Temples in Tiruchchengodu

Tiruchchengodu (see Early Chola Temples, p. 254) is in the taluk of the same name in the Salem district in Tamil Nadu about 10 kms south of the railway station of Sankaridurgam on the Southern Railway.

During the Tamil Sangam age, Karur was the capital of the Gheras and they were the Lord of the Kolli-malai. Towards the close of the eighth century A.D., they shifted their capital to Mahodai (Cranganore or Musiri). The most famous Chera ruler and Tamil hymnist was Cheraman Perumal who ruled from Kodungolur (Cranganore) and who is credited with having reached Kailasa along with Sundaramurti (about a.d. 820). The region of modern Salem district and a part of Coimbatore was known as Kongu desa. Namakkal, in the Mala Kongu, was ruled by local chiefs called the Adigaimans. They are credited with the excavation of the Vishnu cave temples at Namakkal (about the eighth century a.d.). Thereupon the Cheras moved westward as far as the sea and northwards toDharmapuri (ancient Tagadur). The region of Kollimalai and Tiruchchengodu—the southern Kongu—was ruled by local chiefs belonging to the Malavar clan.

(i) Ardhanarisvara temple

(ii) Subrahmanyar temples (one at the foot of the hill and another on the hill)
(iii) Adikesava Perumal (Vishnu) temple, on the hill

The Tamil Saint Sambandar (seventh century a.d.) had visited Tiruchchengodu, which, in his days, was called Kodi-madach-chengunrur and has sung a hymn on the presiding deity on this hill described as Siva in the aspect of Ardhanarisvara. This hill is red in colour. Hence it is called Sengunru (Sengodu). It has bends like a snake, hence it is also called Nagari (Naga-giri). There is a spring at the foot of the Lord of Ardha-narisvara in the sanctum on the hill top, wherefrom we can see the flowing Kaveri river. At the foot of the hill, there are tanks and channels with dams. Sambandar describes the place as one full of mansions. In his hymn, he describes the heroic deeds of Siva—the destruction of the Tripura Asuras, the subjugation of Ravana and the eradication of the heretical sects of the Buddhists and the Jains. Siva is black-throated; he stood as a pillar of fire defying the search of Brahma and Vishnu. He is said to have been worshipped by the Devas, the Siddhas and the Bhutas. At the time of Sambandar’s visit, the place seems to have been a malarious tract. The local people prayed to him for relief. Sambandar sang a song in the name of Tiru-Nilakantham to rid the land of this scourge. The prayer was granted.

Kongu desa was ruled by a number of local chiefs called the Kongu desa Rajakkal who enjoyed a sort of political independence and they had a local legendary history of their own. This region was conquered by the Chola king Aditya I. He is credited with having gilded the Chitsabha of the Nataraja temple at Chidambaram with the gold obtained from the Kongu conquest. The completion of the conquest of Kongu by his son and successor Parantaka I is attested by his three inscriptions (twentieth, twenty-seventh, and thirty-seventh year records) on the hill of Tiruchchengodu close to the steps of the Ardhanarisvara temple.

Next in order, there are two copper plate grants of a certain Rajakesarivarman obtained from Tiruchchengodu (SII, III, 212 and 213). The earlier of these grants is one of fifth year of a Rajakesarivarman (213). This grant registers a gift of land by the local chief Kolli-malavan Orriyuran Piratigandavarman to the stone temple (karrali) of Tirumulasthana Paramesvara of Tusiyur in his nadu (line 2, ennattu).

Among the boundaries of the gifted land are mentioned the tanks called Sulai kulam, also known as Kandaleri, Tamaraikkulam and Karrali-eri also named Pudukkulam and two dams called Piruarru-anai and Kallodu-anai.

This local chief of Tiruchchengodu, Kolli-Malavan Orriyuran Piradikandavarman, was a feudatory of the Chola king Rajakesarivarman. The editor of the grant identified this Rajakesarivarman with Rajaraja I and added that it was not possible to identify the places mentioned in the inscription.

The other grant (212) consists of two parts ‘A’ and ‘B’ and is dated in the tenth year of a Rajakesarivarman. The person who makes the grant in these two parts is named Malaviraiyan Sundara Gholan in ‘A’ and Kolli-Malavan Piradigandan Sundara Cholan in ‘B’. Both should refer only to one and the same chief.

In Part ‘A’ the chief defines the rate of tax to be collected from the Nagar am of Tusiyur—one fourth kasu on each full house site and one eighth on each half house site; and in case of default, the fine was to be at the rate prevailing in Nandipuram (Nandipura-marchati= maryada). Nandipuram should refer to the secondary Chola capital of Palaiyarai (see ARE 365, 367 and 374 of 1924 for other references of the Nandipuram standard).

