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Gangaikondacholapuram

Village in the Tamil country, 38 miles north-east of Tanjore, that was the capital founded by the Chola king Rajendra I and named after his title Gangaikonda-Chola, 'the Chola who took the Ganges'. The later king Virarajendra returned there after his campaign in the Vengi country and displayed the booty he had brought from it.

A large sandstone temple with a tall pyramid-shaped tower covered in carvings, rising behind a long pillared hall on a green lawn.
A large sandstone temple with a tall pyramid-shaped tower covered in carvings, rising behind a long pillared hall on a green lawn. · Thamizhpparithi Maari (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (opens in a new tab)

Gangaikondacholapuram, also called Gangapuri, was the capital built by the Chola king Rajendra I.1 It was named after his title Gangaikonda-Chola.1 Chola kings who fought for the Telugu country returned here with their booty.2 See the Cholas of Tanjore.

The capital

E. Hultzsch, writing in 1903 of Rajendra’s grandson Kulottunga I, called Gangapuri a city “founded by his grandfather Rajendra-Chola I. alias Gangaikonda-Chola”.1 H. Krishna Sastri (1920) noted that Mudigondasolan was the name of a hall in the royal palace there.3

James Fergusson’s history, revised by James Burgess in 1910, mentions a temple at Gangaikondapuram, 38 miles north-east of Thanjavur (then Tanjore).4 It thought the temple at least as old as the one at Thanjavur, perhaps older.4

Booty from Vengi

Hultzsch summed up the Manimangalam inscription of Virarajendra.2 His army fought near Vijayawada (then Bezwada), crossed the Godavari and gave Vengi to Vijayaditya.2 Then, “on his return to Gangaikonda-Solapuram the king assumed the surname Rajadhirajaraja and exhibited the booty which he had brought from the country of Vengi”.2 In the translation the king “entered Gangapuri with the goddess of victory”.5

Footnotes

  1. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions III, pt. II (1903), p. 131 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. III, pt. I (1899), p. 65 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. H. Krishna Sastri, “The Tiruvalangadu Copper-plates of the Sixth Year of Rajendra-Chola I”, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. III, pt. III (1920), p. 390, note 4 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  4. James Fergusson, rev. James Burgess, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, Vol. I (1910), p. 366 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions III, pt. I (1899), p. 70, translation of No. 30, l. 31 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Photos

Dynasties

Cholas of Tanjore

c. 985–1268 CE

The imperial Chola dynasty of Tanjore (Thanjavur) and Gangaikondacholapuram in the Tamil country, overlords of much of the Telugu country from about 1000 to the 12th century. Rajaraja I restored the Eastern Chalukya Saktivarman I in Vengi about 999 and married his daughter to Saktivarman's brother Vimaladitya. Rajendra I waited on the Godavari while his general marched to the Ganges, and Virarajendra fought the Western Chalukyas at Bezwada. In 1070 the Eastern Chalukya heir became the Chola emperor Kulottunga I, whose sons governed Vengi until 1118. After a Western Chalukya occupation, Vikrama-Chola recovered the coast, but by the mid-12th century Chola rule north of the Krishna was nominal. In the south, the Telugu Choda chiefs of Nellore and Pottappi acknowledged the Chola king until the dynasty ended in the 1260s.

People

Rajendra I (Chola)

c. 1012–1043 CE

Chola king from 1012, son of Rajaraja I and founder of Gangaikondacholapuram. As a prince he defeated the Eastern Chalukya Vimaladitya, his sister's husband, and set up a pillar of victory on Mahendragiri. As king he fought the Western Chalukya Jayasimha II and claimed Kollippakkai (Kolanupaka). His general marched to the Ganges while he himself waited on the Godavari, in a campaign that Krishna Sastri dated to 1028. His daughter Ammangadevi married the Eastern Chalukya Rajaraja Narendra and was the mother of Kulottunga I.

References

Sources (3)
  1. E. Hultzsch (ed. and tr.); introduction to the volume by H. Krishna Sastri (1929), South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. III, Parts I and II: Miscellaneous Inscriptions from the Tamil Country (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras (scan of the Archaeological Survey of India facsimile reprint, 1987), 1903, pp. 65, 70, 131. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions III, pts. I (1899) and II (1903). [Public domain]
  2. H. Krishna Sastri (ed. and tr.), South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. III, Part III: Inscriptions of Aditya I, Parantaka I ... and the Tiruvalangadu Plates of Rajendra-Chola I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras (Archaeological Survey of India, New Imperial Series, Vol. XXIX), 1920, pp. 390. H. Krishna Sastri (1920). [Public domain]
  3. James Fergusson (rev. James Burgess), History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, Vol. I (revised ed.) (opens in a new tab), John Murray, London, 1910, pp. 366. [Public domain]

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