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The lion in the South
The lion in South India — which cropped up in my recent references to the Pallavas and in readers’ responses — continues to attract the attention of readers. Numismatist R. Krishnamurthy sends me another of his profusely illustrated scholarly publications, this time titled The Pallava Coins. And in it are featured eight Pallava copper coins using the lion motif on the obverse side. These date from the Third Century C.E. to the Seventh Century C.E. What appears a remarkable coincidence in styling is that in a Seventh Century C.E. coin among these eight, the lion is almost identical in representation to one in Arjuna’s Penance (Miscellany, April 7). Coincidentally, Dr. A. Raman writes — referring to reader Theodore Baskaran’s comments (Miscellany, April 7) — that the Thirukkural often uses the word eru that has, like irai-matchi, ari and ari-ma, been translated as lion, but should have been translated as ‘bull’. He adds, “Tamil pundits have interpreted all these to mean ‘lion’,” but “did the ancient Tamils see what we see as ‘lion’ today?” He also urges all those interested in the lion in South India to refer to a paper by Yamaguchi et al on the web.
* Reader Pradeep Chakravarthy, who, looking back on his contribution to the West Asia-South India-Southeast Asia debate in Miscellany April 7, writes:
“The Southeast Asian style is influenced by India; after all, they borrowed from our religions and languages (Sanskrit words can still be seen in Bhasha Indonesia and Thai), but the point is, cultural comparisons on such grounds as who influenced who more/which is older (and, therefore, greater/superior) etc., are invidious. Southeast Asian culture may have borrowed, but they refined it tremendously and they take credit for that; the panel of the asuras and devas churning the ocean, for example.
“Whoever influenced the other, there is one thing that we need to learn from the remaining India-inspired buildings in Cambodia — the art of maintaining the buildings! Both Angkor Wat and the Big Temple are World Heritage Sites, but the restrictions on buildings around the site are so much better enforced in Angkor than in the Big Temple!”
S. MUTHIAH
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