Epigraphia Indica Vol 17

Author(s): F W Thomas, H Krishna Sastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 38

No. 5.)
MANDAGAPPATTU INSCRIPTION OF VICHITRA-CHITTA.
reading is fanciful. The inscription states that the shrine was caused to be made by the king Vichitra-ohitta for the accommodation of the three deities Brahma, Isvara and Vishnu, without using in its construction bricks, timber, metal or mortar. This short record is of importance in more ways than one. The most important information conveyed by it is that before the time of Vichitra-chitta bricks, timber, metal and mortar were the common temple building materials. Evidently the basement and walls of the buildings were of brick work, plastered with chunam, and the superstructures were composed of wood work held in position by the use of metallic nails and bands. This, in fact, is even to this day the mode of construction of temples on the Malabar Coast. It is difficult to find a single temple in Southern India which belongs to a date prior to the 7th century of the Christian Era. One would naturally be inclined, therefore, to surmise that temple building was never in vogue before that century. But immediately after this period we see a number of temples which have sprung into existence, and this also seems to lend weight to the surmise that no temples were built before the time of Mabondravarman I in Southern India. The statement made in this inscription that Mahendravarman did not employ bricks, timber, metals and mortar clearly warrants us in drawing the conclusion that the temples built before his time were all of such easily perishable materials as bricks, etc., that they were all ruined in course of time, and that this is the first rock-cut shrine of his. This is clear from the special mention of anishtaka, etc., in the case of this shrine. It is impossible for a number of temples to have come suddenly into existence from the beginning of the 7th century, unless the building of temples had been practised long before.
We know from the inscriptions of the cave temple at Pallávaram that Vichitra-chitta was one of the birudas of Mahēndravarman I (see Pl. XXI in the Pallava Antiquities of Mons. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, wherein the name Vichitra-chitta is clearly legible; vide also for the biruda Vichitra-chitta, p. 74, para. 14, of Ep. An. Rep. for 1909). It is, therefore, patent that the shrine was caused to be excavated by Mahondravarman I.
Again, the biruda Vichitra-chitta means the curious or inventive-minded one. One can easily concede to the king Mahēndravarman the title 'inventive-minded,' in so far as he avoided bricks, etc., commonly used by all in the construction of their buildings, and devised quite a new path, namely the cutting out of rock-temples, which needed neither bricks, timber nor mortar. His country extended far north of the river Krishņā, where he must necessarily have seen some of the earlier rook-cut temples and so have introduced into Southern India the new style of cut. ting temples in rock. That he was the first to introduce into Southern India the method of excavating temples in the solid rock is certain; for we do not find even a single rock-cut shrine which belongs to a time before the reign of Mahendravarman. We know of no less than fifty rock-cut shrines in Southern India, not one of which is earlier than the time of this Pallava king. In fact, the art of cutting temples out of rock was contemporaneous with the Pallava dynasty and disappeared after them.!
The birudas of Mahendravarman are not mere boasts, each of them has a meaning which is based upon some act done by him. We have seen that the biruda Vichitra-chitta is assumed by him for his invention of a new method of raising temples. Similarly, the biruda Matta-vilása is, in fact, indeed due to his having composed the pleasant little burlesque the Mattavilăsa-prahasana, in which he ridicules an actual matta or madman, a drunken Kåpalika and meat-esting Bauddha Bhikshu. Mention is made of this burlesque in his inscription found in Mámaudur;
[See South Indian Images, Introduction, pp. 1 f.-H. K. S.) ? The following extracts from this work will show that it was the composition of Mabendravarman : WWWC-Hafer! Ta i wageutfenugreuta f afa
#0 wewसमपराक्रमश्रियः श्रीमहिमानुपदानविभूतिपरिभूतराजराजस्थ श्रीसिंहविशु वर्मण: पुच: शत्रुघडुर्गनिरहपरः
परहितपरतन्त्रतया महाभूतमधर्मा महाराज: श्रीमहेन्द्र विक्रमवा माम। The birndas Avani-bhajana, Guna-bhara, Matta-viláss and Satra-malla are also introduced ingeniously in the play; these, we know, are the birudas of Mabēndravarman 1.