Dear Sriraman have you read the PS...I dont think you have you must read it not only to know about the golden age of Cholas but also to enjoy the natural flow of kalkis story telling.... Pallipadai is a temple or architechture built to commomerate a dead great soul...mostly soldiers
So it is not Summer residence but eternal residence!! How's the newsletter coming by the way
Dear Sridhar, Thanks for the explanation. I am not a Tamil literate, to my eternal discomfort...so keep asking silly questions such as these..do bear with me. I have read PS, but I enjoyed only the flow of the story and little else I will be starting a second reading soon....maybe then I will concentrate on the actual literature itself.... The newsletter is coming out fine. My first article has become a little delayed bcos of a 10g training programme I had to attend last week, and having to clear the backlog due to that. I had April 14 in mind, but now its going to be May 1. Sorry about the delay. Incidentally, any ideas on how many such Pallipadais have been discovered..?
Dear sriram Sorry I didn't mean to upset you but The Pallipadai plays such an important role in the PS Procedings that I assumed you had not read it... In fact Kalki vividly describes what a pallipadai is...
> Incidentally, any ideas on how many such Pallipadais have been discovered..?
Aditya-I's Pallippadai by name Kothanda Rama Iswaram has been identified near Kalahasthi. It was built by his son Parantaka I
Arinjaya chozha's Pallipadai has been identified near Thiruppurambiyam (or is it another place? - memory is failing me). It was built by Rajaraja I.
Panchavan mahadevi pallipadai is near pazhaiyarai. It was built by rajendra I. We visited this and this month's Thisaigal magazine (www.thisaigal.com) carries an article about our visit with Kudavoil.
Vaanavan mahadevi pallipadai exists somewhere near madras (again forgot the place - I think it is brahmadesam near ennayiram). Built by Rajendra I.
Many other pallipadais have been mentioned in epigraphs but not all are tracable. Most pallipadais are mentioned in the name of Iaswarams - Panchavan mahadevi Iaswaram, Vaanavan maadevi Iaswaram etc. There is a mention about a vaanavan mahadevi Iswaram in one of the epigraphs in Thirumayam. Dr.Nalili touched about it in one of her articles in www.varalaaru.com
Recently SPS had given an email about a series of 5 pallipadais identified by Dr.Kudavoil.
Kudavoil also postulates that rettai koil - a place near kumbakonam might have housed vaanavan maadevi - sundara choza's pallipadais.
No pandiyan/chera pallipadai has been identified so far - to my limited knowledge. Infact no indian king has invested time or resources to built a big tomb for him. We did not believe in sanctifying the body of a lost soul - we just burnt it - be it king or begger ! This is in striking contrast to egyptian or chinese beliefs....
There might be a reason why only chola kings built pallipadais on top of their last remains. Most of them were pasupatha cult saivites - going through siva deekshai at some point of time. In order to understand the full genesis of pallipadais one needs to understand pashupatha cult - which has almost completely been lost or destroyed.