சோழ நாட்டில் பௌத்தம்

During the first week of September 2018, there were news reports about the finding of a Buddha sculpture in a temple tank at Peravurani in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. The sculpture was in sitting dhyana posture. Let us have look about the Nagapattinam bronzes. For granite Buddhas, historian Mayilai Seeni Venkatasamy’s Bauthamum Tamilum [Buddhism and Tamil] (1940) was the primary source. In his work he cited about the prevalence of 10 granite Buddhas in the Chola country comprising composite Thanjavur, composite Trichy and Pudukottai district in his work. For Nagapattinam Buddha bronze T.N.Ramachandran’s The Nagapattinam and other Buddhist bronzes in the Madras Museum (Director of Museums, Chennai, I Edn 1954, Rpt. 1992). T.N.Ramachandran in the preface of his work says: “Nagapattinam Bronzes – Buddhist bronzes, though rare in South India, are occasionally found mostly in Tanjore district, dating from 11th to 15th century A.D. From Nagapattinam, since 1856, abo...