The King of Kings sleeps here..

   


What comes to your mind when you hear the name 'Raja Raja Chola'? The mighty Brihadeeshwara temple at Thanjavur? Obviously! What else? Maybe the fact that under him, the Chola empire spread from Kalinga(Orissa) in the north east to Sri Lanka in the south. Some of you might also know that democracy was introduced in the form of 'Kudavolai'(kudam is Tamil for pot and volai means palm leaf) system to elect the local village administrators. Inscriptions found at Uthiramerur(around 83 kilometers from Chennai) have details about how these elections were carried out. The inscriptions even laid out eligibility criteria for contesting in the elections apart from various other administrative procedures. You can read more about them here and here. All this had been done more than 1000 years ago!

  The masterpiece!

     The Brihadeeshwara temple in Thanjavur is a sight to behold. Full of architectural wonders, it attracts a steady stream of tourists, both devotional and casual. The vimana in the Brihadeeshwara temple is 216 ft (66 m) high. The Kumbam(apex or the bulbous structure on the top) of the temple is carved out of a single stone and it weighs around 80 tons. The entire temple structure is made out of granite, the nearest sources of which are close to Tiruchirappalli, about 60 km to the west of Thanjavur. It has been established that a slope was constructed from the temple to Narthamalai from where granite was brought to the temple's construction. And, all this happened more than 1000 years back when the rest of the world was still in its early stages and the continents of America had not even been discovered! 

The King of the Kings

     King Raja Raja Chola, one of the greatest kings of India had accomplished so much that his name still stands today. He is also remembered for his humanity and humbleness as exemplified in the following lines:

" நாங்குடுத்தநவும், அக்கன் குடுத்தநவும், நம் பெண்டுகள் குடுத்தநவும், மற்றும் குடுத்தார் குடுத்தநவும், ஸ்ரீ விமாநத்தில் கல்லிலே வெட்டுக"

              ("Inscribe what I gave, my sister gave, our wives gave and the commoners gave")

     
He had recognised even the smallest contributions made by the people towards the construction of the big temple by inscribing their names on the temple walls. Well, a lot can be said about the greatness of this mighty king and it will require a big blog itself, so let me fast forward from the 11th century to the 21st century.

In search of the Emperor's burial site
My friend and I set out in search of the burial site of King Raja Raja Chola. I had read about this some months back and I wanted to go there personally and see the memorial of his highness. We reached Kumbakonam one fine morning and went to Darasuram from there. We took an auto to a place called Udayalur from there. Udayalur is a small village near Pazhayarai, Cholan Maaligai and Pateeshwaram(a famous religious site). Pazhayarai was once the capital of the Cholas. We found a small rusted board lying on the roadside and that showed us the way to reach the memorial site. In a few minutes, we were inside a narrow street with old huts and soon, the auto stopped. We were told that we had reached the place. I took a look around and I could see a slanted shivlingh in the backyard of one of those houses. It was covered in a small thatched roof in the middle of a field. There was a small painting of Raja Raja Chola framed nearby but otherwise, there was no other way of identifying that the legendary emperor was sleeping so humbly in that place. It is not known whether the king was buried or cremated but common opinion holds that he was cremated. His ashes were later put in a container and a shivlingh was installed over it. This type of sepulchral shrine is called 'Pallipadai' in Tamil. However, not much archaeological studies have been carried out about this place.

His highness rests here..

The memorial site lies behind this house

Is this the best we can do?

