Chidambaram -Jayankondan-Tiruvaiyaru- Thanjavur (120km) Part - 1
December is always special,the climate and festivities bring on an holiday mood,once such is this Cycle Tour now onto Day 4,having completed 400 km so far and bidding adieu to the Cosmic Dancer we get on to the road leading us to Kattumannar Koil an epic town located next to the legendary Veeranam Lake,we pass by this place remembering the Tamil magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan and a song from "The Floods" its first chapter "Come,oh ye young maidens, Look at the North river bubbling by! Come watch, oh ye friends, Look at the White river rushing by! Come, oh come all ye girls, To look at the Cauvery tumbling by! ..." both the lake and this town are antiquated and have references to hectic Chola's activities since 9th century AD and it is also the native place of Nathamunigal (9th AD) the founder of Sri Vaishnavam, proceeding further and passing through Meensurutty,lo behold the towering temple vimana of the UNESCO heritage site of Gangaikonda Cholapurm Temple built by Rajendra Chola 1around (11th AD) can be seen from a long distance,there are umpteen number of information material available about this temple and all most each have the same run of the mill kind of information,but Hermann Kulke in the book "A history of India" debates few theories about the causes of the expansion of Chola Empire and the sudden upsurge of construction activity especially by Raja Raja 1 and his son Rajendra 1. Did they just follow the old injunction of conquering the world (Digvijaya) so as to prove their valour as Universal Rulers (Chakravartin) ? Were they mainly interested in plunder as one American Historian (G.W.Spencer) puts it ? Were their maritime expeditions part of deliberate policy to establish monopoly of trade in S.E Asia ? reading of K.A.Nilakanta Sastri answers these questions,according to him all these motives influenced their action,transfer of Ganges Water fits well with the first theory,long list of jewels and gold donated to the temple of Thanjavur and Gangaikonda Cholapuram by Chola Kings and Generals provide evidence for the second and lastly Chola's wanted to control Eastern Trade Route which passed through Malaca and Sunda Straits held on by Srivijaya Empire, thus peeping into Chola Kings mindset and circumbulating this living Chola Temple we pedal across and we cut across the famous Ponneri Lake (Cholagangam) built for the same purpose like the Temple to commorate victory over Pala King of Bengal by Rajendra Chola 1 (11th AD) another place to visit here is Maligai Medu witnessing the palace ruins of this once metropolis of Chola's (ironically the British used the stones of this place for building the dam at Anaikarai) we pass by Jayamkondan,the road to Tiruvaiyaru takes us through Paluvur and turning on towards Tirumanur this region contains abundant greenery and scenic beauty,while crossing Tirumanur Bridge the Cauvery here flows from the historic Kalanai, except for the occasional wayside cattle posing hindrance riding on this stretch reach Tiruvaiyaru a town located on the banks of River Cauvery,the Samadhi of Saint Thyagaraja (1767-1847) the trinity of Carnatic Music is located here,sitting and contemplating at his Samadhi on his composition "Endaro Mahanubhavalu" is a bliss in itself and soon pedaling through Tirukandiyur we reach our destination the city of Thanjavur. As we check in to our hotel rooms we have quite a lot of time to explore Thanjavur in the evening of whole Day 5 ...
December is always special,the climate and festivities bring on an holiday mood,once such is this Cycle Tour now onto Day 4,having completed 400 km so far and bidding adieu to the Cosmic Dancer we get on to the road leading us to Kattumannar Koil an epic town located next to the legendary Veeranam Lake,we pass by this place remembering the Tamil magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan and a song from "The Floods" its first chapter "Come,oh ye young maidens, Look at the North river bubbling by! Come watch, oh ye friends, Look at the White river rushing by! Come, oh come all ye girls, To look at the Cauvery tumbling by! ..." both the lake and this town are antiquated and have references to hectic Chola's activities since 9th century AD and it is also the native place of Nathamunigal (9th AD) the founder of Sri Vaishnavam, proceeding further and passing through Meensurutty,lo behold the towering temple vimana of the UNESCO heritage site of Gangaikonda Cholapurm Temple built by Rajendra Chola 1around (11th AD) can be seen from a long distance,there are umpteen number of information material available about this temple and all most each have the same run of the mill kind of information,but Hermann Kulke in the book "A history of India" debates few theories about the causes of the expansion of Chola Empire and the sudden upsurge of construction activity especially by Raja Raja 1 and his son Rajendra 1. Did they just follow the old injunction of conquering the world (Digvijaya) so as to prove their valour as Universal Rulers (Chakravartin) ? Were they mainly interested in plunder as one American Historian (G.W.Spencer) puts it ? Were their maritime expeditions part of deliberate policy to establish monopoly of trade in S.E Asia ? reading of K.A.Nilakanta Sastri answers these questions,according to him all these motives influenced their action,transfer of Ganges Water fits well with the first theory,long list of jewels and gold donated to the temple of Thanjavur and Gangaikonda Cholapuram by Chola Kings and Generals provide evidence for the second and lastly Chola's wanted to control Eastern Trade Route which passed through Malaca and Sunda Straits held on by Srivijaya Empire, thus peeping into Chola Kings mindset and circumbulating this living Chola Temple we pedal across and we cut across the famous Ponneri Lake (Cholagangam) built for the same purpose like the Temple to commorate victory over Pala King of Bengal by Rajendra Chola 1 (11th AD) another place to visit here is Maligai Medu witnessing the palace ruins of this once metropolis of Chola's (ironically the British used the stones of this place for building the dam at Anaikarai) we pass by Jayamkondan,the road to Tiruvaiyaru takes us through Paluvur and turning on towards Tirumanur this region contains abundant greenery and scenic beauty,while crossing Tirumanur Bridge the Cauvery here flows from the historic Kalanai, except for the occasional wayside cattle posing hindrance riding on this stretch reach Tiruvaiyaru a town located on the banks of River Cauvery,the Samadhi of Saint Thyagaraja (1767-1847) the trinity of Carnatic Music is located here,sitting and contemplating at his Samadhi on his composition "Endaro Mahanubhavalu" is a bliss in itself and soon pedaling through Tirukandiyur we reach our destination the city of Thanjavur. As we check in to our hotel rooms we have quite a lot of time to explore Thanjavur in the evening of whole Day 5 ...
References "A History of India" Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, "A History of South India" K.A. Nilkanta Sastri, "History of Tamilnadu" N.Subramanian and "Ponniyin Selvan" English Translation Indra Neelamegham and Google Search.
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| At Gangaikonda Cholapuram Temple (Unesco World Heritage Site) |
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