Blog 126 - Raja Raja Cholan the Great

The Ancient - Indian - Mariner - Part IV - A History of the Great Kings of the Chola Dynasty

The Chola Dynasty reached its zenith from the 9th to the 13th century, with Raja Raja Cholan spearheading the renaissance of the Chola Dynasty, after which the Chola kingdom thrived for nearly 400 years, waning during the last quarter of those 400 years.

Which is why Raja Raja Cholan is referred to in current history as Raja Raja Cholan the Great. The British colonial history of India had relegated him to a paragraph in history books, while now he is regaining the prominence that is justly due to him.

(As an aside, I wish to inform the reader that I have, unashamedly, used images and material from young Tamil historians who have been researching the ‘kal vettus’ of temples and technical details and images from Wikipedia.) 

Although his son and successor, Rajendra Cholan the First - after whom the (now retired) TS Rajendra (the successor to the TS Dufferin) was named -  and whose exploits actually overshadowed that of his Father, due deference was always paid by Rajendra I to his Father. Without the (land) territorial expansion, the peace and tranquility, the imposition of a highly acclaimed administrative set up, a very sensible system of land reforms that is partly in vogue even today, the boost that he gave the local farming community by providing them with imaginative irrigational facilities according to the crops that could be grown in that area - which, again, is in full use even today -, that Raja Raja Cholan brought not only to his own kingdom but also the territories conquered by him, made present historians refer to him as ‘the Great Raja Raja Cholan’.

A Mural of Raja Raja Chola in Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur

Raja Raja Cholan (947 ce to 1014 ce), ascended the Chola throne in 985 ce. Although anointed to be the next king after his Father’s (Parantaka II (alias Sundara)) death in 971 ce, he chose to give up the throne in favor of his Uncle Uttama Cholan to avoid internal strife in the family and the kingdom for the throne. He had already lost his elder brother, Aditya Karikalan, who was assassinated due to this internal strife, amid court intrigue. 

After the death of his uncle 14 years later, he claimed the throne and ruled for 29 years, till 1014 ce.

Of the 14 years before he was crowned, he spent most of his time away from Thanjavur, the capital, so as to give his Uncle a free rein in ruling the kingdom, without him having to look over his shoulder to see where or when the next dagger was coming from. 

He spent those 14 years living with a small army and utilizing the army to conquer the Cheras and the Pandyas, two of the other powerful dynasties that waxed and waned in their fight for supremacy in South India, along with subjugating smaller chieftains.

Being a very principled person, he conquered, but did not vanquish, his enemies. He treated all with respect, be they religious or personal. In the conquered lands, he experimented with land reforms, improving the lot of the farmer, giving due credence to artisans, artists, musicians, poets, intellectuals. Having learnt from his experiments, it  formed the bedrock of his administration when he became the ruler, earning him great respect even amongst his enemies. This aspect of his life and reign (mostly) has come to light in recent years due to the perseverance of a young group of historians and inexhaustible energy, amid frugal and, most times, no grants of money for research. Had it been the USA, millions (in dollars) would have supported their enterprise.

Not that he was soft hearted. He avoided unnecessary bloodshed and trained his soldiers - on pain of a death sentence - not to ravage, loot, rape and plunder the conquered, like other conquerors.

But he could be ruthless when required. The king of Umayalpuram (may be Umayapuram) Fort mistreated a diplomatic emissary sent by Raja Raja Cholan and imprisoned the diplomat. On hearing this, Raja Raja Cholan took  his army, burnt 18 forests that surrounded the fort and razed the fort to the ground to rescue his emissary.

He was a collector of sorts - he collected a total of 12 wives during his reign. All 12 mourned his death in 1014 ce. He married more to consolidate his empire than for any other reason, which seemed to be the norm for those times.

From having a professional army to also having a fighting navy may seem a small step today, but it took a leap of faith and a vision to acquire a navy. His exploits in (present day) northern Sri Lanka made him realize the value a fighting navy added. His capital in Sri Lanka was Anuradhapuram.

Raja Raja Cholan has been - recently - credited with several monumental achievements - temple building, administration of his territories, improving the irrigation methods so that the farmers can cultivate crops year round and much more.

I intend concentrating on just these three and no more.

