Kudavasal Balasubramaniyam
The Sundaresvara temple at Sendalai near Tanjore is well known to students of Tamil arts. It carries inscriptions of Pallava, Pandya and Muttaraiya rulers and refers to a great Maha-kali temple at Niyamam, a village nearby. The Pallava ruler Nandivarman III, the victor of Tellaru, and the Pandya ruler Maran Cadaiyan Varaguna II paid personal visits and endowed gold for the worship of the Goddess. The pillars belonging to the Niyamam Maha-kali temple have been brought and reused in the Sendalai temple. The temple of Sundaresvara is also connected with the Pandyas.
An inscription on the outer Gopura of this temple mentions a Jaina priest Kanaka-sena Bhattarar. The inscription, was copied by the Government Epigraphist in the year 1899 (ARE no 7) but is somewhat damaged. Writing about the Jain foundations under the Cholas, the Great historian, Professor Nilakanta Sastri has drawn our attention to the Sendalai inscription and remarks "Kanakasena Bhattarar who had the palli is found at Sendalai in the 12th year of a Parakesari." About ten years back a team of Archaeologists from Tamilnadu State department of Archaeology comprising of Mrs. M.Gandhi, A. Padmavathy and Vasantha Kalyani noticed that many of the stones used in the construction outer gopura of the Temple bear Jain sculptures. Subsequently Vasantha kalyani has published an article on the Jaina nature of the sculptures. I have investigated recently the source of these stones and been able to locate the environment and the village where the original Jain temple was located. First of all the original Jain temple was not located in Sendalai but in a nearby village.
Before proceeding further we may notice the sculptures on the Gopura. All the sculptures so far noticed are small bas-reliefs on the pilasters, which adorned the walls and niches of a Jain temple. In a number of instances one finds the portrayal of seated or standing Tirthankara images beneath the umbrellas or in the case of Parsvanatha beneath the hooded Cobra. In one instance Mahavira is portrayed seated beneath an umbrella and is flanked by Cowries. The adjoining panels portray devotees standing in adoration. In another instance we find the Tirthankara standing flanked by Yaksha and Yakshi. In another part forming part of a makara torana Parsvanatha is seen standing. There are other panels depicting dancers and in a rare portrayal a buffalo is shown yielding a calf. It would be interesting to photograph all the sculptures and make a separate study. However it must be mentioned the sculptures are of great artistic merit and have the classical touch like the famous Srinivasnallur and Pullamangai. Obviously the temple belongs to the end of 9th or beginning of 10th cent. and should be classified as a fine early Chola representation. The stones are similar to the Srinivasnallur material and are reddish buff in colour. The builders of the gopura seem to have paid intelligent attention to the placement of stones in order, though they were brought from some other temple. The Gopura itself is built of stone up to the ceiling and the superstructure is built of brick and mortar. It is in building the ground floor the stones of the Jain temple have been reused.
Aramba-vira who controlled palli at [...]kudi received 150 kasus from one Kanakasena Bhattarar in charge of the Jain temple at Puttamur. He agreed to pay 150 kalams of paddy at the rate of one kalam per kasu as interest and utilize the same for deepening the great local tank named Virasikhamani pereri. The tank was obviously irrigating the wetland in the region and required periodical desilting and deepening. He seems to have received another endowment for the same purpose and agreed to combine both the funds for annually deepening the tank and pay in paddy for the supply of flower garlands and worship in the Jain temple. Kanakasena Bhattarar, the Jain was in charge of the Palli for the entire agricultural division Vata-kavira-nadu and that this Jain temple was at Puttamur. Fragmentary inscriptions are found inside the adhisthana of the gopura. They also refer to the maintenance of the tank Vira-sikhamani pereri. In addition, the name of a Commander of Rajendra Chola I whose name is given as Rajendra Chola Jayamuri nadalvan in another fragment of the gopura. This commander was serving Rajendra Chola I and was commanding the Chola army in Sri Lanka gaining victory after victory (SII IV 1408). A point of interest is that the inscription of Rajendra in Sendalai, though a fragment, mentions that Virasikhamani pereri was in Pandya-kulasani valiant (the region in and around Tanjore). Besides there are a number of other fragmentary inscriptions which show that stones belonging to other Siva temples have also been used. Obviously when the Gopura was built stones belonging not only to ruined Jain temples but also other Siva temples have also been brought and reused here in Sendalai. We have already noted that the stone pillars bearing the inscriptions of Muttaraiyan, Pallava Nandi and Pandya Varaguna II were once in the temple of Kalapidari of Niyamam, a village nearby and have been brought here and reused. The village Niyamam is about six miles away from Sendalai. Similarly the stones of the Jaina Palli and Siva temples have also been reused here.
