Ponniyin Selvan Varalaatru Peravai

Dear all...


Here's what we did on Day 3...


Day 3 (Sunday, February 9th):


On this, the last day of the trip, things were made easy by the fact that we
had stopped over at Kudanthai (instead of Thanjavur, as originally planned)-
so all the places in our itinerary could be reached quickly. Our first stop,
Thirupurambayam (the site of the conspiracy of the Pandiya aabathuthavis)
was a mere 4kms from the city proper. We'd decided to skip breakfast, so we
could have more time to spend on temples.

The early morning air was cool and we made good progress. As we neared
Thirupurambayam, we could see thick clumps of bamboo dotting the landscape.
Manniyaar appeared in a little while, with barely a trickle of water in it.
For all that, the river bank looked quite attractive. What it must have
looked like in full flow passes imagination:-). The temple at
Thirupurambayam is quite huge, with a well-built mathil suvar, and
well-defined sculptures. A single-tiered corridor led to one side of the
temple and a narrow flight of steps went from the ground floor to the next
level. The walls were filled with scribbling- but we found the view
exciting. The architecture inside the gopuram, for one thing, was admirable-
and it was similar to what we'd seen earlier at Thanjai- except that this
was on a smaller scale. Lord Shiva rules as Saatchinaatha Perumaan here, and

By 10.30 AM, we had reached Thiruvalanchuzhi- which boasts of an elegant
temple- and a ruined structure at a little distnace from it, with just one
sannithi (collapsing within itself) which contains inscriptions that contain
the names of Panchavan Maadhevi (Raja raja's fifth wife), and Maathevadigal
(his daughter). We mulled over this for some time, it put forth new ideas.
The whole place, which can be accessed through a gap in the compound wall of
the main temple, is overgrown with shrubbery and trees- it looks like the
site of an ancient Maya excavation. After some photos, we moved to the main
temple. Krupashankar, Sathya and Lavanya went haring off towards a small
room that was built in a corner of the complex- the whole path that led to
the section was filled with thorns, and they ended up doing a hop, skip and
jump dance on the ground (accompanied by grinning comments from those of us
who stood outside:-). They had barely started staggering on their way back
when someone assailed us with the speed of a whirlwind and welcomed us all
heartily, with a booming voice.

This was Mr. Sundar Bharadwaj(Mr. Balakumaran's friend), the expert who'd
helped us draft our route map and is a veritable mine of infomation on
Chozhas. He and his wife had come on an errand of their own, and had run
into us (he'd hoped he would:-) (He was also the person I referred to right
at the beginning, as the one who gave us the inba athirchi :-)

Mr. Sundar Bharadwaj's (henceforth SB) enthusiasm quickly infected all of
us. In one whirlwind tour, he explained to us about the beauty of the
'kodungais' -curving stone edges that decorated the roof of the sannithis
(the best are at Aavudaiyaar Koil- it seems that in those days they used to
ask for kodungais sculpted like the ones in Aavudaiyaar Koil), the 'kal
palagani' (the stone grill) for it is very intricately wrought and
well-finished- and a small panel right on top of one of the doorways to the
sannithi, which shows an interesting scene- SB said that it depicted Raja
raja and Karuvoor Thevar sitting at the feet of Lord Shiva (which again,
seemed to imply that Raja raja had died by the time this panel was
finished).

SB next showed the temple kulam- a figurine was etched there, with hands
folded and inscriptions dotted the stones.(He gave us a good deal of
information which caused a lot of discussion). We left at 11.30 AM, for the
Panchavan Maathevi Pallipadai, built by Rajendra Chozhan in memory of his
father's fifth wife. Less than a couple of kilometres from Thiruvalanchuzhi,
this huge, imposing structure can be reached by a short walk through a small
mud-track, As soon as you come into the clearing a ruined, half-fallen brown
structure meets you, covered by vines and creepers.

SB has really spent enormous time and energy over the Chozhas- listening to
his words, we could actually go back to the era of the Chozhas, their lives,
their trials, tribulations- one could actually feel the feet of the emperors
who had walked about in this half-ruined pallipadai and paid their respects
to this favoured queen of Raja raja.

We could make out a few words among the inscriptions in the stone ,
particularly the name of the queen- but that was about all. By this time,
time was running out, so we bid a hasty good-bye and continued on our way.

We stopped next at a vast field, with a banyan tree and others standing in a
group at on end. This, said SB, was the site of the old Pazhaiyaarai
aranmanai, once populated by the Chozha royalty. We could find a few
'ottanchillus' if we burrowed around, he said. ("...intha idathukku
vantheengannaa, inga yaaro irunthirukkaa, yaaro innum irakkaannu nannaa
theriyum..."- Balakumaran). After a last lingering look at the empty field,
the only relic of royalty, we were on our way next- to Patteeswaram.

Patteeswaram, as most people know, is a place teeming with the local
population. Its a well-known temple- and there, we learnt a great deal from
the archagar who is a mine of information himself. The Durgaiyamman reigning
as the deity was originally the guardian deity of the pazhaiyaarai palace,
and the Shanmugar and Bhairava deities were there too. He explained to us a
good deal about the hairstyles and dress-codes of the past- remarking how
fashion repeats itself:-)

We spent some time there, where SB gave us a HUGE garland of lemons (that
he'd bought for worship) and an assortment of keychains (as mementos, he
said:-). Our next stop was the Nandipura Vinnagaram. The temple's garba
griham was not open (it was after 12 PM, when we went)- so we took a swift
look at Lord Jagannaathar and went to the Paalkulathamman Koil.

This temple has quite a history in itself. The temple itself stands by the
road, painted in today's garish colours. On one's first approach to the
temple, the pillar to the right holds great significance. This pillar, it
seems, is the only remaining witness to have seen Raja raja Chozhan at his
death- it was part of the mandapam in which the great emperor's body was
laid. Due to some reason, the mandapam was demolished- and eventually,
Rajendra Chozhan's thalapathi underwent a viratham, uprooted the pillar
which was undamaged, and established it in the Paalkulathamman Koil. It
still stands, pa