Brihadeeswarar Temple - initially known as Rajarajesvaram - dedicated to Lord Shiva - was completed in 1010 ce after being in the making for 7 years, making it exactly 1013 years old. How do we know this? ‘Kalvettu’ - messages carved in stone - tell the story. Written in archaic Tamil, teams of scholars are even now finding more and more details from the ’kal vettu’. For example, the names of all artisans, workers, labour who made this temple possible are all carved in various places in the temple.

The current name of ‘Brihadeeswara’ temple was given by the Marathas, who came to Thanjavur in the 16th / 17th century.

If one can call it that, Raja Raja Cholan’s pinnacle or crowning glory or the Jewel in the Crown is his construction of the Brihadheeswarar Temple. To a person from the Southern part of India, Raja Raja Cholan and Brihadheeswara Temple are intertwined. One does not exist without the other. Such is the magnificence of the structure that he left behind, that still stands tall even today - after a thousand+ years -, leaving one and all awe struck at the sheer marvel of engineering and logistics that makes up the temple construction.

Viewed strictly as a building, a construction - without taking into account that it was built as a temple, a religious site - it baffles the design engineers of today in multiple ways.

One of the many facets or styles of South Indian architecture came into prominence in the tenth century, architectural characteristics such as multifaceted columns with projecting square capitals began to be developed within the Chola empire. 

Granite has been used, mostly, to construct the temple, unlike the sandstone used by the Pallavaas. There is no stone quarry within the vicinity of 60 kilometres of the temple. Blocks of stone of various sizes - from 2+ tons to 4+ tons to 40+ tons to 80+ - were brought from a site which was - presumably (may have been from sites further away) 60 kilometres away - through rough country terrain, without the heavy duty mechanical and hydraulic lifting and transporting machinery of today.

What they had, by means of logistics, was plenty of labour, artisans, elephants, horses. They would have had to cut a road wide enough to take the train of elephants and horses and smooth enough to prevent the heavy stones from getting stuck. They would have had to cut logs of different sizes - to take the different weights of the stones -, hew them into rollers and with the multitudinous labour, keep setting up the rollers ahead of the heavy stones. The alternative was to build heavy duty carts pulled by elephants, but how do you lift up an 80 ton weight to place it on the cart? Trying to load the cart by building a ramp would only tilt the cart when the load first touches the edge of the cart. Food for thought.

I would rate the engineers of that time higher than those of today, as in everything they did, they had to invent mechanisms from scratch. The engineer of today need only ‘Google’ it.

They would have had to have ropes strong enough to take the strain, probably made from hemp or coir, probably as thick as Arnold Swarzenegger’s thighs. The smaller stones could have been carried by horses and elephants., not dragged.

The behind-the-scenes- action of feeding the thousands of stone cutters, the labourers en route, the mahouts, the horsemen, the horses and elephants, for a period of seven years or more, makes for a mind boggling, nightmarish logistics supply chain, worthy of testing the best super computers of today.

The temple even survived 6 earthquakes in its 1000 year life..

This temple has been declared a UN protected World Heritage Site. The present problem is that the preservation of this unique site is not on the list of the various departments that control it, hence neglected.

The diagrams and photographs are from a video made by a young historian ‘Ungal Anban Hemanth’.

The sheer size can be imagined by the size of the humans standing

The ‘Lingam’ inside the ‘sanctum sanctorum’ weighs about 20 tons.

The mysterious shadows of the Vimanas. Mythical, probably alluded to a conversation between the king and the architect, where the king asked "Will the structure fall?" to which the architect replied "Not even its shadow will fall".

One of the gates to the temple, (to the right) - the majestic size

Another view of the entrance

Some of the constructional details:

Firstly, the unit of measurement used was ‘angulam’, approximately 3/8th of an inch or multiples and divisions thereof. Angulam was, roughly, the width of the index finger. To honour the ‘angulam’, present day masons and carpenters use the term ‘angulam’ freely in Tamil, only it represents an ‘inch’, as per Western measures.. So precision could be established. 

How would they cut a rock to a certain size? They used a ‘sutthi’ (hammer) and an ‘uli’ (chisel) to make holes equidistant from each other.  These holes will be plugged with an ‘aapu’, a wooden plug, which would be watered at night. The wood would absorb and retain the water. Over time, this expansion of the wood would split the rock precisely in line with holes drilled. 

