Royal Gifts of Icons to Rajarajesvaram

After his extensive conquests in the four directions, Rajaraja I became a “Lion among the Emperors” of that era and as if to commemorate such an undying name in the history of this country, he built a grand temple and showered all his wealth and war-won booty on the construction and embellishment of this temple and endowed it with stupendous wealth, as if to ensure that for all time to come it would continue to be the towering temple. The royal metal casters were busy casting some of the most beautiful and incomparable metal images of all time, and these icons were gifted and consecrated in the Rajarajes-varam temple by him, his sister Kundavai, his queens and the nobles and relatives; they also made extensive and sometimes staggering endowments and gifts to these deities.

In this section, we shall list out all the metal images gifted to the Rajarajesvaram by the above personages and in the subsequent section deal with their other gifts and grants. We have records to establish that as many as 66 metal images were set up in this period.