Thiruppullani Gopuram

[Guest guest]

Dasan. To the entire Srivaishnava world an introduction to Thiruppullani

is needless. There are many who are impressed by the beautiful,

enchanting gopuram and the Archavathara thirumeni (both Moolavar and

Uthsavar). And there are quite a considerable amount of scholors who

enjoy the Thirumangai Azhwar's anubhavam with this Divya desam and other

related works by so many others.

 

But almost everybody who have visited this Divya Desam, and

even majaority of those residing here itself (including many temple

kainkaryaparals) do not know that there is treasure of ancient sculpture

and art exist here.

 

Some of the members would have visited

http://thiruthiru.ahobilam.com <http://thiruthiru.ahobilam.com/> and

might have read about the gigantic 5tiered gopuram at Thiruppullani.

Many of those who made a pilgrimmage here would have enjoyed the dolls

on the gopuram.

 

But nobody would have ever imagined that the Sethupathi who built

the Tower would have also constructed a mandapam inside the gopuram,

that too by wood and and in that wooden mandapam would have arranged

for hundreds of sculptures depicting that portion of Ramayana related to

this Divya Desam. It is really a treasure. The wooden carvings are more

intact (perhaps because they are out of our sight?) and all those

sannithis you visit in the temple are available there also ,of course in

wooden miniatures. Marvellous may not be a correct word to describe the

artistic excellence of these pieces.

 

With some difficulty I captured some of these in utter darkness

braving thousands of bats ( you can see them in one of the photos) and

knee deep bat excretia.

 

Youngsters who can climb very narrow steps (?) and can enjoy

them provided you get the permission of the local authorities, who

mostly are reluctant as they fear it may lead to some other problems.

 

Please have a look on these wonderful pieces at

http://picasaweb.google.com/rajamragu/templegopuram

<http://picasaweb.google.com/rajamragu/templegopuram> (of course the

clarity will not be there, since there is no proper light and mainly

because I handled a camera for the first time )

 

Dasan,

T.Raguveeradayal