Thanks for mention of the estampage. "Pon Meyviththa" is much clearer. Nandri.
Personally, I feel at least one mention about golden roof is enough of a proof. There is also a possibility that RR did not consider it that important for some reason or such inscriptions are not yet discovered. (just a possibility).
Of course NOT THAT Kudavoil wants to get away unaswering, I really dont have any such feeling. It is just about proof for pon vimaanam based on the words "pon vimaanam" in the inscription as Mr. Venkatesh said it was there in the inscription.
In the process of logical thinking letz not defame one of the greatest ever kings of india and the only one to have actually extended the indian frontiers overseas. When there is no solid evidence to prove that the Periya koil vimaanam was gold plated, you are hypothesizing that Rajendra took that gold to cover Thiruvarur vimaanam, that too to make his chinna veedu happy.
First of all was Paravai a "chinna veedu"? Was there a selva patraa kurai during RJC regime?
You may not have intended what u said ina serious way. But the thread was not titled "lighter side". My response is based on the face value of ur mail. It pains to see such unwarranted theories on the great RJC in the name of "LOGIC".
Sorry for missing the word Lighter in the subject. It didnt strike me. Ofcourse I was just joking.
Hope you know that Einstein came with the theory of relativity only after day dreaming in school, that he used to travel in a beam of light. A concept which was foolish once revolutionized the world. When Graham Bell first called the then US President (Is it Roosevelt?) to make the first ever telephone call, the president said, "its really a great invention, but who is going to use it?", and a foolish invention then, turned today's world, you know what.
Tamil prose was very well developed even 1000 years back and there was no need to hide the naankaam vEtrumai 'ku' in the sentence Srivimanam pon meiviththaan (which could have been Sri vimaanathiRku pon meiviththaan). Also, as SPS would remember, the inscription goes like this.. "sri vimaanam pon" in one line and the next line has "mEiviththaan". We have to first ensure that "meiviththaan" is the actual continuation of "pon" before jumping into conclusions. Also, as Dr. Rajavelu, an eminent epigraphist, agreed (in Jan, which most members in this group would remember) the ezhuththu amaithi of the work "mEviththaan" was distinctly different from rest of the words in that inscription.
I'm always open for alternative hypothesis. All, I'm emphasizing is, for hypothesis to be accepted as thesis, evidences should bolster them strongly.
Let me bolster my questioning with the attached picture.
The attached pictures are the snapshots of the inscription we are talking about. As you can see the first line that goes something like 'zudaiyaaruLa', which clearly indicates that the inscription doesn't start there. It could either have precedence on the top or on to itz left. Unfortunately, we dont have letters either to the region to itz top or to itz left side (which is clear from picture-2). If there are some letters on top of it and if those words give a logical continuation to line we see now then we can, as a first step, conclude the lines ending with "pon" and beginning with "meiviththaan" are indeed continuations. (For the ease, I have drawn 3 black lines in the region that encloses the words "raajaraajeswaramudaiyaar (line over) srivimaanam pon (line over), "mEiviththaan"". The letters are difficult to see because of damage.
Now, we are not even sure, if the lines are continuous. How are we to accept that the vimaanam is gold plated based on such fragile basis?
I guess the Chola dynasty was rich enough to cover the vimaanam with gold plated sheets. RRC might have done it in later stage - ie after completing the temple, so the early inscriptions might not have mentioned it. Otherwise, it could have been RJC who did that. The evidence for it should be still there somewhere...
To me, Pon Vimanama in Big Temple is not all possible. If so, that would be one of the wonders of olden times. When cholas put the Golden vimanam in Chidamabaram temple, they could highligh the same in some of the kalvettus and tamil literature. If Big Temple had golden roof then it should have been noted down in any of the kalvettu in Big temple itself.
But, it is agreed that Cholas were wealthy..but not healthy!