The Kannagi Statue Taken from Batticaloa and Kept in the London Museum?
The Kannagi Statue Taken from Batticaloa and Kept in the London Museum?
The Kannagi Statue Taken from Batticaloa and Kept in the London Museum?
(From the book “Mattakkalappu Tamilakam”)
We learn that a statue of Kannagi discovered in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, crossed the seas to London and gained worldwide fame. In History of Indian and Indonesian Art by Dr. K. Ananda Kumaraswamy (Page 167), the scholar expresses his admiration for this remarkable Kannagi statue preserved in the British Museum.
According to him, the statue must have been found somewhere between Trincomalee and Batticaloa. This image, made of panchaloha (a sacred five-metal alloy), is regarded by art historians as one of the finest complete statues of Kannagi available today.
Another beautiful Kannagi statue, though with its left leg broken, is also found there. It is said that during the early period of British rule in Sri Lanka (around 1730), a Kannagi statue was discovered beneath a tamarind tree standing on a tank bund in Batticaloa.
It is also known that during Dutch rule, several wealthy Saivite temples in Batticaloa were looted. To save their beloved goddess Kannagi from the oppressors, some elders are believed to have secretly removed the statue from the temple and hidden it elsewhere.
The art scholar Navaratnam, after closely examining the structure of this complete statue, suggested that it possesses features of North Indian artistic style, along with Mahayana Buddhist influences and Tibetan characteristics. Therefore, he considered the possibility that the image might originally have represented a Buddhist female deity rather than Kannagi.
The Kannagi statue preserved in the Colombo Museum also resembles the London Museum statue in style and form. Since these statues do not depict Kannagi in the traditional Tamil form of the one-breasted chaste heroine (Pattini), this seems to support his view.
Although King Gajabahu may originally have brought to Sri Lanka a Tamil-style Kannagi image modeled after the statue created by the Chera king Senguttuvan, over time later artistic influences—from Sri Lankan Buddhism and later Chola sculpture traditions—may gradually have transformed the image into its present form.
However, following the opinion of the renowned art scholar Ananda Kumaraswamy, I believe it is more appropriate to continue identifying these statues as representations of Kannagi.
— Pandithar V. C. Kanthiah
Mattakkalappu Tamilakam (Page 105)
Translation by Hari
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