The Colas c25.7

c25.7

Tañjāvūr, the Tanjore of the modern maps, was the Tañjāpurī chosen by Vijayālaya for the seat of his new power and the abode of the goddess, Niṣumbhasūdanī, that had vouchsafed him success in his enterprises. Though after the conquest of the Pallava country, Kāñcī became a sort of subsidiary capital in which the kings spent part of their time, Tañjāvūr maintained her position as the chief city of the kingdom till it was eclipsed by the new city of Gaṅgāpurī, which with the vast tank in its neighbourhood, the Cōḷa-gangam, served for many centuries to commemorate the ambition and the vanity of Rājarāja’s warlike son, Rājēndra. We have apparently no contemporary account of either of these cities. From the hymns of Karuvūrttēvar celebrating the Rājarājēśvara and the Gaṅgaikoṇḍacōḷēśvara temples in the two places, we learn only that Tanjore had a fort-wall and a deep moat surrounding it, and nothing whatsoever concerning the other city. The big bazaar of Gaṅgaikoṇḍacōḷapuram, and the palace Śōḻakēraḷan in it are, however, mentioned in the inscriptions of the period,⁴ besides the servants of the bathing establishment of the king (*tirumañjanattārvēḷam*) attached to the palace.⁵ Paḷaiyāṟu, near Kumbakōṇam, which contained a temple called Arumoḷidēva-Īśvara after Rājarāja’s name,⁶ seems to have contained a palace which was the favourite residence of Rājarāja’s sister Kundavai, and for some time of Rājarāja himself. A small hamlet near Paḷaiyāṟu even now preserves the name Śōḻa-māḷigai within about four miles of the Kumbakōṇam railway station, and a small ruined temple there is said still to mark the site of the ancient palace of which it served as the guardian angel.⁷ It has been pointed out before that Rājēndra I built a palace of huge dimensions at Madura, and other places like Uttaramērūr also have traditions of Cōḷa palaces having existed in them.