Large number of temples, excellent water management systems, advanced irrigation techniques, infrastructure like road and buildings and mainly preserving, maintaining and improving of the ancient art forms are the milestones of the Chola Kingdom. Out of all the Kings, Raja Raja Chola is the successor in the Game of Thrones who has won the hearts of his citizens and also kept expanding his territories. The fabulous architecture of the temple makes everyone awestruck with its grandeur and it is an engineering miracle that the structure has crossed all the vagaries of time over one thousand years and still standing as a testimony to the craftsmanship of the yesteryears.
For the unrivalled architectural elegance, the temple has been acclaimed as Great Living Chola Temple and is listed under the World Heritage Monuments. The huge linga idol, the monolithic statue of the huge bull facing the sanctum, the monolithic stone weighing eighty tonnes placed atop the tower, vast precincts altogether acclaim this temple as Big Temple, as everything in this temple premise is so magnificent that it is beyond the perceptions of any common man.
With the able guidance of his elder sister Kundhavai, he was keen to bring in more and more advancements to his country.
The naval base of Raja Raja Chola was so astonishing that no one could even imagine such things centuries ago and with the naval force, he was consistently conquering the nearby regions. The epitome of his victories was that he established his kingdom in Sri Lanka. With the philanthropic attitude, Raja Raja was fair enough to all the religions though he was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. One of the last conquests of Raja Raja was the naval conquest of the islands of Maldives.
The Cholas controlled the area around of Bay of Bengal with Nagapattinam as the main port. The Chola Navy also had played a major role in the invasion of Sri Lanka.
Administration Before the reign of Raja Raja I, parts of the Chola territory were ruled by hereditary lords and princes who were in a loose alliance with the Chola rulers. Raja Raja initiated a project of land survey and assessment in which led to the reorganization of the empire into units known as valanadus. From the reign of Raja Raja Chola I until the reign of Vikrama Chola in , the hereditary lords and local princes were either replaced or turned into dependent officials.
This led to the king exercising a closer control over the different parts of the empire. Rajaraja strengthened the local self-government and installed a system of audit and control by which the village assemblies and other public bodies were held to account while retaining their autonomy.
To promote trade, he sent the first Chola mission to China. He was the supreme commander of the northern and northwestern dominions. During the reign of Raja Chola, there was an expansion of the administrative structure leading to the increase in the number of offices and officials in the Chola records than during earlier periods.
Villavan Muvendavelan, one of the top officials of Raja Raja figures in many of his inscriptions. The other names of officials found in the inscriptions are the Bana prince Narasimhavarman, a general Senapathi Krishnan Raman, the Samantha chief Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan, the revenue official Irayiravan Pallavarayan and Kuruvan Ulagalandan, who organised the country-wide land surveys. Religious policy Rajaraja was a follower of Shaivism school of Hinduism.
He was tolerant towards other faiths and had several temples for Vishnu constructed and encouraged the construction of the Buddhist Chudamani Vihara at the request of the Srivijaya king Sri Maravijayatungavarman. Rajaraja dedicated the proceeds of the revenue from the village of Anaimangalam towards the upkeep of this Vihara. Arts and architecture Raja Raja Chola embarked on a mission to recover the hymns after hearing short excerpts of Thevaram in his court. He sought the help of Nambi Andar Nambi.
It is believed that by divine intervention Nambi found the presence of scripts, in the form of cadijam leaves half eaten by white ants in a chamber inside the second precinct in Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram.
The brahmanas Dikshitars in the temple opposed the mission, but Rajaraja intervened by consecrating the images of the saint-poets through the streets of Chidambaram. Rajaraja thus became to be known as Tirumurai Kanda Cholan meaning one who saved the Tirumurai. Thus far Shiva temples only had images of god forms, but after the advent of Rajaraja, the images of the Nayanar saints were also placed inside the temple.
Nambi arranged the hymns of three saint poets Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar as the first seven books, Manickavasagar's Tirukovayar and Tiruvacakam as the 8th book, the 28 hymns of nine other saints as the 9th book, the Tirumandiram of Tirumular as the 10th book, 40 hymns by 12 other poets as the 10th book, Tirutotanar Tiruvanthathi - the sacred anthathi of the labours of the 63 nayanar saints and added his own hymns as the 11th book.
The first seven books were later called as Tevaram , and the whole Saiva canon, to which was added, as the 12th book, Sekkizhar's Periya Puranam is wholly known as Tirumurai , the holy book.
Thus Saiva literature which covers about years of religious, philosophical and literary development. The temple and the capital acted as a center of both religious and economic activity. It is one of the largest temples in India and is an example of Dravidian architecture during the Chola period.
Out of these, Raja Raja Chola I is documented to have been one of the greatest Tamil monarchs in India during that era. He laid the foundation for the great Chola Kingdom into becoming a powerful empire and reigned from CE. He began a trend for conquering neighboring kingdoms right after his accession to the throne and waged war against a series of kingdoms including that of the Pandyas, Chalukyas and Cheras. In less than a decade, he had become the absolute ruler of South India.
He also defeated the western Chalukyas, hence his vast kingdom ranged from Kalinga in the north-east and Ceylon in the extreme south. He was a well-organized political genius and permitted autonomy to his princes and lords. He divided his vast kingdom into districts and carried out land surveys to create a standardized system of revenue collection. In this way, he not only gave autonomy to the districts but also maintained a smooth administrative system. Aside from wars and conquests, Raja Raja is also remembered for building the famous Brihadesswarar temple at Tanjore Thanjavur , one of the finest architectural monuments in Tamil Nadu.
The granite sculpture on the huge tower feet high , and on the base represent one of the finest examples of Chola art. This famous temple became a millennium-old in Though Raja Raja followed Shaivism, he was known to be tolerant of other creeds too.
Aside from the Big Temple, he is believed to have built several Vishnu temples also. The nearest airport is in neighboring Trichy.
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