South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c8.s1.1

c8.s1.1

During a long reign of about forty years Kulottunga III was able to keep the empire intact and carry on extensive works of improvement at the same time. He was a Śaiva. There is a story current at Tiruvidaimarudūr in the Tanjore district that he was guilty of having put to death a Brahman. This atrocity weighed on his mind, and the spirit of his victim haunted him day and night. As a measure of expiation the king visited all the famous Śaiva shrines of holy reputation. Failing everywhere else he sought relief at Tiruviḍaimarudūr. As was usual when he entered the sacred precincts, the spirit awaited his return at the door. After fervent appeal to the God, the king received advice to elude pursuit by escaping from the sanctum by a manhole in the rear, and got out of the temple by the West Gate, opposite the East by which he entered. He rode hard till he reached a village a little over a mile from the temple, and turned round to see whether the ghost followed him. Much to his relief he did not see it, and in thanksgiving for this great boon he vowed to construct a temple to the ‘God of his heart.’ He called the place Tiruppuvanam (the forest where he turned first). Whatever the actual truth of the story, an image of the ghost is found placed at the east entrance of the Tiruviḍaimarudūr temple, and a hole in the wall of the sanctum is pointed out as the one by which he escaped. Inscriptions copied in the temple at Tribhuvanam show that the temple was consecrated to Śiva, called here Kampaharēśvara (the God that removed the quaking due to fear). The king is described by the names Kulottunga and Tribhuvana Vīra, and receives the title Pāṇḍyāri (the enemy of the Pāṇḍya), who conquered the ruler of Simhala and the lord of Kēraḷa, and killed Vīra Pāṇḍya. He performed the anointment of heroes after capturing Madura. These details make the builder of the Tiruppuvanam temple identical with Kulottunga III. The inscription is in duplicate, and contains a record of the building works of this great Chola in whose reign the Empire of the Cholas retained much of its glory undiminished.