THE SPHINX UNDER THE PALLAVAS
The next datable illustration of a sphinx in Indian art is found among
the monuments of Mamalapuram,
an ancient sea-port some 50 kilometers
south of the capital of Tamil Nadu, Chennai (formerly Madras). Here
kings of the Pallava dynasty built structural temples and cut several artificial
cave-shrines into the rocks. This dynasty
dominated southern India from the early 4th century CE till late 9th century CE,
One of the caves is known as the Krishna mandapa after the one of the
incarnations of Lord Vishnu. The back
wall of this cave is decorated with a scene from the childhood of Lord Krishna.
Krishna is depicted as Govardanadhara. He lifts the mountain
Govardana with his little finger, to protect his village and all its people and
animals from a destructive rainstorm. On the left side of the panel, depicted on
the adjoining wall sits a group of various composite beings, lion bodies
combined with various other animal parts. Positioned next to a gryph
(a lion with the head of an eagle) sits a crouching sphinx, with a
remarkable masculine human profile.
The excavation of this cave shrine is dated to the early to middle
7th century. Mamalapuram was one of the centers for the trade between India
and the Roman Empire. And Greco-Roman artistic influence cannot be
excluded.
Several hundred kilometers further south, and far inland, in the
village of Narttamalai, we find another
beautiful early example of the purushamriga carved among the sculpture of a
temple complex. This temple complex was build either by the Pallava dynasty
itself, or under the successor dynasty which dominated southern India, called
the Cholas. It is thought the main temple may have been build by architects
who earlier worked for the Pallavas, under commission of the first
Chola emperor Vijayalaya (849-881).
In Narttamalai, now a small village south of Tiruchirapalli
we find the Vijayalaya Ishvara (Shiva) temple. Opposite and to the
west of this structural temple is an artificially carved cave shrine dedicated to
Lord Vishnu as solar deity. The sculpture in the fore-court of this shrine is
attributed to the time of the Pallava dynasty. The platform in front of this
cave-shrine is
decorated with a yali-freeze, which is a relief panel of animals and Mythologyical
beings, enveloping the entire base of the platform. Among the many composite
creatures we find two sphinxes positioned more or less symmetrically on
either side of the platform. Striding with one fore-leg raised, facing the
onlooker with a fierce look, and with a gentle and mysterious smile on its lips,
from which protrude sharp fangs.
The dates attributed to the cave-shrine and the temple are disputed, but
definitely belong to the transitional period between the dominance of the
Pallava and Chola dynasties, in the second half of the 9th century.
