The Chola trail..

Dr. Chitra Madhavan's yet another memorable lecture on the Cholas, one the longest ruling dynasties of Tamilnadu, highlighted their lasting legacy in architecture and literature.

 

The Chola dynasty was at the peak of its influence and power during the medieval period  of the monarchs Aditya I, Parantaka Chola I, II, Rajaraja Chola I, Rajendra Chola I. These emperors were great leaders and visionaries who conquered not only Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra but parts of present day Bengal, and all the way to Srilanka, Malaysia and Indonesia!
 

Chitra Madavan, pointed out the fact that though we establish the Chola connect always to Thanjavur, it was Uraiyur or Kozhiyur (near Trichy) which was the first capital. The capital was shifted to Thanjavur, and later on to Gangaikonda Cholapuram.

Chola seal

 

Just look at the seal, which is a work of art. It is not more than a five rupee coin - It has a tiger, the emblem of the Cholas; an umbrella and two fly-whisks, representing royalty; a swastika and two lamps, auspicious symbols. Besides, it has two vertical fishes (the royal emblem of the Pandyas), a bow (the Cheras' emblem), and the boar (eastern Chalukyas' emblem), signifying that Rajendra Chola had conquered the Pandyas, the Cheras and the eastern Chalukyas !

Glimpses of the notable Cholas included Paranthaka Chola, Raja Raja Chola and Rajendra Chola:

Paranthaka Chola

•  Paranthaka Chola aka Veeranarayana chola was a successful king who invaded and won the Pandya kingdom - and captured the prestigious "Madurai" and had great glory in announcing that cholas were "Madurain-kondan" (Capturers of Madurai)
• His amazing contributions to temples included construction of Uthramerur Vaigunda perumal temple, Pulla Mangai Brahma Pureeswarar temple (Pulla mangai is between Kumbakonam-Thanjavur route and one should not miss the "Miniature" sculptures of 6-8 inches height in this temple!
• He gave a grant to Madhava Bhattar to write a commentery on Rig veda, and was very closely associated with Nathamuni, the 10th century Vaishanavite Guru, who compiled the Divya Prabhandham; Nathamuni collected the hymns, tuned and set the music along with dance steps, which is called the "Araiyar sevai"(அரையர் சேவை) - It is the performed only inside Vaishnavite temples (Srirangam, Alwar Tirunagari, Srivilliputhur and Melkote) centered on ritual singing and enactment of the hymns of Divya Prabhandham.
• Paratanka Chola was the one who covered the Chidambaram Natarajar Temple with golden roof as so was titled as "Koil pon koorai veiyntha vendan". He also built the Veeranarayana Yeri (Lake) which the present day Veeranam Lake which supplies water to Chennai.

Raja Raja Cholan

·        The next Chola in line was the unequalled monarch, the king of kings - Raja Raja Cholan who conquered Kerala and Srilanka and built the Big Temple aka Brihadeeswarar temple entirely in granite in Thanjavur to commemorate his reign. As we all know this temple is well known for its  huge Nandi and a unique gopuram. In addition, one should not miss the 81 poses of Bharatnatyam carved on the walls of the temple and the chola murals in the museum in the outer prakaram. These Natya Karanas are in the same order as Natya sastra denotes, which have been numbered and preserved still.

·        He was an ardent Saivite and tolerant towards other faiths. He built several temples for Vishnu, and a notable one is the "Apremeya Swamy Temple" in Karnataka where Purandasar is said to have composed the evergreen "Jagadodharana"

·        Raja Raja Chola embarked on a mission to recover the hymns after hearing short excerpts of Devaram - He sought the help of a saint “Nambi Andar Nambi”, who had the divine intervention to find the presence of palm leaf scripts hidden in a chamber in the western corridor of Chidambaram temple. When the Dikshitars opposed this mission saying that Appar, Sundarar and Sambandar can only open the closed chambers - he intervened by consecrating the images of the saint-poets and brought their idols to open these chambers. And salvaged the white ant bitten palm scripts and earned the name of  "Tirumurai Kanda Cholan"

·        Nambi Andar Nambi arranged the hymns of three saint poets Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar as the first seven books - which is the “Devaram" and Manickavasagar's Tirukovayar and Tiruvacakam as the 8th book, the 28 hymns of nine other saints as the 9th book, the Tirumandiram of Tirumular as the 10th book, 40 hymns by 12 other poets as the 10th book, Tirutotanar Tiruvanthathi – (the sacred anthathi of the labours of the 63 nayanar saints) and added his own hymns as the 11th book. The 12th book was Sekkizhar's “Periya Puranam” known as the "Tirumurai", the holy book.

Rajendra Chola :

·        Rajendra Chola, his son, was again a great military ruler and leader. His notable victory was defeating Mahipala, the Pala king of Bengal and Bihar, and to commemorate this victory he built a new capital called Gangaikonda Cholapuram.  He constructed a lake called “Ponneri"- a huge irrigation tank and filled it with water brought from Ganges, a "liquid pillar of victory"!

·        To celebrate his success in the Ganges expedition, this great Chola built the "Gangaikonda Chozhapuram Brihadeeswara temple". Another exquisite temple, a storehouse of art and architecture, built by him was the Darasuram Airavateshwarar temple. The temple vimanam is 85 feet high and the front mandapam has a huge chariot drawn by horses

·        Thanjavur, Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Darasuram temples have a lot of similarities and stand today as the "The Great Living Chola Temples" - as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, as well as temples where daily poojas are still being conducted

·        The largest number of copper plates were issued by Rajendra Chola - The most important among them are the Tiruvalangadu Karanthai and Esalam plates. They provide elaborate details about village layouts, taxation methods, irrigation, Government administration and so on. The Tiruvalangadu copper plates of Rajendra Chola, which records his gift of the Palaiyanur village to the Tiruvalangadu Siva temple

 

·        Other notable temples associated with this great king is Koothanur Saraswathi temple, Thiru Bhuvanai (Near Pondy), Thiru Mukkudal, Srirangam, Chidamabram, Tirupathi and Sri Kalahasti. Within Chennai, notable Chola temples include Triplicane Parthasarathy temple, Tiruvotriyur sivan temple, Marundeeswarar temple, Karaneeswarar and Vrupaksheeswar temple in Mylapore.

Dr. Chitra provided a quick glimpse at the Chola Bronzes, for me that was the highlight of the evening! –jaw dropping  best-known artistic remains, like the Tirvalangadu Bronze! This 114.5-cm bronze icon of Nataraja, discovered 106 years ago, is so graceful and is perfect expression of rhythmic movement, and is the Madras icon! The Indian postal department published a stamp in 1949.

 

Unlike Pandyas who sculpted these stone figures within the temples, Chola bronzes were created as “Utsava Murthys” in temples to participate in daily rituals, processions, and temple festivals. Chola-period bronzes were created using the “lost wax” technique – Every bronze made in this process is unique. The model is first made out of bees wax as a wax model and encased within several layers of clay. The clay mold is baked in a fire, which melts the wax but leaves a perfectly detailed hollow clay mold. The required alloy (Silver, gold or panchalokam) is poured in to the clay mold. After cooling, this mould is broken to yield the final work of art.

Other sculptures :