01Ganga water in a Tamil lake
Rajendra I’s northern campaign of about 1019–1021 carried Chola arms through Kalinga to Bengal and the Ganga. His Tiruvalangadu copper plates say the defeated kings were made to carry Ganga water back to the Chola country. Rajendra poured it into a vast tank he named Chola-gangam, the ‘Chola Ganga’, and took the title Gangaikonda, ‘he who took the Ganga’. Around it he built a new capital with a palace and a temple meant to stand beside his father’s at Thanjavur.
02A gentler tower
The vimana is about 55 m high, lower than Thanjavur’s, with corners that curve slightly inward so the tower seems to lean towards the sky. A large Nandi faces the sanctum, and the walls carry some of the finest Chola carving: Shiva crowning Chandesha, Nataraja, Ardhanarishvara, Saraswati. The city fell into ruin after Chola power faded in the 13th century, and much of the palace stone was later carried off for a dam on the Kollidam in the 19th century.
The life of this place
- c. 1019–1021Rajendra I’s northern expedition reaches the Ganga.
- c. 1035The temple and the new capital are completed.
- 2004Added to UNESCO’s Great Living Chola Temples.
About 35 km north of Kumbakonam. The temple is in worship; the ruined palace site is at nearby Maaligaimedu.
