Udayarpalayam Palace, Ariyalur
Udayarpalayam
Palace is located in Udayarpalayam Town in Ariyalur District of Tamilnadu. The
Palace is in complete ruins and some of the portions were occupied by Jamin
descendants. This Palace is nearly roofless, with a huge Durbar area.
Everything in the Durbar hall has been moved to the four covered sides to
prevent damage by elements. The chandeliers, pictures, sculptures, art works
have all been left in a state of neglect for years.
Ruins
include Belgian stained glass murals, European chandeliers, extraordinary huge
wooden furniture and shelves, a massive roll top desk, exotic and antique
ceramic pieces, palanquins. They are covered with years of dust and eons of
neglect reflecting improper care added by utter lack of finance of any kind.
There are still many structures that can be preserved.
There is
an official hall that had been used for public functions with a central stage
and wonderful carvings/ statues on the walls. There are latticed and slatted
windows in the first floor for the ladies to watch the proceedings below,
unseen by the audience. A few bungalows and the palace boundary wall are still
there. On the whole the campus is 25 acres in area and the built up area is 5
acres. The clan appears to be the descendants of the great Pallavas. There were
many inscriptional evidences for this claim. There is some melancholic charm
about this place. Ghanam Krishna Iyer, a composer of the first half of 19
century was a court musician at Udayarpalayam. The family of Udayars was famous
for their patronage of arts.
History
The town
was named after the rulers “The Udayars”. Udayarpalayam was under the Zamindar
rule nearly four hundred years. When the Vijayanagara king Viranarasimha Raya
(A.D.1509) was ruling, the Tamilnadu was divided in to Gingee, Tanjore, Trichy,
Mysore and Madurai petty kingdoms. Only during his regime, the Poligar of Kachi
Rangappa Udayar, was appointed to assist the Gingee king Udayagiri Ramabhadra
Nayak, Kalatkal Thozha Udayar, otherwise called ‘Kaduvettigal’ that means one
who destroyed the forest and converted them for cultivation. Their origin is
not clearly known someone says, they were the descendants of Pallavas.
According
to ancient Tamil Literature, ‘they were the descendants of Kurumbas, and they
come from Thondaimandalam. Kalatkal Thozha Udayars are purely Vanniyars but
until today they speak Telugu. Chinna Nalla Kalatkal Thozha Udayar, he was the
second son of Kachi Rangappa Udayar, who succeeded his elder brother. Kachi Periya
Kalatkal Thozha Udayar was of short region. He erected a temple at Udaryarkoil,
in memory of his elder brother, which later became Kalatkal Thozha Puram. As
per the guidelines of his teacher Namasivam, he had renovated the Chidambaram
temple. After this, he had excavated a tank near Cholapuram, in 1475 A.D. and
erected a town around it. This place became the Udayarpalayam town.
During
their time they constructed many temples, and made the donation of land and
other things to the temple, they excavated a lot of lakes for irrigation
facilities, and did many welfare activities in this region. During the English
rule, only 56 villages remained under their reign. The Zamindari system existed
still 1956, Chinnanalla Udayar, was the last Zamindar, who ruled till 1956. Even
now their successors are found in the town. The town has a large palace and a
temple and temple tank within its premises.
Lineage:
1.
Palli
Konda Rangappa Udayar
2.
Peria
Nallappa Kalatkal Thozha Udayar
3.
Chinna
Nallappa Kalatkal Thozha Udayar
4.
Muniappa
Udayar
5.
Poyyappa
Udayar
6.
Ramappa
Udayar
7.
Venkatappa
Udayar
8.
Muthu
Krishnappa Udayar
9.
Chandrasekara
Udayar
10.
Nalla
Nainagha Udayar
11.
Kalyana
Rangappa Udayar
12.
Nallappa
Udayar
13.
Uthama
Rangappa Udayar
14.
Rangappa
Udayar
15.
Yuva
Rangappa Udayar
16.
Nallappa
Udayar
17.
Muthu Vijaya
Rangappa Udayar
18.
Abinava
Yuva Rangappa Udayar
19.
Kachi
Rangappa Kalatkal Thozhar Udayar
20.
Muthu
Vijaya Rangappa Udayar
21.
Rangappa
Udayar
22.
