Studies in Cola History and Administration c14.88

c14.88

To this day one of the enclosing walls of the Cidambaram temple is called *Vikramaśōḻan-tirumāḻigai*, the name employed for it in Vikrama’s inscription (*śemboṉṉambalam-śūḻ-tirumāḻigaiyum*). It is not possible to say if the reference to the entire *Dēvāram* being engraved on copper-plates is a fact, or only a mere repetition of an old convention in relation to such matters. The *Sūtras* of the *Iraiyaṉār-Kaḷaviyal* are also supposed to have been written on copper-plates in the first instance by their divine author. Allowing, however, for all the hyperbole characteristic of such eulogies, we can still hardly fail to recognise that the first ten years or so of the reign of Vikrama Cōḻa saw extensive improvements and reconstructions in the