While stone inscriptions and copper plates speak eloquently about the achievements of the imperial Cholas and various grants that they offered to temples, a new inscription found in Tiruvannamalai district has revealed name of a previously unknown minister of Raja Raja I.
“He was called Jayanthan and he had created a new town Thirisoolam to celebrate the victory of Raja Raja over Jayamkonda Chola Mandalam (the 18 regions in northern Tamil Nadu),” said A. Sathish, Associate Professor of International Institute of Tamil Studies, who discovered the 10th century inscription at Parvatha Hills in Thenmathevamangalam in Kalasapakkam taluk.
Mr. Sathish, a native of the village, said the finding assumed great significance because neither the A Concordance Of The Names in Cōḻa Inscriptions by Noboru Karashima nor the Thamarapakkam inscriptions recorded by the Archaeology Department — two major Chola era documents, have recorded the name Jayanthan.
Left in ruins: The dilapidated fort on the top of the Parvatha Hills, which was named as Thirisoolagiri by Jayanthan.
The Department of Sanskrit in Puducherry University has transcribed the inscription written in Sanskrit. Translated into English, it says King Raja Raja Cholan was the incarnation of Lord Maha Vishnu and he has Jayanthan as Minister, who is known for his eloquence. As a world leader, Jayanthan scaled the globe and conquered it, creating Thirisoolagiri on the hills near the river, it adds in glorious references to the Minister.
Besides the inscriptions, Mr. Sathish also discovered rock paintings bearing testimony to the existence of worship of Mother Goddess, a practice common in Tamil Nadu before the emergence of institutionalised religions and worship associated with them.
“I found them in a two-storeyed cave and the inscriptions are on the floor of the upper portion. The rock paintings are in a very bad shape. Inscriptions are normally carved in places where people assemble in large numbers. The inscription tells us that people have worshipped Mother Goddess in the cave, though the practice died out subsequently,” he explained.
There was also a dilapidated fort on the top of the Parvatha Hills, which was named as Thirisoolagiri by Jayanthan. The inscription calls it as a town because of the existence of a temple, a fort and many mandapas. The hill was known as Naviramalai in the Sangam poetry work Malapadukadam.
“It is believed that the fort was constructed by Nannan Sei Nannan, a king who belonged to the Sangam period. But this is disputed, because we must keep in mind that there were no stone constructions during the Sangam period. The Thirisoolagiri fort should also be considered an important strategic rock fort in the realm of Raja Raja, who is renowned world wide for the construction of the Thanjavur big temple,” Mr. Sathish said.
