Unspoiled Narthamalai

Katherine Brobeck

Lucky for us! As Lord Hanuman flew down to Lanka, carrying the mountain of healing herbs to save Lakshmana, he passed over Pudukkottai district, Kulathur taluk, and accidentally dropped a few boulders from his load - the granite rock formations there make Narthamalai one of the loveliest places in Tamil Nadu, I'm sure, and the area is still known as a place to find medicinal plants.

You can drive down from Tiruchi or up from Pudukkottai - find the back road under low trees. Approach it the way I did in '95, from the south. A massive slab rises from the south. On the far side of a natural tarn, horses & trisuls of an ayyannar shrine peek out of the trees across the water. Other than that shrine, there seems to be only unspoiled nature here, a wonderful place for birdwatching. [pic 1]

Pic 1

Climb north along the somewhat steep hill towards the foliage at the top . . . [pic 1a] Then you just catch sight, through the leaves, of a beautifully proportioned Muttaraiyar temple, Vijayalayacholisvaram Koil,dedicated to Lord Shiva. It's an early temple, only 9th century, before south Indian temple architecture became massive & elaborate. Muttaraiyars were feudatories of the Cholas, with their capital at Sendalai. The temple faces west. [pic 2]

A few yards to the west is a high cliff-face with two caves: one, Samanar Kudagu

Pic 1a

once of Jain affiliation, but ca 9th century 12 murthis of Lord Vishnu were carved inside on the rock face. They appear to be almost identical. Both caves were barred, the second just full of repair supplies.

A Nandi faces the first cave, sitting on a handsome platform ringed with an imaginatively carved mala of humorous yazhis & hathis. One figure w a lion's body has a human face. Pic 3 [also see Vijay Kumar's blog]

The temple has at least 7 shrines, several more than the PanchaPrakara arrangement encountered in northern India. A couple of

Pic 2 (Courtesy – http://www.ola.in)

them have an image inside, but all
features are quite worn. The Temple's Door Guardians however are in excellent condition: not very threatening even though fanged and with 'big hair', but still looking like they could take on any demons that might try to enter. A second pair of guardians rests on the platform with some of the 7 Mothers, a Shiva Vinadhara Dakshinamurthi, Ganapati in a kudu, etc. Since I first visited, these have been cemented to the platform so that they can't be stolen.

pic 3

In '95 the kalasam of the vimana still had rosy paint, sadly blackened by '07. There are many murthis on the various storeys but worn and hard to distinguish -- Nandis at the corners, faces in kudus, Yazhi & BhutaMalas. If you visit, it would be useful to take binoculars with you. [pic 3]

We discovered a cell under the cliff we were told had housed a saddhu, but noone was there any longer. His calender & flag were undisturbed.

I've read that there is a later temple somewhere on the hill, but never was told what side it was on; we didn't look for it. We had enough to thrill us with the Muttaraiyar structures.

After enjoying the view & relaxing in the winter sunshine, we continued north down the great granite 'whale', to check out another more extensive Ayyannar shrine in a grove at the foot of the hill. Many many steeds had been placed there for the divine village guardians' use. [pics 8 & 9]

Out of 12 visits in India, this is still my favorite place. I really recommend Narthamalai to anyone who'd like to get away from it all, take in beautiful views, and be spiritually inspired.

• More murthis from this site are found in the Pudukkottai Govt. Museum, Thirugokarnam.

• See Ganesh Kumar's excellent Ponni. article of 6/25/09, for historical details.
• See Vijay Kumar's blog : PoetryinStone 9/19/08

12 Vishnus (Courtesy http://www.ola.in)

About

Kathie works in a public library at Lincoln Mass., USA and became interested in India as a child, reading about holy men doing severe tapas at Varanasi. She has travelled India almost 12 times and she has been a PSVP member for the past 2 years. Having found our group while googling 'temples', she loves Indian heritage and temples than anyone else. Having named herself as 'Sivadasi' her accurate information on temples would make Indians blush with ignorance. She also enjoys reading fiction, swimming, viewing plants & wildlife.