There is an interesting inscription of Rajaraja in Thirukkovilur. I even wrote a story called "Kapilan" in varalaaru.com based on this inscription.
The inscription is an agavarpaa - tamil poem - unlike most inscriptions. It introduces the fame of thirukkovilur by narrating 2 incidents :
* One : The fact that sangam poet kapilan entered fire standing in a rock called Kapilak kaal. Today there is a temple on this big rock boulder
* Two : The fact that Vaanavan maadevi - wife of sundara chozha - who was from thirukkovilur malayaman clan - entered funeral pyre or sati here.
It was almost customary and normal to enter sati with husband in those days. I am really unable to imagine the thoughts or emotions of a 10th century mind that inspired this kind of actions. In this reg it is worthwhile to analyze why sembiyan mahadeviyar did not commit sati ? Was she too young to do that ? Was it a major inspiration for her religious and pious life aftermath ? AND WAS THERE ANY SATI AT ALL WITH RAJARAJA AND RAJENDRA ? OK coming back to inscription.
The second line is very touching. It says there was a child which was still receiving milk from her and she had to separate such a small child in order to unite with her deceased husband. So far no proper explanation has been given to who this child really was or whether it is just a poetic imagination. That this is an imagination - I am fully setting it aside. I refuse to believe it is just a poet's imagination. No poet will include such a line that too in a rajaraja period inscription.
We all know that aditya and kundavai were elder than arumozhi. Now the question is - what was the age of all the three children when vaanavan madevi entered funeral pyre ? We do not know. And who is the baby referred by the song ? we do not know.
So, could it be that arulmozhi was small when sundara died ? Was it because of this fact that kundavai had to bring up arulmozhi and that explains the love of brother towords his sister ? It may not be, if we were to take thiruvaalangadu inscriptions into consideration. it says people wanted arulmozhi to be crowned and inspite of that he gave up throne to uttama.
So arulmozhi was of reasonable age when sundara died and the question of next king came to picture. So this is in direct contradiction to the inscription poem we are talking about. Who is this child ? we may not be able to answer with the available facts right now. More research is required.
Whatever may be the fact, Kundavai - arulmozhi affection was as solid and true as a rock. No questions. To rajaraja she was above every other person in his life. Clearly attested by periyakoil inscriptions. Kundavai should have shaped many of his ambitions, plans etc. And the important thing is she was alive and well when periyakoil was completed. If we were to assume (ofcourse with the basis that he came to power in early 30s) that rajaraja was in his 50s when he built the temple, kundavai would have been in her early 60s. Imagine this old lady accompanying the great king....
Did any of you try to identify this lady in the chola painting that shows the consecration of big temple ?
> AND WAS THERE ANY SATI AT ALL WITH RAJARAJA AND RAJENDRA ? > OK coming back to inscription.
Gokul,
I remember a conversation I had with Mr. Nagasamy years back. he told that rajendra's wife performed sati in a place near kanchipuram, i think brahmadesam. After sati her brother opens thanneer pandal in the place in memory of his sister. Nagasamy told that there is incriptional evidence for this. I will check out the details and let u know.
lets first work out the ages of all charecters according to kalki
during the progress of ps
the ages of aditya karikalan - 20( sevur por +4) kundavai- 18 rrc -16 vanathi-14(?????) vanthiyathevan- 20(??????)
if swetha's theory that nanthini was elder is to be acepted......
nanthini, maduranthakan and senthan amudhan were 21-22( having been born on the same day) but sendhan amudan is shown to be a balakan( small boy)
lets assume sundara solan married and had a kid by age 20- 22 then he is just in the age bracket of 40-42( kalki shows them as extremely old) and anirutha bramharayar the prime minister is also of the same age.
I think we have to keep in mind that the average life expectancy in those days was probably 50-60.. Hence 42 is quite old by those standards isn't it? Or maybe because of the fact that Sundar was supposed to be sick, Kalki chose to show him as feeble in body.
Leave alone those days, even now, in our country, once a person reaches 45-50, he/she starts referring to himself/herself as old.. "namakkellam vayasu aayiduththappa.." etc. :-)
> I remember a conversation I had with Mr. Nagasamy years back. he told > that rajendra's wife performed sati in a place near kanchipuram, i > think brahmadesam.
After your mail even I seem to vaguely remember this thanner pandhal stuff. But was it for a royal lady who committed sati ? i am not sure. It is generally difficult to say how a royal lady died even though a pallipadai is erected for her. we have panchavan pallipadai - but did she committed sati we are not sure.
> I narrow down on two postulates... RR must have been really young > and thats why Uthama came to power, because AK was also killed then. > we assume that RR came to power at 30's based on PS. Do we have > proof. Probably he would have come to power even at a younger age. > In this case, Tiruvalangaadu cheppedu is just hero worship.
Hmmmm may not be. Recently an inscription was unearthed in velur. It belongs to later chola period and talks about renovation of a temple called arulmozhi easwaram. The epigraphists who had found the inscription had opined that it was built by rajaraja when he was still arulmozhi - why near velur, what he was doing near velur we do not know.
We have to observe certain other things. Why not a single war in uttama time whereas heavy warfare was witnessed both in sundara and rr time. See the massive uprising of chola power within 2 years of rr's ascendency - it is impossible to overthrow a powerful station as kandhalur chalai unless there were years of preparation.
We may not have inscriptions for everything - we need to draw something from what happened I think.
G, remember we were wondering about the choice of the word 'Aazhvar' in Kundhavai's title earlier?
I believe Karunakara Thondaman's wife was called 'Azhagiya Manavalani Mangaiyazhvar'. It is found in an inscription in which she gives a nandha vilakku to the prime deity 'thiruvaththiyoorazhvar'.
The inscrpition - SII Vol IV No.862 - inscribed in Kulothungan's forty third year starts with the meikeerthi and states 'jeyangkonda chozha mandalaththu eyir kottathu eyil nattu thiruvaththiyoorazhvarkku chozha mandalaththu kuloththunga chozha valanattu thirunaaraiyur nattu vandazhanjcheriyudaiyan velan karunakaranaran thondaimanar deviyar azhagiya manavalani mangaiyazhvar vaiththa thorununtha vilakku'.
Maybe Ilaiya piratti was also given the title because she built/gave grants to vinnagarams.
Hi Swetha... If Kundavai did give grants for building vinnagarams, she would not be called azhwar paranthankan. I think chola kings called themselves Maduranthakan because that meant spelling end to Madurai. (Madurai + Anthakan).Azhwar Paranthakan means someone spelling end to Azhwars... I am sure she favoured / preferred Shaivaites much more than Azhwars (Vaishnavaites)... Any thoughts there?
perhaps (disregarding spelling) alvar( one who rules) should also be considered for kundavai was not just a next door girl types. pen puli the pazhvettaraiyars called her.
the more i think about her dominance over arulmozhi the more i am convinced on the extreme age difference between them.
On 'Udayar', I remember reading 'Dhevathin Kural', on its meaning similar to 'Swami'. The word, means something related to possesion. I guess, title is applicable, to Kingly families.
The war in RR period has started with Pandiyas, needless to say, Pandiyas were the main enemy , But Uttama had a pandiya Queen , may be an arrangement to avoid the war an about Cheera also Uttama might have had the Link through with Ravidasan & Co, basically because of this , Uttama didn't had great enemies to fight and even he may not be interested to expand the Kingdom.