Ponniyin Selvan Varalaatru Peravai

dear sir

Just had time to go through the attachment. Some observations:

1) Quote from article"

"There are two points to be noted. The earliest Pallava king, being a
Zoroastrian, wanted to build a temple for the Sun on the Pyramid model.

He commissioned his sculptors (Persian, Greek and Indian of the Gandhara
school) to build two sandstone temples, one for his queen, and the other for
his clan. The queen’s temple (Kailasanatha temple) is still there as a
heritage site and the other one was converted later on as Ekambareswarar
temple.



The second point is that the Pallava kings wanted their sculptors to work on
granite; and they succeeded. Mahamalipuram was an experimental station. From
hereon. Sculpting on granite began."

Question: Are you suggesting that the Kailasantha temple and the
ekambareshwara ( by the way what was the original structure which you are
referring to and basis for that note) predate mallai granite excavations.


2) Quote from article"

*A crown resembling an elephant's head was issued by the early Pallava kings
and is referred to in the Vaikunthaperumal temple sculptures at the time of
Nandivarman Pallavamalla's ascent to the throne. A similiar crown was in use
by the early Bactrian kings in the 2nd century BC and figures on the coins
of Demetrius. It is presumed on this basis that there is some connection
between the Pallavas of Kanchi and Bactrian kings. [5. Mysore Gazetteer, I.
p.303-304; 6. ASR {Ann.Rep.ASI), 1906-1907, p.221 ]." (Minakshi 1977, p.4)*

Question: This is indeed an interesting hypothesis. We have tried many times
to identify this particular panel - but not been able to locate. There are
many panels with elephant motiffs in the temple - shown in profile, just the
head etc etc. but we have not been able to find this particular elephant
head gear panel. If someone can assist in providing the correct location of
this panel, we can study it more clearly.


3)Quote from article"

When Vedic Hinduism wiped out Buddhism, and when the Indo-Aryans wanted
their identity, and when Sun was worshipped as God’s first creation, the
elephant was chosen as their symbol, integrating Buddhist and Jain
traditions—kindness to animals and vegetarianism

Question: The dominant sculptures depicting this is actually Lion prancing
over an elephant. This scene is replayed in many scuptures. Elephant chosen
as a symbol ( well elephants were shown as mount of Indra and in some places
of Muruga - but never as seperate worshipping idols - pure elephant i mean )

4) Quote from article"

The Dravidians also wanted their own identity; they created Muruga (the Sun
in mgrigaseersham constellation) and called him the Tamil God. A Tamil name
was also given..Pillai..the son of the creator. They were clever to describe
Muruga as the younger brother of Ganapathy!!

Question: The worship of Muruga is very primitive and defn predates the
inclusion of Ganesha in the Shiva family. Would request to provide basis for
your hypothesis. No wiki links please !!