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daSa-avatAra sannidhi-s.

From the Bhakti List Archives

SundaraRajan Tirumanjanam • March 9, 2003 


Friends,

The most ancient and most beautiful of the daSa-avatAra (ten incarnations) sannidhi-s is the one built by the kings of the Gupta dynasty (circa 6th cent.AD) who styled themselves 'parama-bhAgavata'.    This manner of royalty dedicating itself to vaishNava worship had later-day echoes in Travancore royalty (starting with Maharaja svAti-t-tiru-nAL) bearing the name 'ananta-padmanAbha-dAsa', and the (Rajasthan) Kota rulers styling themselves 'ranGa-dAsa'. 

The entire structure of this Gupta temple is of (Rajasthan) red sandstone and the most publicised of the amazing sculptures here is of vishNu-anantaSAyee, besides the animated scene of the rescue of the elephant-devotee GajEndra:  the Lord on the Garuda mount ('brahmany kite') is shown braking his rush to the scene,  and  suspended in the air.   This particular panel partakes some of the movement and animation of Greek sculpting, and is very unlike most of Indian sculptures which are stance-stylised.

The second oldest, to my knowledge, is the single sculptured panel of daSa-avatAra embedded on the southern wall of the dAr-ul-islAm mosque built around the (unrusting) iron pillar (itself a GaruDa-dhvaja, the pole of the GaruDa standard, sans GaruDa, and containing a Sanskrit inscription in the kharOshTi script) situated at Mehrauli, the southern end of Delhi.    

The mosque was built (evidently during the pre-Moghul Slave rule) by dismantling an ancient temple at the site and is a few feet to the north of the tall tubular ornate structure which has been named Qutab Minar  and which is over-inscribed with Quran texts.    It is fortunate that we have intact  a clear one-stone panel of vishNu ananta-SAyee at the north-eastern top boulder of the mosque.

On the high northern bank of the river Tawi in Jammu is situated the Raghunath Mandir built by the Dogra rulers of Jammu & Kashmir.   This temple was built perhaps by Raja Ran-bir Singh, great grandfather of the Sanskrit scholar, Sri Karan Singh, who was the last Sadar-riyasat of J&K, and who is to-day in our Parliament.

Raghunath has a central shrine of SrirAma, ringed around by individual shrines for each of the daSa-avatAra-s.  This temple has golden domes, and is perhaps 200 years old.

The most enchanting daSa-avatAra sannidhi is, of course, the one raised by tiru-manGai AzhvAr in SRIRANGAM on the southern bank of river koLLiDam which is the northern arm of kAviri.   All the avatAra-manifestations (which are large-sized) are installed together in this shrine. In his Guru-paramparA-prabhAvam, the nampiLLai-disciple Sri pinnpu-azhakia-perumAL jeeyar relates how the AzhvAr erected this shrine after securing the consent of periya-perumAL Himself.    (The shrine is today administered by the ahObila-maTham.)  This was made perhaps late in the AzhvAr's fairly prolonged stay in Srirangam before he moved to tiru-k-kurun-kuDi where he passed away.

Besides these, pillar-panels of the daSa-avatAra are to be found in nearly every temple in the South.   There are    two daSa-avatAra corridors in the Great Temple of Srirangam, one near parama-pada dvAram in the third (kula-SEkharan tiru-c-chuRRu) prAkAram, and another in the SEsha-rAya maNDapam.        There are enchanting and lofty pillar sculptures in the azhakar sannidhi of tADi-k-kompu near Dindigul, said to be the last of the vijayanagara endowments built by Ramaraya.  There is also a similar one in Ariyalur.

