Kidaram kondan and Bujang valley, Kedah: Indian Ocean Community
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S. Kalyanaraman
Jul 10, 2011, 11:44:11 PM7/10/11
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SUNDAY, JULY 10, 2011
Kidaram kondan and Bujang valley, Kedah: Indian Ocean Community
Early history of Kedah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kedah was known by the Tamils as Kedaram, Kidaram, Kalagam and Kataha, and Kalah or Kalaha by the Persians... In the early 11th century, Tamil Chola King Rajendra Chola I sent an expedition to invade Kadaram (Sri Vijaya) on behalf of one of its rulers who sought his assistance to gain the throne. Chola dominance was brief, but effectively crippled the power of Srivijaya.
In ancient Kedah there is an important and unmistakably Hindu settlement which has been known for about a century now from the discoveries reported 1840s by Col. James Low and has recently been subjected to a fairly exhaustive investigation by Dr. Quaritch Wales. Dr. Wales investigated no fewer than thirty sites round about Kedah. The results attained show that this site was in continuous occupation by people who came under strong South Indian influences, Buddhist and Hindu, for centuries...
In Kedah an inscription in Sanskrit dated 1086 A.D. has been found. This was left by Kulothunka Cholan I (of the Chola empire, Tamil country). This too shows the commercial contacts the Chola Empire had with Malaya.
In ancient Kedah there is an important and unmistakably Hindu settlement which has been known for about a century now from the discoveries reported 1840s by Col. James Low and has recently been subjected to a fairly exhaustive investigation by Dr. Quaritch Wales. Dr. Wales investigated no fewer than thirty sites round about Kedah. The results attained show that this site was in continuous occupation by people who came under strong South Indian influences, Buddhist and Hindu, for centuries...
In Kedah an inscription in Sanskrit dated 1086 A.D. has been found. This was left by Kulothunka Cholan I (of the Chola empire, Tamil country). This too shows the commercial contacts the Chola Empire had with Malaya.
Source: Sastri, K.A. Nilakanta (1949). South Indian Influences in the Far East. Bombay: Hind Kitabs Ltd.. pp. 82 & 84.
Bujang Valley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Kedah an inscription in Sanskrit dated 1086 CE has been found. This was left by Kulothunga Chola I (of the Chola empire, Tamil country). This too shows the commercial contacts the Malay peninsula had with the Chola Empire.
In Kedah an inscription in Sanskrit dated 1086 CE has been found. This was left by Kulothunga Chola I (of the Chola empire, Tamil country). This too shows the commercial contacts the Malay peninsula had with the Chola Empire.
Source: Arokiaswamy, Celine W.M. (2000). Tamil Influences in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Manila s.n.. p. 41.
A remarkable heritage of Indian Ocean Community is recorded in temples of Tamil Nadu built in the 12th century.
jayankondam
அருள்மிகு பிரகதீஸ்வரர் திருக்கோயில் - கங்கை கொண்ட சோழபுரம், கிடாரம்கொண்டான்
Kidarangondan is the name of a village, 5 kms, from Sembanarkoil (near Mayiladurai, Thanjavur Distict). The village is on the road to Poompuhar. This is my birth-place.
An inscription of 1166 CE has been found at Punjai, Kidarangondan. Punjai (Kidarangondan), Tanjavur (189 of 1925, 1166 CE).
The name of this village is clearly a celebration of the victory of Rajaraja Chola over Kidaram or Kedah in Southeast Asia.
தஞ்சாவூர் பெரிய கோயிலைக் கட்டிய ராஜராஜ சோழனுக்கும், திரிபுவனமாதேவிக்கும் மார்கழி திருவாதிரையன்று பிறந்தவன் ராஜேந்திர சோழன். இயற்பெயர் மதுராந்தகன். இவனது ஆட்சிக்காலம் கி.பி. 1012- 1044. கடல் கடந்து பல நாடுகளை வென்றதால் இவனுக்கு "கடாரம் கொண்டான்' என்ற பட்டம் கிடைத்தது.
Rajendra Chola, son of Rajaraja Chola (1012-1044 CE) got the title Kadaram Kondaan because he established links with nations across the Indian Ocean.
