so tamilnadu was not a bed of roses compared to egypt. slavery was surely used (if not in higher stages like the sthapathis) but in lower levels like chiseling, dressing and heaving the stones.
is there any reference at all in this boo on the use of slavery in temple building? venketesh
Hello Mr Venketesh; Thanks for the mail. Sorry for delayed reply, ive been very busy. yes, it does look like slavery was rampant in Tamilnadu. To be honest there was no way such huge buildings could have been built by sweet talking your workers. There would have prisoners-of-war used in these constructions. the people would have been taxed higher than usual for funds to build these temples.
Hi Madan If something really emancipated the slaves it was the industrial revolution.on an economical front It was cheaper to feed a machine than a slave and his family. really it was mechanisation that brought us to our humanitarian senses.
a motor in a ship is indeed better off than a thousand galley slaves( remember ben hur?)
of course its a dog eat dog world out there. and man always finds a way of manipulating his fewllow men for his ends and uses.slavery is still rampant in africa and parts of india ( as bonded labour)
but some how all these glorious structures like the pyramid, great wall, the taj the big temple must have been built with unwilling labour. and many of these were built more to glorify one race or one man rather than serve some utility.
I surely accept your theory that art( good art) comes out of freedom. I sincerely beleive creativity arises out o un boinded chaos. slavery if used for the temples must have been in quarry, transport, and rough masonory work. the skilled men were very respected and must have been paid- the sthapathis for instance.
without machines such mammoth building works would have taken years and supporting such a large work force with salaries would really have been detrimental to the economy of the nation.
and what would you do with the thousands of prisoners of war?? those were cruel times and we should actually blame Mr. Krishnamurthy for painting such a rosy picture for us.
You are right about unskilled labour. thanks for the interesting talk.
I should admit am not too much of a 'rosy picture' guy too (uh? do I hear you going 'after all that talk'? ;)
The scene in the movie 'raja raja cholan' where sivaji holds the bin for the sthapathi to spit 'vettrilai ecchil' has influenced me so much ;) yeah, its partly Kalki Krishnamoorthy too :)
Hi Madan what a co incidence ? I thought of that scene too. but then rrc inscibed the name of the sculptor on the temple along with lots of workers. others did not even have that courtesy.
> but then rrc inscibed the name of the sculptor on the temple along > with lots of workers. others did not even have that courtesy.
Dear Venkat
Actually in periya koil only the names of 2 sculptors have been mentioned - that too in a different context. One of the names we see is Rajaraja perunthachan but nowhere does the epigraph say that he was the chief sculptor of periyakoil. It was just an assumption of some scholars. The other was nitta vinodap perunthachan if my memory is not failing.
Only thalicheri pendir names and the names of meikaavalar have been inscribed and that too had a different purpose.
What rrc did which others did not do was giving a chance to write each and every donor to the big temple irrespective of who they were. This is the very first inscription of rrc in the big temple starting "naam kuduthanavum"
Point: RRC did not record name of every other sculptors, painters and artisans who participated in the project nor mention the core engineering team. If the king did not prefer even to have a small statue of his with name inscribed below - leave alone sculptors and artisans !