Later Chola Temples

by S. R. Balasubrahmanyam | 1979 | 143,852 words

This volume of Chola Temples covers Kulottunga I to Rajendra III in the timeframe A.D. 1070-1280. 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....

The present-day Kolar district continued to be a part of the Chola empire well into the 12th century, long after the Hoysala ascendancy in the Karnataka region. Madivala Bechirak is a small village in the Srinivasapur taluk of this district (in Karnataka State).

Isvara (Ulagisvaram Udaiya Mahadevar) temple

There is a temple locally known briefly as the Isvara temple. In the days of its creation, its deity went under the name of Ulagisvaram Udaiya Mahadevar. There are some important inscriptions in this temple. On the south basement of the temple, there is an inscription in Grantha and Tamil characters which reads as follows:

Svastisri saka varusham ayirattu narpattionbadu mukkokkilana-digalodu virrirundaruliya Kopparakesarivarmar-ana tribhuvanach-chakravartigal sri Vi kki rama sola devarkku yandu pattavadu Migarilisola mandalattu Pudanattu nattu-kamundan Muduvarayan Marayan am Rajendra sola Pu.. p-Puda nattu.. n magan ta... na Vikkiramasola Vira Nulamban Ulokisvaram Udaiya Mahadevarkku... paama distavi-pariyantam srivimanam elundaruluvittu devarkku sripadamum saarduvitlu deva... viba.. nellip-perieri-kil pe...” (61, Srinivasapur, Kolar Dist., Epi. Car.)

This meansUhat in the Saka year 1049, equivalent to a.d. 1127, which was the 10th year of the reign of Kopparakesari-vanmar

alias the emperor Sri Vikrama Choladeva, Vikiramasola vira Nuiamban, son of the mandalika of Puda nadu... Muduva-rayan Marayan, alias Rajendra Sola..., the gamunda of Puda nadu in Nigarilisola mandalam, caused a vimana to be built forthegodUlokisvaram Udaiya Mahadevar of Kuranelli, presented a golden plate to the god and also granted certain lands, whose details are given.

At the same place, on the north and west basements, there are records dated in a.d. 1225 which seem to mention that one Rajasrayan Pulladeva Mandalikan alias Varagunap-perumal, son of Sakki deva Mandalikan, who was the original mandalika of Puda nadu in Nigarilisola mandalam, made a grant for the god Tiruvalisvaram Udaiyar on the hill of Kuranelli in Puda nadu (63, ibid.). One record which is in Tamil is dated in the 38th year of Poysala Iramana devar (a.d. 1292) and merely mentions the name of the nadu and mandalam and is incomplete. A fourth inscription is found on a stone lying in front of the temple, whose characters are in Tamil and Grantha and which tells us that Pulladeva Mandalikan along with some other man of Kuranelli made a grant of land to a Siva-brahmana of the (Bodhayana) sutra for the god Ulokisvaram Udaiya nayanar; this could be dated about a.d. 1231 (60, ibid).

From another inscription found on the basement of the Valesvara temple on the Valesvara hill at Guttapalli, in the same hobli, we gather that Makkovai... Varagunap-Perumal alias Pulladeva Mandalikan, son of Rajapati Sakkideva Mandalikan of Puda nadu in Nigarilisola mandalam made over... for as long as the moon and the sun endure, the temple, together with panchangam, of the god ‘Tiruvalisvaram Udaiyar Who has graciously taken His abode on the top of the hill at Kuranelli of this.’ He also granted certain lands, with details (specified), for the above god. He had the temple and the mandqpa of this god and of the god Ulokisvaram Udaiya Nayanar of old Kuranelli repaired. He had the repairs of the temple done at the instance of the Siva-brahmana who was the holder of the temple land in Kuranellip-perru.... This could be dated in a.d. 1231 (49, ibid).

Thus we get to know that there were two temples at Kuranelli, one dedicated to Tiruvalisvaram Udaiyar on the top of the hill, which temple now bears the name of Valesvara, and another dedicated to Isvara, called in the old days Ulokisvaram udaiyar temple, at the modern village of Madivala Bechirak, which was part of the old town of Kuranelli, in Puda nadu in Nigarilisola mandalam.

Thus this temple of Ulokisvaram could be attributed to the Vikrama Chola period. We have no clue as to when the Tiruvalisva-rar temple was built, but we do know that it was in existence by a.d. 1225 (i.e. in the period of Rajaraja III).

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