The Buddhist & Jaina heritage – in the best of all cities l by Prema Nandakumar

Kanchipuram visited – the first of a three-part series.

Of all India’s glorious cities of the past, Kalidasa singled out Kanchi as the very best:
“pushpesu jaati purusheshu Vishnu
naarishu Rambha nagershu Kanchi”

The jasmine among flowers, Vishnu among men, Rambha among women and Kanchi among cities! Kalidasa was a well-travelled person with a rare aesthetic sense, and was himself the resident of Ujjayini, among the best in Indian cities. Kalidasa knew history; had understood his contemporary world, and Kanchipuram was always at the top.

The name Kanchipuram may have come from the abundance of Kanchi trees (river Portia) in the area once upon a time. Located on the banks of the Palar river, it has been referred to in ancient Tamil poems like Mani­mekalai and Perumbanatrup­padai which belong to the San­gam age. Wandering in Kanchipuram with all those references going round and round in my head, I noticed that every stone has a story to tell, so where do I begin?

Actually, there is not one but four Kanchipurams and it is as well that we take them as four segments for our purpose. Buddha Kanchi opens the account because Buddhism was the first builder of the city. The Girnar inscription of Emperor Ashoka assures us that by 3rd Century B.C. Buddhism had registered its presence widely in South India.

This is corroborated by Madurai-k-kanji:
Young women held fast to themselves
Little children ornamented with jewels
So they will not be lost; kissing them
And holding firmly their hands
That appeared like pollen-rich lotus buds,
They stood there, carrying flowers for worship,
And scented smoke, singing the glory
Of their Lord in that Buddha Vihara…1

Some of the action of the epic Manime­kalai is located in Kan­chi­puram where the heroine, a Buddhist nun, performs charity with the help of Amuda Surabhi, a vessel that produces food in abun­dance. Even today Kanchi­puram has an area called Arap­pa­nancheri, where Manime­kalai’s spiritual mentor Aravana spent his last days. Here we have Arapperumchelvi Gramam (the place of the Maid of Great Charity). I went into the temple of Paranjoti Amman and found a plaque: “From times immemorial this village has not allowed sacrifice of any life.” Obviously a reminder of the original temple to that Incarnate Compassion!

There was a Pallava King Buddhavarma in Kanchi who built many viharas. Great Buddhist teachers like Buddha­ghosha (5th Century), Deepan­kara Thero, Dignaga and Acharya Dharmapala, taught here. Aniruddha, author of Abhidhammata Sangraha lived in the Mulasoma Vihara. The list is long. Bodhidharma was a Brahmin prince of Kanchipuram who went to China taking the message of Buddha. We learn that he isolated himself in a Shaolin temple in Honan Province for nine years. When he came out, he had written two books, one of them being the famous I Chin Ching.

Kamakshi Amman Temple, Kanchipuram.

Unfortunately, by 7th Century, sectarian disputes had begun to injure the glory of Buddhism as we read in Matta Vilasa Prahasana, a farce written by the Pallava King Mahendravarman (7th Century). As I walked forlorn, bowed down by the glorious history of ancient times, I could not see any visible presence of Buddhism. But I was assured by a local friend that a few goddess sculptures in the Kamakshi Temple are actually of the Buddhist Tara Devi and it was in this temple that a Buddhist stupa belonging to 2nd Century B.C. was discovered. It is now in the Madras Archaeological Museum. Quite a few sculptures of Buddha have been excavated in Kanchipuram, including the massive Buddha seated in meditation, from a local school. Buddhism has also had a revival thanks to Dalit leaders who wish to infuse the underprivileged with self-confidence. At Koneripakkam, a small temple has been built by them to house some relics unearthed in the area when digging up the place to build a Muslim durgah.

I completed my search for Buddha Kanchi in Bodhi Nagar founded by Ven. Divyananda. This is a brave attempt to recreate the vihara concept, where monks stayed together engaged in scholarship, arts, contemplation. There is a Bodhi Tree, and a figure of Buddha in the shrine. I recited Sutamati’s prayer in Manimekalai feeling blessed by the gentle waves of peace that seemed to proceed from the shrine:

Our Lord, self-taught, the essence of faultless things,
Incarnating in nature’s several forms,
Always living for the good of others,
Never for himself: for the good of the world
His penace, with the idea of Dharma.
Hence his rolling the wheel of Dharma rays.
He won victory over desire; Buddha’s Feet
Shall I praise, my tongue shall nought else do.

Jina Kanchi has managed to retain two of its original temples in the city. The presence of Jainism goes back to Chandra­gupta Maurya’s retirement in Karnataka. Again, ancient Tamil poetry has much to say about Jainism known as Samanam (from Sramana). The founder of the Pallava kingdom was Simhavishnu who ruled from Kanchipuram. He was truly secular, though he was himself a Vaish­nava. His son Mahendra­varman (7th Century) became an ardent devotee of Jai­nism. In and around Kan­chipuram lived great Jain scholars like Acharya Akalanga, Suranandi and Mallisena Vamana. Mallisena’s epic poem, Meru Mandara Pura­nam upholds Jain thoughts in a striking manner:

If you wish to act, perform dharma.
If you wish to renounce, renounce anger.
If you wish to see, look at knowledge.
If you wish to guard, protect your vows.

The Jains loved building temples to their arhats or realised souls. A thousand years ago, Kanchipuram must have been dotted by these temples where artisans who had mastered sculpture and metal-casting created great structures. Due to man’s insensitivity, these treasure-troves of devotion and art have been completely destroyed.

Except for two. They were built in the Ninth Century in Tiruparuththikunram near Kanchipuram. The temple to the eighth Tirthankara Chandra Prabha was built by King Nandivarman Pallavamalla. The adjacent Trailokyanatha Temple has Mahavira as the main deity in the sanctum. The land was gifted to the Jain community by King Simhavishnu as early as the Fifth Century. In the succeeding centuries, Chola, Chera and Vijayanagar kings contributed handsomely for the upkeep of the temples.

Today, both temples are looked after by the Archaeological Survey of India. When I went, the area was deserted but the caretaker Padma opened the temple. The main door led to a vast parikrama with a gracious Flagstaff and balipeetam. There is a Sangita Mandapa which has a magnificent ceiling with wonderful paintings. Gazing at it, ignoring the pain that shoots through my neck turned upwards, I have a dizzy feeling that there is movement in the paintings. Young men and women carrying pitchers reminded me of Keats and his ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’. Centuries have passed by, but these have remained young! And they will be there in the future as well:

When old age shall this generation waste,

Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty; – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’

I found among the paintings a huge Samavasarana Lake, the famous Jain icon. At the very centre, the Acharya was speaking words of wisdom while people were converging towards him to listen. Incidents from Mahavira’s life and from the Tamil epic Choolamani, which has Dhivittan (the Jain version of Krishna) as the hero, kept me riveted to the ceiling for quite some time.

Close to the sanctum is the strong room where several ancient images of Arhats made of marble or bronze have been kept in safe custody. Some of the images are of gods and yakshi-s in Jain theology. The temple’s twin is in a very bad shape. Indeed, I do not know whether the Archaeological Survey of India is taking proper care of these rare, life-like frescoes that are also priceless from the point of view of art. – (Courtesy: Sri Aurobindo’s Action.)

All translations from Tamil are by Prema Nandakumar, unless otherwise stated.

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