Of Gods and Mortals: Lila Copa C H AR L OT T E SC H MI D appeared, in North India, in the 4th century CE, when a new type of literature was emerging: the Puranas. The traditional five components of a Purana (creation, recreation, genealogies, ages of Manu and the history of dynasties) are all linked in one manner or another to the narrative genre with which puranic literature seems to be in close correspondence. The epics otherwise comprise a narrative totality abundantly drawn upon by the P u ra na s. The illustration, on sacred buildings, of the stories told in these texts give access to a much wider mythological range than is provided by the textual corpus alone.

Presentation of the Corpus

The first representations of the brahmanical narrative cycles appeared in North India during the Gupta dynasty. They are connected with the two most represented of the avataras of ViÒnu, Rama and KrÒna, to be found again on the Copa temples. These first cycles are mostly fragmentary and, with few exceptions (the temples of Apsa∂h (Bihar), of Deogarh and Nachna-kuthara (Madhya Pradesh), it is no longer possible to study them in the architectural context to which they belong. In South India, it would seem that the first extensive brahmanical cycles were Copa, even if they were preceded by rather more sporadic attempts in Calukya art, in Badami and Pa † †a∂akal, in the North of Karnataka. The most extensive cycles decorated the rich Hoysala temples of Karnataka from the beginning of the 11th century; they are influenced by lesser known Copa experiments which will be the subject of this paper. The corpus considered here is constituted by Copa temples dating from the anugrahaya bhutanam manuÒam deham asthitaÌ / bhajate tadrikiÌ kri∂a yaÌ krutva tatparo bhavet // "It was for the sake of bestowing grace upon beings that he took on a human body and that he took part in games such as on hearing about which one becomes devoted to him."

Bhagavata-purana X.33, 37

In South India, the bases, or socles, of some Co pa temples are decorated with small sculpted panels placed one after the other to form a frieze running all around the temple. These panels portray the lila of the gods: of ViÒnu and his a v a tar as, of Kiva and his son Skanda and portray, too, the human drama through the dancers and musicians who participate in the divine adventures. These largely unpublished friezes, sometimes constituting actual "narrative cycles" interspersed with separate representations, are often inspired by epic and puranic literature and bear witness to the popularity of that literature. As we shall see, they provide firm evidence of the great popularity of the narrative genre and allow for the consideration of that genre from a fresh angle the better to comprehend the iconographic ensemble and the specificities of temples decorated with this type of representation. The Centre of the École française d'Extrême-Orient in Pondicherry has initiated the study of these series of representations.

"Narrative cycle" here refers to the continuous recounting of a story, whether in a text or on a temple. In the latter case, the cycle corresponds to the representation in images of a narrative text, made up of a succession of actions appearing in those sections of the friezes which bring onto the scene the characters in the given situations according to narrative chronology. The earliest iconographic examples of brahmanical narrative cycles beginning of the 10th to the beginning of the 11th c e n t u r y . It comprises, in the region of the Kauveri delta, the Ka∂aiyar temple of Tiruchennampun∂i (Fig. 1), the Nagekvara of Kumbakonam, the Brahmapurikvara of P ul la m aoegai, the Naltuñai I kvara of Puñjai, the Tirumexxatikvara of Paccil, the Samavedikvara of Tirumaoegalam, and farther North, near Pondicherry, the Varadarajaperumal of Tirubhuvanai (Fig. 2). To this body corresponding to a totality of about six hundred representations, I add the small VaiÒnava temple of Konar, near the village of Tirumalpur, not far from Kañcipuram and dating from the second half of the 10th century. 1 The narrative series in this temple appear on the pilasters 2 and not on the plinths but is of the same type of representation and, moreover, the VaiÒnava character of the temple makes it possible to add to observations made on the comparison between the Kaiva corpus of the Kauveri delta and the VaiÒnava Varadarajaperumal.

