TIRUCHI: A rare 14th century sculpture, depicting a cow oozing milk on a Sivalingam, has been found at a Siva temple at Manjakkudi in Pudukottai district.
Sculptures at the temple are exquisite and the Moolavar lingam is distinctly a fossil structure.
The sculpture of the cow has a special feature: the animal standing over a slab is not only seen oozing milk on the lingam but also licking it. It has been sculpted on a single stone.
Normally, such sculptures would be carved on pillars and walls as bas relief, says Kudavayil Balasubramanian, who found the sculpture.
Dr. Balasubramanian, who was assisted in the study by A.S. Muthukkumarasamy, Sivaparakasa Stapathi and Raman Stapathi, has also found several other beautiful sculptures in the temple.
The Siva temple and a Vishnu temple were built by Manjakkudi Udaiyar Tirunooky Azhakiyar Thondamanar, a representative of the Pandyas, who also installed his own statues in the temples. The statues stand five-and-a-half- foot tall and are in a worshipping posture. He is seen sporting moustache and beard, with long robes covering the body.
Thondaman also made an endowment of Ayurmangalam, a village, in 1327 AD, for taking out a procession of saint Manickavasagar and reciting Thiruvasagam on his birth star every month at the Siva temple at Avudayarkovil. The information was gleamed from an inscription on a copper plate at Avudayarkovil, he says.