IIASN9-Kumbakonam

3-4 June 1996
The British Museum, London, UK

Kumbakonam: sacred and royal city of Tamil Nadu

Kumbakonam, an ancient South Indian city located in the Kaveri basin, the core of Tamil civilization, probably dates from back early centuries of the Christian era, and epitomizes the traditions of urban Tamil culture through its mythology, urban configuration, its temples and tanks, its palaces and its institutions both scholarly and philanthropic.
As part of the festival of India's South, a two-day conference on Kumbakonam was organized jointly by the British Museum and the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge.

By A.L. Dallapiccola

In the winter of 1995/96 an interdisciplinary research team (Dallapiccola, Michell and Nanda) headed by Mr P. Carl of the Department of Architecture of the University of Cambridge commenced work at Kumbakonam. The aim of the project is an interpretative understanding of this city. The particular character of Kumbakonam cannot be addressed from any single point of view, but rather from the reciprocities and relationships between ritual and civic life and their embodiment in architectural settings. While the main scope of the research is in the field of art and architectural history, scholarship from the related Humanities: epigraphy, history, religious studies, literature, and the social sciences has been taken into account. One of the aims of the team is to encourage as much as possible other scholars, local and foreign, to contribute to the project's monograph series.

The prime objectives of the conference were, on the one hand, to draw in multidisciplinary input from various scholars working in related fields, and on the other, to present the research team's findings after the first season of fieldwork.
The proceedings were opened by Mr Vivek Nanda (Dept. of Architecture, Cambridge) who set the following papers into context by familiarizing the audience, by means of maps and slides, with the city of Kumbakonam. Professor D.D. Shulman (Institute of Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem) spoke on "Kumbakonam as a Cosmogony", thus revealing the intricate cluster of myths woven around the town. An archaeological apercu of Kumbakonam, during the Chola period, was delivered by Dr R. Nagaswamy (Madras) and Professor Champakalakshmi (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) expanded on the intricate economic relationships between the city of Kumbakonam and its hinterland, the Kaveri Valley. Dr Sanjay Subrahmanyam (Delhi School of Economic) spoke on Kumbakonam in "The Context of Maratha Thanjavur" and the first day closed with the paper of Dr Marie-Louise Reiniche (EFEO, Pondicherry) on "Dual Sovereignty of Shiva and Vishnu at Kumbakonam".
The following day, devoted to the work of the research team, opened with the paper of Mr Vivek Nanda "Urbanism and Cosmic Geography at Kumbakonam" followed by Dr Françoise Hernault's (EFEO, Pondicherry) who analyzed the Chola architecture and sculpture at Kumbakonam. The paper by Dr G. Michell (Dept. of Architecture, Cambridge) focused on the latter, mainly Nayaka and Maratha, architectural traditions in the area and was followed by my own contribution on temple painting and sculpture of Kumbakonam. The last speaker of the day was Mr Pierre Pichard (EFEO, Pondicherry) who described the urban texture of the rural agrahara at Kumbakonam.
The conference was attended by numerous specialists in the field as well as the interested public. The lively discussions after each paper revealed the multiple points of view and different aspects from which a city and its environments can be interpreted.
The proceedings of the conference will be published by the British Museum Press. The volume is planned to appear in late 1997.

Professor Anna L. Dallapiccola is attached to the University of Edinburgh and is part of the interdisciplinary research team which studies Kumbakonam