An inscription in the Natraja temple of Chidambaram, dated in the reign of the Pandya ruler Jatavarman Sundara Panya refers to a land gift made for the maintenance of a Manuscript Library in the Temple of Natraja at Chidambaram.[2] The date of the inscription is around 1263 CE. It refers to the maintenance of the Library, conservation of its palm leaf manuscripts collections, recopying old worn our manuscripts, appointment of Pundits for the copying the Mss and such other works. The manuscripts preserved in the Library were in different languages and scripts. Twenty Pundits were appointed for copying manuscripts. Their work not only included copying on new leaves but also comparing them with the original manuscripts. There were many works in Tamil and Sanskrit which were recopied. Among many Sanskrit manuscripts one named Siddhanta Ratnakara receives special mention. One Swamidevar was in charge of the Library who supervised the development of the Library, the works of the Pundits, and also the administration of the manuscripts Library.
It is known that the word Swamidevar was used to denote the Rajaguru, the Royal preceptor in the Imperial Chola times, particularly from the time of Rajaraja[3]. Many Rajagurus are mentioned in the 11th to 13th centuries in the Royal inscriptions [4]. A number of them hailed from Bengal[5]. The Swamidevar mentioned in the record served obviously as the Rajaguru. It is interesting to note that another inscription from Chidambaram, dated one year earlier, in 1262 in the reign of Pallava chieftain Kopperuncinga mentions a certain Isvara Siva , a Royal priest (Udaiyar) who hailed from Dakshina Radha in the Uttara-patha. This Isvara Siva had another name Thiruc-cirrambalam Udaiyan who made a gift of flower garden.[6] Evidently it is the same Isvara Siva who supervised the Manuscript Library at Chidambaram.
I have mentioned that the Chidmabaram inscription on the Manuscript Library specially refers to a Sanskrit text Siddhanta ratnakara among the manuscripts collection. It is known that the Royal preceptor to Kulottunga Chola III[7] wrote the text Siddhanta Ratnakara
around 1200 CE and the text mentioned in the record is the same written by Isvara Siva.. Unfortunately this text has not survived. The other point worthy of note is that this Royal preceptor was also named Isvara Siva[8] . In all likelihood the author of the text and the supervisor of the Manuscript Library were the same. The manuscript Library at Chidambaram is called Sarswati Bhandara i.e. "Treasure house of knowledge", in inscription. It would thus be evident that the Manuscript Library was in existence in the Chidambaram temple even from the time of Kulottunga II, (1150 CE) before the time of the Pandyan record.
The great Tamil text Periya Puranam by Sekkilar on the lives of Saivite Nayanm¡rs was written in Chidambarm. It is well known that Sekkilar consulted many valuable documents in writing his work. His work contains many Siddhantic thoughts and it is not unlikely that he had access to a manuscript Library when he composed his text. Sekkilar was at first a court poet under Kulottunga II (1133 to 1150). This would take the date of the Library to the mid 12th Cent.
Another record at Chidambaram mentions many gifts made by one Naralokaviran, a Commander under Kulottunga I and his son Vikrama Chola in the beginning of the 12th cent. Among various gifts he made is a unique work that deserves special attention. He got all the Tevaram hymns of the Saivite saints numbering about 8000 verses engraved on copper plates and deposited them in the Chidambaram temple[9]. The copper plates carrying the verses should have been deposited in the Library of the temple. This would advance the date of the Library to the beginning of the 12th cent.
An important event associated with the Tevaram hymns is the discovery of the manuscripts by Rajaraja Chola I and Nambi Andar Nambi around 1000 CE., mentioned in a mediaeval text ascribed to Umapati Sivam. According to this episode Rajaraja discovered the Tevaram manuscripts, with the help of Nambi, in a locked room, in a corner of the Chidambaram temple. When Rajaraja discovered them, a considerable number of the leaves of the text were eaten by white ants and the bundles were found covered by an ant hill. Obviously these manuscripts were part of a Library that was in a state of neglect and it was Rajaraja who discovered them. The event points out to the existence of the Library in the time of Rajaraja in the beginning of the 11th cent.
Nambi Andar Nambi who helped Rajaraja to discover the manuscripts wrote one hundred verses on the lives of the 63 Saivite saints.[10] The work is called Thrut-tondar Thiru-antati.. it is known that this text was based on the work Thirut-tondat-tokai of Saint Sundaramurti Nayanar. This text of Saint Sundaramurti begins with the praise of the Brahmin priests of Chidambaram (Tillai vaz ant¸ar). Also it gives the exploits of the 63 Saiva saints. Obviously Nambi Andar Nambi was inspired by this text of Sundaramurti when he discovered the manuscripts with Rajaraja. Tradition recorded in Umapati's work avers that the manuscripts were discovered in the north western corner of the Second enclosure of the Nataraja temple. The image of Ganesa nearby is said to have pointed to the direction where the room with the manuscripts was located. The inscription of Sundara Pandya referring to the manuscript Library is found in the north western wall of the second enclosure, where the library is said to have been located. The existence of the manuscript library could now be traced to the time of Saint Sundara murti in the 8th cent. The library existed with fluctuating fortunes for nearly 500 years in the temple of Nataraja.