I am not aware of a shrine exclusive to the Fish incarnation.   The Turtle (kUrma) has earned an exclusive, known as Sri-kUrmam in the 'sampradAyam', situated in the modern district HQ of Sri-kAkulam in Andhra Pradesh.    It is there for all to see that the 'image' is not a sculpture crafted by man, but the fossil of an actual (large-size) turtle which must have paddled on to the 'kshEtram' where the shrine has been built.  [The northern coast, Andhra to Orissa, of the Bay of Bengal is an identified nesting of turtles in season.]   Sri-kUrmam, about an hour by car to the north of Visakhapatnam / simhAchalam, was a favourite of SriRamanuja, and is in the shortlist of divya-dESam-s hymned in Bhattar's Sriranganatha-stotram.

SrivarAha, the primordial Boar, is a singular favourite (fondly called jnAna-p-pirAn) of the entirety of AzhvAr saints, and had been so with several royal dynasties across the country.   The pallava standard, and gold coin bore the varAha effigy;  hence the announcement of "padinAyiram kaTTi varAhan" as bhUri-dakshiNA in our wedding ceremony.   

To-day's Baramula on the country's northern state of J&K is identified (in Kalhana's epic rAja-taranGini) as varAha-mUlam, where the incarnation took place.   Some of the varAha shrines are in Bundelkhand and Soron (sUkara-puri, the birthplace of Gosvami Tulasi-dasa) in Uttar Pradesh, Khajuraho and the colossal varAha-in-cave shrine of Vidisha (a short run to the north of Bhopal) in Madhya Pradesh, Cuttack in Orissa, Kalyani pond in Melkote/tiru-nArAyana-puram, varAhana-dalli on the banks of svarnamukhi (?) in district Mandya of Karnataka, the mini-varAha  of the great kOn-Eri (svAmi-pushkariNi) and presiding Deity of tirumalai, tiru-ananta-puram in Kerala, the Mamallapuram Adi-varAha cave, the pannRi-AzhvAn maNDapam in the Great Temple of Srirangam.

It is not possible to make a full list of Sri-narasimha shrines, numerous as they are.   Multan, formerly of India's Bhawalpur princely state and now in to-day's Pakistan Punjab (and known to Padma Purana as 'mauli-snAnn'), was the original site of this precious incarnation, but the ancient temple in this place was wantonly destroyed in the 1920's.

To name some lesser-known shrines ~  An amazingly fine-carved ceiling panel in Mt Abu, Rajasthan;  nar-sinG-pur in Madhya Pradesh;  dharmapuri, the pAnaka-narasimha in Mangalagiri, yAdavagiri-guTTa  in Andhra Pr;  a huge one at matthur (Mandya) and Tumkur in Karnataka; nAmakkal in Tamil Nadu.

(divya-dESam).   Singa-vEL-kunRam (ahObilam), tiru-vELukkai (kAnchi), SOLinGa-puram (GhaTikAchalam), mElkOTE (karnataka).  A big-sized and bewitching pancha-lOha yOga narasimha  is worshipped at the head of Sri ananta-padmanAbha.   One near the SriRamanuja shrine at the first 'prAkAram' of tirumalai.  Also in kATTu-mannAr-kOyil / veera-nArAyaNa-puram, the place of SriNathamunikal, in Tamil Nadu.

The Srinarasimha presence in SRIRANGAM merits a special note.   The mETTu azhakia-SinGar near the sannidhi of Sriranga-nAcchiyAr was, in fact, a panel on the site-GOpuram, converted into a sannidhi, for which reason the Lord is known as GOpurattu-nAyanAr.   He, this very Lord, is said to have heard in audience and admired the marvellous Tamil epic of SriRamayanam composed by Kamban.    

Sri kUra-nArAyana jeeyar (who became the first pontiff of the Great Temple as the Sriranga-nArAyana jeeyar) was the one identified with the consecration of Srinarasimha shrines at the four corners of the sacred city of Srirangam.   The one in the north-eastern corner, of kATTu azhakia-SinGar, is the most popular and prosperous.  The one in the south-east is the ODa-t-tuRai (the barge wharf) shrine, situated on the northern bank of the southern arm of river kAviri (to the left of where the Srirangam-Trichy road bridge ends).   The two shrines to the west of Srirangam were demolished by vandals, and the mUla images and one pancha-lOha image are now housed and worshipped in the kUra-t-AzhvAn sannidhi.

