Gangaikonda Chozha Puram

Gangaikonda Chozha Puram

This is about an archaeological-cum-World Heritage site, a temple, that I visited a couple of weeks ago. The name under which this site (and the village surrounding it) goes is Gangaikonda Chozha Puram, but it may have been called in the days it was built as MudiKonda Chozha Puram. Let this piece of trivia slide, after noting that Google sent me to Gangaikonda Chozha Puram when I asked for Mudikonda Chozha Puram!

What is notable at Gangaikonda Chozha Puram is that in spite of it being listed on the UN World Heritage Site, there are no descriptions on it, no mention of any unique feature, its age and other details.

In the Thanjavur Big Temple, another UN World Heritage site, some details, including the calendrical, are given at the entrance and at places where they are relevant: At the huge bullof stone ostensibly sitting (not standing, please note) guard for the Lord, it is noted that the large monolith bull was done only in the 18th century whereas the temple itself is 1000+ years old.

Look at the photograph of the bull at the Gangaikonda Chozha Puram. This is made of stone, as far as I can tell, and it looked just as large as the one at the Thanjavur Big Temple. The visitor is left befuddled, especially if she had visited the Thanjavur Big Temple and asked the questions: When was this carved out, if indeed it was? Why there are no inscriptions here, about the bull, what is it made of? Under whose edict did this bull come up? 

And, how is it this UN World Heritage Site is given the step-motherly treatment, not only because of the absence of any description, but also because what looks to be casual efforts at maintenance. True there is an office, and there might have been a fellow behind the counter (for what, I haven’t a clue). But, I do have to give credit for one thing: in the men’s restroom, the stench that is the nose-mark of government buildings was absent, though it is a public facility (no entrance fee).

This UN World Heritage Site is nestled in the village Gangaikonda Chozha Puram (which could translate into the Capital town of the king/emperor who won the war along River Ganga). The temple must have been patronized and must have been buzzing too in its heyday. But, now it is in a nondescript village, supporting utmost 100 families. I am going to criticize how the site is being maintained. This criticism I level is valid for any and every such heritage/archaeological site in India though I have visited but two of them. The lawns are manicured as you see in the picture. This, to my untrained eye, does enormous injustice to our ancestors.

When the temple was rendering service (?!) to the devotees (probably more to the priests officiating at the temple!), the open spaces would typically have been spread and somewhat evened with mud, partially covered by uncut stone slabs, and definitely not by manicured lawns. These lawns are the results of seeking the UN’s Heritage Site seal of approval, I confidently assert. A concession to the comforts of foreigners, NRIs among them. Almost the same goes for sites maintained by Archaeological Survey of India (a subsequent post), about the lawns.

You may ask how I would know what existed before I came on the scene. I spent five years of my life in Kanchipuram that has many temples, some belonging to the first millennium of the Common Era. In every one of these, what I have written in the previous paragraph held good; it might be different now, but only marginally. Now, I live in Srirangam, another town hosting a heritage temple, and there is at least one other temple of long heritage within two kilometres. The situation is exactly as I have described about Gangaikonda Chozha Puramsite, except that these are not sold as touristy places for westerners. Who cares how the Lord treats Indian tourists? Unfortunately, Gangaikonda Chozha Puram falls through the cracks in the pavement; oops, cracks in the manicured lawns! Being neither a top tier sacred temple nor a top tier tourist temple Gangaikonda Chozha Puram is only for Indian tourists.

Now, after having criticized Gangaikonda Chozha Puram quite rudely, my trip to the place was not totally in vain. I did appreciate the subtle features of the temple vimanam, the edifice towering above the sanctum sanctorum. You see the edges of the tower as curved but it is all linear. The visual effect is created by what mathematics calls piece-wise-linear configuration. An aesthete would call it understated, soft like a baby’s tush, sensual, smooth etc.

Take a look at the two pictures above. One can see the distinct curved profile of the tower. Yet, there is no curve. Indeed, the same effect is created in Eiffel Tower. There is no curve in the enclosure steel frame along the edges. If you are not aware, when Gustav Eiffel proposed it as a single column, the litterateurs of France and other cognoscenti likened it to giving someone the finger. Eiffel reworked his ideas. And, I am quite confident that he visited Gangaikonda Chozha Puram before reworking his design, and was inspired by the vimanam!

When we visited the temple−it had an impressively aligned long and wide aisle leading to the sanctum sanctorum−we felt that it could be better lit to bring in the festive mood−though faux−that the temple would have experienced in its days. Just a suggestion, to be kept to myself.

Though there was no ticket for entry, there indeed was a steep fee for parking the car! Maybe, the lessee for parking might part a significant portion of his revenue to the lessor, the UN World Heritage Monument.

Well, I am not begrudging that.

Raghuram Ekambaram