- This is another of India wasting a tremendrous prospect in maritime trade..which has not been tapped for so long under bueurocratic red tape - is a natural port, which is located close to the international shipping route.Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Suez canal per annum.... its ideal to be a transhipment hub port competing with the ports of Colombo, Singapore and Dubai. The draft is 23- 27 metres facilitating berthing of large container ships.
this should interest the pallava fans
There is cave on a boulder at Vizhinjam - This cave has unfinished reliefs of Siva Kirata Murti and Siva dancing with Parvati. Some scholars hold the view that the bas-reliefs of Vizhinjam with their slender forms and rhythmic lines, show Pallava affinities.....
i am reminded of kalki mentioning in a parthiban kanavu
- dialogue between kundavi and narasimhar....( part 2 chp 5 - uraiyur thoothan) - where narasimhar talks of his desire to go cross the seas and see the world - but that his dad did not permit him to do so, and when he took over as king, he couldnt go. so atleast he made his son go overseas ..
- dialogue between kundavi and narasimhar....( part 2 chp 9 - thanthaiyum magalum) - where narasimhar talks of news for the day - that his troops led by his son have got a major victory in srilanka..
Inscriptional evidences of the nineth-tenth centuries, clearly inform us of the beginning of temple building in Kerala. The cave temples of seventh-eighth centuries in Kerala on hard granite medium imbibe direct inspiration from Tamil country especially the Pandyas of Madurai through the passes in the Western Ghats which link Kerala with Tamil plains. Nevertheless, Kerala rock-cut architecture could evolve certain distinct mannerisms of its own. When we view the Kerala tradition of rock-cut architecture in the wider context of the mainland, i.e., in comparison to the rock-cut architecture of Mahabalipuram, Ellora or Elephanta, it is seen that the quantum of its contribution is minimal. This is due to the limitation of the very granite medium used. The Kerala temple tradition could, however, overcome this limitation in the subsequent centuries by making use of the indigenous raw materials like timber, brick and stucco laterite etc., which formed more versatile media, functionally as well as structurally.
Kerala cave temples, of which ten exist, are distributed accordingly in three groups. The southernmost group consists of those at Tirunandikara, Vizhinjam, Tuvarankad, and Bhutapandi. The central group consists of the temples at Kaviyur, Kottukal and Airurpara. The northern group form those at Irunilamcode, Trikkur and Bharatanpara.
All the cave temples in the southern group are examples of one called shrines, mostly enshrining a lingam. The best example of this group is the niche cave on a boulder at Vizhinjam, the capital of Ay rulers, a sea port and the scene of battles between Pandyas and Ay Kings. This cave has unfinished reliefs of Siva Kirata Murti and Siva dancing with Parvati. Some scholars hold the view that the bas- reliefs of Vizhinjam with their slender forms and rhythmic lines, show Pallava affinities.
eighth century) is a well finished example, the reliefs of which shows a mature plastic tradition. This saivite cave comprises of a shrine with a linga, an ardhamandpam and a pillared facade, all arranged axially facing the west. The floor of the cave is a few feet above the natural ground level and is approached by a flight of steps. The two pillars in the facade divide the breadth of the cave into three openings of an almost equal distance from one another. Walls of this spacious ardhamandapam contain reliefs of the donor or chieftain, a bearded rishi, a seated four armed Ganesa, and the dwarapalas. The style of these sculptures clearly shows an indubitable Pandyan influence. Sarkar points out the close resemblance between the dwarapala figure at Kaviyur and the one noticed at Sevelpatti and Tirumalapura, both in the Pandyan territory. Soundara Rajan also has the same opinion, and goes further to say that, "the examples of the central Kerala groups have strong Pandyan influence, except for two factors: the lingam is often of the arsha type with a tapering top and the pitha is of multiple cut stone masonry blocks and these distinctive features link them closely and directly with Pandyan country. There are the carving of ascetic like figures on the side walls of the mandapam, the provision of a separate pedestal for the niche carving is however, original to Kaviyur." The majority of the cave temples of both southern and central Kerala are inspired by the saivite movement like those of the Pandyan country. But there is at least one cave dedicated to Vishnu at Alagiapandipuram (Kanyakumari district).
Saivism dominated the northern group as well. The most important and the largest of the northern group is the one at Trikkur. Its outstanding features are its detachable lingam on a monolithic square pitha, the orientation of the waterchuts of the pitha to the north of the entrance direction of the cave, thus making the linga itself face east, the carving of the dwarapala in three quarter relief on the side walls of the cellar chamber and not on the outer walls flanking the door, the cellar being entered not by a single door but by a pillared facade with three bays whose pillars have a taranga or wavy corbel of the vaulted type. Ganesa sculpture in the northwest cellar wall shows familiarity of the artist with the Pandyan usages, and thus making the cave shrine ascribably to the early eighth century.
Unlike in other parts of the country, the origin of rock-cut architectural tradition and that of the structural temple tradition are more or less coeval in Kerala. Even from the very early stage, that is from eighth century, we get evidences of not only square and rectangular temples, but also circular, apsidal, and rarely elliptical temples. Nowhere else in India do the circular shrine constitute such a dominant type of ground plan as in Kerala. Vastusastras, known from about sixth century in the mainland, treat in detail the circular temples and their various types. Outside Kerala, however, very few circular temples are known to exist, although the walls of the earlier structural temple yet seen at Bairat, Rajasthan, of the third century B.C. is circular. In the medieval period temples of Chousat yoginies were built in the circular ground plan. These examples are found at Bairagat in Madhya Pradesh and Hirapur in Orissa. However, these temples are open to the sky or hypaethral in type, except for the cloistered space, which display the sixty-four forms of Devi.
The original source of the circular temple in Kerala is still a controversial issue among scholars. A number of scholars, like Sarkar holds the view of the Buddhist origin of the circular plan. He provides the evidence that the southern part of Kerala where Buddhism had a strong hold shows comparatively large number of circular temples. Another viewpoint in this regard is that circular temples with a garbhagriha surrounded by one or two rows of columns bear some similarity to the circular Buddhist temples of Sri Lanka, known as vatadaga. There is a strong tradition in Kerala about