The annual festival at the Mylapore Kapaleeswarar Temple will start a week from now. The deities will be brought out on various processional mounts twice a day for ten days. Some events are, of course, more important than others – these being the Adhikara Nandi sevai (Day Three), the Vrshabha Vahanam (Day Five), the car festival (Day Seven), the Arupathumoovar (Day Eight) and the Kalyanam (Day Ten). The devout will throng the four mada streets on all days; their numbers rising to unmanageable levels on the eighth day in particular.
Even as Kapali goes around the four mada streets accompanied by the other deities, those that watch the procession are probably doing what has been a practice for several centuries. There is no denying that the Kapali temple is an ancient one, having featured in the works of the Nayanmars of the 7th Century and after them in other literary creations. Sambandar, in his Poompavai Pathikam, lists a festival for each month of the year and most of these are observed even now. And yet, there are unsolved mysteries about the shrine. Did it really stand on the seashore at one time? Why are there no inscriptions from the times of the Cholas in the present temple? Did the Portuguese destroy the temple or was it because of war or did the sea rise up and swallow it? There are no certain answers, but almost everyone is agreed on the fact that the temple was relocated to where it stands now and was rebuilt there ‘around three hundred years ago’. As to who built the shrine has also been a matter of debate.
A couple of publications by current day scholars throw some additional light on the present temple and its sub-shrines. The first of these is The Diaspora of the Gods, Modern Hindu Temples in an Urban-Middle Class World by Joanne Punzo Waghorne (OUP 2004). The second is The View from Below, Indigenous Society, Temples and the Early Colonial State in Tamil Nadu, 1700-1835, by Kanakalatha Mukund (Orient Longman 2005). A study of these helps to locate the period of reconstruction of the Kapali temple with greater precision. More importantly, it identifies the men who were responsible for the work. Read in conjunction with the playwright Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar’s autobiography, Yen Suyacharitai (1963) we get a more or less complete picture. This article is based on what is written in these accounts.
Waghorne in her book dwells at length on the details of the temple as given in Colin Mackenzie’s manuscripts. He had arrived in Madras in 1783 and after 13 years’ military service, began devoting his time to Indology, balancing the demands of his hobby with those of his professional career which culminated in his becoming the first Surveyor General of India. By the time of his death in 1821, he had collected a huge number of manuscripts, besides maps and books. Among these is an account of the Kapali temple with a sketch of the shrine, with the various parts marked and ascribed to the men who built each of them. Waghorne surmises that this particular manuscript may have been done between 1796 and 1800.
The sketch gives credit for much of the temple to Mootooapa Mood, who from Mukund’s work can be identified as Nattu Muthiappa Mudali, a prominent member of the Tuluva Vellalar community. Mukund, who bases her writing on extensive research at the Tamil Nadu Archives, has Muthiappa Mudali as the ‘original dharmakarta of the temple’ in the early 18th Century. This tallies with Waghorne’s information from the Mackenzie manuscript, which recognises that Muthiappa Mudali renovated the shrine to the Goddess, which was ‘ an old church’ (presumably used here as a synonym for a temple). He constructed shrines for Jagadiswarar and Sundareswarar, both of which still exist on the eastern side of the temple complex. He also built the small gopuram that is on the western wall of the temple. Waghorne states that the present contours of the temple owe their construction to Muthiappa Mudali, but points out that two sub shrines built by him – one to the Sun God on the eastern side and another to Bhadrakali on the western side facing the present day Singaravelar shrine have since vanished. She also has it that the multi-tiered eastern gopuram was built by him but, when read in conjunction with Sambanda Mudaliar’s account, that is debatable.
To be continued…
You may want to read these other stories on the Kapaliswarar Temple:
Keeping the peace at Kapali’s Festival
Can the Mylapore Temple Festival be better run?
The Mylapore Temple Festival in 1910
Rishabha Vahanam at the Mylapore Temple
Music and dance at the Mylapore temple
The Mystery of Mathala Narayanan
Mylai Velli Vidai/Rishabha Vahanam
Adhikara Nandi at the Kapaliswarar Temple
Bhikshatana procession at Mylapore
A 150 year old Thanneer Pandal
Adhikara Nandi Sevai at Kapali temple
The quaint ritual of Vana Bhojanam
Articles on other temples of Chennai:
The Kalyana Varadarajaswami Temple, Colletspet
The Velleeswarar Temple, Mylapore
Karthikai Deepam at Velleeswarar Temple, Mylapore
Car Festival at Coronation Pagoda, Mylapore
Music at the Madhava Perumal Temple, Mylapore
Triplicane Parthasarathy Swami Temple
The Kamakala Kameswarar Temple, Triplicane
The Mallikarjuna Swami Temple, Linghi Chetty Street
Ekamreswara Swami Temple, Mint Street
Kacchaleeswara Swami Temple, Armenian Street
The Angala Parameswari Temple, Mundagakanni Amman Koil Street
The presiding diery Kapaliswarar is facing west. As per the agama sastra this is the practice for relocated temples. Otherwise Swami will face east.
Some perceptions say that certain idols were brought from a small temple along Santhome and installed here; this article refers as a temple was built as a original builtup- needs clarification