Adi Sankara's Temple at Sriranagam - A Feature Article from The Hindu.

[Guest guest]

Namaste;

 

Sunderji has discovered this article from the Hindu newspaper

archives and I am sure that members will be thrilled to read it.

Anyone who has more information about this temple, please share it

with all.

 

regards,

 

Ram Chandrran

 

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http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/06/22/stories/13220795.htm

Friday, June 22, 2001

 

Superhuman efforts of a savant

 

T. K. Balasubramania Iyer did yeoman service to the cause of Indian

culture. The kumbabhishekam of the temple he built for Adi Sankara in

Srirangam, was held recently. PREMA NANDAKUMAR writes.

THE LATTER half of the nineteenth century was a seed-time for Indian

renaissance. Some of the greatest Indians of modern times were born

then. Among them, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Sri

Aurobindo. Tamil Nadu was particularly rich in this respect.

Subramania Bharati readily comes to mind. To this race of barrier-

breakers belonged Gurubhaktha Sikhamani T. K. Balasubramania Iyer of

Srirangam.

Born in 1874, Balasubramaniam hailed from a prosperous family of

Thanjavur. He showed a remarkable aptitude for scholarship when still

young. Mastering Tamil, Sanskrit and English speedily, he graduated

from S.P.G. College, Tiruchi. At this time a profound turning point

was posited in his life when he met the 33rd Pontiff of Sringeri

Sarada Peetham at Ayyambalayam village.

H. H. Sri Sachchidananda Sivabhinava Nrisimha Bharati was a

remarkable spiritual personality who was then engaged in tracing the

genuine birthplace of Adi Sankara at Kaladi. Having decided to

channel the unbounded enthusiasm of the young man for serving Indian

culture, the Acharya asked him to publish classics of Indian religion

and philosophy and authoritative editions, beginning with Sadasiva

Brahmendra's. Bodhayana Vriti Balasubramaniam passed the test. Now

came the Acharya's command for what seemed a task meant for titans.

An authoritative Collected Works of Adi Sankara!

By 1904, Balasubramania Iyer turned in a superhuman effort, literally

wrestling with destiny as it were to establish the legendary Vani

Vilas Press at Srirangam. The finalisation of the Collective Works

proved to be even more intractable. Was there one Sankara or many?

Are all extant works that go by his name original? Could some of them

be spurious? Thousands of manuscripts (handwritten on paper or palm

leaves) were gathered and collated by the heroic editor. The

different readings of the same work called for intense concentration

to arrive at a final copy. These were indeed nerve-wracking years,

but the steady backing and golden advice of his Acharya helped Iyer

to keep moving forward.

The Sringeri Acharya was himself on an equally strenuous trail during

these years. After single-minded efforts he had found the

authenticated birthplace of Adi Sankara at Kaladi and acquired it as

well. In 1910 he consecrated a temple to Adi Sankara at Kaladi.

During the ceremonies, he was able to release the first ten volumes

of the collected works produced by Balasubramania Iyer. He spoke

beautifully and with great feeling about the magnificent service

rendered by his disciple to the cause of sanatana dharma:

``I have consecrated the image (moorthi) of Adi Sankara in this

place, Kaladi. But Balasubramaniam has consecreted Adi Sankara's fame

(keerthi) all over the world through the Sankara Granthavali.

Planned as a series, the handy texts soon became the favourite of

connoisseurs of scholarly works. Just when Iyer was immersed in the

tasks associated with the completion of the project, Sri Nrisimha

Bharati withdrew from the physical in 1912. This was a terrible blow

to Balasubramania Iyer. However, service to the Divine goes on

through the Guru Parampara. The 34th Pontiff of Sringeri, Sri

Chandrasekhara Bharati, became an equally soulful guide and soon Iyer

completed the project. It may be said that definitely one wise man's

dedication had saved the Sankara literature almost intact for

posterity. Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati was overjoyed, adorned Iyer

with an expensive makara kandi and a shawl and crowned him with the

title, Gurubhaktha Sikhamani.

