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.