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| Kudavayil Balasubramanian |
Kudavayil Balasubramanian is a distinguished historian from Tamil Nadu with more than 50 years of sustained research experience. He places temples at the center of his work and reconstructs history through their cultural elements. While contemporary studies often prioritize political administration and social structures, artistic and cultural traditions—many now endangered—receive limited scholarly attention. It is precisely in this context that Kudavayil Balasubramanian’s work assumes particular significance.
Born in 1948 at Perumangalam in Thanjavur’s Kudavayil region, Balasubramanian’s path into history began with childhood discoveries of Chola coins in his native soil. From 1970 onward, under the guidance of the archaeologist Nagasamy, he shaped his life around historical inquiry. Working across disciplines, and deepened by his years at the Saraswathi Mahal Library until his retirement in 2006, his research steadily matured. From the outset, Balasubramanian chose Thanjavur as the core of his research. Ruled in turn by the Mutharaiyars, Cholas, Nayaks, and Marathas, the region preserves layered political, artistic, and archival histories. To this inheritance he devoted himself fully, spending years—often decades—uncovering its meanings, illuminating both the splendor of Chola art and the literary and cultural richness of the Nayak and Maratha periods.
Though his research spans many fields, temples remain the core of Kudavayil’s work. From grand temples to small shrines along the Cauvery, he has studied them all, correcting historical errors and adding fresh insights. Notably, he established that Rajendra Chola, famed for his naval victories, was born under the Thiruvathirai star in the month of Aadi.
Writer Jeyamohan characterizes Kudavayil Balasubramanian’s method as micro-historical—moving from established macro histories by earlier scholars to focused, in-depth studies. Thus, Balasubramanian has closely examined Chola history and the temple-centered traditions they shaped.
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| Kudavayil Balasubramanian |
Tamil Nadu alone has over twenty major temples that function as centers of cultural diversity. Spread across Madurai, Srirangam, Kanchipuram, Tirunelveli, Suchindram, and Vaitheeswaran Koil, these temples are vast complexes built and renovated in phases from the seventh to the eighteenth centuries. Within a single temple, Pallava sculptures coexist with later Chettiar additions, and along with Tamil kings, Hoysalas, Vijayanagara rulers, and even the British lent their patronage to their construction. These living temples host year-round festivals—at Madurai’s Meenakshi Temple and Srirangam’s Ranganatha Temple, every month is marked by a distinct celebration. Every section—every small pillar—carries a historical and cultural memory. In sculptures, inscriptions, and paintings, history and culture lie embedded within these temples.
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| Srirangam Temple |
Two major pioneers have undertaken significant studies of the great-temple tradition in Tamil. The first, A. Ka. Perumal, focused his research on the temple complexes of Suchindram and Thiruvattar, employing a Marxist methodological framework. The second, Kudavayil Balasubramanian, has produced separate monographs on the UNESCO-designated Great Living Chola Temples at Thanjavur, Gangaikonda Cholapuram, and Darasuram, as well as on the Thiruvarur great temple. Each of his books offers a meticulous reading of the temples’ sculptures, murals, and architectural forms, while also articulating their artistic aesthetics, historical layers, connections to mythic traditions, and underlying philosophical continuities.
Balasubramanian’s book Tamizhaka Gopurakalai Marabu can be read alongside his books on the great temples. His work traces in detail the historical formation of gopurams (gopurams are monumental, ornate, and brightly colored entrance towers that serve as gateways to Hindu temple complexes, primarily in South India), the layered histories concealed within their sky-piercing structures, and their architectural idioms. He discusses Bharatanatyam karanas (the 108 key transitions in the classical Indian dance) carved on the towers, Nayak-era murals, gopurams relocated from one temple to another, and historical accounts of people who leapt from gopurams during invasions. All these elements are carefully compiled and presented by the author.
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| Thanjavur Temple |
His books illuminate the shadowed, overlooked corners of famous temples. Unlike general research works, Balasubramanian’s work foregrounds art through aesthetic attention, posing precise questions and shaping them into an interpretive vision. While other researchers may state that a Chola king conquered the Ganga region, Balasubramanian narrates that history through a sculpture brought from that land, allowing the past to speak to us through art itself. He does not stop at reading the inscription but lingers over the image’s beauty. Kudavayil Balasubramanian approaches Tamil Nadu’s great temples not through rigid historical or sociological frames, but through their living elements—sculpture, painting, and festival. With aesthetics at the center, his work invites us to feel the vast, immersive world of temple culture, revealing its grandeur by allowing beauty itself to lead.
