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On the trail of Vandiyadevan

Ever since I read the book “Ponniyin selvan” by Kalki, l had my imagination of the places mentioned in the book. Untill now, sadly it never occurred to me that those places persists even after 1000 years & I could visit them. This August I got a chance to visit the places that were part of the story of Ponniyin Selvan and this blog is all about that. The time of visit has its significance since the protagonist of the story himself starts the travel (in the first scene of the book) on the Tamil month of Aadi, which is roughly august in the English calendar.

I got to visit many of the places and have also added some places which I missed but it may be of use for the readers who are interested in such a journey.

King Rajaditya cholan had built this lake to conserve the waters of north Cauvery which were going wastefully into the sea. He named this tank in remembrance of his father Parantaka Chola who also held the title “Veera Narayan” hence the name of the tank. There is a village near the tank called “Veera-Narayana-Puram”. Currently, this tank is referred to as “Veerana Lake” and it’s one of the primary sources of drinking water for Chennai city.

In the story, Vandiyathevan starts his journey from the banks of this lake, travelling from Kanchi to Tanjore. The tank was built in 10th century.

Veera Narayana Perumal temple

In the story, Vandiyathevan reaches the temple on the day of Aadi festival on his route to Kadamboor palace. He meets the infamous spy “Azhwarkadiyan Nambi” who is working for the spymaster of Chola kingdom “Anbil Aniruddha Bhrama Rayar”. Alwarkadiyan is also an ardent follower of the Vaishnava faith.

Kadambur palace

Though the Kadambur of that century is bygone and *Spoiler alert* most of the readers already know the palace is set a-blaze after the assassination of crowned prince Aditya Karikalan. There are important temples in Kadambur that are a reminder of its glorious past.

Sri Rudrapathi temple — Keezhakkadambur

This temple is part of Keezhakkadambur, then Kadambur city. This temple also has a secret tunnel, which allegedly connected this temple and the Kadambur palace. The tunnel is as of now closed and cemented to avoid people from trying to enter. Locals near the temple said that the ruins of the palace are around Keezhakkadambur, I was not able to find anything at least near the temple.

Amirthakadeswarar temple — Melakadambur

The architecture of this temple’s main hall is similar to the Sarangapani temple at present-day Kumbakonam (Kudanthai). This temple is not part of the story, but it’s an beacon of art in Mela Kadambur, which was a part of Kadambur palace then.

Kollidam river

Vandiyathevan had to cross the immense river Kollidam while moving from Kadambur to Tanjore. His friend Kandamaran sends one of his escorts along with Vandiyathevan to ensure he fetches a horse on the other side of the river.

Kudanthai, Present-day kumbakonam

Kudanthai astrologer cabin was located on the banks of the river Arisil. We are introduced to the characters Kunthavai, and Vanadhi. Vandhiyathevan meets both of them in the place of Kudanthai astrologer. His house was located on the outskirts of the city next to a Kali temple.

Arisil river

Arisil river has a key place in the story. It is where Vandhiyathevan meets Kundavai, Vanathi and their friends., He tries to save them from a crocodile which was nothing but a dummy placed to scare Vanathi.

Along the banks of the same river later in the story Arulmozhi varman reunites with Vanadhi and Poonguzhali.

River Kaveri AKA Ponni Nadhi

River kaveri is not just any river, it is also considered as a deity and goddess by the people of south india. In the story, prince Arulmozhi was believed to be saved by Goddess Kaveri herself, but actually he was saved by Ezhathu arasi.

Anaikarai

A monstrosity of a river kollidam. It is one of the distributary of river Kaveri, like Arisil. Kollidam floods brings in several twists in the story of Ponniyin selvan. It has a small distributary known as varavaru which flows into Veeranam lake.

Prosperous lands of Chola

As described through the thoughts of Vandiyadevan, The Chola kingdom had built plenty of tanks, water storage bodies, channel based on the tributary and distributary of Kaveri flowing through the central land of Pazhayari, Thanjavur and Kudanthai. Public works department data reveals that there are almost 3000 small and large water bodies in the 7 districts where chola kingdom was once established. One can even today witness the might of the water bodies and the lands they supply water.

Battlefield Thiru-puram-biyam

Referred to as Pagaivanin Pallipadai [ Enemy’s memorial ] by the Pandian conspirators. They meet here to discuss the plans of destruction of chola empire. This is a key place in the story where several conspiracy plans are sketched, spies are encountered and shocking truths get revealed.

