Srirangam
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Srirangam
Town in Trichinopoly District, Madras, situated in 10° 52' N. and 78° 42' E., 2 miles north of Trichinopoly city, and almost in the centre of the island formed by the bifurcation of the Cauvery into the two branches known as the Cauvery and the Coleroon. At the western (upper) end of the island is the Upper Anicut, and at the east- ern end the Grand Anicut, described in the article on the Cauvery. The island is about 19 miles in length, and in its widest part about i| miles broad, the soil being alluvial and very fertile. It is, however, subject to inundations from the Cauvery and Coleroon, especially at its lower (eastern) end. The trunk road to Madras runs northwards from Trichinopoly across the island, connecting the land on either side by fine bridges. The island {see Trichinopoly District) played a con- siderable part in the wars of the eighteenth century.
Srirangam was made a municipality in 187 1, and comprises several villages, of which Srirangam and Jambukeswaram are the most im- portant. The population, which has doubled in the last thirty years, is (1901) 23,039, of whom as many as 22,834 are Hindus, Musalmans numbering only 42, and Christians 163. The income and expenditure of the municipality during the ten years ending 1902-3 averaged about Rs. 28,000. In 1903-4 the income was Rs. 33,800, mostly derived from the taxes on land and houses ; and the expenditure was Rs. 35,100. The municipality maintains a hospital, which accommodates 24 in-patients and has a maternity ward with four beds. The buildings now in use were repaired and terraced by Raja Sir Savalai Ramaswami Mudaliyar in 1886 at a cost of Rs. 10,000, the former buildings having been damaged by fire in 1884. Preliminary surveys for a drainage scheme for the place are in progress.
The town is chiefly famous for its great temple dedicated to Vishnu. The temple and the town are indeed almost conterminous, the greater portion of the houses having been erected inside the walls of the former.
The temple is the largest in Southern India, and consists of seven enclosures one within the other, the outermost wall of the seventh measuring 1,024 yards by 840. In the centre of the innermost enclosure is the shrine of Ranganathaswami, who is represented as reclining on the folds of the serpent Adisesha and screened by his hood. The dome over the shrine has been recently repaired and richly gilt. None but Hindus can enter the three inner enclosures. The fourth, in which is the thousand-pillared mantapain or hall, measures 412 yards by 283. This hall of a thousand columns measures 450 feet by 130 and contains some 940 pillars, being incomplete in parts. It is the Uarbar Hall of the deity during the annual Vaikunta Ekadasi festival, which takes place in December or January. A large pandal or covered enclosure is then erected in front of it, and the processional image is brought to it from the inner shrine through the northern entrance of the second enclosure, called the Paramapadavasal or the ' gate of heaven,' which is only opened on this one occasion in the year. In booths round the pandal, which is handsomely decorated, various figures of gods and mythical personages and other articles are exposed for sale. In front of the thousand-pillared mantapam is a smaller hall, called Seshagiri Rao's mantapam, in which there are some fine carvings in stone \ As usual, the temple possesses many jewels, some of which are good specimens of goldsmith's work. The various pieces of armour which cover the idol from head to foot are perhaps the best, the others being of a type familiar at Southern India temples. Several of the oldest were given by Vijayaranga Chokkanatha, Naik of Madura. There is also a gold plate presented by the present King-Emperor when he visited the place as Prince of Wales in 1875. European visitors, on giving sufficient notice, are generally allowed to see the jewels, or, at any rate, some of them, by the courtesy of the trustees.
Over the entrances to the fourth enclosure are three gopurams (towers), of which the eastern is the finest. It is known as the vellai or 'white' gopuram and is 293/2 feet in height. There is at present no gate or gopuram on the western side of this enclosure. Tradition states that one formerly existed, but that it was blocked up because the people living near used to enter by that way and commit thefts in the temple. The outer three enclosures are crowded with houses and bazars.
Mr. Fergusson points to this temple as the most conspicuous illustration of the way in which many South Indian temples have gradually grown up around a small central shrine. The various stages of circumvallation represent successive increases in the wealth and popularity of the shrine,
1 Drawings of these and other portions of this temple and of that at Jambukeswaram will be found in the Journal of Indian Art and Industry, vol. viii (1899). and there is a corresponding increase in the size and ornamentation of the outer buildings as compared with those within. It may be added that the temple does not seem to have been completed in the manner intended by the last of its series of builders. The outer wall contains four unfinished gopurams. That on the southern side, which is the first seen by visitors from Trichinopoly, is of large proportions and, if com- pleted, would have risen to the height of 300 feet. This unfinished but gigantic structure is perhaps the most impressive object in the whole temple.
Several saints are reputed to have resided here, and the images of some of them are set up in different parts of the enclosure. The Hindu reformer and philosopher Ramanuja lived and died here early in the twelfth century. The inscriptions on the walls go back to the first half of the tenth century, to the reign of the Chola king Madurai-konda Ko Parakesarivarman, alias Parantaka I ; but the greater portion of the temple can hardly have been constructed as early as this. An in- scription of Sundara Pandya recites that he took Srirangam from a king who is called the moon of Karnata, and plundered the capital of Kathaka. A similar incident is recounted in the Tirukkalikkunram and Jambukeswaram inscriptions. The Kathaka king can hardly refer to a king of Cuttack, the most obvious explanation, but probably describes the noted chieftain Kopperunjinga, who had great power in the Carnatic at this time. The moon of Karnata was the Hoysala king Someswara (literally the ' god of the moon '), who, having conquered the Chola country, built a city called Vikramapuram 5 miles to the north of Srirangam. The site of this city is the present Samayapuram. The Sundara Pandya of the inscription has been identified, by a copperplate grant of Someswara dated in 1253, with Jatavarman Sundara Pandya Deva, who ascended the throne in 1250 or 1251. Other inscriptions relate to the Chola, Pandya, Hoysala, and Vijayanagar dynasties.
About half a mile to the east of the Vaishnav pagoda is another re- markable temple, dedicated to Siva, and known by the name of Jambu- keswaram. It is a compound of the words jambu, the Sanskrit name of the tree known in Tamil as naval (Eugema Jamholana), and Iswara, a name of Siva. The image of the deity is placed under a jatnbu- tree, which is much venerated and is said to be several hundred years old. The image is also known as one of the five elemental lingains, the element in this case being water, which surrounds the lingam on all sides. Mr, Fergusson considers that this building far surpasses the Vaishnav temple in beauty and as an architectural object, and thinks that, being all of one design, it was probably begun and completed at one time. There are five enclosures in the building. In the third is a coco-nut grove, in which is a small tank and temple, whither the image from the great Vaishnav pagoda was formerly brought for one day in the year. This practice has been abandoned, owing to quarrels between Saivites and Vaishnavites. Traces of a wall, which was built in consequence to mark the boundary between Srirangam and Jambukeswaram, are still visible. In the fourth en- closure, which measures 812 yards by 497, is a large hall with 796 pillars, and to the right of it a little tank with a gallery round it in which are 142 columns. The tank is fed by a perpetual spring. The fifth or outer enclosure contains four streets of houses. Inscriptions seem to show that the temple was in existence about a.d. 1000.
