Saturday, April 4, 2020

Thirumoolataneswarar Temple, Thellar – History

Thirumoolataneswarar Temple, Thellar – History
First Battle of Thellar:
Pallavas ruled ancient Tamilnadu from 200 A.D to 850 AD. Nandivarman III was an Indian monarch of the Nandivarman II line who ruled the Pallava kingdom from 846 to 869. He was the son of Dantivarman and grandson of Nandivarman II. Nandivarman III was a powerful monarch who tried to reverse the decline that began in the reign of his father. Cholas and Pandyas united for the first time to defeat the Pallava Power in Thellar. He made an alliance with the Rashtrakutas and the Gangas and defeated the Pandyas at the Battle of Thellar.
Battle of Thellar was fought in 830 between the forces of the Pallava King Nandivarman III and the Pandyan King Srimara Srivallabha. The Pandyan forces were defeated. Cholas were forced to pay tributes to Pallavas and accepted Pallavas as their overlord. He then pursued the retreating Pandyan army as far as the river Vaigai. This war made Pallavas, a force to be reckoned with among his adversaries.
Second Battle of Thellar:
Thellar was the place, where the famous Chola Dynasty met its end in the second battle of Thellar. Rajaraja Chola III succeeded Kulothunga Chola III on the Chola throne in July 1216 CE. Rajaraja came to the throne of a kingdom much reduced in size as well as influence. With the rise of the Pandya power in the south, the Cholas had lost most of their control of the territories south of the river Kaveri and their hold on the Vengi territories in the north was slipping with the emergence of the Hoysala power.
Rajaraja was evidently not only weak, but incompetent. Pandyan inscriptions of the period state that he deliberately broke the terms of the treaty with his Pandyan overlord and refused to pay his tribute. This led to a punitive invasion by the Pandya forces. The Pandya army entered the Chola capital and Rajaraja took flight. The Kadava Kopperunchinga I who had once been a Chola feudatory had begun to exercise their independence.
Kopperunchinga wanted to gain some ground in the confused state of affairs. Kopperunchinga intercepted the fleeing Cholas at Thellar and fought him. Kopperunchinga defeated Cholas and imprisoned the fleeing Chola king at Sendamangalam. After Rajarajan III, Rajendran III ruled Chola Kingdom for short time and went into obscurity.
Nandi Kalambagam:
Nandi Kalambagam is one the greatest and most versatile of the Kalambagams but unfortunately it serves as an elegy also on Nandi Varman, the king and hero of the poetry.  It is sung on Nandi Varman, a mighty Pallava king. Nandi Varman who ruled the Northern part of Tamil Nadu was a great and mighty king.  He was a patron of Tamil poetry and other art forms and he himself was also a poet.  His enemies who could not conquer him on the battle field, plotted with his avaricious younger brother who was after the throne. 
They went to a great poet and composed a very complex and versatile poetry and set it to a most mellifluous tune.  They chose a beautiful courtesan who was also a good singer and trained her in the rendition. Every time the king went on his customary night rounds, he heard the most enchanting verses sung in a most pleasant tone from some place near a park.  He ordered his attendants to find the singer, but they failed to bring her before him. 
Charmed by the poetic flavour of these verses, Nandi himself went over to the place of the courtesan and entreated her to sing the whole of the poetry before him. The courtesan at first refused firmly but consented on a big condition: “100 flowery 'pandals' or platforms should be erected from the palace up to the crematorium. The hero of the verses should sit on each platform and hear the songs until the hundred are finished."
Nandi Varman agreed instantly without caring to look if there were any intrigues behind scarcely heeding the bequests of his ministers. Accordingly, 100 pandals were erected and on the appointed day, as he sat on the first pandal, the courtesan sang a verse and Nandi heard it overwhelmed by the versification and tune.  As he raised to go to the next pandal, that on which he had sat burnt in a flash as if by magic or sorcery. 
He sensed danger but was too passionately involved with the luring verses and also tied down by the promise of abiding by the condition, to go back.  In this way it happened and as he sat on the last and 100th pandal. At this the whole pandal with the lured and enchanted Nandi Varman burnt aflame and that was the sad end of Nandi Varman. Sundarar mentioned Nandi Varman as Kazharsinga Nayanar in his Thiruthondar Thogai.