Early Chola Temples

by S. R. Balasubrahmanyam | 1960 | 105,501 words

This volume of Chola Temples covers Parantaka I to Rajaraja I in the timeframe A.D. 907-985. The Cholas of Southern India left a remarkable stamp in the history of Indian architecture and sculpture. Besides that, the Chola dynasty was a successful ruling dynasty even conquering overseas regions....

Somur is in the Karur taluk of Tiruchy district. It should have been included in the old Kongu country.

Somesvaram Udaiyar temple (Tiru Nolambalur Mahadevar)

The earliest inscription on the walls of this temple is one of the 6th year of Parakesarivarman (208 of 1917). It makes a gift of gold for a lamp in the temple of Tiru Nolambalur Mahadevar by one Pirantakan Purushottaman of the Danatongat-terinja-kaikkolar. Danatonga is a surname of Parantaka I, and the donor bears the name of 'Pirantakan’. So this reocrd may be ascribed to Parantaka I.

Aditya I claims the conquest of the Kongu country, and an inscription of the 6th year of his successor in this place confirms this conquest by Aditya I and Parantaka I. There is also an inscription of the 34th year of a Parakesarivarman, which mentions a gift of gold for a lamp. This also should be ascribed to Parantaka I.

In the 17th year of Rajaraja I, the royal officer who conducted the land survey of the Chola kingdom, Ulagalavitta Tiruvadigal Sattan, made an inquiry into the accounts of the temple, and the defaulting temple-servants were fined. Out of the sums thus realized, a golden diadem was made and presented as an offering to Tiru Nolambalur Paramesvara (at Devana-palli or Devaganapalli). Various gifts for lamps and for offerings were made in the 21st year of Rajaraja I (199 and 198 of 1917).

An inscription on the west wall of the mandapa in front of the central shrine (not bearing the regnal year or the name of the king, but inscribed in characters which according to the Government Epigraphist, could be assigned to the days of Rajaraja 1) mentions that a person Nirttalaivayan Tennunikaman Eluvan alias Devaganappalli Araiyan caused the images of dvarapalas in the temple to be made (Pls. 28 to 31).

This is a temple of the time of Parantaka I in the old Kongu country.

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