Thanjavur: Using technical instruments, State Archaeology department officials and experts, commenced the “off the ground” explorations to find out whether the ‘Samadhi’ of King Raja Raja Cholan, who built the Big temple at Thanjavur is at Udayalur near Kumbakonam on Monday.
The ten acres land, which is said to be the place where the ‘Samadhi’ of the king is located, was explored using a drone fitted with thermal radar to find out the iron or stone structures inside and water flow.
“The images will be analysed and a report sent to the State Archaeology department, which in turn would submit the report to Madras High court which ordered the ground exploration,” T. Thangadurai, Archaeology officer, Thanjavur who is a member of the team that conducts the exploration told DC over phone.
The exploration team is headed by R. Sivanandam, deputy director, State Archaeology department, Chennai, with Bhaskar and Loganathan from Chennai, Sakthivel from Madurai and Thangadurai from Thanjavur as members. .
The activities began in the morning and continued till afternoon. The drone with thermal radar scanned the ten acres land. Thangadurai said that a team from Bharathidasan University, Tiruchy, headed by Ramesh from Earth Sciences department will continue the exploration with more sophisticated equipments on Tuesday also.
“It will take a couple of days to submit the report” he added.
Thirumurugan, an advocate from Ramanathapuram filed a petition before the Madras High court, praying for exploration as the King, a great warrior and emperor deserved the construction of a ‘Manimandapam (memorial)’ at that spot. He also demanded erection of a larger-than-life-size statue of the King either in Indian Ocean or Bay of Bengal, like the ones erected for Shivaji in Maharashtra and Sardar Patel in Gujarat. “State Archaeology department has not taken up the exploration though inscriptions indicate about the Samadhi,” said Thirumurugan in the petition.
“An inscription speaks about a Thirumandapam and palace of the King that had existed in this placed. We are looking for the evidence,” said Thangadurai.
Pazhayarai near Kumbakonam remained the capital of Cholas for sometime. Cholanmaligai near Pazhayarai is said to be the place where Cholas lived. It is also said that their army lived in some places like Ariyapadai, Pampapadai, Manapadai and Pudupadai in that area around Patteeswaram.
King Raja Raja Cholan-I (985 to 1014 CE) is a great Chola emperor, who ruled South India, parts of North India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Lakshadweep. The king built the Big temple and completed it in 1010. (Millennium celebrations of the temple were held in 2011. M. Karunanidhi, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu participated in it and 1,000 dancers led by Dr Padma Subramanyam performed Bharata Natyam). The all stone temple is an architectural marvel with a soaring ‘Vimana’ to a height of 216-ft above the sanctum sanctorum and an 80-tonne cupbolic doom on top. The UNESCO has declared it as a world heritage monument.
