On The Vandhiyadevan’s Trail

Prologue

Ponniyin Selvan, the magnum opus by Kalki, an outstanding historic novel is something very few Tamilians would not have heard of. Set in the Chola period it describes the adventure of the outstanding hero Vandhiyadevan, carrying messages from his master the Aditya Karikalan. I got to read it for the first time as the bound series of what was published in Kalki magazine, sitting in Tiruvarur, a past Chola territory. Since that time, I have read and reread it and tried to live the novel in my imagination.

In a gist, the plot revolves around the murder of Karikalan, in the period when the Chola succession was disputed by many a clan chieftain. Kalki had created the mythical Nandini the central antagonists who sought revenge of Karikalan for the killing of the Pandyan king. She with her aids plot the murder of Karikalan. Our own hero falls in mutual love with Kundavi, the sister of Karikalan, considered to be beauty and brains. Kundavi and Nandini were childhood rivals and Karikalan had a soft corner for Nandini but this was never encouraged due to the mysteries surrounding Nandini’s birth.

It has been my dream to traverse on the path and discover what Vandhiyadevan experienced. So, when an opportunity came to join the Chola Spy trail organized by Heritage Inspired, a Chennai based group I packed my bags with my wife and joined the spy trail. This travelogue is an account of this along with my own imagination.

 

Day 1 at the Veeranarayanan (presently called Veeranam) Lake, located in Cuddalore District

It was built around 907-955 AD by the Chola king Rajaditya and it still exists and functional. Vandiyadevan saw it as an ocean as he trots in his horse and reaches the shore. When we reached the lake, I heard the

“The distant sound of the trot of the horse

It is our otran (spy) Vandhiyadevan on course

On a new adventure with us, he is yet to make

Beginning on the banks of the Veeranarayan lake

May he succeed marshaling all his resources.”

The lake, we were told was 15 miles by 5 miles in width and had 72 sluice gates to provide water to as many villages. Today the waters quench the thirst of the Chennai city.

As Vandhiyandevan saw it was the day of the Adi Perukku, a local festival with the fresh monsoon waters filling up the lake to its brim. Mothers with their children were seen celebrating the festival with chitrannam (various rice preparations) and being served in leaf plates which were being discarded in the lake like boats and children were seen clapping in their glee. Suddenly a hush fell as the first glimpses of the royal boats came into view. It was the big Pazhuvettaiyan, a very important chief and his entourage, and not so liked by the people, who were proceeding to the Kadambur palace for an important meeting of various chiefs of clans and princely kingdoms. 

KeezhKadambur

This is the place where Kadambur Palace was supposed to have been located, where the big Pazhuvettaiyan was proceeding to. It was too dilapidated and no evidence of the palace seen now. The palace where many conspiracies were hatched and wherein as per the Ponniyin Selvan, Karikalan was murdered. Later in the night at the hotel, two local people acted out the scene where Pazhuvettaiyar and the host Sambuvariayar came alive and were seen plotting the scheme of succession.

Kaatumannar Temple: our day 1 trip ended here where Rajaraja Cholan announced his verdict of the investigation of the murder of Karikalan. It was nearly 16 years after the death of Karikalan that the verdict was announced shows that even those times people with influence could avoid/hinder the investigation. The novel was at variance with the history and it was the 4 brahmins (with their families) who were indicted by exile from the Chola Kingdom and their property confiscated. Perhaps they escaped the death penalty due to the belief that brahmins if executed by the King, would be subjected to Brahmahathi Dosham. Our local guide Prof. Ramanujam read out the inscription of the verdict by Rajaraja amidst his deputies with the 4 accused tied. For the moment he became Rajaraja himself as he read out the verdict with us becoming the subject.

As I tried closing my eyes, I saw Rajadhi Raja being hailed

“Travelling back in history

To the Chola dynasty’s glory

Hail! the Rajadi Raja, Hear the people cry

The Chola tiger flag flying high, as you can eye

The beating of the “Murasu” dum da dum

With a rush of the blood, our hearts follow the same rhythm.”

