Nataraja Temple (Akasha Lingam), Tamil Nadu

Thillai Nataraja Temple, also referred as the Chidambaram Nataraja Temple, is a Hindu temple dedicated to Nataraja, the form of Shiva as the lord of dance. This temple is located in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. This temple has ancient roots and a Shiva shrine existed at the site when the town was known as Thillai. Chidambaram, the name of the city literally means “stage of consciousness”. The temple architecture symbolizes the connection between the arts and spirituality, creative activity and the divine.The temple wall carvings display all the 108 karanas from the Natya Shastra by Bharata Muni, and these postures form a foundation of Bharatanatyam, an Indian classical dance.

The present temple was built in the 10th century when Chidambaram was the capital of the Chola dynasty. After its 10th-century consecration by the Cholas who considered Nataraja as their family deity,the temple has been damaged, repaired, renovated and expanded through the 2nd millennium. Most of the temple’s surviving plan, architecture and structure is from the late 12th and early 13th centuries, with later additions in similar style.While Shiva as Nataraja is the primary deity of the temple, it reverentially presents major themes from Shaktism, Vaishnavism, and other traditions of Hinduism. The Chidambaram temple complex, for example, has the earliest known Amman or Devi temple in South India, a pre-13th-century Surya shrine with chariot, shrines for Ganesha, Murugan and Vishnu, one of the earliest known Shiva Ganga sacred pool, large mandapas for the convenience of pilgrims (choultry, ambalam or sabha) and other monuments.Shiva himself is presented as the Nataraja performing the Ananda Tandava (“Dance of Delight”) in the golden hall of the shrine Pon Ambalam.

The temple is one of the five elemental lingas in the Shaivism pilgrimage tradition, and considered the subtlest of all Shiva temples (Kovil) in Hinduism. It is also a site for performance arts, including the annual Natyanjali dance festival on Maha Shivaratri.

History

The Nataraja temple has ancient roots, early textual evidence, such as those of the Sangam tradition, suggest a temple existed here along with Madurai in ancient times,but the town is not named Chidambaram in these pre-5th-century texts.^[25] The earliest mention of “dancing god of Chidambaram” as Shiva is found in 6th- and early-7th-century texts by Appar and Sambadar.The Suta Samhita embedded inside Sri Kanda Puranam and variously dated between 7th and 10th century mentions the Chidambaram dance.Likely following the temple architecture tradition that is found all over South India from at least the 5th century when many older brick and wooden temples were being replaced by more lasting temples from cut stone as the building blocks in dozens of places across South India.The surviving Nataraja temple has a structure that is traceable to the early Chola Dynasty.Chidambaram was the early capital of this dynasty, and Shiva Nataraja was their family deity. The Chidambaram temple town remained important to the Cholas, albeit with increasing competition from other temple towns when Rajaraja Chola I moved the capital to Thanjavur, built a new city and the massive Brihadeeswarar Temple dedicated to Shiva in the early 11th century, which is now a world heritage site.

Nataraja Shiva and his “dance of bliss” is an ancient Hindu art concept. It is found in various texts such as Tatva Nidhi which describes seven types of dance and their spiritual symbolism, Kashyapa Silpa which describes 18 dance forms with iconographic details and design instructions, as well as Bharata’s ancient treatise on performance arts Natya Shastra which describes 108 dance postures among other things. Reliefs and sculptures of Nataraja have been found across the Indian subcontinent, some dating to the 6th century and earlier such as in Aihole and Badami cave temples.

The earliest historically verifiable Shiva temple at Chidambaram is traceable in inscriptions that date to the rule of Aditya Chola I in the early 10th century, and far more during the rule of the 10th-century Chola king Parantaka Chola I.For them, the dancing Shiva was the kula-nayaka (family guide or deity) and Chidambaram was the capital they built. These inscriptions and texts from this period suggest that the significance of the Agama texts and Shaiva Bhakti movement was strengthening within the Chola leadership and thought.

The copper plate inscriptions of Parantaka I (c. 907–955 CE) describe him as the “bee at the lotus feet of Shiva” who built the golden house for Shiva, with Chit-sabha, Hema-sabha, Hiranya-sabha and Kanaka-sabha (all mandapam, pillared pilgrim rest places). He is referred to as “Pon veinda Perumal”, which means “one who covered with gold” the Chit-sabha of Chidambaram.Both Aditya I and his Chola successor Parantaka I were active supporters of arts and temple building. They converted many older brick and wooden temples into more lasting temples from cut stone as the building blocks in dozens of places across South India.