The Jaina temple mentioned in the records was situated in the territorial subdivision Arkattu kurram in the Pandya-kulasani valanadu. The temple was on the banks of the great tank Virasikhamani pereri. The other territorial division abutting the tank was called Vada-kavira nadu that begins from Thiru-erumbiyur near Trichy and includes villages like Thiru-nedunkalam. There is a village even now under the name Puttambur in this region, which is a slight variation of Puttamur of the record where the original Jain Palli was located. There are remains of the great tank in villages like Varakur, Ammai-akaram, Kalu-mangalam, Aman-kudi, Allur, Alici-kudi, and so on. Inscriptions from these places show they were situated in the ancient territorial division Arkattu kurram of Pandya-kulasani vala-nadu. The remains of the tank are found between the southern bank of the rivers Kaveri and Kudamurutti and north of the river Vennaru. Thus the tank is situated to the south east of Sendalai. While at some places the tank has dried up in other places it is still to be seen. The other Jain temple that was under the control of Aramba-vira mentioned in the record was in Aman-kudi Kalu-mangalm. According to elders of the village there was a Jain statue in the village that was removed to some art Gallery about 50 years ago thus confirming the existence of the Jain temple. It seems that the ruined temples in Karuppur also known as Kil-perambur, Kalu-manglam, Aman-kudi, Niyamam and other nearby villages have been brought to Sendalai and reused in the gopura and other structures of the Sundaresvara temple.
An examination of the structures in some temples of Chola region shows that stones of ruined Siva, Vishnu and Jain temples have been reused in later structures. A few examples may be cited here. The gopura of Konesa temple at Kudavasal has been built with stones from a Jain temple that existed in a nearby village Akara-ohai. The Gopura of Kandiyur near Tanjore has been built with the stones from Siva temples named Parantaka-Isvaram and Vanavan-madevi-Isvaram that existed earlier in the nearby village of Irattaik-koyil.
It is well known that the Gopura of Sarangapani temple of Kumbhakonam carries the dance karanas of Bharata's Natya-Sastra with inscribed labels beneath each. It is known that this gopura was built with stones from some other Siva temple. I have shown earlier, with the help of Telugu, Kannada and Tamil inscriptions found on the inner side of the gopura, that Saluva Gopa Tippayya, the brother of the Vijayanagara ruler Devaraya II built this gopura in the 15th cent. Saluva Gopa Tippa was greatly interested in music and dance that is known through the work Tala-dipika written by him. The temple structures in Pattisvaram show that both Gopa Tippa and his brother, Thirumalai-deva, built them jointly. They also indicate that the Vijayanagara rulers have contributed to both the Saivite and Vaishnavite temples. There is a village near Tanjore named Tippiraja puram obviously named after him
There is a Sanskrit inscription in the inner gopura of the Sendalai temple itself praising the greatness of Gopa Tippa. The inner gopura of Sendalai was built earlier and the second gopura built by Gopa Tippa later. It is possible he built a number of Gopuras in the Tanjore-Kumbhakonam area. The Kandiyur-Sendalai regions suffered worst depredations during the invasion of Malik Kafur in the year 1310. That the temples suffered worst during the disastrous invasion is recorded in the writings of Amir Kusru, written in Persian language. Gopa Tippa appears after one hundred years of this destruction and rebuilt a number of temple gopuras.