 

Day 2 Gangaikondacholapuram

Chola Rajendran built this as his capital city to commemorate the invasion/expedition to the Bengal from where he brought Ganges water for the consecration of the temple at Gangaikondacholapuram. The word literally means the place of the Chola who took the Ganges. It was the second of the Chola jewel that has been recognised by UNESCO as a heritage site. As we were proceeding towards, I wrote the following as a thumbnail sketch of the Ponniyin Selvan characters for the benefit of my wife who is not a Tamilian

 

For the adventurous spirit, I bow to thee Vandiyadevan

For the brute strength, I bow to thee Periya Pazhuvettaiyan

For street smartness, I bow to thee Azhvarkadiyan

For anger and retribution, I bow to thee Karikalan

For the sheer scheming and screaming, I bow to thee Ravidasan

For valour and foresight, I bow to thee Arulmozhivarman

For sage-like wisdom, I bow to thee Aniruddhar

 

For the snake-like charm, I bow to thee, Nandini

For Beauty and wisdom, I bow to thee Kundavi

For the Innocence in the being, I bow to thee Vanadhi

Crazy as you can get, I bow to thee Poonguzhali

For the motherly love, I bow to thee Chembian Madevi

 

In the creation of this magnum opus, there was Kalki

Non-comparable to this Kaviyum, I bow to thee

 

On the sprawling lawns of the temple premise, Ramesh our historical researcher donned the role of Chola Rajendran and explained the war strategy of the Cholas with maps and historical details. Ramesh himself has traveled the east coast trail which Rajendra Chola had taken to conquer Bengal. Both Rajaraja and Rajendra Cholas with an army of about one million soldiers had an eye on the coastal control with a view to capture the trade routes with both the Arabs in the west and China in the east. During Rajaraja’s times, the Cholas had taken control of the Kerala Coast and the Coromandel coast. Rajendra advanced up to Bengal as a prelude for preparation for invasion of the Sri Vijaya Kings in the east with whom a war broke out subsequently on account of the trade with Chinese. Chola marriage diplomacy was also in evidence with marriages with east Chalukya kings.

Together, Rajendra threw out the west Chalukya kings and occupied the now Rajamundhry (Venginadu in earlier times). It was from here he launched the Bengal invasion and overcame the Pala kings. Once Bengal was subdued, he turned attention to the Sri Vijaya Kingdom (Java and Sumatra Islands) to take control of the trade route with Chinese. Rajendra’s meikirti in Tamil provides some documentary evidence of these invasions. The expedition towards Kadaram (Kedah in Malaysia) to subdue the Sri Vijaya Kings had seen much planning and preparation going into this. Spies cum traders were sent to the east to assess defence installations in these ports, ships had to be built, the relationship had to be developed with the Hindu kings who were ruling Cambodia then. Finally, when the expedition was launched in January 1025 with the flow of the Northeasterly winds and battleships (called Thirusiddi) sailed onwards. The invasion was successful and the victorious Rajendra returned by mid-May the same year. By historical accounts, the Sri Vijaya King was taken in by surprise and the Chola invading army did not suffer much losses. The success of the invasion helped the Chola in upgrading the diplomatic status with the Chinese eventually. As kings go by these two Cholas were no exception in terms of plunder and bringing back women and wealth from the losers.

At the InDeco heritage hotel at Swamimalai, we were given a traditional welcome with garlands and drum beats. The hotel itself appears to be a museum of various collection of antiques including the stately reception building which was a 17th-century one relocated from Chennai.

A warm welcome at the InDeco resort with a drum beat

With some dance, the mood turned upbeat

Awaited, for us a sumptuous feast

A little siesta after all one could eat.

Then we prepared ourselves to visit the war zone of Thiruperumbiyum, now a verdant village. The lone witness to the war was the “palli padai” (tombstone) of the Ganga king who lost his life and a stone inscription. It was believed that a turning point of a war took place in 879 C.E. between Pallavas and the Pandiyas in which Cholas took to support the Pallavas with their small army and the war was won by the Pallavas and in turn Cholas got some portion of the kingdom back and this helped revive the dynasty in the coming years. In terms of the Ponniyin Selvan it was in the jungles of Thiruperumbiyum, Nandini and their foot soldiers plotted the fall of Karikalan. The local people enacted such scenes from the novel, Nandini, Ravidasan and gang devising their plot came alive with the interruption of Vandhiyadevan in between. At times the spy of the spy Azhvarkadiyan and Vandhiyadevan also met and their exchanges often sent the readers into raptures.

