Sembiyan Mahadevi

Sembiyan Mahadevi, the mother of Uttama Chola, dominates the world of the Early Cholas. She re-builds of stone old brick temples, constructs new temples and makes lavish grants of land, gold, jewels and endowments for festivals, the feeding of the pious and the learned. Apart from other charities, the temple of Tirunallam she built in memory of her husband Gandaraditya and the newly founded temple and town named after her and called Sembiyan Mahadevi are monuments of her glory. Metal-casting received her special attention and some of the greatest works of art in South India are found in the temples she built and patronised. She found a loyal and devoted follower in Arumolideva (the future Rajaraja I) who was to succeed her son on the Chola throne and also carry on the great tradition in culture and art that she had so sedulously fostered throughout her long and dedicated life. Her absorbing attention to metal-casting gave a new direction and a lofty tone to the artistic tempo of this period.

Rajaraja I’s brilliant victories, his huge spoils of war and his religious zeal conceived of a grand design. The result was the creation of a temple unsurpassed in its conception and execution the Devalaya Chakra-varti—the Emperor among temples—a fitting memorial to so great a personality of many-sided accomplishments. It is inconceivable how he built so grand an edifice in so short a time, in a little more than ten years. It is only fitting that he spent the last year of his life in making and donating bronzes of deities to the temple of Rajarajesvaram he so dearly cherished. We pass on now to the period of Rajaraja (I) the Great who ushers in the Golden age of South India.