Southern States - Tamil Nadu

10th century Buddha statue found

By S. Ganesan

The Buddha sculpture discovered near Manamelkudi in Pudukottai district.

PUDUKOTTAI MAY 16. A 10th century Buddha statue was discovered near the coastal village of Manamelkudi in Pudukottai district.

The four-and-a-half-feet high Chola period sculpture was unearthed from a paddy field, referred to as "Seenan Thidal'' (Ground of Chinese) by villagers here. J.Raja Mohammed, curator of the Pudukottai Government Museum, happened to find it during his field visit as part of a study on ancient maritime trade in the region. The sculpture's backside was a playfield for urchins in the area.

The Buddha, seated cross-legged in a meditational posture, has a pointed flame, known as `usnisa', the symbol of `Gnana', on his head and a studded hair-do. The face is exquisitely chiselled and the ear lobes are long. The Buddha wears a thread across his left shoulder.

Though Buddhism was well entrenched in some of the coastal towns of the erstwhile composite Thanjavur district in the medieval period, no Buddhist vestiges were found in this coastal region, according to Mr.Mohammed.

Ponparri, an interior village in Avudayarkovil taluk, alone finds a place on the map of Buddhism, where a small Buddha idol was found previously. Ponparri is the birthplace of Buddhamitra, the author of "Virasoliyam,'' an 11th century work on Tamil grammar.

During the medieval period, trade flourished between south India and China. The Manamelkudi port then might have been an active trade centre and Chinese traders would have come to see the Buddha statute. Some Chinese porcelain and ancient potteries were also collected from the site, Mr.Mohammed says.

Pudukottai, with a coastline of about 40 km, had around 12 minor ports between 17th and 19th centuries, which were active maritime centres.

The Manamelkudi port served as an export point for paddy and rice as attested by inscriptions in the area and was also called the "rice port'' in the 13th century.

From the inscriptional and archival evidence it could be inferred that the ancient port of Saliyur (`sali' meaning paddy in Sanskrit) and Nellinur, as described in Maduraikanchi of Sangam period, was situated in Manamelkudi, says Mr. Mohammed.

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