The temples of the Kauveri are in fact all Kaiva. They are of modest dimensions, sometimes probably because they have been reestablished; they frequently bear a great number of inscriptions. The bas-reliefs which are of interest here would seem to have been sculpted in the space of fifty years, most of which belong to the second half of the 10th century. The dating of these temples is an uncertain area since each one poses specific problems even though they are linked elements of one small corpus. If, however, one wishes to understand what could have been the relationships, iconographic and other, between one temple to the other, a brief reminder of the elements of the dating is necessary. With four Pallava inscriptions, the temple of Tiruchennampun∂i has existed in one way or another since the Pallava epoch. These inscriptions are found only on non-fonctional parts of the temple, on pillars and on the jambs of the door of the ardhaman∂apa: they may have been used for a second time during the reconstruction of a temple, Copa in architecture and iconography, probably in the reign of Parantaka I (907-955). The earliest incription we can be certain of (South Indian Inscriptions, vol. VII, no. 518) is dated from the fourteenth year of the reign of Parantaka I, that is 921. 3 The dating of the temple of Kumbakonam, between the second half of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century, has been the cause of a great deal of controversy. The epigraphy is not much help. A Pan∂ya inscription (Rangaracharya 1919, vol. II, no. 22, p. 1235) engraved on a reused block in the shrine to the Goddess is a little later and may indicate that the foundation of the temple also predates the Copa period. We have to notice also that, anyway, the site is attached to the corpus of the Tevaram, devotional Kaiva hymns attributed to the 7th century: a temple existed here as soon as the 7th century. So here too it is a case of a reestablishment. The earliest Co pa inscription of confirmed date is 934 (Rangaracharya 1919, vol. II: no. 34, p. 1237). T.V. Mahalingam (1967: 83-84), in attributing the title "Parakekarivarman", found in three inscriptions, to Parantaka I, puts the even earlier date of 910 on the first epigraphic reference. This title being, however, common amongst Copa kings the attribution remains unconfirmed. David T. Sanford (1974: 182-183) dates the temple from the second half of the 9th century. It should be mentioned that Sanford considers the narrative series of the Nagekvara to be very little earlier than those in the Pullamaoegai temple. The dating of the later temple is also, however, a subject of controversy even if dated from the beginning of the 10th century, that means even if we do not take into account that, as a temple attached to the corpus of the Tevaram, the temple has existed in one form or another since that epoch. The eight inscriptions on the walls of the main temple give rise to discussion. 4 One of these dates from the eleventh year of the reign of Parantaka I, that is 918: J.-C. Harle (1958: 5) dates the temple to the very beginning of the 10th century while S. R. Balasubrahmanyam (1971: 6, 223-224) dates it from the opening of the reign of Parantaka I, without being more precise. Sanford (1974: 175; 1987: 280-281) considers another inscription which records a donation from Kembiyan Mahavali-Vanarayar made in the sixth year of the reign of a Copa king Sanford identifies as Parantaka I: mentioned in this inscription is a title Parantaka I had given at another time to his Ganga vassal, Prthivipati II. The inscription would thus date from 913 and the temple from 910-911, at the moment when the vassal had helped Aditya I to gain a decisive victory over the RaÒ †raku †a KrÒna II. The fact that this temple is connected with the corpus of the Tevaram never seems to have been considered: once again it is a matter of reconstruction.

The temple of Puñjai certainly seems to be a little later, but it offers a very wide margin for dating and the inscriptions are of very little help. The beautiful aesthetic of the temple makes it tempting to ascribe an earlier date to it than it could possibly be accurate. Once again it is a matter of reconstruction: this is another site connected with the Tevar a m which means that the temple must have been in existence since the 7th century. For Balasubrahmanyam (1971: 266-267), since the earliest inscription of the complex (which is found however on the base of a secondary temple) dates from 968, the Copa structure of the temple dates from the short reign of ƒAditya II (964-969). Sanford (1974: 178-181) sees both the architectural characteristics of the temple and the representations of donors on its South wall as corresponding with the middle of the 10th century even though D. Barrett (1974: 81-82) dates it around 940. G. Hoekveld-Meier (1981: 182-183, 204), on the basis of the convergence of three architectural criteria, dates it from the very end of the 10th century or even the beginning of the 11th. Lastly, P. Kaimal (1999: 87-89) sees 964 as a terminus ante quem and the temple as more likely to date from the first half of the 10th century. There are very precise iconographic resemblances between this temple and the Kumbakonam Nagekvara one, however, such as the two representations of Varaha threatened by a naga king, a version of the myth absent from the texts, and these similarities bring either its dating back into question or that of the Kumbakonam temple which, as is clear from all the publications mentioned, is uniformly said to be earlier than the date of its epigraphic corpus.

We see that the three temples of Puñjai, Pullamaoegai and Kumbakonam are included in a relative chronology which, constructed according to the different architectural considerations of each author, does not match the one established with the aid of the inscriptions (which are not yet all published). It is possible that a detailed study of the narrative series may be of use in more accurately establishing the chronology of the three temples.

The temple of Tirumaoegalam has three series of panels. The third series, found on the bases of the pilasters, offers an iconography which is unusual and in several places obviously linked with the deities in the niches. The positioning and the unusual iconography tend to support Sanford (1974: 173-174) who, on the basis of considerations of style, particularly architectural, puts forward the hypothesis that the series on the bases are earlier by almost a century than the one on the bases of the pilasters: the temple could have been rebuilt on an earlier base. The first two series would be from the begin-ning of the 10th century, while the third would date from the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century. A single inscription from the Copa age has been found on the temple (Archaeological Report on South Indian Epigraphy for 1929-30, no. 251). It is dated from the 15th year of the reign of Rajaraja I, 1000. Sanford's theory is reasonable, but by no means confirmed and the dating of the series could be more accurate than it is. It is obvious that all the different series were not sculpted in the same workshop, yet several teams were able to work at the same time, rather than successively, on this important site.

Only three short reports on the four inscriptions recorded from Tirumexxatikvara of Paccil are published in the Annual Report for Indian Epigraphy for 1992-1993 (1998: 4-5, 67-70). The earliest inscriptions date from the third or fourth year (both dates are given in the report) of the reign of "Parakekarivarman", a title belonging to we know not which king. The characteristics of the inscriptions correspond to the epigraphy of the 10th century. Another inscription dates from 990 and the two remaining from the beginning of the 11th century (the reign of Raj a raja I). The iconographic analysis is difficult as many of the statues are very worn away. The architectural style corresponds to the 10th century, without it being possible to be precise.

The inscriptions of the temple in Tirubhuvanai are being prepared for publication. As far as the temple itself is concerned, the earliest epigraphic date we can be sure of is 1017 (inscription no. 92 from the corpus of inscriptions in the territory of Pondicherry, found on the East wall of the ardhaman∂apa). This temple, literally covered with inscriptions, is certainly not much earlier than that first known inscription. 5 The temple at Tirumalpur seems to be a little earlier. The inscriptions of this temple converge towards the middle of the 10th century. 6 It has been greatly renovated and the positions of the inscriptions are not always the original ones (Balasubrahmanyam 1971: 92, 226).