தமிழகத்திலேயே மிகப்பெரிய லிங்கம் இங்கு தான் உள்ளது. தஞ்சை பெரிய கோயில் லிங்கம் 12.5 அடி உயரமும், 55 அடி சுற்றளவும் (ஆவுடையார்) கொண்டது. கங்கைகொண்டசோழபுரம் பிரகதீஸ்வரர் கோயில் லிங்கம் 13.5 அடி உயரமும், 60 அடி சுற்றளவும் கொண்டது. ஆவுடையை சுற்றி பலகை கட்டி, அதன் மீது ஏறிநின்று அபிஷேகம் செய்கின்றனர். ஒரே கல்லால் ஆன மூலவர் இங்கு பிரமாண்டமாக அருள்பாலிக்கிறார்.
The temple at Gangaikondacholapuram has a Shivalingam larger than the one at Brihadishwara Temple of Thanjavur. Dimensions: 13.5 ft. tall, 60 feet. diameter.
This image is a representation of the King Rajendra Chola being crowned by Shiva and Parvati. Shiva takes the snake from his neck and rolls it over the crown of the king.
Brihadeeshwarar Temple, Gangaikondacholapuram
Shiva and Parvati sculpture at Brihadeeshwarar Temple, Gangaikondacholapuram
About this sculpture
Siva seated on a throne with four arms carries axe and antelope in his upper arms; towards the bottom the Lord is seen crowning Chandesa with a garland of flowers, a symbol of affection and stewardship. Chandesa is seen seated in front and with folded arms receiving the pride of place bestowed on him by his Lord. Chandesa is the embodiment of devotion and piety and the place he attained is considered the highest, a devotee of Siva is privileged with. It is called the Chandisa padam, the abode of deliverance. According to Saiva Siddhanta Siva bestows this grace, in the company of Sakti, His consort. In the sculpture under reference, Parvati or Uma Parameswari as she is often described, is seated by the side of Her Lord. The treatment of ornaments, the portrayal of limbs and affection with which Siva is seen taking the garland around the head of Chandesa are suggestive and truly convey the supreme message of Saiva Siddhanta, the image seeks to depict. In the figure of Chandesa, Rajendra Chola has carved his own image. Sri C. Sivaramurti in his work 'the Chola temples' states that "The most remarkable carving here, the Chandesanugrahamurti panel, is almost a suggestion of the laurels won by Rajendra through the grace of Siva and he humbly presents himself as a devotee of Lord, who blessed Chandesa".
On the side walls is shown the story of Chandesa; Chandesa worshipping Siva as a Linga; the cows standing by the side; his father watching the happenings hiding himself behind the branches of a tree; disturbing Chandesa's worship; purturbed Chandesa throwing his axe at his father and Siva bestowing grace on both.
About the temple
Rajendra Chola-I (1012-1044 A.D) son of the Great Rajaraja-I, established this temple after his great victorious march to river Ganges on Northern India.
This is one of the outstanding monuments built by the Chola kings. Although most of the features of this temple resemble the one at Thanjavur, there were significant innovations and artistic granite carvings. The temple stands in the middle of a rectangular enclosure entered from the east through a gateway, now in ruins. During the British rule of India, the British engineers removed the stone slabs for construction of dams. So very little structure remains of the eastern gopura. Like the Thanjavur temple the sanctuary is elevated on a molded basement. The main gopura is 9 tiers high and is slightly concave in profile. Numerous sculptures, some restored are carved on the walls beneath the parapets. The sculpture panels around the main shrine represent the thumbnail pictures shown on the left side. They are arranged in clockwise direction starting from the door next to the Kailasanatha shrine.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/swamysk/1461645946/
Great Living Chola Temples*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Country India
Type Cultural
Criteria ii, iii
Reference 250
Region** Asia-Pacific
Inscription history
Inscription 1987 (11th Session)
Extensions 2004
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.
** Region as classified by UNESCO.
Temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram
Gangaikonda Cholapuram (Tamil: கங்கைகொண்ட சோழபுரம்) was erected as the capital of the Cholas by Rajendra Chola I, the son and successor of Rajaraja Chola, the great Chola who conquered a large area in South India at the beginning of the 11th century C.E...
