A masterpiece

Last Saturday saw us getting up at 3.30 in the morning and going to the Srirangam temple. These days this is the norm to be followed if you wish to get a good darshan of the Lord even with an entrance fee. You can still try the expensive line anytime during the day (Rs 250) but I am willing to do the early morning darshan that gives a calm and serene and a divine experience for a modest entrance fee of 50 rupees with no hassles and rushing.

A few months back I was able to see the Lord this way with just above two hours waiting period. Last Saturday even though we were at the main inner shrine door at  around 5'o clock in the morning, we still could not go in further as the doors were closed and a board display said darshan was cancelled  for the entire day,with no prior announcements and any reasons mentioned.

We felt a little bad but we reminded ourselves of the popular saying in tamil 'You can see the Lord only when he calls you' . There is a consolation price though--the early day's start gave us an opportunity to roam around the vast premise of the temple freely.Almost half way around the thayar sannithi, we saw the west side door left opened and a sign directing towards the thousand pillars hall.Often we have visited the temple in the past and almost all those times we had never seen this door open. Instantly we decided to go in.

This is where the title of this post comes in. The moment we entered the lane through the west door and turned left we saw this big elephant statue in a distance.We were the only ones in that area and the sun had not yet risen.The light was dim and I had only my mobile phone which did not have a good flash effect but I still took a decent photo or two.

I have vague memories from a long long time ago,of sighting an elephant statue in a big temple but was not sure of exactly which temple. Recently I read an article in a well known magazine about the elephant statue present in Srirangam temple and showed it to my folks that that was the statue I had been talking about occasionally. I had seen it during a visit in my school days and recalled that it was quite big.

After reading the article I thought it would be impossible to locate the statue again in the vast temple premise after all these years and I was happy to spot it all by co-incidence in my second visit after reading about it.


Its astonishing to note that the elephant,the trainer and the patron are all of  life size. The sheer size of the elephant itself floored us.

Here is my father serving as a scale to show the statue size

The statue is atleast a thousand years old.It was made in the 10th century AD.The craftsmanship shown even in the minute designs is just so marvellous. The statue is present at the rear end of the thousand pillar hall and is part of a twin set. The other identical elephant statue is present within ten feet of the first one along with a trainer and a patron.

The elephant on the other side of the wall

There are notable damages visible in parts of this monument viz the broken trunks and the elephant rider's head missing in both the statues. What a stunning view it would have been had it been complete!! It was paining to see the damages on such a masterpiece.

We were there for atleast twenty minutes looking at it and a dozen or so people passed us in the meantime but many did not even turn in the direction of the elephants. A couple of people stopped to take a selfie and thats that.Not their mistake..This is how the society is these days and there is no action being taken by the authorites to protect or spread knowledge about our ancient architectural wealth.The often seen headlines that our statues of deities are being sold for hundreds of crores in the international market by thugs are the best example of how the temple authorities work.

At this point of time, those things are beyond my say.. but I am very happy I was able to view this masterpiece and make some happy memories that too at that Godly hour in the morning.This post is my two cents to spread awareness about this extraordinary masterpiece. Do try to see the statue when ever you get to visit Srirangam temple. I assure it will be worth your time and effort.