V a iÒ nava Stories

From one temple to another we find the same depictions, even sculpted in exactly the same way. They belong to friezes made up of a series of sculpted panels whose format varies between 11 µ 11 centimeters and 2 7 µ 13 and they are worthy of the name "miniature panels" sometimes given to them. Each temple comprises one to three series of panels, one above another, on the socle of the temple and then, sometimes, on the bases of the external walls. 7 According to convention, we have numbered them from the temple ground level.

The bas-reliefs of these series are often of very high quality; myths that they represent can be the same as those that we find in the devakoÒ †has, which are of much larger dimensions. The most common Kaiva myths, such as the representation of the Gajasamhar a murti at T i r u c h e n n a m pu n ∂i and at Pul la m aoegai, or that of BhikÒa †ana in the above mentioned sites (Fig. 3), as well as in Tirumaoegalam and Paccil, are once again found on the friezes at the base. But these representations do not really belong to the narrative cycles. With few exceptions, Kaiva mythology is represented only in a single panel and we cannot speak of the continuity of the narration in this case: most of the cycles are VaiÒnava.

The friezes to which the narrative cycles belong are made up, in fact, of VaiÒnava narrative cycles, of independent Kaiva or VaiÒnava myths and of worldly repre-sentations, such as the dancers and the musicians who often appear. The importance of the place accorded to VaiÒnava representations in the Kaiva context is surprising. Since certain independent panels also show VaiÒna v a myths, such as the avataras of Trivikrama, Varaha and N a r a s imha, the majority of these series of representations are VaiÒnava. In the present corpus, only one temple is VaiÒnava, the Varadarajaperumal of Tirubhuvanai, near Pondicherry. This temple is an exception in a number of ways, which is perhaps explained by its being of a later period than the rest and not of the same region, but also because of its being VaiÒnava temple. 8 These representations certainly date back to the beginning of the 11th century. If we compare it to the Kaiva corpus of the Kauveri delta, it has a very curious iconography: it does not represent any scene that we can associate with the Kaiva context. Hence, as we observe in other domains, it seems that the Kaiva movement was more tolerant than the VaiÒna v a movement. This temple shows that we can, anyway, neither ignore the opposition between the two movements, nor consider that, in the case of narrative cycles at least, the Kaiva-VaiÒnava opposition was not operative, or was never operative.

Architectural Traditions and A v a tar a s

One of the first questions to arise in relation to these narrative series concerns their positioning. The panels may be placed very low down on the bases of the temple but, once again, the Varadarajaperumal of Tirubhuvanai is an exception with its representations placed a little above eye-level. In all the other temples, the series of representations go upwards, one above another. The first series of the temple of Tirumaoegalam, is level with the floor and some of its panels are today completely buried. At Pullamaoegai and Kumbakonam, the representations, belonging to the first series of bas-reliefs, are placed very low down in a sort of ditch surrounding the shrine. It is certain that the ground around the temples has risen in the course of the centuries and that the panels were much more visible in the 10th century than they are today. However, this positioning does not seem likely ever to have enhanced the visibility of the scenes represented.

We straightaway think of the kind of symbolic value these representations may have had, quasi-invisible as they are and yet often so finely wrought. It is, however, necessary first to think in terms of the architecture and of the traditional positioning in the temple. Narrative representations require a succession of scenes one after another and have their place just where the horizontal character of the structure is most marked. There are two places in the temples which are especially qualified from this point of view: the base and the meeting point between wall and roof. It is here that we find, all over India, bas-reliefs presented in the form of friezes. In South India, the finely carved narrative friezes of the Hoysala corpus are found on the bases which seem to have been extended to provide space for them. Yet if these placings are, in a text devoted to architecture, such as the Maricisamhita, meant especially for kÒatriyas, 9 it is perhaps because it is here that we meet with the stories which put the gods on the stage, very often doing battle, that is, behaving as kÒatriyas. Beyond the architectural lines of the temples, the placing of the Co pa narrative representations appear particularly well adapted to a symbolic function which stresses the horizontal or terrestrial element of the mythologies represented. The stories involved always have for their theme the incarnation of a deity, it may be one of the descents of ViÒnu or a form taken by Kiva, or by the Goddess, to fight one or another demon; in either case the deity descends to earth, and it is that deity's adventures on earth which are depicted.

The contrast with the traditional images featured at the centre of the exterior walls of the temples offers clarification in this respect. In most of the temples under consideration, a DakÒin amurti is found on the South wall, a Lioegodbhava or a Hari-Hara on the West and, on the North, a representation of Brahma, and also often of the Goddess standing on the head of a buffalo. These are all images belonging to worship. Hierarchical and divine, they stand isolated in the vertical space of a niche, unlike the representations of the series that are engraved horizontally. Near the ground, and defining a path of prayer which most often follows the pradakÒina, the figures featured in the series correspond to the terrestrial aspects of the deities on the exterior walls.

