freinds, there is a place called thandavaraya sozhagan pettai near chidambaram. the zameens of that place had a palace as well till 1850s. one certain andiyapa sozhar was ceremonily crowned in recent memory in the rajasabai of the temple by the dheekshidhars themselves.
the chola residues are common to find all over the kaveri delta. after their fall in 1278 the family split into several small clans and served successive rulers. most of them belong to mukkulathor community and have various family titles too.
the chidambaram temple contains a most ornate darbar hall in the western side near the sivakami shrine. it is pemanently closed. it has a entrance from western outer corrridor itself. it is said that is the place the cholans were crowned since the time of vikrama cholan. the darbar hall is the only surviving "cholan darbar hall" in cholamandalam.
the 1000 pillar hall is currently called as rajasaba.
the streets in chidambaram itself tell the past story. they are kotravan-kudi street, mey-kavalar street, vandi-karar street, vaippu- savadi street, kasu-kadai street....etc. the town is arranged in rectangular parallel streets. the entrances are arranged likein a maze, so that it is difficult for invading armies to rush straight into the middle of the town. if we include all the four parallel streets it should be as big as srirangam .
it was one of the second capitals of later cholas. the fuedal mindset still remains here.
Killivalavan - Karikalan :: .. Early Cholas - contemporary to Early Cheras like Yanaikkansey Irumborai or Early Pandyas like Nedunchezhian...
Vijayalayan & descendents - Sthanu Ravi - Sundara Pandyan .. Later Period Monarchy.
RRC / RjC & followers - created Chola - Pandyas, Choda - Gangas & similar ones by matrimonial alliances..
With Pandyas taking over Cholamandalam and subsequent Mohammeden invasions - Rayars - Nayaks - Sarfojis .. the connections got dislinked.
Zamin word hailed from Mohammeden Rule..
Respected member R Venkat clearly stated that present Zamindars unlikely to establish their lineage to Chola Monarchy because after mid 14th Century the links got broken and could not be established easily.
After Rajendran III nobody came to the thrown in that line., and there ends the Great Cholas' dynasty. Pandyas took charge and expanded, and the Chola nadu dissolved in Pandya kinddom. The name ,Chola Mandalam stayed inthe history. Some small branches of Chola line through Telugu Chodas told themselves Cholas. In 1301 one Veera Saiva Prathaba Chola Rajan was there in Bangaluru area. Veera Sodan and his son Veera Samban ruled in North Arcot at the same time. (Epigraphica Carnatica ix. B.96) . S.1277 year Copperplates of Chennai museum tells about one Bakthi Rajan's hereditary. Achuta Devarayan mentions some cholas in his Kozhinchivadi Copperplates. Finally small remarks are made in S.1476 of the year 1554 AD which tells Gururaja Rudradeva Maharaja gave two villages as Dhanams to Adhi Kumeswarar Temple in Kumbakonam.(Mysore Archeological Reports 1928 ). These are the notes made by KAN in his Studies of Chola History and Administration. The Palayams were the tiny kingdoms splitted from Pandyas in very later period.