Temples in Alangudi

On the walls of the Apatsahayesvara shrine at Alangudi, a village about 15 km. south of Kumbakonam, in the Papanasam taluk of the Tanjavur district, there is an inscription of Vikrama Chola which mentions that in the eleventh year and the fifteenth day (after accession), seated on the throne in the hall of Akalankan in his palace at Vikrama Cholapuram and having resolved (to that effect) after two visits, on the 115th day and the 313th day respectively of the tenth year of his reign, to Perumbarrappuliyur (i.e., Chidambaram), the king was pleased to issue an order that in lieu of royal revenue (kadamai) due from the village of Jananatha saruppedimangalam (which was the old name of the village of Alangudi) in Mudikondasola valanadu, the said village should pay old paddy fit for consumption (ponagap-pala-nel) amounting to 1,181 kalams, 2 tunis and 2 nalis, as long as the sun and the moon endure, towards the maintenance of daily worship in the temple of Nataraja at Chidambaram. It was further stipulated that the paddy should be carted and conveyed in safe custody and handed over to the authorities of the temple treasury known as “Udaiyar koyil Ponmeynda Perumal Bhandaram,” correct to the standard measure of the temple known as ‘seppukkal tiruchchirrambala-mudaiyan’. (See my article in QJMS, XXI, No. 3). This order (ulvari) was "signed by a number of royal officers, and after it had been entered in the account books, it was communicated to the Great (Perunguri) Assembly whose members met in full strength. With the approval of their representatives, the royal order was caused to be engraved on the walls of the Tiruvirumpulai^[1] Udaiya Mahadeva temple of Jananatha chaturvedimangalam.

Apatsahayesvara temple

In fact, most of the inscriptions of Vikrama Chola after the tenth year mendon, as in this case, the benefactions of the king to the Nataraja temple at Chidambaram. From a close reading of the text, one is almost tempted to conclude that in the tenth year of his reign, there must have been a grand celebration (a coronation or a durbar) on his birthday, which was attended in large numbers by his subject princes who brought heaps of precious gifts (porkuviyal) and poured them at the feet of their emperor. These tributes were utilised by the king for the construction of buildings to his ‘family god’ (tan Nayakam) Nataraja at Chidambaram. Possibly, the tenth year was very significant in the life of Vikrama Chola. He was preoccupied in the first ten years with the task of retaking the territories which had been lost to the empire in the last five years of his father’s reign; and having restored the empire to its original extent, he celebrated his achievement by gathering his feudatories and subordinate princes at Chidambaram and ceremonially accepting their tokens of fealty. We shall see more of this in the next section.