South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c8.s1.2

c8.s1.2

His other building works.—He built the mukhamanḍapa of Sabhāpati at Chidambaram, the gopura of the goddess Girīndrajā and the enclosing verandah of the shrine. Having done so much it is no wonder that he is described as an ēkabhakta, the bhakta without a peer, of Śiva at Chidambaram. He built the great temple of Ekāmrēśvara (at Kāñchīpuram); the temple of Hālahālāśya at Madura; the temple at Madhyārjuna (Tiruviḍaimarudūr); the temple of Śrī Rājarājēśvara;¹ the temple of Valmīkēśvara at Tiruvārūr, the big gopura and the sabhā maṇḍapa, the audience hall, of the last temple specifically. Lastly the king built this Tribhuvanavīrēśvara, which accounts for the name of the place being Tribhuvana (Tam-Tiruppuvanam) whose brilliant, tall and excellent vimāna (tower over the sanctum) interrupts the sun (in his course). The temple was consecrated by the establishment of Śiva and Pārvatī in the temple, the officiating priest having been his own religious preceptor Somēśvara, the son of Śrīkaṇṭa Śambhu. He is known by the surname Īśvara Śiva. It was at the instance of this Rājaguru (royal chaplain) that the privilege of collecting a brokerage fee by the village made to a temple at Kuḷikkarai in the Tanjore district, in the fifth year of Kulottunga III, was registered on stone in his twenty-eighth year. (No. 82 of 1911). Kulottunga was personally a devoted Śaiva and made large benefactions to the ‘God of his heart.’²