Past People Places : Travelling to thillai

Taking a scenic road through various fields, and crossing the Kollidam, we made our way to an ASI site. Gangaikonda Cholapuram, or GKC, for short. Established by Rajendra Chola I after his father died and he became the emperor, he moved the capital away from Thanajavur, further North, as if in anticipation of his campaigns. For Rajendras Prasasti, or Meikeerthi, as it is known, which lists his achievements, talks of his conquering upto the Ganges, thereby earning the name Gangaikonda, "Taker of the Ganges". He conquered the Pandyas, the Cheras, took Vengi, the Andhra state to the North of his country into his own, though it remained nominally independant since its king Vimaladityan had married his sister, Kundavi, and when the king of Kalinga attacked and tried to conquer Vengi, he took his army to Kalinga, to take his revenge. But he did not stop there. He went on, to capture all the various kingdoms of Bengal, and took various kingdoms in modern Chattisgharh, Bihar and Jharkhand as well. There were even fringe regions of Madhya Pradesh that came under his rule.
Soon after he returned to his capital, after he had finished his raid, he went about attacking the Chalukyas, and is said to have ransacked their capital Kalyani at one point as well.
After a king in Indonesia appealed to him for protection as Rajendra had trade interests there, he went to Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam, and began colonising the countries there. They remained vassals under the Cholas till the end of the century.
GKC is said to have a Durga taken from Kalyani, and we were lucky enough to spot it. This durga has multiple arms, and is quite different from all the other surrounding sculptures.
Even though he moved the capital, and made an impressive temple, its said that Rajendra still had a little respect for his father, and made sure his temple's vimanam was smaller than the Brihadeswara temple's.

The temple has one central structure, with multiple side mandapams on the lawns. The central shrine is raised to a first floor level, and accessd by steps. The Nandi's head is at that height. Its enormous. There are steps going down to the ground on three sides, with inscriptions all around them on the lintels, the inscrtiptions running from the time of Rajendra to the end of the Chola line. The Pandyas had ransacked the capital when they were rising to power, and have damaged the entrance gopuram, leaving an inscription with their symbol of two fishes next to it.