The Colas c22.16

c22.16

It starts by saying that with his peerless queen who had the right to share the honours of the throne with him, Kulōttunga went and worshipped the Dancing Śiva of Cidambaram, and that he removed the little God (Viṣṇu) from the courtyard of the Sacred Hall of Tillai.⁴⁹ The new constructions undertaken and carried out by the king are then detailed. These include *gōpurams* with seven tiers and the shrine of the goddess which delighted her heart so much by its size and its splendour that she did not think any more of the sacred mountain (Himalaya) that gave birth to her. Various parts of the temple and the city are also said to have been 'covered with gold.' The same facts are recorded more briefly in the *Rājarāja-śōḻan-ulā*⁵⁰ and the *Takkayāgapparaṇi*,⁵¹ by the same poet. It is not clear in what relation these works attributed to Kulōttunga II stand to those attributed to Vikramacōḷa in his inscriptions dating, as noticed above, from his eleventh year. We have perhaps to assume that the work started in Vikramacōḷa’s reign, if not earlier, was not completed till some years after the accession of Kulōttunga II.⁵²