Raja Raja Chola I (985–1013 CE) embarked on a mission to recover the hymns of the 63 Nayanmars after hearing short excerpts of the Tevaram in his court.He sought the help of Nambiyandar Nambi, who was a priest in a temple.^[37] It is believed that by divine intervention Nambi found the presence of scripts, in the form of cadijam leaves half eaten by white ants in a chamber inside the second precinct in the temple.The brahmanas (Dikshitars) in the temple are supposed to have disagreed with the king by saying that the works were too divine, and that only by the arrival of the “Naalvar” (the four saints)—Appar, Sundarar, Tirugnanasambandar and Manickavasagar would they allow for the chambers to be opened. Rajaraja, however, created idols of them and prepared for them to be brought to the temple through a procession. but Rajaraja is said to have prevailed. Rajaraja thus became known as Tirumurai Kanda Cholan meaning one who saved the Tirumurai.

In another version of the story, Rajaraja is said to have experienced a dream from lord Shiva telling Rajaraja that the hymns in Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram are in a state of destruction and to recover the remaining hymns from the chambers. The brahmanas (Dikshitars) in the temple, however, are supposed to have disagreed with the king by saying that the works were too divine to be accessed, and that only by the arrival of the 63 Nayanmars would they allow for the chambers to be opened. Rajaraja, devising a plan, consecrated idols of each of them and prepared for them to be brought into the temple through a procession. It is said that the 63 idols are still present in the Thillai Nataraja Temple. When the vault was opened, Rajaraja is said to have found the room infested with white ants, and that the hymns were salvaged as much as possible.

The temple, according to inscriptions found in South India and Southeast Asia, was also historic recipient of a precious jewel from the king of Angkor who built the Angkor Wat through Chola king Kulothunga, who submitted it to the temple in 1114 CE.Kulothunga I and his son expanded the Chidambaram Nataraja temple sixfold.

Chidambaram temple thrived during the Chola dynasty rule through mid-13th century, along with the later Shiva-based Thanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram capitals, as well as Vishnu-based Srirangam temple towns. Its facilities infrastructure was expanded. Naralokaviran, the general of king Kulothunga Chola I was responsible for building the steps that lead to Sivaganga water pool, a goddess shrine, a shrine for child saint Thirugnana Sambanthar, temple gardens and a pilgrim road network in and around Chidambaram. He constructed a hall for recitation of Tevaram hymns and engraved the hymns in copper plates.The thousand pillar choultry, with friezes narrating Hindu texts, was built in the late 12th century.Between the second half of the 12th century and the early 13th century, the Chola kings added colorful and high gopura stone gateways as easily identifiable landmarks, starting with the western gopura. Thereafter, about mid 13th century, the Pandya dynasty ended the Chola dynasty.The Hindu Pandyas were liberal supporters of Chidambaram temple, along with other Shiva and Vishnu temples, just like the Chola. Sundara Pandya added the huge eastern gopura at Chidambaram, beginning the colossal gateway tradition.Most of the structure and plans currently seen in the Chidambaram complex, including the mandapas with their pillar carvings, the various shrines with polished granite sculptures, the sacred water pool and the early gopurams are from the 12th and 13th century, attributed to the late Chola and early Pandya kings.

Invasions

In the north, the Indian subcontinent had been conquered by the Delhi Sultanate. Muslim armies had begun raiding central India for plunder by the late 13th century. In 1311, when Sultan Alauddin Khilji ordered his general Malik Kafur and his forces to invade southern Hindu kingdoms, he went deeper into the Indian peninsula for loot and to establish annual tribute agreement between the kingdom and the Sultanate.The records left by the court historians of the Delhi Sultanate state that Malik Kafur raided Chidambaram, Srirangam, Madurai and other Tamil towns, destroyed the temples, and the Nataraja temple was one of the sources of gold and jewels booty he brought back to Delhi.The temple towns of Tamil Nadu were again targeted for loot in the 1320s. However, when the news of another invasion spread in Tamil lands, the community removed them into the Western Ghats or buried numerous sculptures and treasures in the land and concealed chambers underneath temples sites before the Muslim armies reached them. A large number of these were rediscovered in archaeological excavations at the site in and after 1979, including those in Chidambaram.According to Nagaswamy, those who buried the temple artworks followed the Hindu Agama texts such as Marici Samhita and Vimanarcanakalpa that recommend ritually burying precious metal murtis as a means of protection when war and robbery is imminent. Over 200 such items have been recovered, including relevant hordes of copper plate inscriptions.