 The memorial site is in such a shocking state of affairs that for a moment, I really felt ashamed of myself. We have a thousand people here who keep using the words 'Tamil', 'Tamil' for personal and political gains but not one has come forward to do something for the king who had accomplished so much in his lifetime. I spoke a bit with the caretaker(an aged man, probably in his late 70s or 80s) and he told me how politicians are scared to enter the Brihadeeshwara temple or do something for the king as they are wary of a so-called curse. It is also said that a local politician who tried to construct a good memorial site suddenly died, so no one dares to do anything for this site. It is sad but in a country like India where superstitions are followed even in rocket launches, these type of situations can't be avoided. And this brought me to the next question. What about the Big temple administration? Why can't they do something to this place? Based on what I got from Wikipedia, the annual income of Thanjavur is INR411.8 million(US$6.6 million). There were 2,002,225 Indian and 81,435 foreign tourist arrivals in 2009 to Thanjavur. It can be safely assumed that a big chunk of these numbers were because of the Big temple. They should have obviously donated a lot to the temple in various forms(just Google for Pradhosham in Thanjavur temple and you will get a fair idea of the crowd that comes). Why can't they spend a small part of that to atleast put up a concrete roof in the memorial? Well, as they say, it is easy to ask questions!

The street

Edit:
I thought it will be better if I added some existing proofs about the place. So, here we go.
Paalkulaththu Amman temple is  located on the eastern border of the village. There is a stone pillar bearing inscriptions at the temple doorway. Previously this pillar was part of the mandapam in Pazhayarai, where the body of Raja Raja Cholan I was laid for his last rites. This mandapam was later demolished for unknown reasons. Eventually this pillar was planted at the Paalkulaththu Amman temple.

ஸ்ரீசிவபாதசேகரமங்கலம் என்னும் ஊரில் கட்டப்பட்டிருந்த ஸ்ரீஇராஜராஜதேவரான ஸ்ரீசிவபாதசேகரதேவர் திருமாளிகையின் முன்பிருந்த பெரிய திருமண்டபம் பழுதுபட்டதால் பிடவூர் வேளான் அரிகேசவனான காசிராஜன் அதைத் திருப்பணி செய்ய விழைந்தார். ஜெயசிங்ககுலகால வளநாட்டு சாத்தமங்கலத்து பிடாரன் நாடறிபுகழன் அவருக்காக இப்பணியை மேற்கொண்டார். ஸ்ரீசிவபாதசேகரமங்கலத்துப் பிடாரர்களில் இராஜேந்திர சோழன் உதைய நாகனான ஈசானசிவரும் தேவன் அபயமான அறங்காட்டிப் பிச்சரும் இப்பணிக்கு உறுதுணையாக அமைந்தனர்.)

This roughly means that the dilapidated hall(mandapam) in front of the royal palance at Palayaarai was renovated by some Pidaarers(priests). This mandapam has been interpreted to be the memorial of King Raja Raja Chola. Raising sepulchral shrine on the burial / cremation ground was found common during later Cholas period (10th and 11th century).The historian also related the pallipadai of Panchavan Madevi (one of the wives Raja Raja Cholan I) located at Pateeswaram (nearer to Udayalur).
I would also like to a add a few points from another blog here:

According to Dr Kudavayil Balasubramanian, well known epigraphist and historian from Thanjavur district, the inscription speaks about some structures built in memory of Raja Raja Cholan I. The structure mentioned therein was renovated by Kulothunga Cholan I (1070 - 1120 A.D.). The pallipadai figured on the bed of River Mudikondan (a tributary of Cauvery) could be the part of pallipadai. The historian also related the pallipadai of Panchavan Madevi (one of the wives Raja Raja Cholan I) located at Pateeswaram (nearer to Udayalur). He also strongly believe that there could be the pallipadai of Raja Raja Cholan I located in the near by area since the emperor spent his last days at the palace in Pazahayarai.

The state Department of Archaeology (DoA) could not establish any such conclusion since they could not find any reliable evidence to prove it. Some people continued to claim that the Shiva Lingam site on the bed of River Mudikondan, being nearer to the erstwhile Chola capital Pazhayarai, could possibly be the sepulchral shrine since Raja Raja Chola I was buried about 1,000 years ago.

How to reach(click for Google Maps link)

Kumbakonam-Darasuram-Udayalur