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TIRUNELVELI, INDIA, July 25, 2004: Temples often have columns portraying dancers or musicians, but rarely do the pillars themselves make music. In the Nellaiyappar temple, gentle taps on the cluster of columns carved out of a single piece of rock can produce the keynotes of Indian classical music. “You can hear the saptha swarangal (the seven basic notes) come like a wave as it were from the stone pieces,” says a senior priest. The Nelliyapar temple chronicle, Thirukovil Varalaaru, says the nadaththai ezhuppum kal thoongal–stone pillars that produce music–were set in place in the 7th century during the reign of Pandyan king Nindraseer Nedumaran. Archaeologists date the temple before the 7th century and say it was built by successive rulers of the Pandyan dynasty that ruled over the southern parts of Tamil Nadu from Madurai. Tirunelveli served as their subsidiary capital. The rulers following Nedumaran made some additions and modifications, but left the 20 musical stone pillars in front of the main Shiva shrine untouched. Each huge musical pillar carved from one piece of rock comprises a cluster of smaller columns and stands testimony to a unique understanding of the “physics and mathematics of sound,” temple authorities said. In all, there are 161 such small pillars that make music in the Nada Mani Mandapam before the main shrine of Lord Nellaiyappar, the chronicle says.



In the South several temples boast of such pillars, though the pillars of Tirunelveli stand out. “What is unique about the musical stone pillars in the Tirunelveli Nellaiyappar temple is the fact you have a cluster as large as 48 musical pillars carved from one piece of stone, a delight to both the ears and the eyes,” says the chronicle, citing local Tamil poet Nellai M.S. Shankar. “This is an architectural rarity and a sublime beauty to be cherished and preserved,” adds Shankar.



HPI adds: Iraivan Temple at the Kauai Aadheenam, home of Hinduism Today and HPI, will also have two musical pillars, the first ever brought to a temple in the West.

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