Kalayana
Rangappa Udayar
23.
Sri
Yuvaranga Udayar
24.
Sri
Kachi Chinna Nallappa Kalatkal Thozhar Udayar
25.
Kachi
Yuvaraangappa Kalatkal Thozhar Udayar
In a war
with Bidar king, Rangappa Udayar fought under the leadership of Ramabhadra
Naicker on behalf of Vira Narasimmaraya (1505-09). Appreciating the valor of
Rangappa Udayar who not only killed the Shah but also captured all royal insignia
of the opposing king, Raya awarded Udayar the title “Barid Sapthanga Harana”
(One who cut seven parts of Barith) and 4 other titles. One of the titles is
Kalakka Thozhar (meaning one who has plenty of Kalat Padai, Infantry). Raya
also awarded land named Zillakavanam with boundaries encompassing east of Vedaranyam,
west of Veeranam Lake, south of Vellore and beginning of Kollidam River. This
is approximately 35 miles by 35 miles. On the compulsion to rule this, Udayar
left Kanchi after handing over reins to one Varadharaja Udayar. The Zamin was
initially operating from a place nearby and he brought under his control the
palayams of Thittakudi, Bhuvanagiri, Vriddhachalam, Kattumannarkudi Veeranaaraayanapuram
and Chidambaram.
The
present Zamin was built in the period of Chinna Nallappa Kalatkal Thozha
Udayar, who is the second son of Palli Konda Rangappa Udayar. He was forced to
take the reign after his brother (the 2nd king in the line Peria Nallappa
Kalatkal Thozha Udayar was killed in the streets of Bhuvanagiri by one of the
opposing Palayam lords).
Udayars
belong to the Vanniya community. The theory of Telugu speaking could be due to
the compulsion of courting to Vijayanagara where official transaction could
have happened in Telugu. Having known the land mass little better, Vanniyars
speak only Tamil here. It is said (though not proven), that Udayars once served
Cholas in their army operating from Kanchi and also moved to Mysore.
The
Zamin was in control Gangai Konda Cholapuram as well as Chidambaram till 1817
before British ordered that their control will be restricted to just 65
villages and they have to pay a tax of 175 Natchathra pagoda vari every year.
They were allowed to have all other facilities as usual. This happened during
the period of Kachi Rangappa Kalatkal Thozhar Udayar. It was the time when
British took control of Arcot Nawab. Udayarpalayam Zamin was brought under the control Tiruchirappalli Collectorate.
Nallappa
Udayar is the one who was involved in the British- French wars. In the year
1748, Udayars sided with British during the Pondicherry war. However, the
French took control of these Udayars again in 1749 with the help of Muzafar
Jang and Santha Sahib as a result of which Udayarpalayam agreed to pay the Kappam.
The Palayam was again attacked by French in the year 1755 where with the help
of British, Udayarpalayam recovered. However, again in the year 1757, French
under the leadership of De Andaville attacked this Palayam. Though again with
the help of British, this attack was repelled, in order to have a peaceful
reign without any more war, the Palayam agreed to 40,000 rupees as Kappam to
the French.
Udayarpalayam
Zamin had marriage relations with Pichavaram Zamins. Sri Andiyappa Soorappa Cholanar
married a girl from Udayarpalayam Zamin and so too his son Sri Chidambara Natha
Soorappa Cholanar. This gives a rather strange Pallava connection to the
Cholas. As far as the Kopperunchingan connection (of Sendamangalam Fort near
Udumalpet) on the Kadavaraya lineage, they have initially called themselves
Palli (old name of Vanniyars) and later shifted the reference to the offshoot
of Pallavas in their inscriptions. They claim themselves to be the
descendants of Hiranya Varman.
Connectivity
Udayarpalayam
town is located at a distance of 28 kms from the district headquarters on
the State Highway (SH 4), which runs from Tiruchirappalli to Chidambaram. The
town is located at a distance of 50 km on the north eastern side of
Tiruchirappalli. The other towns of the region namely, Ariyalur, Virudhachalam,
Kumbakonam, Tanjore and Perambalur are located within a distance of 50 km
from the town and are well connected by state and private run buses. Ariyalur
is the nearest railway station and is 28 km from the town. Nearest Airport
is located at Trichy.