What next? For one who laved in the ambience of Sankara's

philosophical and exegetical works, secular life had lost its savour.

When the Sringeri Acharya visited Srirangam in 1924, Iyer laid all

his earthly riches at the Guru's feet. This was total surrender, a

marvellous self-sacrifice. The Acharya was pleased and accepted the

offering and blessed the disciple. But he asked Iyer to continue to

serve the Divine by establishing a centre for Advaitic studies where

the birthdays of Adi Sankara and Sri Nrisimha Bharati could also be

celebrated. Accordingly, Iyer built a temple in his garden on

Ammamandapam Road for Adi Sankara and opened a Sankara Gurukula to

disseminate Vedic studies.

Iyer also opened a spiritual library and named it Sri Satchidananda

Bharati Bhandaram, storing it with rare books from all over India.

Sankara Jayanti and special lectures made the Gurukulam famous in a

very short time. By the late 1940s, age and relentless hard work had

taken their toll on Balasubramania Iyer's health. With his mind tuned

to the Infinite, Iyer wished to renounce the world formally as well.

The Sringeri Acharya acceded to his wish and gave his disciple the

deeksha name of Sri Vijnananda Saraswati on June 3, 1947, as if to

indicate that Iyer had risen from the mental plane (manomaya) to a

supra-mental plane (vijnanamaya) of consciousness. The very next day

Balasubramania Iyer became one with the Brahman.

On the eve of the kumbhabhishekam of the Adi Sankara temple built by

Iyer, it is astonishing to enter the environs and realise that this

wonderful structure is the handiwork of a single person. Iyer had

gone through every stage of the planning and execution of the temple.

As we go in through the Rajarajeswari Entrance, we first gaze at the

images of Rajarajeswari, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesa and Subramania. A

long Mahamandapa, open on both sides, leads to a Mukha mandapa.

We then come face to face with the sancta sanctorum of Adi Sankara,

Sri Nrisimha Bharati and Goddess Saradamba. Made of white marble, the

figures are wonderful studies in contrast. All of them exude a rare

compassion. Adi Sankara and Sri Nrisimha Bharati are draped always in

ochre, but Mother Sarada is adorned with colourful silks and gleaming

jewels. She carries a pot of nectar in her left upper hand and a

garland of rudraksha beads on her right upper hand. The left lower

holds a pack of cadjan leaves and the right lower hand is raised to

promise guardianship. A parrot on the right shoulder signifies that

Mother Sarada is the parrot in the cage of Pranava.

Iyer was a great builder and also a very artistic one immersed in

Puranic and Vedantic lore. His creative instinct found full play in

the setting up of the Mukhamandapam. It is also called Ashta Lakshmi

mandapam, because of its octagonal roof. The highest point at the

centre has a painting of the blue heaven with stars, and opens out on

a lotus encircled by the words ``Brahmaiva Satyam'', the Pranava and

two swans. A lower rung has iconic representations of the guru-

parampara of Adi Sankara beginning with Narayana. The others are

Brahma, Vasishta, Sakthi, Parasara, Vyasa, Suka, Gowdapada and

Govindapada who was the guru of Adi Sankara himself.

A still lower rung that forms the basal ribbon of the structure has

figurines of eight Lakshmis. Each goddess has two emanations (kalas)

and hence all the eight project the sixteen emanations of the Supreme

Mother which are signified by appropriate symbols like the elephant,

swan or pomegranate fruit. On the East Lakshmi is seen as knowledge

and fame; on South-East she is wealth and guardianship; on the South

Lakshmi's is progeny and food; on the South-West courage and

achievement are projected; on the West it is power and realisation;

on the North-West, heroism and incalculable strength mark the

goddess; on the North we see Lakshmi as victory and achievement; and

on the North East Lakshmi denotes auspiciousness and Ananda.

Throughout the basal ribbon the eight verses of the Hymn to

Dakshinamurti have been inscribed in Sanskrit.

 

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