Temples in Purisaikkudi

There were at least three royal ladies by the name of Somala devi in the Hovsala family; one of them was the queen of Vira Narasimha II and mother of Somesvara.

An inscription (SII, VII, No. 1043) found on a rock to the north of the Gokarnesvara temple on the way to the natural spring at Tirugokarnam reads as follows:

‘Svasti sri: tribhuvanachakravartigal Sri Irasarasadevarkku—yandu 10-avadu Toraisamuttirattu Sri Posalavira Sri Narasingadevar maganar Somisvara devar maataa Somaladeviyar......”.

Another was a sister of Narasimha’s (Ep. Car. IX, Intro., p. 21), and a third one was the queen of Somesvara, who died in a.d. 1253. From a record in the Jambukesvarasvamin temple at Jambukesvaram, we get the location of this temple as being at Purisaikkudi in Pachchil-kurram, a sub-division of Rajaraja valanadu; we also learn that it was built by Vira Somesvara as a pallippadai for Deviyar Somaladeviyar.

Somalisvaram Udaiyar temple

It seems probable that the Somaladevi for whom this sepulchral temple was built was his mother and the queen of Narasimha II, referred to in the inscription quoted above. The record, dated in the fifth year of Vira Somesvara, gives the details of the income in paddy from different kinds of lands made over by the king to provide for worship and offerings to the deity in the temple of Somalisvaram Udaiyar (ARE 124 of 1936-37). In dealing with the Sri Ranganathasvamin temple, mention was made of a Somaladeviyar (ARE 22 of 1891), in the 25th year of Rajaraja III (i.e., a.d. 1241); the Government Epi-graphist considers that this lady should be identified with the sister of Narasimha who was one of the queens of Rajaraja III. This construction lends weight to the support that the Hoysalas gave their kinsman bv marriage which determined the direction of the Chola-Pandya conflict for power for the next few decades.