Let us liken Balasubramanian’s works to a kadambam garland. In the Chola land, kadambam garland—braided from many-hued, tender flowers—is cherished and worn by Lord Namperumal of Srirangam upon his chignon. Such is the aesthetic Balasubramanian brings to his writing: the art of gathering chosen elements into a single harmony. It also recalls Sabari’s offering to Rama—not a ceremonial feast but fruits selected with loving care.
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| Lord Namperumal of Srirangam and Kadambam Garland |
Research Works—Individuals and Royal Lineages
By tracing and weaving together temples, their sculptures and paintings, devotional literature, inscriptions, and rare texts, Balasubramanian has made numerous discoveries. Among the most notable is his documentation of historical figures of the Chola country, organizing images of Chola, Nayaka, and Maratha rulers through sculptures, paintings, and copper-plate charters. Building on this foundation, he wrote in depth on Rajendra Chola, the general Karunakara Tondaiman, and the chieftain Konerirayan. Most significantly, he produced the first systematic study in Tamil of the Thanjavur Nayaka dynasty, a topic hitherto unexplored in a comprehensive form.
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| History of Thanjavur Nayaka dynasty |
Balasubramanian has also recorded the lives of individuals within the world of art, treating historical figures and contemporary artists with equal care. For instance, he documents the seventeenth-century painter Singaathanam, creator of the Devasiriyan Mandapam murals at Thiruvarur, and Shankaramurthi, a contemporary artist of the Muttukkarar lineage who plays the kudamuzha. Without his attentive mediation, readers would rarely have the opportunity to encounter these lives at all.
Textual Sources, Literature, Rare Books
Kudavayil Balasubramanian demonstrates a profound engagement with the Saiva textual corpus, the Panniru Thirumuraigal. His research draws extensively on works such as the Tevaram, Tirumantiram, Tirukailaya Ula, and Periya Puraṇam, placing these texts at the center of his analyses and interpretations.
The Tevaram, the first anthology of the Panniru Tirumuraigal, comprises the hymns of the Saiva saints Tirugnanasambandar, Tirunavukkarasar, and Sundarar. These poems were composed during the seventh and eighth centuries, a period when the Bhakti movement in Tamil was taking root and flourishing. Kudavayil Balasubramanian’s book Tevaram Manbum Oduvar Marabum consolidates his research on the Tevaram manuscript tradition. It examines the poets’ lives, the origin of the term Tevaram, the history and musical (pannisai) practice of its recitation, its integration into worship, related inscriptions, compilation methods, and the temples named in the hymns. He also identifies possibly the lost padhigams by comparing the Periya Puraṇam with the Tevaram corpus and highlights the Oduvar community whose singing preserved and institutionalized the Tevaram in temples.
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| Saivite saints : Navukarasar, Sundharar, Gnana Sambanthar, Manikka Vasakar |
In Tamil, the hagiographical work narrating the lives of the sixty-three Saiva saints, the Nayanmars, is called Periya Puraṇam, also known as the Tiruttoṇḍar Puraṇam. Composed in the twelfth century, it recounts the lives of these devotees, which Balasubramanian illuminates through the sculptural program of the Tharasarum temple. Among the three Tevaram poets, Sundarar was the first to compile their list, and the Periya Puraṇam opens with his rendering of the Tiruthondar Thogai, placing his life at the narrative core. At Tharasuram, the sculptural panels follow the same sequence as recounted in the text. While the lives of Sundarar, Tirugnanasambandar, and Thirunavukkarasar are richly depicted through numerous panels, the lives of other Nayanmars appear in subtler form. In his book Tharasuram, Balasubramanian interprets these panels to show how literature, sculpture, and Purāṇic tradition converge, and how the Nayanmar legacy spread across southern Bhakti movements, including the Veerashaiva tradition.