In addition, provision needed to be made for dowels, integral to the stone block  and holes for the dowels to fit on to the subsequent rock, above or below or to the side for interlocking one stone block to the one above, below or adjacent. This calls for measured precision of the artisan.

Some suggest that a combination of pulleys and counterweights were used.

No binding agent, similar to cement, was used anywhere. The interlocking dowels were the only binders.

The entire structure was built on a moving raft filled with river sand, so the entire structure could move a bit in any direction, so that it cannot be affected by earthquakes.

In today’s construction engineering design, a foundation of 5 feet for such a massive structure would be unimaginable. But the foundation for this temple is only that - 5 feet deep.

It is estimated that about 130,000 tons of granite was used in constructing the temple.

Whether by design or fortuitously, some measurements have a very close relation with the Tamil Language. The height of tower is 216 feet and the Tamil combinant letters is 216. The height of lingam is 12 feet and the Tamil vowel letters is 12. The distance between Lingam and Nandhi is 247 and the total Tamil letters is 247

The lingam pidam is 18 feet and the Tamil consonants letters is 18.

From Quora

I suppose one can find co-incidences when one is bent on finding a relationship, much as archaeologists weave webs from a single shard of pottery.

One of the prevailing superstitions of this temple is that people in power either die or lose their powerful positions if they enter through the main  gate. To add fuel to the fire, our late PM Indira Gandhi visited this temple and was assassinated the same year. 

Tamil Nadu’s late Chief Minister, MG Ramachandran, visited the temple and died of an illness.

Another ex-Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, an avowed atheist, entered the temple through a side gate. He lost his position as CM the next year and did not regain the post at all. He died in 2019.

I visited the temple in 1985 - nothing happened that year nor in that decade, nor the following decades.

A few mathematical concepts that are prevalent in architecture, art, nature and aesthetics are evident in the construction of the temple.

Geometrical patterns, symmetry and something else that evoked vague memories of having studied it way back in time - known as the ‘Golden Ratio’ - exists in the construction of each part of the temple.

The golden ratio, also known as the golden number, golden proportion, or the divine proportion, is a ratio between two numbers that equals approximately 1.618. Usually written as the Greek letter phi, it is strongly associated with the Fibonacci sequence, a series of numbers wherein each number is added to the last.

Wikipedia says: Mathematicians have studied the golden ratio's properties since antiquity. It is the ratio of a regular pentagon's diagonal to its side and thus appears in the construction of the dodecahedron and icosahedron. A golden rectangle—that is, a rectangle with an aspect ratio of ‘’phi’ —may be cut into a square and a smaller rectangle with the same aspect ratio. The golden ratio has been used to analyze the proportions of natural objects and artificial systems such as financial markets, in some cases based on dubious fits to data. The golden ratio appears in some patterns in nature, including the spiral arrangement of leaves and other parts of vegetation. Sunflowers, with their mesmerizing spirals of seeds, exhibit this proportion. Pinecones, with their elegant spiraling patterns, follow the same rule. The pattern of the petals of roses and the pattern of the lotus flower fall into the category of this 'golden ratio'. Mesmerising facts.

Some 20th-century artists and architects, including Le Corbusier and Salvador Dalí, have proportioned their works to approximate the golden ratio, believing it to be aesthetically pleasing. These uses often appear in the form of a golden rectangle.

Two mathematicians from Vivekananda College, Madurai studied the phenomenon of the ‘Golden Ratio’ extensively and having written exhaustively on the subject, all relating to the temple. I am copying and pasting the initial paragraphs only  - of their exhaustive paper written in 2019 - to give readers a sense of what it represents and the notion of a highly developed - mathematically - section of people, who had conceptualised a massive construction in terms of a mathematical formula.

The actual mathematical ratio is 1.618033988749....

Existence of the golden ratio in Tanjavur Brihadeeshwarar temple

C. Velmurugan, R. Kalaivanan

Department of Mathematics, Vivekananda College, Madurai-635 234, Tamil Nadu, India.; (C.V & R.K)

The Golden ratio, mathematics and aesthetics are intricately associated between each other. The Golden ratio is an irrational number that is approximately equal to 1.618, which is represented by the Greek symbol known as phi (ϕ)

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). This ratio is considered as the human optical sense and not limited to aesthetic beauty but also found its existence in natural world through the body proportions of living beings, the growth patterns of many plants, insects and also in the model of enigmatic universe. The properties of Golden section can be instituted in the pattern of mathematical series and geometrical patterns. Because of its unique and mystifying properties, many researchers and mathematicians have studied the Golden ratio. 