SrivAmana is also tri-vikrama.   The divya-dESam tiru-k-kAT-karai in Kerala is identified with SrivAmana.   As is Sri Sundara-pari-pUrNa, tiru-k-kurun-kuDi nambi.   There is an exclusive SrivAmana shrine at the portals of Srirangam, the 'tiru-k-kuRaL appan', some 20 feet to the north of the Great Southern Gopuram.   This shrine is, as per kOyil ozhuku, the most ancient of the upa-sannidhi-s of Srirangam.  The kAnyA-kubja realm of Sri SatruGhna (now the western part of Uttar Pradesh) had adopted SrivAmana as its Deity.

To-day's Kerala-Konkana strip is known as the land of Sri Parasurama, but no exclusive tradition of worship seems to have grown around him.

Of SrirAma, "karuNA-kAkutstha" ~ What indeed can we achieve by merely listing the shrines dedicated to the dear Lord, the maryAdA-purushOttama ?    It would suffice for our sentiments to envision and worship the Lord in any one of His shrines saturating this land !   This whole land was of the Lord's charity and is a metaphorical extension of the parama-padam itself which is known as vaikunTha, aparAjitA,  ayOdhya.    None of us, inheritors of this precious patrimony, is away from this ayOdhya.   
"sarva-lOka-SaraNyAya rAGhavAya mahAtmanE" will do, in Sri vibheeshaNa's words, as signifying our patrimony.    "Jai rAm-ji-ki !" is the man-to-man greeting and social etiquette which is still prevalent in upper India.

And Balarama, "hElA-halin".    The ancient Tamils had worshipped Sri Baladeva, in white-marble representations, as is evidenced in the Tamil classic Silap-p-adhikAram.

"Jai SrikRshNa !" was the social greeting of vraja-bhUmi (skirting Mathura) and extending  upto the coast of Arabian Sea.   "harE kRshNa !" is to-day revived with the same cordiality.   As with rAma, so with rAmAnuja !

There is no exclusive shrine dedicated to Sri Kalki, and the Kalki Puranam, a very later-day (upa-purANam) work, makes for interesting reading.   The incarnation, as messianic,  is supposed to occur in future in Sambalpur in Orissa.   This particular incarnation, curiously, seems to have been the favourite of Khoja Muslims of Bhuj in Gujarat.

It is my very personal sentiment that the Srirangam daSAvatAra sannidhi (consecrated by tirumanGai) is the complete one of its kind.   The next place would go to the enchanting Sanskrit minor epic 'daSAvatAra charitam' of the great Kashmiri poet Kshemendra, famous for his authorship of the manual of correct diction, 'Auchitya-vichAra-charchA'.   The epic itself is a complete shrine !

"daSa-vidha-rUpa, jaya jaGadeeSa harE !"
"dEvO na: Subham AtanOtu daSadhA nirvartayan bhUmikAm
ranGE dhAmani labdha nirbhara-rasai: adhyakshitO bhAvukai:".

aDiyEn rAmAnuja-dAsan,
T.S. SundaraRajan
at Srirangam.

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I cannot let go without adding to this excellent description, the two temples in tirukkuDanthai, my native place.  There is a daSAvatAra temple located in the middle of the busy shopping area, and there is also a separate varAha Temple.  The varAha Temple was in a very dilapidated state, and the daSAvatAra temple was only in marginally better shape when I last visited the place.  I do not know the age or history of the two temples.  -NK
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "vimalkumar ranganathan" 
To: "bhakti-list" 
Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2003 9:52 AM
Subject: Re:  Temples for Dasa Avatar.
> There is Kurma kshetram in Andhra Pradesh, near Vizag if I am right. 
Vimal
>  Sangeetha  wrote:
We have temples for the the Lord for the following avataars 1. Varaha.  2. Narasimha 3. Rama 4. Krishna. Are there temples for His other avataars and where are they?      Regards Sangeetha.
> -----------------------------------------------------
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