 

When the spy of the spy Azhvarkadiyan

Met our favourite Vandhiyadevan

Whence they try and outdo each other

Fun for the reader their moments spent together

The duel of the dual has no equal. 

 

Then the villagers hosted some traditional snacks at the Thiruperumbiyum temple premise. Back at the hotel in the night I was tossing and turning with the scenes of war, bloodshed, and cries of the soldiers, I felt

 

Reigns of kings have always left a blood trail

Of the common soldiers

Widows and fatherless children.

Yet the kings make a high note in history

And the commoners, not even a footnote.

 

Day 3 Two Jewels of the Cholas

The day began with us paying homage at the burial place of Rajarajan at Udaiyalur. We were informed there was some controversy about the burial location but some evidence unearthed at the Kailasanathar temple suggest that this was indeed the “pallipadai” of the Rajarajan. Adjoining this “pallipadai” is a 1000-year-old Agraharam where the brahmins from Kasi was brought in to do the rituals and maintain the “pallipadai” as there was distrust of the local brahmins. It was surprising to see a sculpture of the Bogur, a Chinese guru of the Rajarajan.

Darasuram: The archaeologists of repute Prof. Deivanayagan arrived as we just alighted from our bus. He was instrumental in unearthing the evidence of Udaiyalur. The third of the jewel the temple of Airavateswara was built by the Rajarajan-II in the 12^th century. Apart from being a temple, the sculptures could act as a dancing school of amalgamated Bharatanatyam school as there was the influence of the north could be seen in the sculptures. The iconography of the sculptures was explained by Deivanayagan. Right from the selection of the basalt rock for certain sculptures (Amritavarshini) and how it served as a pictorial illustration of great stories e.g of the story of how Ravana tried uprooting the Kailasa was explained in three panels or the stories of the 63 Nayanmars.

Descriptions by Deivanayagam

Makes clear he is ariya (rare) naya'gem'

His interpretations in iconography

      Vivid, clear, and very graphic

Mysteries of the past brought forward in history.

What do I see?

Bull or the elephant or

Dancing pose of the damsels or

Procession of the Nayanmars or

Shiva putting his toe down on Ravanan or

The soundariya Amritavarshini?

Hear the iconography, soak in history.

Stood in time immersed in Chola's glory.

 

Rajarajeswaram Temple (Big Temple), Thanjavur

The temple was built partly with the plundered wealth from the invasions by Rajaraja. It was his way of offerings to the Shiva. He also accepted donations from commoners as noted in the inscriptions. Towards his twilight years, Rajaraja had converted himself as an Agori and renamed himself as Shivapadasekhara. Together with Deivanaryagam we read the Tamil inscriptions detailing the wealth brought forward from invasions and contributed to temple construction. We also saw sculptures depicting other religious forms so that people from other religions felt welcome such as Jains, Buddhist, southeast Asians (Naga worship at that time). Much details are available on google about this temple and so I am providing some nuggets here. The temple was designed by Karuvula Devar, half Chinese guru of Rajaraja. The vimana was built constructing a 2.5 km ramp to transport the materials. This architectural wonder of 216 feet rests on a foundation that is only 6 feet.

At the sprawling lawns, one could relax and enjoy the splendid breeze, another noteworthy feature of the temple location and design according to Deivanayagam. Between the entrance gopuram called the Keralandakan (one who conquered Kerala) vasal (entrance) and the next gopuram called the Rajarajan vasal there is a corridor of over 100 m in length and as you walk you were supposed to drop all your worries and enter the sanctum sanctorum with an empty mind.

We have traveled through the historical trail of several miles

Memories of which can be saved in digital files

Our heritage of temples and sculptures

Makes me write poetry in raptures

At the end of it, we were all full of smiles.