Balasubramanian has repeatedly brought rare and neglected texts into scholarly circulation, often introducing them to research for the first time. During his archival service, he pursued this work with exceptional rigor, uncovering palm-leaf manuscripts such as Panchamukha Vadya Lakshanam on the Kudamuzha and employing the dance treatise Tala Dipika as a source in his study of gopura art. He also draws extensively on Nayak and Maratha period sources. Through his books like Thanjavur Nayakar Varalaru and Kalaiyiyal Rasanai Katturaigal, he documents rulers, temple festivals, and performing-arts texts in rich detail. At times, Balasubramanian detects nuances in Tamil texts that even literary scholars overlook—an insight shaped by his long training in observing sculpture. For example, Tamil tradition imagines the dark markings on the moon as a hare, and Balasubramanian traces this image across literary history, from Sangam works like the Akananuru to the Tevaram, Tiruvachakam, Periya Puranam, and the Naladiyar. He further supports this continuity with a sculptural example from Omanthur, where a serpent is depicted approaching the moon and the hare within it is shown recoiling in fear.
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| Vanasura performs Kudamuzha |
Refutations and Reassessments
Balasubramanian does not accept inherited traditions uncritically, contrary to the image often ascribed to him. He consistently advances objections and alternative readings grounded in evidence. His first major study, Nandipuram, emerged from such questioning, where he challenged the accepted identification of the royal capital Nandipurattu Aayiraththali. While earlier scholars recorded that Nathankovil near Pazhaiyar was Nandipuram, Balasubramanian established that the site was in fact Veerasingampettai near Kandiyur, thereby reshaping scholarly consensus. To substantiate this, Balasubramanian introduced the concept of temple relocation into his analysis. Using architectural and epigraphical evidence, he showed that the Pallippadai temples were later moved to Kandiyur.
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| Chidambaram Nataraja Temple |
The palm-leaf manuscripts of the Tevaram hymns by Appar, Sambandar, and Sundarar were long believed lost. Tradition holds that they were hidden in a secret chamber of the Chidambaram Nataraja Temple and recovered by Rajaraja Chola after a dispute with its three thousand priests, earning him the title Thirumurai Kanda Cholan. Balasubramanian, however, shows that this story originates solely in a Puraṇa by Umapathi Sivam and lacks firm historical evidence, making the title untenable from a critical perspective. Here is yet another moment of importance to recount. History is crowded with conjecture over the treacherous murder of the Chola prince Aditha Karikalan, with some even casting suspicion on his successors, Uttama Chola and Rajaraja. Reexamining the much-cited Udayarkudi inscription, Balasubramanian dismantles these claims and shows that such suspicions rest on no firm historical ground.
The Historical Imperative of Sculpture Studies
The metal-cast sculptures of Tamil Nadu are celebrated worldwide for their aesthetic brilliance, and their study has long been Balasubramanian’s passion. One might ask what sculpture has to do with history; Kudavayil’s work supplies the answer. When a sculpture of the Chola emperor Rajaraja was taken out of Tamil Nadu, temple inscriptions—recording even the image’s size and weight—attested that a statue of the temple’s patron king had originally been installed there. Before its return, the sculpture’s authenticity had to be proven. Joining the recovery team, Balasubramanian examined the image, verified it through epigraphical evidence, and secured its rightful return to Thanjavur.
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| Statues of King Rajaraja and his wife Logamadevi |
Elsewhere, a long-standing debate surrounds the Saiva saint Manikkavasagar, author of the Tiruvasakam, revered by scholars worldwide. Another work attributed to him, the Tirukkovaiyaar, belongs to the agam tradition of love and inner emotion, where Lord Shiva appears as the beloved and devotion unfolds in the language of love. Because of this aesthetic, some scholars deny Manikkavasagar’s authorship, arguing that a poet of intense bhakti could not have composed love poetry, even for the divine.
Kudavayil Balasubramanian addresses this question through sculpture. Images of Manikkavasagar traditionally show him holding a palm-leaf manuscript. In a systematic study of such icons, Balasubramanian noticed one sculpture bearing an inscription, which he identified as the opening line of the Tirukkavaiyar. A Chola-period statue, worshipped for centuries, thus itself becomes historical evidence: that the Tirukkōvaiyar was indeed composed by Manikkavasagar.