Any chances that some of the manuscripts may still be lying in a hidden room in that temple?
Egyptologists are using ground penetrating radars to scan for such hidden things... why cant we explore our monuments in a simillar way? There might be something waiting for us out there... And this is quite easier than fighting with our Mysore friends!
Life of palm leaf manuscripts - say 50 - 100 years?
But the text below says that some 8000 verses were engraved in copper plates... may be it is still hidden somewhere...
Even if the palm leaf manuscripts have crumbled, we could be able to salvage some fragments atleast, like how they brought back the "gospel of Judas" by reassembling fragments of a damaged manuscript.
a 950 year old yet-to-be-published palm-leaf translation - that has been put on project madurai directly!!!! if my memory serves right, my uncle mentioned that mr na ganesan is a philosophy scholar in taiwan. also read his foot note - some 3000 palm leaf manuscripts are there in various private collections in europe - sure they are being kept there just like the ones in mysore - waiting for the next RRC to come along.
Where do you live? You are sending so much of valuable information everyday... Keep it up.
So there could be many more such palm leaf manuscripts waiting out there to be located / published... ( One of my ambition is to bring out such a sankam age text thought to be lost. I hope I can do that in my lifetime. )
Do you have a list of these private collectors? We can write to them and request them to help us to publish the contents ( they can continue to own the palm leaf in their collection. all we need is the content )
Recently the TN govt also did a survey and found several thousand palm leaf texts in the possession of individuals in southern cities.. dont know what happened to that.. but alteast bringing their contents out is lot more easier than dealing with our Mysore friends..
Like the temple cleaners group, we should also have a palm leaf rescuers group as well.
udal singapore, uyir still in chola land....thanks for the compliments, i just spend a half an hour a day - working threads...thanks to advise frm sps sir, i try n phase them into the group gradually ..allowing for meaningful discussions ( sometimes i do overdo this)...but what i do is miniscule compared to the intellect of jambavans in this group.
> Even if the palm leaf manuscripts have crumbled, we > could be able to salvage some fragments atleast, like > how they brought back the "gospel of Judas" by > reassembling fragments of a damaged manuscript.
Hi Vk
always thought judas gospel( 3-4 th century a.d) was written in leather. it is in papyrus. saw a photograph of the papyrus plant. though its not a tree, the leaves remind me of the palmyrah.
on the other hand the biggest haul of antique writing THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS are of 3 types.While some of the scrolls were written on papyrus, a good portion were written on a brownish animal hide called gevil. The scrolls were written with feathers from a bird and the ink used was made from carbon black and white pigments. One scroll, appropriately named the Copper Scroll, consisted of thin copper sheets that were incised with text and then joined together.
venketesh
> > > > > > -- In ponniyinselvan@yahoogroups.com, Venkateswaran > > K
I am not a technical guy on this - but someone can check and advise if we can use metal detectors to to detect metals underneath floors or inside walls - they do use electromagnetic induction to detect metal - and we see them being used extensively even by novices on beach sand. the other questions if you would be allowed to do such inside our temples.
you cant use PR without permission of state archealogy,temple endowment board and ASi approval in case of temple protected by ASI.
without concern department you cant use that machine.Illegal can be arrested under anitquty act.
The equipment which i am working on is multipurpose earth scan.
using GPS as a base and go for contour map with the help of electrical resistance to point out that area of operations specically then using of GPR using radio frequencies to find out the objects up to 30 meters without any trenching.this will be helpful to recover copper plates and tresaure boxes.
in case if you find the objects , using latest drilling systems u can particularly locate and remove it through inwell techniques.
My equipments can be used even for cavity findings, marine archealogy. through optical fibre tech. remote cameras and gas analysing methods.
if any one need specically can be contactd me through personal mails.
> > if we can use metal detectors to to detect metals underneath floors > > or inside walls -
usage of metal detectors is banned in many countries. however there are a lot of amatuer archeologists who go past hunting in europe. the recent viking hoard was detected by an amatuer with a metal detector.
one small trivia. why was the metal detector invented. not for treasure or mines. it was invented for finding bullets within a dying Us president who had been shot by none other than alexander graham bell. Alexander Graham Bell, instantaneously fabricated and used such a device to attempt to locate a bullet lodged in the chest of American President James Garfield in 1881, though the attempt was unsuccessful because the metal bed Garfield was lying on confused the detector.
South Indian palm-leaves used for writing are of two types, a thin papery leaf ("talipot") that can, in optimal conditions, be preserved for centuries (some Nepalese manuscripts of this type survive from the ninth century), and a thicker, stiffer, usually smaller leaf found in the South and of which we are aware of no surviving examples more than three centuries old.