The representations in Tirumaoegalam which correspond to the representations in the niches, in which regard this temple is exceptional, confirm that aspect of the iconography of the series. This temple offers three successive series of representations. The sculpted panels which take up the iconography used in the niches belong to the last series, the one closest to the niches. Some of these representations, in fact, flank the images in the niches. This last frieze in its series seems to be an intermediary between the horizontal series of narrative representations and the vertical images in the temple. This is the only series whose representations are similar to those of the niches: its functions as an intermediary between two parts of the temple, the base and the exterior walls, may explain this. Lastly, as in the series at Tirumaoegalam, though placed further down in the temple, most of the series are situated on the extensions of the pilasters punctuating the walls of the buildings; their wide rectangle would certainly appear to be providing a base for the images for the worship, both those on the niches and those found inside the interior of the building.

The base of the temples is also seen to be an intermediary space, close to the ground and connected with it, where divine incarnations gamble or play the roles given them in the texts, putting on the costume of the boar, of the naked mendicant or of the Goddess mounted on a lion. This is the realm of the lila of the gods, the cosmic play which intervenes between gods and humans. The prescription in the M a ric i s amh i tamay also be understood thus. According to some authors, Rama may be represented on Copa Kaiva temples as the model of the king 10 but I am not sure that in this corpus Rama has always been considered as a royal incarnation. These temples were not founded by kings; it is often a matter of reconstruction, and the link with royal power hardly appears in the inscriptions except during a specific period at Tirubhuvanai which, once more, is seen to be an exception. 11 It is, however, certain that the illustrations of the Ramay ana, some of the forms of the Goddess and of Ki v a doing battle or, again, the stories of KrÒna, correspond to the representation of the protective function of a god manifesting in the world of mortal beings. In the North of the Tamil land, one of the inscriptions on the site of Tiruvannamalai does link Kiva and Rama in a formula intended to solemnise the gift made: "Kiva permeates everything, Rama conquers all". 12 Dated to the 17th century, the inscription is later than the temples in this study but appears as another manifestation of a religious state of mind according to which all divine forms may be seen as forms of Kiva even though Rama is the conquering form of the god, the one seemingly most fit to solemnise the gift made to the gods on earth. Some of the iconographic caracteristics of the represenations allow for the setting up of a more accurate hypothesis about the integration of these VaiÒnava series in this Kaiva context.

The Theatre of the World

A large number of representations of Kiva appearing in these narrative series seem to be derived almost directly from Pallava art. The BhikÒa †ana of the Kailasanatha of Kañcipuram (Fig. 4) is found again in the reduced dimensions of, for example, Tiruchennam-pun∂i (Fig. 3), Pullamaoegai and Puñjai: the iconography is quasi-stereotypical. The representations of MahiÒasura m a r d i ni are the most remarkable from this point of view. The panels of Tirumaoegalam (Fig. 56), of Pullamaoegai (Fig. 7), of Kumbakonam and of Paccil (Fig. 8) are constructed on the same plan as that of the famous bas-relief of MahiÒas u r a m a r d i ni in Mahabalipuram. It is mainly the Kaiva scenes, including those that bring the Goddess into the picture, which are constructed according to an iconography that hardly alters from temple to temple. 13 Even if some of the representations of avataras are also often very like one another, 14 the sculptors have shown more inventiveness when treating a VaiÒnava subject to which they were drawn to give more variety. This is not, in any case, because they lacked earlier models in the field.

This different treatment of VaiÒnava and Kaiva scenes brings us back to the place reserved for VaiÒnava images in a Kaiva context. Whatever pertains to the Kaiva domain seems to be more strictly codified. The VaiÒnava images may be proofs of more inventiveness, perhaps just because they stand outside the field of the worship conducted in the temples. They are not, for all that, considered as VaiÒnava, or at least not uniquely. It would seem that they are stories first and foremost. The place reserved for the series indicates their links with the terrestrial aspect of the things with which the temple is provided. The exterior walls of these temples are covered with inscriptions in with mundane matters, such as taxes, redistribution of lands and cleanings of tanks, dominate. They appear to correspond to the skin or surface of the temple, whose inner ritual is much more secret, fragile and therefore protected. The exterior walls and, even more often, the bases, are places of exchange with other worlds, divine or perfectly human. The narrative panels are imposed on the surface of the temple in contrast to the niches which carve a space, a priori protective, out of the exterior walls. The predominance of the VaiÒnava traditions is comprehensible in this case; ViÒnu is the incarnating deity par excellence and it is unquestionably descents of the deity into the human world which are represented. Beyond these incarnations of the god, or simutaneously with them, it is observable that there always was a connection between the narrative mode and the VaiÒnava tradition. The epics are both VaiÒnava even though Kiva has some prominence in the Mahabharata. In the field of narrative representations the VaiÒnava movements have always had primacy. Kiva is presented, first of all, in the transcendent form of the lioega but KrÒna, from the first images onwards, is a divine figure. The Puranas demonstrate that there is no lack of narrative strands with Kiva as hero. Puranic literature nevertheless offers the same view of a definitive VaiÒnava predominance as that found on the Copa bases; this is sometimes explained in terms of efforts to brahmanize a " n o n -V e d i c " 1 5 deity such as Ki v a . 1 6 Right from the start of brahmanical narrative art, which may be dated from the second century CE with the appearance of representa- tions of KrÒna fighting against Kekin at Mathura, the small numbers of Kaiva narrative representations is noticeable. 17 The fact that the epics are predominantly VaiÒnava may be significant here yet it may equally be said that the epics are VaiÒnava because the Kaiva movements were much less interested in the narrative genre. 18 In the first Copa series the narrative mode appears, in any case, to be essentially VaiÒnava and, as with the placing of the friezes, this VaiÒnava thematic must have been connected with their mundane character. In fact representations connected with the world of dance and music (Fig. 9) are quite numerous in these temples, on the order of 15 and 20 per cent per temple. They are sometimes inserted for the sake of solution of continuity with the cycles, all the more so as the dancing forms of gods are equally present: those of Siva (Fig. 10) but also those of KrÒna dancing with pots and playing the flute (Fig. 11). In the Hoysala temples this type of representation often marked the boundary between one narrative cycle and the next: it remains very common. We are familiar with religious festivals whose atmosphere seems very close to the presiding spirit of the representations on the bases. At the time of festivals dedicated to Kiva, plays were performed featuring the avataras of ViÒnu, such as the Mahaviracarita and the Uttararamacarita of Bhavabhuti, which have Rama for their hero and were performed in honour of Lord Kalapriya, one of the forms of Kiva. The inscriptions evoke, too, the drummers who made their instruments resonate during those festivals just as they do today. 19 The drummers are by far the best represented musicians on our narrative series and they often accompany Kiva dancing.