Overseas conquests
Before the fourteenth year of Rajendra’s reign c. 1025, the Chola Navy crossed the ocean and attacked the Srivijaya kingdom of Sangrama Vijayatungavarman. Kadaram, the capital of the powerful maritime kingdom, was sacked and the king taken captive. Along with Kadaram, Pannai in present day Sumatra and Malaiyur in the Malayan Peninsula.
The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a major peninsula located in Southeast Asia. It is also known as the Kra Peninsula and runs approximately north-south through the Kra Isthmus peninsula were attacked. Kedah (now in modern Malaysia) too was occupied.
Sangarama Vijayatungavarman was the son of Mara Vijayatungavarman of the Sailendra dynasty. Srivijaya kingdom was located near Palembang. Palembang is a city of 1,286,000 in the south of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is the capital of the Provinces of Indonesia of South Sumatra and its metropolitan area includes more than 1,730,000 people in Sumatra.
There are no records to explain the nature of and the reason for this naval expedition. The Sailendra dynasty had been in good relations with the Chola Empire during the period of Rajaraja Chola I. Rajaraja encouraged Mara Vijayatungavarman to build the Chudamani Vihara at Nagapattinam. Rajendra confirmed this grant in the Anaimangalam grants showing that the relationship with Srivijaya was still continued be friendly. The exact cause of the quarrel that caused the naval war between Cholas and Srivijaya remains unknown.
The Cholas had an active trade relationship with the eastern island. Moreover the Srivijaya kingdom and the South Indian empires were the intermediaries in the trade between China. China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia and the countries of the Western world. Both the Srivijaya and Cholas had active dialog with the Chinese and sent diplomatic missions to China.
The Chinese records of the Song Dynasty Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty was a ruling Chinese dynasty in China between 960–1279 AD; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty show that first mission to China from Chu-lien (Chola) reached that country in 1015 C.E. and the king of their country was Lo-ts’a-lo-ts’a (Rajaraja). Another embassy from Shi-lo-cha Yin-to-loChu-lo (Sri Raja Indra Chola) reached China in 1033 C.E. and a third in 1077 C.E. during Kulothunga Chola I Kulothunga Chola reigned from 1070 until 1120 C.E. over the vast Chola Empire. The commercial intercourse between Cholas and the Chinese were continuous and extensive. Rajendra Coin.
One reason could be a trade dispute stemming from some attempts by Srivijaya to throw some obstacle between the flourishing trade between China and the Cholas. Whatever the actual cause of this expedition, it is difficult to believe that, even if we take all the achievements narrated in Rajendra’s inscriptions are accepted as literally true, the campaign led to any permanent territories rather than a vague acceptance of the Chola suzerainty by Srivijaya. Sangaram Vijayatungavarman was restored to the throne at his agreement to pay periodic tribute to Rajendra.
Tanjavur inscriptions also state that the king of Kambhoja (Kampuchea) requesting Rajendra’s help in defeating enemies of his Angkor. Angkor is a name conventionally applied to the region of Cambodia serving as the seat of the Khmer empire that flourished from approximately the ninth century to the fifteenth century CE kingdom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangaikonda_Cholapuram
The Hindu : Magazine / Columns : Ancient landfall
Ancient landfall
BY HUGH AND COLLEEN GANTZER
Where did the Pallava ships go from Mamallapuram? A trip to Bujang Valley in Malaysia provides the answer.
At long last, we were standing on the Pallavas' landfall beyond Mamallapuram.
PAST GLORY: The foundations of a Hindu temple (below) and the view from Gunung Jerai. PHOTOS: HUGH AND COLLEEN GANTZER
MAMALLAPURAM has always fascinated us. It isn't just the mystery of why the Pallavan carvers suddenly stopped working. Nor is it only the rock sculptures that hold us enthralled. Equally evocative is the only secular monument left standing: the ancient lighthouse. It conjures up visions of a busy port with sweating stevedores loading and off-loading ships; sails unfurling, billowing with the moist monsoon breeze, sailing out to ... where? We couldn't visualise that distant destination, on the far side of the stormy Bay of Bengal. Did they anchor beyond a surf-skirted beach, or deep inside a rocky cove? Was there a lighthouse on that distant shore or did they take their bearings on a prominent physical feature? When one has a long association with the Navy, these questions refuse to go away.