In ‘B’, the same chief Sundara Chola makes a gift of a pit filled with water to the south-west of the boulder in favour of Tirukkarrali-Paramesvara of Tusiyur to appease the thirst Ma-dahattukku )of his deceased father who had been killed in a battle during the war of the Cholas with the Ceylonese. And Sundara Chola’s father is evidently the same chief as the donor of the grant 213. Kolli-Malavan Orriyuran Piradigandavarman should have fought in Sri Lanka on behalf of his Chola overlord and been killed there in battle. It may be recalled that another Chola feudatory called Siriya Velan of Kodumbalur is also said to have died in a battle-field in Sri Lanka in the ninth year of Ponmaligai Tunjina Devar, namely Sundara Chola (see ARE 302, 299 and 291 of 1908, and 116 of 1896; SII III, B, 980, “Ilattuppatta Kodumbalur Velan Siriya Velan magan Velan Sundara Solan”.) The conjectural year three is a mistake for nine. Both the Chola feudatories of Tiruchchengodu and Kodumbalur must have died in the same battle in Sri Lanka in the ninth year of Sundara Chola. The editor of the grant also stated that it was not possible to identify the places mentioned in the inscriptions (SII, III, pp. 478 and 476).

At this stage, let us consider three inscriptions from the Kasi-Visvanathar temple in the neighbouring village of Bomma-samudram:

(i) ARE 294 of 1965 - 66—fragmentary—in tenth century characters. It records a gift of land for a perpetual lamp to the Mahadevar of Tiru-Mulasthanam of Tusiyur.

(ii) ARE 293 of 1965 - 66—a fragment—in Amman shrine. It mentions a gift of a lamp in the days of Rajakesarivarman Sundara Chola.

(iii) ARE 293 of 1965 - 66—a fragment. It mentions a gift to the Mahadevar of Tusiyur in the seventeenth regnal year of Arinjigai Pirantakan alias Rajakesarivarman.

All these fragmentary inscriptions whose slabs have been imbedded into the newly built Siva and Amman shrines of the Kasi-Visvanathar temple should refer only to gifts in the days of Rajakesarivarman Sundara Chola, son of Arinjigai, and the Mahadevar of Tusiyur mentioned therein should refer only to Ardhanarisvara on the hill of Tiruchchengodu. Rightly the Government Epigraphis t has corrected the earlier identification of Rajakesarivarman with Rajaraja I into Rajakesarivarman Sundara Chola alias Parantaka II, son of Arinjigai (Arinjaya).

I should like to make some further clarifications. The Chola inscriptions on the hill of Tiruchchengodu and the two copper plate grants of Rajakesarivarman and the fragmentary inscriptions of Bommasamudram refer to gifts to the Lord of Ardhanarisvara (Mahadevar of Tiru-Mulasthana Udaiyar) at Tusiyur.

Tusiyur is called a nagaram, a settlement of a merchant guild, a part of the larger city of ancient Tiruchchengodu (Kodimada-Sengunrur). In addition to the nagarattar of Tusiyur, there was another self-governing local body, the sab ha which is mentioned in an inscription of the twenty-seventh regnal year of Parantaka I (ARE 640 of 1905). The existence and functioning of two such local bodies side by side will be evident from the inscriptions of Tiruvidaimarudur which mention the sabha of Tiraimur and the nagaram of Tiruvidaimarudil (Chola Art, Pt. I, p. 175) which functioned simultaneously as two distinct bodies, and together when faced with problems affecting their common interests.

A place called Tusur is mentioned on a rock near the road to Palapatti close to Tiruchchengodu (ARE 296 of 1965 - 66) and this mav be the modern relic of the celebrated and flourishing nagaram city of Tusiyur whose members had made many benefactions to the Lord Ardhanarisvara on the hill.

As the two copper plate grants discussed above hail from Tiruchchengodu, it should have been the headquarters of the two Malavar chiefs—Kolli MaJavan Orriyuran Piradiganda-varman and his son Kolli Malavan Piradigandan Sundara Cholan, both of whom belonged to the Malavar clan famous since the days of the Chera kings of the Tamil Sangam period. Both of them were Chola feudatories of Sundara Chola. The father died in a battle in Sri Lanka about the ninth regnal year of his overlord Sundara Chola, and the son made a grant to the Lord of Tiruchchengodu for the spiritual salvation of his father.

The region of Kolli Malai continued to remain with, and was ruled by, Uttama Chola, the successor of Sundara Chola. This is evident from an inscription of the sixteenth regnal year of Parakesarivarman Uttama Chola in the Arapallisvara temple on the Kolli Malai (ARE 503 of 1929 - 30; also Early Chola Temples, p. 158, note 1). It records a gift of the king’s mother Sembiyan Mahadevi to this temple.

There are three inscriptions at Tiruchchengodu of the fourteenth (ARE 642 of 1905), twenty-third (643 of 1905) and twenty-ninth years (669 and 670 of 1905) of the reign of Rajendra I.