Uyyakondan Thirumalai Temple – Inscriptions
27
inscriptions have been copied from the temple. A linear measure, possibly used
as a land measure in this area during the Chola rule, has been found. One of
the inscriptions found belong to the period of Rajendra I recording the gift of
land by the king to provide food for students who studied Veda. It is
understood that a royal order was passed to this effect at the instance of the
king’s preceptor Sarvasiva Pandithar.
Another
inscription reveals that one Anutthira Pallavaraiyan gifted a piece of land to
meet the expenditure of the grand festival celebrated on the occasion of
Vaikasi Visakam at the temple during the rule of Kulottunga Chola I. A record
of Kulottunga Chola II copied from the east wall of the second Gopura registers
the gift of a piece of land by the Sabha of a local Brahmin settlement,
Rajasraya Chaturvedimangalam, to organize worship and services during the Theerthavari
of the Vaikasi Visaka festival.
Two
other inscriptions copied from the Nataraja mandapa of the hill temple belong
to the period of Kulottunga III. One among them registers the gift of two veli
of land by the members of the maha Sabha of Rajasraya Chaturvedimangalam to the
temple towards repairs and renovations. It was suggested that the temple could utilize
the land for raising sugarcane plantation. The inscription, while recording the
boundaries of the land, points to several irrigational channels and their
outlets. A large size pond is mentioned whose sluice was named as Uyyakondan.
Another
inscription of the same king records the change of name of Rajasraya
Chaturvedimangalam as Jagadegavira Chaturvedimangalam. The Vijayanagar record
of C.E. 1457 is in the form of a sonnet. The present Nataraja mandapa of the
temple was built by a temple official named as Thayan Thirupparayan Adalvitanka
Pidaran during the reign of Rajendra Chola I. Due to ravages of time it became
dilapidated and was renovated by Prayathanathan of Pulisai during the rule of
Mallikarjuna, the Vijayanagar king.
The poet
compares the philanthropic action with that of Siva who saved Ganges from
falling to the ground by taking it on his head. The Ujjevanatha Temple at
Uyyakkondan Thirumalai is a treasure house of epigraphical records and it has
the largest corpus of inscriptions of the great king Rajendra Chola I.