> I came up with was that perhaps, since Indians have traditionally cremated > their dead, there was no chance of having such finds.
This might be true when you talk about prehistoric period - and even sangam and pallavas etc ...but when you touch cholas, you do find temples built around the resting place of the king - these are the "Pallipadai" temples.
In chola dynasty, any king who had a "shiva deeksha" from a guru was not cremated upon his death - instead his body was buried and pallipadai temple was built above the body. Thus we have kothanda rama easwaram near kalahasthi (Aditya I), Arijigai Iswaram in Melpadi (Arinjaya), Panchavan mahadevi Iswaram (Near Kumbakonam). Inscriptions talk about many other pallipadais - sometimes for the king as well as all the queens who shed their lifes along with him. Rettai koil (sundara chola - vanavan mahadevi) and aivar koil (rajathirajan and his 4 wifes if my memory is correct) are such examples.
These pallipadais were under the control of pashupatha saivites...
Rajaraja did get a shiva deeksha from his guru Isana siva panditha - "shivapadha sekara" was his deeksha namam. Hence he would not have been cremated but buried. And a pallipadai temple should have been built. Where is it ? May be we will find it one day...