Temples in Palur (Paluvur)

Sundaresvara (Nakkan Paramesvara) temple

Palur is a village in Tiruchy taluk of the same district. About 800 metres short of Allur on the Tiruchy-Karur road, a katcha road branches off to the south to reach an agraharam at the northeastern corner of which a Siva temple in ruins is to be found. This is an Early Chola temple, now called that of Sundaresvara; according to the inscriptions on its walls the name of the deity was Nakkan Paramesvara; and Palur itself was called Paluvur, presumably reflecting the fact that the stala-vriksha of the place was the banyan tree.

There are fourteen inscriptions on the walls of this temple. One is of the fortieth year of Parantaka I, eight are of a certain Rajakesarivarman, ranging in years from the third to the tenth, and three of a Parakes arivarman, all of the third regnal year. None of these unspecified inscriptions contains sufficient data to enable us to ascribe any of them to any particular ruler. On the north wall of the central shrine of this temple, there are two inscriptions of the fifth year of a Rajakesarivarman (ARE 346 and 348 of 1918). They record gifts of land for offerings by Mahimalaya Irukkuvel alias Parantakan Virasolan to the Para-mesvara at Tiruppaluvur in Vilattur nadu. In a note below we consider the various benefactions of this Chief, who was a Chola feudatory during the reigns of Parantaka I and his son and successor Gandaraditya (see Note on the benefactions of Mahimalaya Irukkuvel).

An inscription here of the thirty-ninth year of Kulottunga I mentions a gift of two villages, Paluvur alias Rajendrasola nallur and Enadimangalam alias Gangavadinallur, which were clubbed together into a brahmadeyam for the settlement of 108 brahmanas. As the name Ayirattali is mentioned in the inscription, the royal order was presumably issued from that secondary capital (ARE 350 of 1918).

The last inscription in the temple is of the 21 st year of a Konerinmaikondan (ARE 351 of 1918: the king’s name is not stated; this may be of a Pandya king). It mentions a land-gift as a janmakkani to the headman of Paluvur in Vila nadu, a sub-division of Rajagambhira valanadu.

The stone temple is now in ruins and without any superstructure. Stone sculptures of the dvarapalas and the devakoshia figures of Brahma and Vishnu lie loose on the ground. It must have been built during the time of Parantaka I, sometime before his fortieth regnal year, and was the recipient of gifts during the reigns of Parantaka I and his successors. The three unidentified Parakesarivarman inscriptions here may be assigned to Arin-jaya who succeeded Gandaraditya. The temple and the existing sculptures deserve to be preserved. The state of the temple can be imagined from the fact that we ourselves had to get the shrub jungle cleared and set upright the fallen sculptures (Pis 390 to 392).

Note on the benefactions of Mahimalaya Irukkuvel

Mahimalaya Irukkuvel was a powerful Kodumbalur Chieftain and Chola feudatory who flourished in the first half of the tenth century a.d. How he was related to the fine of Irukkuvels of the time of Bhuti Vikramakesari of the Muvarkoyil inscription of the second half of the same century, we have no knowing. He himself built temples and made rich gifts to them and to other temples. We collect below the facts available about such benefactions, during the reigns of Parantaka I and Gandaraditya.

Period of Parantaka I

(1) Kodumbalur, Muchuku n desvara (Mudnkunram udaiyar) temple

Unpublished inscription of the fourteenth year of the king (a.d. 921): see the Manual of the Pudukkottai State, Vol. II, Pt. I, p. 1035). Temple of Mudukunram udaiyar built by Mahimalaya Irukkuvel alias Parantaka Virasolan (also known as Kunjaramallan).

(2) Palur, Suudaresvara (Nakkan Paramesvara) temple

ARK 353 of 1918 of the fortieth year of the king (a.d. 947). A gift of gold for a lamp to the temple by Adittan Karrali Piratti, one of the queens of Parantaka I. The authorship of the temple is not known, since the record is not a foundation inscription and only records a gift.

Period of Gandaraditya

(1) Kudumiyam alai, Melaikkoyil (rock-cut temple)

Inscriptions of the Pudukkottai State, Text, no. 22, third year of the king. Gift of 32 cows for the supply of milk during three services to the deity by a relative of Udaiyar Mahimalaya Irukkuvel.

(2) Sittur, Agnisvara temple

Ibid., no. 24, 4th year of the king (damaged record). Grant of three velis of land for food offerings and of a veli and a half to the drummers who played at the time of the sri-bali service to the Paramesvara of Agnisvaram by Parantakan Virasolan alias Mahimalaya Irukkuvel.

(3) Allur, Panchanadisvara temple

ARE 366 of 1903, of the 5th year of the king (damaged). Gift of gold for a lamp by the son of Virasolan Ilangovelan (owing to gaps, meaning is not clear).

(4) Palur, Sundaresvara temple

(i) ARE 346 of 1918, of the fifth year of the king. Gift of land for offerings to the temple by Mahimalaya Irukkuvel alias Parantaka Virasolan.

(ii) ARE 348 of 1918, also of the fifth year. Gift for offerings to the same deity by the same Chief.

(5) Nirppalani, Valarmatisvara temple

Inscriptions of the Pudukkottai State, Text, no. 30, fifth year of the king (wrongly ascribed to the tenth year). Gift of land as iraiyili devadana_y for various services to this Lord by Mahimalaya Irukkuvel (while camping at Tirupparaitturai on the day of a lunar eclipse): a similar gift would presumably have been made to the Tirupparaitturai temple as well.

It was on the strength of the astronomical data (lunar eclipse) given in the Ailur and Palur grants that the late A.S. Ramanatha Iyer, Government Epigraphist, fixed the 5th year of the Rajakesarivarman of the inscriptions as corresponding to a.d. 954 and identified him with Gandaraditya, placing his accession at a.d. 949-50. See the sections on Ailur, Sittur, Nirppalani and Kodumbalur in my Early Chola Temples.