The presiding spirit of these representations in V a iÒnava narrative cycles appearing in series of otherwise Kaiva representations, and scenes of dance and music corresponds very well with the spirit of these rejoicings. The world of the theatre, of the divine action represented and played out on the earth, comes close to the Copa Kaiva series on the bases. The way they are divided into small panels irresistibly evokes the sequence of scenes of a play in a theatre. The poses taken by certain characters evoke the world of dance in the same way. The fight between two monkeys, Sugriva and Vali, in the Ramayana, for example, is obviously in the form of a dance (Fig. 12) and sometimes has no significance beyond its decorative value. We find it represented completely out of context in Kaiva temples such as that at Darasuram, where it is the only representation having to do with Rama but where it is, however, represented at least four times. It may, too, have inspired the pose of N a r a s imha fighting Hirany a k akipu, which also appears in distinctly dancing mode in, for example, the temple in Tirumaoegalam (Fig. 13). The outstandingly aesthetic nature of these representations where the wrestlers" limbs correspond to one another emphasizes the theatrical character of certain narrative representations. It is true that other representations of deities, such as those of battles or of leaping gods and demons, indirectly evoke the world of dance and theatre. The base of a temple is a theatre where the living gods appear and where "appears adorned with peacock feathers, red ochre and with buds, Mukun∂a-KrÒna who sometimes dresses up to play the role of a wrestler, friend !". 20

The Lord of the Stage

The spirit which animates the theatrical representations in the temples is close to the little world populating the narrative series and it evokes one of the fundamental concepts of the VaiÒnava tradition. André Couture (2001) in the course of a study of the use of vocabulary referring to the idea of the a v a tar a, brings to light the special link apparent in the M a hab har a t a, the H a r i v am ka a n d the Puranas between the world of theatre and the manifestations of ViÒnu. This connection seems to me to be illlustrated by the narrative series of the Co pa temples too. Avatarana designates, in the theatre, the entrance of the actors onto the scene, raoega, just as the same term designates the appearance of the god here below. The fight of KrÒna against his uncle's wrestlers staged by Kamsa, on a r ang a, in the town of Mathura, is also represented as the scene in which are revealed the powers of the god who manifests himself in the world. It is, however, the whole collection of episodes from the childhood of KrÒna, in the Harivamka, which must be considered as an entrance onto the scene, an avatarana. 21 It may be said that what appears on the scene is the visible form of the god, human or visible to the human eye, which KrÒna evokes in the Bhagavadgita (XI, 8), that which plays on earth amongst men and women after having put on the cos- tumes (veÒa, as quoted by Couture, Id.: 323) which gives him a human or half-animal form. 22 A detail of the organisation of the narrative cycles in the space of the Copa temples corresponds very closely to that textual aspect of the manifestation of the a v a tar a s. In our Copa corpus, the representations of ViÒnu KeÒakayi, ViÒnu sleeping on a serpent, precedes the entrance onto the scene of the avatara at Pullamaoegai (Fig. 14) and Tirubhuvanai (Fig. 15). In the Hoysala corpus, that figure marks in the same way, but in a quasi-systematic manner, the beginning of a narrative cycle. It may correspond to the beginning of the Ramayana, where the gods come to ask ViÒnu to incarnate, or, in a more general way, with the beginnings of the stories of avataras when the gods come in procession to ask Narayana to descend and relieve the Earth of her burden. But, in fact, this form of the god appears to be related in a very general way, since the first images of it in the North of India, to manifestations of the god, very often as avatara. Uniting human and animal forms in one double-bodied god, ViÒnu resting on a serpent deity, reveals a flesh and blood body rising up from another world invisible to mortal eyes as an intermediary between the world of the gods and that of humans. His image representing a transition from the non-manifest to the manifest, is very well adapted to the representation of the beginnings of the narrative cycles which are the cycle of the a v a tar a s. In Tamil Nadu moreover, that form of the god seems to maintain a specific relationship with the idea of theatrical representations; ViÒnu on the serpent is known by the name of Raoeganatha, the Lord of the Stage. This cosmogonic figure of ViÒnu sleeping on his elder brother, the serpent, marks the introduction of a new universe. In the Copa cycles, amongst others, the act of creation by the Lord of the Stage may corresponds to the introduction of the new scene, the raoegavatarana, the importance of which is emphasized by Couture, for it must be set out so that the a c t o r -a v a tar a, usually KrÒna or Rama, is able to manifest. The Apvars in their poetry like to place the figure of ViÒnu on the serpent before the evocation of his incarnations. 23 In Tamil Nadu the special link between the figure of V iÒnu sleeping on the serpent with the idea of the a v a tar a of god as the visible form of the deity appears from the first known images onwards. First of all, these figures are most often the ones carved in situ, as the image dated to the 7th century in the Shore Temple of Mahabalipuram. The meeting with the terrestrial world where the divine manifestations take place is marked, above all, by an inalienable relationship between that form of the god and the place where he appears. The earth takes the form of god; god gives her her form. Moreover this title "Raoeganatha" belonging to this manifestation of the god on the serpent deity is profoundly connected with ViÒnu resting on a serpent in the island town of Kriraoegam, "The Stage", a divine "scene", as it were, at the beginning of the delta that irrigates the region where the Kaiva temples of our corpus are situated. The name of this small island appeared in VaiÒnava devotional poetry, many of whose poems are dedicated to Kriraoegam. The concept of the god of the raoega at Kriraoegam seems to be even older and part of the mythical landscape which the isle is: a fragment of land emerging from the waters just as does, in a VaiÒnava framework, the whole created universe. 24 The profile of Kriraoegam, washed by the Kauveri, evokes that