2.1.Working rules

The following rules are helpful to measure the Golden ratio in the Brihadeeshwarar temple courtyards (see Figure 2).

1. Let the inner courtyards as rectangular [AEFJ] area.

2. Divide the rectangle in two part by dividing line[CH] in middle of the rectangle.

3. Draw line BI and DG in rectangle[AEFJ] passing through middle of karpagraham [L] and middle of Nandhi pavilion [M].

4. Now we get three equal portions are:

• (a) Middle of the Nandhi pavilion to Middle of the karpagraham [BDGI].

• (b) Entrance of the temple to Middle of the temple [EFHC].

• (c) Middle of temple to Back end of temple [ACHJ].

Fig 1. Plan of the Brihadeeswarar temple ‘praharam’

Fig 2. The 'Golden Ratio' section of Fig 1

Section by section of the temple structure had been subject to the provisions of the ‘Golden Ratio’ and found to be within the parameters.

Dedicated to Lord Shiva, the temple is one of the largest in India. It is also of Dravidian architecture and has a 100 ft vimana, several gopurams, paintings, carvings and domes. The temple was built using a measure of “3/8 inch” called an angula (finger). Interestingly, along with math, physics was applied to construct the vimana, and the belief is that its shadow never falls on the ground! - (my comment - not true).

The temple is built 3 meters above the ground and is  a famous tourist spot, even after 1000 years. Other than this, basic geometrical patterns and symmetry was applied to build a temple, using only granite!

(Wikipedia)

The Peruvudaiyar temple's plan and development utilizes the axial and symmetrical geometry rules

In geometry, a Cartesian coordinate system in a plane is a coordinate system that specifies each point uniquely by a pair of real numbers called coordinates, which are the signed distances to the point from two fixed perpendicular oriented lines, called coordinate lines, coordinate axes or just axes (plural of axis) of the system. The point where they meet is called the origin and has (0, 0) as coordinates.

Similarly, the position of any point in three-dimensional space can be specified by three Cartesian coordinates, which are the signed distances from the point to three mutually perpendicular planes. More generally, n Cartesian coordinates specify the point in an n-dimensional Euclidean space for any dimension n. These coordinates are the signed distances from the point to n mutually perpendicular fixed hyperplanes.

The temple complex is a rectangle that is almost two stacked squares, covering 240.79 metres (790.0 ft) east to west, and 121.92 metres (400.0 ft) north to south.

The main Vimana (Shikhara) is a massive 16 storeys tower of which 13 are tapering squares. It dominates the main quadrangle. It sits above a 30.18 metres (99.0 ft) sided square.[36] The tower is elaborately articulated with Pilaster, piers (a raised structure), and attached columns which are placed rhythmically covering every surface of the vimana.

(Wikipedia)

Different views of the Sri-vimana

Vimana view

Located at a height of 208 feet or 63.4 mtrs

How did they lift 25 ton weights and 80 ton weights to such heights?

Possible scenarios:

From Wikipedia

Another interesting theory given by Manikanta Tankala, sketch below:

(My footnote would be : It would require an inclined plane, rectangular in shape to accommodate large square or rectangular blocks, instead of elliptical planes).

The temple is constructed in layers. It would take less space and less effort comparing to other methods. Sand poured in large amounts as shown in the figure to move around and place the rock at the center. Moving in circular path makes you feel less tired and that is why you have circular stair case - From Quora

They used a variety of techniques to lift and transport heavy stones, including the use of ramps, levers, pulleys, and cranes. They lift with the help of elephants, for this they build a 26Km long bridge

Another theory from Vinod Kumar - Quora

Looking upwards from inside the Sanctum Sanctorum

An inscription on the north wall of enclosure, dated 1011 CE, gives a detailed accounts of people employed and supported by the temple. The inscription gives their wages, roles and names. It includes over 600 names including those of priests, lamp lighters, washermen, tailors, jewelers, potters, carpenters, sacred parasol bearers, dance gurus, dancing girls, singers, male and female musicians, superintendents of performance artists, accountants among others. Their wages was in parcels of land, so their temple employment was, likely, part-time.

