Temple cloth

A large painted cotton (kalamkari) cloth designed for hanging in Hindu temples during religious festivals. This cloth, according to its Tamil inscriptions as translated by Dr Mangalam Mathrubutham, depicts the Subrahmanya temple at Tirupparankunram, Madurai. This is denoted by the temple gate-tower (gopura) in the lower register, flanked by a temple car (ratha), awaiting decoration in the next annual temple festival. These cloths are both decorative and instructional, recounting great events from the epic literature of Hinduism for the benefit of the devotees who would have an opportunity to enjoy and study them whilst waiting for their turn to see the icon of the god (‘take darshana’) in the temple sanctuary.

This example has a central assembly of five presiding deities: Devayani Amman, Subrahmanayasvami, Valli Amman, Durgai Amman and Vigheshvara. The
composition is organised into four registers in which selected scenes from the exploits of Subramanyana, otherwise known as Skanda (Sanskrit) or Murgan (Tamil), the god of war. Glosses written in Tamil accompany each scene identifying the episode depicted. For example, a battle scene centre-right depicts Arumurugan battling Simhamukhasura, a powerful demon. Other battle scenes occupy further panels. Murugan is seen on his peacock vahana upper-left, and so on. The border design has a recurring design of animals – peacocks and deer – and Hindu holymen (rishis), some meditating, some in discourse and others performing yogic austerities in a variety of remarkable (and often acrobatic) postures.