N O T E S

1 The narrative friezes of the Melaikka †ampur temple, dating from the beginning of the 12th century (the first inscription is from 1113), are mainly consecrated to the Nayaqmars. The same Kaiva saints also appear in certain places on the last frieze of the Tirumaoegalam temple, which seems to be later than the other two, and are found again on the pillars at Darasuram, dating from the second half of the 12th century (the first dated inscription in this temple corresponds to the year 1167; for P.N. Srinivasan in L'Hernault 1987: 16, the temple was completed before the 13th year of Rajaraja II, which means before 1160). It is possible that this non-puranic Kaiva corpus had been exploited only from the 11th century because of modifications in the orientation of religious movements it is impossible to be more exact about at the moment. 2 The pilasters of Copa temples often have a decorative band on the upper tiers. At Tirumalpur this band bears the narrative representations which appear on the bases in the rest of the corpus. On the pilasters below, note 8. 3 On the dating of this temple see Balasubrahmanyam 1971: 56-58, 22. 4 South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. XIII, no. 257, vol. XIX, no. 63, 138, 168, 188;Varalaru, vol. 2, no. 16 & vol. 3, no. 9. 5 The epigraphic corpus of the Varadarajaperuma l of Tirubhuvanai is to be published. Some of the inscriptions are from the 10th century but it is not clear whether they belonged to the original building which was reconstructed in the thirties, as Pattabiramin (1948: 27) pointed out. 6 South Indian Inscriptions, vol. XIII, no. 29-34, 105, 132, 330, vol. III, no. 142 and 197, vol. XIX, no. 197, 220, 318, 319, 341, 445;Epigraphia Indica 1906: 265-344. 7 The only series situated on the base of exterior walls is found at Tirumaoegalam. Considered as later by nearly a century than the first two series of representations, it is, with the unique series of Tirubhuvanai dated from the beginning of the 11th century, the one which is placed in the most visible position in the temple. It appears that the series have a tendency to move upwards on the building of the temple, finishing in the Hoysala corpus where they are most often found at eye level. Elsewhere, the iconography of the narrative series is sometimes used on the pilasters of a temple. This is certainly the placing chosen for the representations of a cycle about KrÒna at Tirumalpur, probably towards the middle of the 10th century. At Puñjai, one of the pilasters at the entrance to the shrine is decorated in the same place with a representation of the Goddess dancing, which is found again in the second series of the temple. On the South face of the temple of Pullamaoegai, one of the pilasters is decorated with representations of KrÒna episodes. On the temples of Paccil and Tirumaoegalam, various of the pilasters are ornamented by representations of gods. At Pa † †a∂akal, 7th century, the interior pillars of some temples bear narrative representations: perhaps these Copa pilasters are reviving a more ancient tradition. In the second half of the 6 3 4

Of Gods and Mortals: Lila C opa | s c h m i d | land encircled by water which ƒAn †al presents as submissive to the lord of Araoekam (Krirangam):

"Sovereign Lord who faultlessly rules / the heavenly spheres, / the earth / encircled by billowing seas-/ my lord of splendour / of scepters and crown / who reigns in holy Arankam-/ surely my bangles can add naught to his perfections." (Nacciyar Tirumopi, 11, 3; trad. Dehejia 1990: 115-116). 25 The Kauveri represents oceanic turbulences as well as that eternal sea symbolized by the serpent, on which rests the god, qualified to create the world wherein tinkle the bracelets of ƒA n † a l. The black divinity sleeping on the serpent is the Lord of the stage whose manifestation must needs precede that of the avatara. He is the god who brings into being the earthly scenes. The evocation, in the P a r i pa †a l, of the city of Madurai/Mathura draws forth the image of that scene which first appears in the navel of the god:

"The renowned town is comparable to a lotus flower / blossoming on the umbilical cord of the Dark one. Her streets are the same / as the petals of the flower; and the same as the precious fruit / which is in the middle of these petals, the palace of the Lord" (Paripa †al, fragment no. 8). 26 At the centre of the world stage, the temple, where the gods play, opens its petals.