Administration :

The kingdom was divided into ‘Mandalams’, each with a Governor responsible to the Council of Ministers, which forms the circle around the king. 

Irrigation

The Chola also created communal wells and rainwater tanks and encouraged farmers to take advantage of the natural channels of the Cauvery River. Accompanying irrigation advancements were plant-based agricultural changes like multi cropping, or planting more than one type of crop in the same area.

An ancient ‘Pelton Wheel’?

An ancient (bullish) ‘Pelton Wheel’?

Ancient Methods - still in use

Modernity meshes seamlessly with a 1900 year old structure

“The Grand Anicut”, known as “Kalannai” in Tamil (meaning ‘the stone dam’) is another marvel of engineering  that came out of Chola stock. This was not built by Raja Raja Cholan but an ancient predecessor of his, Karikala Cholan, in circa 150 ce, almost 1900 years ago.

Having come across some fresh and interesting information on this ‘Anicut’ - an anglicised version of “Annaikattu” (Annai meaning dam and Kattu meaning build), I am copying and pasting  paper from SIPAM (Sistemas Importantes del Patrimonio Agricola Mundial), French publication (?), on the subject of “Grand Anicut (Kallanai) and associated farming system in Cauvery Delta Zone of Tamil Nadu”.

Because of the weightage of the substance, I am copying a part of their publication.

Quote

Summary

Agriculture in the Cauvery Delta region has been practiced for centuries supported by the inundation during the flash floods and the monsoon rains that closely follow. With the passage of time the river courses were getting slowly silted up. The crucial point on the river course as it enters the delta is the Upper Anicut site, where the Cauvery bifurcates into Cauvery and its tributary Coleroon. The Cauvery again spills into Coleroon through a short spill course called Ullar. Situations should have arisen long before in the past when the flood flows carried by the southern Cauvery arm, instead of flowing through the various rivers and channels in the delta, found their way into Coleroon through this Ullar leaving the delta high and dry.  A need for a structure across the Ullar to raise the water level to gain command for flow through the delta was felt. Thus came the Kallanai (Stone dam), an ancient dam rightly called as “Grand Anicut” by the British Engineers in India in admiration of the grandeur of the structure.

Grand Anicut was built by the Great Chola Emperor Karikala Cholan on river Cauvery at the Ullar head in the 2nd Century AD. It is a marvelous piece of hydraulic structure built across a mighty river in its sandy bed when science had not developed enough to build structure on permeable foundations. It is perhaps, the earliest irrigation work in the world still functioning as efficiently as any modern hydraulic structure. It has kept the Cauvery Delta intact, alive and highly productive over a long period of twenty one centuries, surviving the furies of floods which should have been unimaginably devastating in the past when there were no structures in the upper reaches of Cauvery, to obstruct the flood flows. The Kallanai is a massive dam made of stone, 329 meters long, 18.3 meters wide and 5.49 meters tall, built with the main purpose of diverting the Cauvery water to the fertile delta region for irrigation.”

Unquote

Taxation : 

Trade : 

Raja Raja Cholan’s merchantmen ranged far and wide for trading with different countries. Having conquered the Cheras, he now found himself with powers to use ports on the west coast of India as well as his own domain, the east coast. 

Utilising the numerous West Coast ports, his merchantmen traded with all Persian Gulf countries, Africa, Egypt and European nations, as had been done for centuries. The East Coast ports made it easier to trade with Malaya, Thailand, Indonesia and China,

Actually, his son, then Crown Prince, later crowned as Rajendra Cholan I, was the one who set his sights on many an Eastern country, which I intend to detail in the next part of this series.

Trade with China flourished and it was a two way street. Apart from finished products, there was abundant trade in the more exotic items of spices, cotton and ivory.

Spices, Cotton Cloth, Ivory

In this part - Part IV - I have copied dissertation papers verbatim, so as not to lose the essence of the subject. My efforts to pare down the text with my own words would have been a travesty of justice to those who had gone before and who had dealt with each aspect in a scholarly and magnificent fashion.

(To be Continued)

(Next on Rajendra Cholan I, his capital and his maritime exploits)

Rangan