around for centuries and will stay for many more, if we just keep our hands off them, and just take care of the leakages, cracks etc, if any. We have no right to silence centuries-old relics of history.” On the other hand, she is gratified that Indians are rediscovering a pride in their cultural heritage.

So, if a lay person wanted to understand temple architecture, where do we begin? “You could start by identifying the sculptures there. We take it for granted that we know those images, but sometimes we discover intriguing images...” Incidentally, when she is not walking down the alleys of history, Chithra can be spotted walking stray dogs and cats in her South Chennai neighbourhood. As on date, she hosts nine stray cats and two stray dogs in her home.