The narrative model gives the shape to the bases of these temples. It is the first level of interpretation, in the same way as is the mythology recited to an attentive audience who may sometimes perhaps have seen it playing before their very eyes just as it is shown on the base of the buildings. The deities it brings onto the scene introduce the people of earth to the worlds of the gods in an intermediary space -earth and sky, interior and exterior -of the temples which facilitated the meeting of several universes, human, divine and religious. Images and texts also meet in this space. The correspondences, both established and impossible to establish, between these representations and the texts to which we have access, make us aware of a number of narrative traditions. The concept of a v a tar a, as it appears in certain texts, and especially in the Harivamka, allows us to explain, at least to a certain extent, the important place that Kaiva temple complexes devoted to VaiÒnava representations. The base of the temple reveals itself as a space where gods, demons and men meet in the midst of the prominent musicians and dancers: the theatre of the world. The succession of scenes occupying the panels evokes a theatrical action, which in the Harivamka corresponds to the concept of avatarana, the appearance of God on earth, conceived as a scene from a drama where men and gods mingle: then the story begins.

12th century, the pillars of Darasuram (see above note 2) are covered with representations from bottom to top. 8 On the VaiÒnava representations of the Varadarajaperumal see Schmid 2002. 9 See the study of this text by Gérard Colas 1983: 6. 10 See for example Sanford 1987: 279-280 who emphasizes the epigraphical comparisons of Copa kings with Rama. There is without doubt a strong connection between Rama and the royal function but Rama is above all a divine form, a god descended here below and mixing with human beings: an avatara. 1 1 The site of Paccil also seems weak as a link between representations of Ramay ana and the king: three temples, two Kaiva and one V a iÒna v a, form a Copa group on the site. The Kaiva t e m p l e , other than that carrying narrative cycles, bears several inscriptions linking it to the royal family even though no single inscription qualifiying as royal appears in the Tirrumex xa †i kvara. In a conference entitled "Mapping Movement in Sacred Spaces in Medieval Tamil Nadu", presented at the "36th International Congress of Asian and North African Studies" in year 2000, at Montreal, Leslie Orr raised the question of the importance of the link between the Copa kings and the temples. The examples considered by the author correspond to famous foundations such as Chidambaram and Tiruvannamalai as well as to lesser known temples such as those of K a t t u m aq qa r g u d i . The network of relationships between these temples gives little place to the king (his capital, his foundations, etc.). In the case of temples bearing narrative cycles it would certainly seem that the link with the king is in fact a very distant one. 12 civamayam ramaceyam, Srinivasan 1990; an inscription on a copper plate dated from the 17th century and including Kaiva representations. 13 This type of example suggests that there exists a very close relationship, at least in the iconographical field, between the first Copa temples decorated with narrative cycles. It is possible that the same teams of craftsmen worked on these temples. The style of the panels however is sometimes different from one temple to another (on occasion even in the same temple) and the chronology would rather indicate that teams of craftsmen transmitted the models, perhaps from father to son, and we may also imagine iconographical models circulating between teams of sculptors. 14 There are two very similar representations of the boar avatara, above p. 8. 15 Kiva is unarguably a Vedic divinity; he has a peripheral status in the Vedas however and is sometimes contrasted with ViÒnu who is considered to be more orthodox. 16 See for example Rocher 1984 who, bringing up the question of the sectarian character of the Puranas, emphasizes the elements of the reciprocity between Kaiva and VaiÒnava movement in the same texts, rather than considering the tolerance and intolerance of the two movements towards one another. The iconography of the VaiÒnava temple at Tirubhuvanei may correspond to a more sectarian tendency (vedicly inspired?) among other tendencies. 17 The Kaiva narrative representations from the Gupta period are very scarce: a terracotta from R aoeg-Mahal in Raj a s t han, representing the descent of the Ganges, another which belongs to the site of Ahichattra in Uttar Pradesh and represents the destruction of the sacrifice of DakÒa, (NMD 62.238, Kreisel 1986: A 27), and a sandstone bas-relief from Mathura of the demon Ravana shaking mount Kailasa (MM 2577, Id.: 160, 238-239, pl. 109). 18 One of the themes from the Mahabharata, which is found in three different temples, (Tiruchennampun∂i, Kumbakonam and Puñjai) is that of the Kiratar j u niya which puts on the scene a VaiÒnava hero in the framework of Kaiva devotion. This must without doubt be considered in the same category of representation as the adoration of the lioega by Ravana at Kumbakonam. It is a matter of the integration of a VaiÒnava corpus used as a narrative corpus in the Kaiva totality of the temple. In the Hoysala temples this myth is also often found, as in the temples of Javaggal, photos Evenisse-EFEO N 45 8-10. 19 Inscription no. 25 of Rajaraja I found on the interior gopuram of the Brhadikvara of Tañjore mentions the donations given to the musicians beating their drums at festivals dedicated to Kiva (South Indian Inscriptions, vol. II: 125-126. Two of the six Copa inscriptions of the temple at Paccil (see above p. 6) evoke the same world; one is a donation to a singer and the other a donation made for the dances (maima † †i) and the drums (kara †ikai). 2 0 b a r h ina s t a b a k a d hatupallavair baddhamallaparib a r h a v i∂a m b aÌ / karhi cit sabala ali sa gopair ga Ì s a mahvayati yatra mukundam //. The translation given in the text corresponds with the first half of the verse only. 21 A. Couture (2001: 322) offers a quotation which is particularly clarifying in this respect: tavavatarane viÒno kamsaÌ sa vinakiÒyati, " O ViÒnu, at the moment of your descent (or entrance) [on the stage at Mathura], Kamsa will perish", Harivamka 44, 82, this may apply to the birth of KrÒna at the same time as to his appearance on the stage where he must fight against the wrestlers in the pay of his uncle. 22 It is noticeable that the animal avataras, Varaha and Narasimha, who often appeared on Copa temples are always represented in a semihuman form. This is, it is true, the most common form but the Varaha avatara may equally appear in an entirely animal form as sometimes occurs when it is the boar who is searching for one of the extremities of the lioega of Kiva. 23 See for example the Periyatirumopi of Tirumaoekai Apvar, 3, 1 and the Nacciyar Tirumopi of ƒAn †al 11, 3; and there are many other examples. 24 T.V. Gopal Iyer and V. Desikan of the centre of the EFEO in Pondicherry gave me clarifying indications on the appearance of the term raoega, tamil a r aoeg a m: it appears in the C i l a p p a t i k kar a m in circumstances which seem to indicate that in this text it was already linked to the town of Kriraoegam as a place suitable for the manifestation of Raoeganatha. In the 10th canto of the P u kar k kan †a m, the word appears several times in its Sanskrit meaning of stage but one of these occurrences is an equivalent of the tamil turutti, little island. The description of a grove is presented thus (though I have no direct access to Tamil texts, I quote the text itself for the benefit of specialists): "axxu vi arankattu vixxu vixxaki" which may be translated as "[the grove] majestically situated in a unique manner on an tiny island which divides the river in two". We may also translate this as "the stage which divides the river in two" but a stage which would be specifically related to that which forms the isle where the divinity of Krir aoegam resides. It seems that in this tradition the Kriraoegam deity appears as the divinity par excellence of the stage, to the point of conferring on a term of Sanskrit origin a meaning derived from the geographical position occupied by the temple of the god. A fragment of earth which emerges from the cosmogonic water flowing all around it, the isle is an image of the world created by the god and, as such, a representation of the stage where he manifests. 25 ponkotam cupnta pavaqiyum vinnulakum / anka tuñ corame yapkiqxa vemperumaq / cenko lu †aiya tiru varankac celvaqar / enkol vapaiya li †artirva rakate. 26 mayoq koppup malarnta kamaraip / puvera †u puraiyuñ cirup puv iq / itapakat taqaiya teruva mitapakat / tarumpotu † †aqaittai yaqqal koyil.