Historically, this is also the famous place where the battle of Thiu-puram-biyam took place between Pallavas and Pandyas. Vijayalaya Chola played a key role in the victory of the Pallavas and the allies in the war. This proved to be a turning point in history, which led to the uprising of the Chola and the deterioration of Pandya for the next 2 centuries.

This place lies in the middle of nowhere between the paddy fields, about 20 km from Kumbakonam.

Tanjore/ Thanjavur temple

The entire old city of Tanjore is basically fortified and you can find ruins of red walls around the old city. The map view of the city also gives one an idea about the Agali (moat) encircling the current structure of Maratha palace, Royal palace museum and Brihadisvara Temple. Several artefacts are in the museum where one can witness the art from the 8th century to the 18th century.

The main palace is called Maratha palace, but it was actually built by Tanjore Nayaks. There might have been old palaces but there is no record of it. There are several hidden tunnels connecting this palace to the Big temple Tanjore.

The Sharjah Mahdi is located in the eastern part of the Thanjavur palace complex, which is the royal balcony.

Though Brihadisvara temple was not built at the time of the story. The epicentre of the book, Ponniyin selvan AKA Arulmozhi Varman AKA Raja Raja Chola-I built the Brihadsisvara temple. It is fondly referred to as Periya Kovil. It is also said that there are epigraphs in the temple referring to Vandiya thevan.

In the words of Amarar Kalki in the book, Pazhayar consists of so many small townships and one can understand it clearly when we visit the place. There is a long list of places to visit in and around Pazhayarai ., Few of them are Nandipuram, Thiruchatti Mutram, Pateesuram, Mazlavarpadi and Arichandra Puram.

The city also had so many army camps in which the various battalions and their families were placed. It includes Aariya, Puduppu, Manappu and Pambai. You can find these camps are transformed into Aariyapadai Veedu, and Pambai Padaiveedu villages on the route to Kumbakonam.

Vandiyathevan enters the city of Pazhayarai in disguise as “Kamsan” and does a play mocking Alzwarkadiyan.

Nandipura Vinnagaram temple / Nathan Kovil

Azhwarkadiyan meets Sembiyan Madevi (wife of Sundara Chola) and princess Kundavi in the temple on the day of Krishna Jayanthi. This temple was built by Nadhivarma pallavan around 7th century.

Pazhayarai Vadathali temple

Someshwara temple — Keezha pazhayarai

This temple is in the heart of the then Pazhayarai city. This temple was built by Aditya cholan I, whose name has been given to Aditya karikalan.

Cholan Maaligai

Cholan Maaligai is believed to be the actual fort of Pazhayarai once stood.

Panchavan Maadhevi Pallipadai Temple

This is the resting place of the wife of Raja Raja Chola. Key thing is that no other wife of Raja Raja cholan had a Pallipadai (temple built on the resting place). Not to be confused with Thiripuvana Madeviyar, princess of Kodumbalur AKA Vanathi, who is the birth mother of Rajendra Chola. Rajendra Chola built the temple on the resting place of his stepmother.

Darasuram

Darasuram was important part of Pazhayarai and later “Airavateshwar” temple was built by Raja Raja II well after the time of the story. This temple is UNESCO recognized heritage monument and it is maintained by ASI.

Resting place of Raja raja cholan

This is the final resting place of the great king Raja Raja cholan. When I spoke to priest, he said initially this was farming land., later they identified a lingam which was half buried. Then the archelogy experts from the government did a study based on the epigraph present at Palkulkathi Amman temple (nearby) which had information on the death of Arul mozhi varman. It is believed that King Raja Rajan spent his final days in Pazhayarai.

Gangai Konda Cholapuram

This place is not part of the main story., but it has a significant backdrop. It was built by Rajendra Chola, the greatest emperor of the Chola dynasty, son of Raja raja cholan and Vanadhi.

After a victorious campaign across India, Rajendra Chola built the temple of Gangai Konda Chola Puram (roughly translates to city which contains water obtained from Ganga). This temple emulates the architecture of the Brihadisvara temple at Tanjore.

Maligai Medu

The ruins of the palace of the Rajendra chola. Currently this place is maintained by the archeology department. It also has a pottery yard where all the finding are collected and are maintained.

This was a 2 day trip and I was not able to cover Kodumbaloor, Kodaiakarai and Pazhuvoor.

Kodaiakarai AKA Point Calimere

Sudamani Buddha Vihar

I and my family had a great time visiting places that are literally 1000 plus years old. In the entire travel we were listening to Kalki’s Ponniyin selvan audio cast and were discussing his other works like sivagamiyin sabatham & parthiban kanavu. This trip also has hyped up the movie that is to be released.

Ponni nadhi paakanumae ! Pozhudhukkulla !

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