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| Saint Manikka Vasagar |
A Perspective on Religions
Kudavayil Balasubramanian approaches religion primarily through sculpture. Through stone, bronze, and painting, he traces the many forms of Lord Shiva, their earliest appearances, and their historical transformations. It is often said that if a fine sculpture exists anywhere in Tamil Nadu, Kudavayil has recorded it in his writings. He has devoted focused studies to forms such as Liṅgodbhava, Gajasaṃharamurti, Kalasaṃhara, and Viṇadhara, reading them alongside devotional literature to reveal their distinct meanings. His work also documents other strands of Saivism, including Kalamukha traditions and their specific icons, such as Vagisa Murti, recorded by both him and his teacher Nagasamy. Further, he shows how forms like Sadasiva Murti and Pancadeha Murti are philosophically linked to the Thanjavur temple’s gopuram and to instruments like the kudamuzha, thereby weaving sculpture, ritual, architecture, and music into a single interpretive framework.
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| Goddess Kala-pidari |
He has also preserved the legacy of the poets who contributed to Sithirakkavi, bringing their verses and artistry to light. Sithirakkavi is a poetic practice in which verses assume visual form while strictly observing grammatical rules. A poem may rise into the shape of a chariot or a lotus, transforming its appearance without altering its sense. In Tamil, poets such as Gnanasambandar, Thirumangai Azhwar, and Arunagirinathar employed this art. In this lineage, Kudavayil introduces Abdul Kabur Sahib of Thiruvarur, a Sithirakkavi poet who composed many pictorial verses. Kudavayil esteems him highly, placing him among the devotional masters he himself reveres.
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| Kudavayil Balasubramaniyan |
Research Methodology and Critiques
Among Tamil readers, Kudavayil Balasubramanian stands as a familiar and celebrated author, whose works have touched a far wider readership than those of any other scholar. For visitors who enter a temple without prior familiarity with tradition, his works often serve as the first guide. His warm, accessible style lowers the barrier to history, allowing readers to approach it with ease. In this sense, he turns history into narrative, shaping history into an engaging story told in his own voice. Balasubramanian never fashioned himself as a spectacular revolutionary. Instead, he worked from within tradition, studying and interpreting it with care. This integrity and steadiness are reflected both in his decades of research and in the continuing stream of new readers drawn to his work.
In his early years, Balasubramanian traversed the Thanjavur countryside on a bicycle, gathering knowledge at first hand. Trained in photography, he recorded every discovery himself, patiently building an archive of images and notes. There is no scholar in Tamil Nadu who does not admire Balasubramanian’s diligence and sustained efforts. Yet certain critics raise objections: that he does not always present exhaustive data, that he states conclusions with assurance rather than questioning them, and that he privileges tradition in his readings. To grasp the force of these criticisms, however, one must turn to his writings themselves and engage with the texture of his research.
Kudavayil’s method does not proceed along Marxist lines. Instead, it follows the intellectual path shaped by his mentor, Nagasami. At the heart of his inquiry lies aesthetic wonder toward a work of art. From the question of how did a form attain such refinement, he expands his search through literature, sculpture, and inscription, widening the field step by step before drawing these strands together into interpretation. However, when asked whether this method offers a complete or total perspective, the answer is, in fact, no. In a conventional laboratory-like research, one is expected to remove wonder and emotion from the very first question, enter research with detachment, assemble data, fit it into fixed frameworks, and only then arrive at conclusions. Kudavayil, however, does not adopt this path. The ground of his research is cultural reverence and pride in the tradition he studies; without this sensibility, the sculptures before him would cease to be marvels.
Kudavayil Balasubramanian is not needed merely to tell us a statue’s weight or measurements. He works instead with religion, art, and culture as foundational pillars and through them offers new modes of understanding. He may not submit his deepest convictions to sceptical dismantling, yet the cultural insights his work generates open a gateway to a rich field of knowledge. From there, each reader may begin a personal journey of inquiry—posing new questions and gathering evidence—without being required to follow the exact path Kudavayil himself chose.
Kudavayil Balasubramanian - tamil.wiki
Thamarai Kannan
From Tamil to Engilsh Traslation: Helan Mouttou Coumarane
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| Thamarai Kannan |
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| Helan |
Translator: Helan Mouttou Coumarane is a professional English language editor with extensive experience in working across diverse forms of writing. Her expertise lies in strengthening clarity, structure, and style without altering the core ideas of the text. She also works with PhD students and scholars, helping them in shaping their research for successful publication in academic journals. Recently, her practice has expanded into the field of translation, where she brings the same sensitivity and precision to rendering texts.
