Fig. 1. Fresco of Murugan at the Arulmigu Murugan Temple, Thiruparankundram
©️Abhimanyu Sharma
This is a topic I have been planning to write on for a long time. Last year, I visited the city of Madurai with my father. Madurai is known as the city of temples. We went to the famous Meenākshi Amman Temple, which is dedicated to the Goddess Pārvatī, the wife of Shiva. Shiva belongs to the holy trinity of gods in Hinduism, the other two being Brahma and Vishnu.
We chose to visit Madurai because my father had wanted to visit Rameswaram (TN) for a long time and as we wanted to visit Tirumāla as well, Madurai was the perfect place to visit because it was well connected to both these cities: one needs only a few hours to drive from Madurai to Rameswaram and there are direct flights from Madurai to Tirupathi.
When we landed in Madurai, we did not head straight to the Meenānkshi Amman Temple because the best time for darshan at this temple is in the morning. One should wake up as early as 4 in the morning in order to avoid crowds and then head to the temple for queuing, and even at such an early hour, there is a long line of devotees who show up for worshipping Meenakshi Amman.
As it would make more sense to visit the Meenākshi Amman Temple at dawn next day, we decided to do a tour of the city on the day we landed. We hired an auto-rickshaw and visited many places in the city, including temples. I was very impressed with grandeur of these temples, but what struck out most for me were the beautiful frescoes of these temples.
I have been interested in frescoes ever since I studied Medieval German literature. Representation of gods or even kings in these frescoes are one of the main themes covered in the MA programme I did in Bremen. I remember writing a brief paper on Iwein frescoes of the Rodenegg Castle, focusing on the interrelationship of text and image, and whenever I visit any churches since attending that course, I take a close look at their frescoes.
The temples in Madurai stood out because I had never seen such ornate frescoes in Hindu Temples before. In the first picture, which was taken at the Arulmigu Murugan Temple, located in Thiruparankundram, you see a depiction of Murugan, the patron deity of Tamil Nadu (Fig. 1). Murugan, known as Kartikeya in North India, is mounted on his vehicle peacock and holding a vel (spear) in his hand. Kartikeya is one of the two sons of Shiva, the other being Ganesha, who is represented in the picture below (Fig. 2 & 3).
Fig. 2. Fresco of Ganesha, the view from below
©️Abhimanyu Sharma
Fig. 3. A close up of the Fresco of Ganesha
©️Abhimanyu Sharma
Between the frescos of Kartikeya and Ganesha, you see a fresco of two interlocking triangles within a circle (Fig. 4). The interlocking triangles, also known as Shatkona (षट्कोण, lit. 'six angles'), represents the meeting of purusha (Sanskrit for 'spirit', 'person', 'self' or 'consciousness') and prakriti ('nature' or 'source'). In Samkhya and also in Yoga, purusha (male) is opposed to prakriti (female), the basic matter constituting the phenomenal universe, as the two ontological realities (Britannica 2018). All animate and inanimate objects and all psychomental experiences are emanations of prakriti (ibid.). It is confusion of purusha with prakriti that keeps the spirit in bondage; disassociation of purusha from prakriti is its liberation (Britannica 2018). In Shatkona, Purusha (Shiva's transcendental being) is said to be represented by the upper triangle of the Shatkona, whereas prakriti (Shakti or Shiva's manifest energy) is represented by the lower one (Subramuniyaswami 2004).
Fig. 4. Fresco of Shatkona
©️Abhimanyu Sharma
Fig. 5. One of the corridors of Arulmigu Murugan Temple, Thiruparankundram
©️Abhimanyu Sharma
When I looked at these frescoes, I wondered why are the temples in South India so different from the temples in North India, where I hardly ever saw any frescoes. In Europe, the churches are full of such frescoes that depict different stories from the Bible; perhaps the reason for frescoes in these churches is that, in the middle ages, the masses were largely uneducated and could not read the Bible. Hence, these frescoes acted a medium of learning about the life of Jesus. Were the temples in the South also driven by such a pedagogical motive? Let me know what you think.
References:
Subramuniyaswami, S.S. (2004). Dancing with Siva. Himalaya Academy.
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