Acknowledgements: Heartfelt thanks to Franck Evenisse whose photographs illustrate this article as well as to everyone at the centre of the École française d'Extrême-Orient in Pondicherry and especially to V. Desikan, N. Ramaswamy (Babu), Shanti Rayapoull e and R. Satyanarayanan who helped me to collect, organize and interpret the documentation.

Fig. 1 -

 1 Fig. 1 -Tiruchennampun∂i, Ka∂aiyar temple, 10th century. (Photo: EFEO-Evenisse N 26 30).

Fig. 2 -

 2 Fig. 2 -Tirubhuvanai, Varadarajaperumal temple, 11th century. (Photo: EFEO-Ravindran E 75 7).

Fig. 3 -

 3 Fig. 3 -Tiruchennampun∂i, Ka∂aiyar temple, 10th century, Kiva BhikÒa †ana. (Photo: EFEO-Evenisse N 24 9).

Fig. 4 -

 4 Fig. 4 -Kañcipuram, Kailasanatha, BhikÒa †ana, 7th century. (Photo: EFEO-L'Hernault 78 32a).

Fig. 5 -

 5 Fig. 5 -Tirumaoegalam, Samavedikvara temple, 10th century, MahiÒasuramardini. (Photo: EFEO-Evenisse N 40 20).

Fig

  Fig. 7 -Pullamaoegai, Brahmapurikvara temple, 10th century, MahiÒasuramardini. (Photo: EFEO-Evenisse N 36 32).

Fig. 9 -

 9 Fig. 9 -Puñjai, Naltuñai Ikvara temple, 10th century, musicians. (Photo: EFEO-Evenisse N 6 30).

Fig. 11 -

 11 Fig. 11 -Tiruchennampun∂i, Ka∂aiyar temple, 10th century, KrÒna playing flute. (Photo: EFEO-Evenisse N 24 28).

Fig. 10 -

 10 Fig. 10 -Pullamaoegai, Brahmapurikvara temple, 10th century, dancing Kiva. (Photo: EFEO-Evenisse N 37 22).

Fig

  Fig. 12 -Tirumaoegalam, Samavedikvara temple, 10th century, the fight of Sugriva and Vali. (Photo: EFEO-Evenisse N 42 5).

Fig

  Fig. 14 -Pullamaoegai, Brahmapurikvara temple, 10th century, Ranganatha. (Photo: EFEO-Evenisse N 38 16). Fig. 15 -Tirubhuvanai, Varadarajaperumal temple, 11th century, Raoeganatha. (Photo: EFEO-Ravindran E 75 2).


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