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Photos: G. Moorthy

Chiselled Rock The front view (left). Lord Muruga and his consort Devasena (right)

But the next question is surely difficult. Where he held the public reception with his new bride?

The answer may lies in a visit to the Ladan Cave Temple in the foothills of Yanamalai.

A small lane adjacent to the famous Lord Yoga Narasimhar Temple leads visitors to a rocky terrain and then to the Ladan Cave Temple, which is built in the style of early Pandya period.

This rock-cut temple, dedicated to Lord Muruga and his consort Goddess Devesena exclusively, belongs to eighth century A.D, according to Archaeological officers.

Huge tusk-shaped staircase from either side leads to the front mandap where the peacock and a cock stand on two pilasters (half pillars) on the left and right side. The front mandap also has sculptures of saints and kings who are all attentive to the orders of their Lord. The roof is held by the dwarf structured goblin freeze (boothakanagal).

The rectangular sanctum sanctorum has Lord Muruga and his consort Goddess Devesena, on his left.

These are bas-relief sculptures, made out of single rock especially in rock-cut temples like Ladan Temple.

Here, Lord Muruga has a band of flowers (kannimaalai) on his head and crossed chain (channaveeram) on his chest. Similarly, Goddess Devasena is decked beautifully in well-designed dress materials and locks of hair are intrinsically carved to give the feel of a wonderful modern hairdo. This extra care in dressing and the bunch of flowers may lead all to believe that this was the venue of the reception.

Apart from these structures, the presence of peacock and cock doubly ascertain that the sculpture is that of Lord Muruga. The pillars and walls of the cave temple are decorated with fully blossomed lotus flower either in square or octagonal-shaped designs besides the wavy carbels (tharangapodigai) on the pillars.

On the eastern wall there is a ‘vattelluthu’ inscription that bears a sentence indicating the renovation work that was taken up in the ninth century A.D. The sentence is “pullari vattakuruchi Nambiran patta somayaji parivirajakar pudukku.”

According to Archaeological Officer, C. Shanthalingam ‘pullari vattakuruchi’ would probably refer to the place while ‘somayaji’ refers to a Brahmin and ‘parivirajakar’ the name of the person and the word ‘pudukku’ refers to renovation work.

Briefing about the name of the temple, he says that temple was named after the presence of Lada Sanniyasi, whose sculpture is inscribed at the base of the stairs. It is believed that Sanyasi was from Bengal, which is referred as Lada Desam.

The adjacent Narasimhar Temple was built by Paranthaga Neduchadaya Varagunan in 770 A.D. Probably, the Pandya kings built the Vishnu and Muruga Temple at the foot of the elephant hill as a countercheck to the then flourishing Jainism, Mr. Shanthalingam adds.

He also notes that Vaishnavites and Saivites wanted to establish the victorious forms of Gods – Narasimha (Hiraniakasibu) and Muruga (Surabadman) – when Jainism was at its peak.

Similarly, he also points out that there was a trend in establishing cave temples exclusively for Gods and Goddess. There are cave temples for Lord Shiva and Parvathi belonging to 8th century A.D at Piranmalai near Singampunari and at Tirumalai in Sivaganga district.

Anybody can visit the temple and enjoy the extravaganza, of course, with prior permission from ASI at Tirumalai Naicker Mahal.

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