The Islamic invasion in the 14th century, states George Michell – a professor and art historian of Indian architecture, brought an abrupt end to the patronage of Chidambaram and other temple towns.The Delhi Sultan appointed a Muslim governor, who seceded within the few years from the Delhi Sultanate and began the Madurai Sultanate. This Sultanate sought tribute from the temple towns, instead of supporting them. The Muslim Madurai Sultanate was relatively short lived, with Hindu Vijayanagara Empire removing it in the late 14th century.The Vijayanagara rulers restored, repaired and expanded the temple through the 16th century, along with many other regional temples. These kings themselves went on pilgrimage to Chidambaram, and gifted resources to strengthen its walls and infrastructure.

The destruction of Vijayanagara Empire in the late 16th century by an alliance of Sultanates, followed within a few decades by entrance of Portuguese, French and British colonial interests brought geopolitical uncertainties to Chidambaram and other temple towns. The Portuguese were already a major Coromandel Coast trading group by the early 17th century, a region to which Chidambaram belonged.

The Portuguese began building forts, garrison and churches in Coromandel Coast region after the demise of Vijayanagara, triggering the intervention of the French and the British. By the mid-17th century, the temple complex was within the patronage of Nayakas, who repaired the temple and repainted the frescoes on mandapa ceilings. According to Michell, these restorations likely occurred about 1643 CE during the reign of Shrirangadeva Raya III.

According to British reports, Chidambaram temple town had to bear the “brunt of several severe onslaughts” between the French and the British colonial forces several times particularly in the 18th century.

Legend

The Chidambaram temple legend is contained in the 12th-century text Chidambara-mahatmya. The central episode states that Shiva visits sages in the mythical forest in the form of a dancer mendicant (Bhikshatana) accompanied by Mohini, Vishnu in his avatar as a beautiful woman. Mohini triggers lustful interest of the sages, while Shiva performs Tandava dance that triggers the carnal interest of the wives of these sages. The sages ultimately realise how superficial their austerities have been. The episode becomes widely known. Two sages named Patanjali (also called Sesha-bodied in the south for his connection to Vishnu) and Vyaghrapada (also called Tiger-footed sage) want to see the repeat performance of this “dance of bliss” in the Thaillai forest, Chidambaram. They set up a Shivalinga, pray, meditate and wait. Their asceticism impresses Shiva who appeared before them in Chidambaram and performed “the dance” against “the wall, in the blessed hall of consciousness”. This is how this temple started, according to the mahatmya embedded in the Tamil Sthalapurana.According to Kulke, the late medieval text Chidambaramahatmya may reflect a process of Sanskritisation, where these North Indian named sages with Vedic links became incorporated into regional temple mythology.

According to a Hindu legend, once Shiva and his consort Parvati wanted to judge who among them was a better dancer, and wanted their sons Ganesha and Murugan to judge their performances. Both of them judged in favour of Parvati, after which Shiva was not satisfied. He wanted Brahma to judge, and the competition was held in Thiruvalangadu. Brahma was still not satisfied, and he wanted Vishnu to judge, and the latter wanted the competition in Tillaivanam. Shiva performed the Urthvathandavam pose of picking his earring with his legs, and wearing them in the ear with his legs. Parvati was not able to perform the feat. Vishnu was Impressed and declared Shiva as the winner. Parvati got angry due to her frustration at her defeat, became Kali at the Thillai Kali temple.

According to another Hindu legend, Mahalingaswamy at Thiruvidaimarudur is the centre of all Shiva temples in the region and the Saptha Vigraha moorthis (seven prime deities in all Shiva temples) are located at seven cardinal points around the temple, located in various parts of the state.The seven deities are Nataraja in Chidambaram Nataraja Temple at Chidambaram, Chandikeswarar temple at Tirucheingalur, Ganesha in Vellai Vinayagar Temple at Thiruvalanchuzhi, Murugan in Swamimalai Murugan Temple at Swamimalai, Bhairava in Sattainathar Temple at Sirkali, Navagraha in Sooriyanar Temple at Suryanar Kovil, Dakshinamoorthy in Apatsahayesvarar Temple at Alangudi.

The temple, also called Perumpatrapuliyur in this context, is one of the Nava Puliyur Temples worshipped by Patanjali and Vyaghrapada.The other temples are Thirupathiripuliyur, Erukathampuliyur, Omampuliyur, Sirupuliyur, Atthippuliyur, Thaplampuliyur, Perumpuliyur and Kanattampuliyur.