TIME CAPSULE

TRICHY: A group of epigraphists has discovered a 1000-year-old Chola era inscription slab on the premises of an early Chola temple at Thanthonrisvaram on Salai Road of Uraiyur in Trichy. It was while documenting the ancient inscriptions in the region as part of their field study that the group found the ruined inscriptions lying abandoned on the premises. The inscriptions speak about the donation made by Ananthan Chandramathiyar, queen of Thennavan Ilangovelar alias Maravam Puthi, a feudatory of the Kodumbalur clan to the temple. This gift was made by the queen in AD 911 during the reign of Parantaka Chola I (AD 907-AD955).

“The record was found on the south wall of the mandapa in front of the sanctum. The stone block on which the inscriptions are engraved in Tamil is in bad shape," R Akila, assistant professor, department of history, Aringar Anna Government Arts College, Musiri, who was part of field study team.

“The queen gifted gold to the temple as fixed deposit. The interest accrued on it was utilised for desilting the temple pond and also for the maintenance of the temple such as sacred bath of temple deity apart from special worship, services and lighting of lamps,” said M Nalini, another member in the team, who heads the history department of the Seethalakshimi Ramasami College, Trichy.

The donor of Thanthonrisvaram temple Ananthan Chandramathi comes to historical limelight only through this new discovery, according to R Kalaikkovan, director of M Rajamanikkanar centre for historical research. He mentioned that inscriptions of Thennavan Ilangovelar are found in the Chandrasekara temple at Thiruchendurai near Jeeyapuram and it was his daughter Puthi Adityapidari, queen of Arinjaya Chola, son of Parantaka Chola I, had made the Thiruchendurai temple in to a stone edifice.

Kodumbalur clan held supremacy in and around Trichy during the formative years of the Chola hegemony and inscriptions revealing the munificent gifts of several kings and queens of this family are noted at several places unlike that of queen Ananthan Chandramathiyar, he said. The team has informed the state department of archaeology and the department of epigraphy about the discovery.

