The Colas c18.81

c18.81

of the king himself was the title Gangai-koṇḍa-Cōḷa, a name signalised by being attached to the new capital founded by the king and sometimes called Gangāpurī in Sanskrit.¹⁷⁶ In the ruins of this celebrated city the earliest inscription that can now be traced seems to be one of Rājakēsarivarman Vīrarājēndradēva.¹⁷⁷ The large irrigation tank to the north of the city, the Cōḷa-gangam of the Tiruvalangāḍu plates, has long gone out of use, its extensive bed overgrown with thick jungle.¹⁷⁸ Among the records of the reign of Rājēndra I himself, the new capital is mentioned rarely, and apparently not earlier than the seventeenth regnal year.¹⁷⁹ This city has often been confused with Muḍigoṇḍa-śōḻapuram, and the suggestion has been made that this was the earlier name of what later came to be called Gangaikoṇḍa-śōḻapuram.¹⁸⁰ There is no support for the suggestion in the epigraphy of the reign. On the other hand, Mudigoṇḍa-śōḻapuram is clearly stated to be the alternative name of Paḷaiyāṟu,¹⁸¹ now a small village on the banks of the Muḍigoṇḍān, within easy reach of Kumbakōṇam; Paḷaiyāṟu possesses an ancient Śiva temple of remarkable construction in the late Cōḷa style which contains, however, no inscription; and there remain no traces of the palaces at Paḻaiyāṟu in which Kundavai¹⁸² and Rājēndra¹⁸³ are said to have lived in the early years of the reign.