Today I spoke to Dr. Nagaswamy re Origin of the Sculpture he has put in his article "Muruka " . His net access is restricted so he is not able to recall. I will show him printout and revert.
Dear Vijay,
While speaking to dr. Nagaswamy on the above subject, he made some interesting recall ::
Mahaswamigal (Senior Sage of Kanchimutt) - when camped in ILAYTHANKUDI (near Karaikkudi) in the early 60s, invited Mr. Ragavan (then Archeology chief)- dr. Nagaswamy (then his assistant) Saa Ganesan (Kamban Kazhagam - exclusive Forum to promote the Ramayanam by Tamilpoet Kambam), Mr. David .. and a few others. Spoke to them on the importance of Pillayar and asked them to investigate re Pillayarpatti. Saa Ganesan's brother was running a Studio in Karaikkudi. He brought focus lights and they could examine the Sanctum.
d read for the first time.
There was a Sculpture nearby. Which used to be (mis)interpreted as MAHENDRA !!
Nagaswamy examined the sculpture too and found it was HARI-HARA with half crown and half-jadamudi !!
Mr. Raghavan appreciated his assistant Dr. Nagaswamy !!
That is how the period of Pillayarpatti got promoted from the Pallavas to Pandyas (Mutharays ??) !!
The team went and reported these to Kanchisage.
interestingly THIS IS THE FIRST RECORDING of these proceedings !!
I was also want to go through the article on Pillayar by Mahaswami and that is why i told Katherine that i will come back on the vatapi Ganapathi pictures she sent. The Mahaswami's analysis is not on the net ( deivathinkural, Kanchi mutt site) hence need to go through the book.
I remember Mahaswami had written a detailed article on this and Vatapi Ganapathi.