The Colas c33.28

c33.28

The unique position of Kāñcīpuram, one of the capital cities of the Cōḷa empire, is very instructive in regard to the mutual relations of the rival religious systems which were competing for royal patronage and popular favour. This city is seen to have comprised three principal sections, each consecrated to a particular faith and the institutions ministering to it. The biggest of them all is devoted to Śiva, then comes what is often called Little Kāñcīpuram sacred to Viṣṇu in the form of Hasti-giri-āḷvār or Aruḷāḷa Perumāl, and lastly we have Jina-kāñcī, popularly known as Tirupparuttikkuṉṟu, undoubtedly larger and more prosperous and in more direct and frequent communication with Kāñcīpuram proper in the days of the Cōḷa empire than at the present day. Let us also recall that many vestiges of what must once have been a considerable Buddhist colony have been found at Kāñcīpuram. We see in the plan of the different parts of this great and ancient city and their mutual relations much that is suggestive of the history of religious beliefs and practices at their best in South India.