Distant destination
Then, earlier this year, we found the answer. On a trip to Malaysia, we drove into the green Bujang Valley in Kedah, the oldest State in Malaysia. And we learnt that it is recognised as the oldest State because foreign sailors set up an ancient trading settlement there in the Fifth Century A.D. These "foreign sailors" were Tamils, subjects of the Pallavas. But the Bujang Valley had been mentioned in a Tamil poem, "Pattanopolai", as far back as the Second or Third Century A.D. There, the Bujang Valley is called Kalagan, which philologists claim eventually gave rise to the modern-day Kedah.
All this, and much more, is given in great detail in the well-appointed Lembah Bujang Archaeological Museum at Bukit Batu Pahat. The Museum, in thick rain forests, is backed by the Kedah Peak, now known as Gunung Jerai and towering to a height of 2,100 metres above the flat hinterland plains of the Straits of Malacca. According to historian Dato James F. Augustin: "Pallava traders from India's Coromandel Coast began to explore the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal in search of spices, sandalwood, ivory, gold and tin."
Bujang's attractions
We felt that the first four products would, in all likelihood, have been available in India. Tin, however, could have attracted them. It was in great demand for bronze and bell metal. They were particularly drawn to the Lembah Bujang valley because the Kedah Peak could be spotted from 15 km or more out at sea. Moreover, at its foot was the estuary of the Merbok where ships could tie up on the banks and replenish their supplies of water and food. Most importantly, further upstream were the tin mines of Smeling. Excavations have revealed that in a fairly short while, a prosperous Indian settlement grew in the valley catering to the logistic and mineral needs of the visiting Pallava ships. The Pallavas, apparently, did not call the settlement Kalagan, as it had been named in the poem, but Kadaram.
Trading colonies seldom restrict themselves to trade for long and this also occurred in the Tamil settlement in Kadaram. As happened centuries later with the East India Company's trading station in Madras, the Pallava colonists decided to expand their activities. In the middle of the Sixth Century A.D., new waves of colonials from the Pallava Empire asserted themselves and engineered the break-up of the neighbouring Hindu state of Funan in Cambodia. Funan had, at that time, been in existence since the First Century A.D. The expatriate Pallavas must have been a formidable force to shatter such a long-established kingdom whose monarch had a significantly Pallava name: Rudravarman. Clearly, the fact that the people of Kadaram and those of Funan shared a common religion, culture and, possibly, a language, did not deter the Pallavas from widening their sphere of influence; to Funan's great misfortune.
The growth of a settlement
Meanwhile, word of the powerful new Tamil colony, and its coastal civilisation, had spread across the world. Other maritime powers realised that Kadaram's estuarine harbour, as Kochi would do centuries later, offered a safe haven for ships during the storm-ravaged monsoon months. Soon Chinese and Arabian ships also sailed in as did those from some of the independent states of the Malay archipelago: Srivijaya, Langkasuka, Khmer, Siam and others. Here in Kadaram, while they sheltered from the rain-laden winds, they bargained and traded, and the settlement thrived and grew in prosperity. The remains of more than 50 Hindu temples have been excavated in the Bujang Valley and so, in its heyday, it had grown to the size of a town.
In the museum we saw the stone artefacts of what were, clearly, temples to Siva. Malaysian archaeologists have also excavated, and partially restored, the foundations of one of them. As might have been expected, there was a temple on the peak of the mountain. On it were nine stone blocks laid in a row. Scholars have speculated that these could have been "hearths" dedicated to the Navagrahas. But we prefer to believe, along with other local archaeologists, that these were the remains of an ancient beacon where fires were lit to guide ships in when mist settled on the mountain or after dusk. It was, in other words, a lighthouse similar to the one in Mamallapuram.
An alternate route
Kadaram also played another critical role in the trading history of the world. Goods once flowed between Asia and Europe through the overland Silk Road. Overland routes, however, have always been more prone to attacks by brigands and marauders than maritime routes. As the sea route, via Kadaram, grew, the Silk Road fell into disuse. This maritime route eventually became established as the famed Spice Route. That resulted in the great European Age of Discovery and the establishment of the far-flung colonies in Asia and Africa.
We drove up to the wooded peak and stood looking out over the fat, fertile, fields below. Beyond were the hazed Straits of Malacca in the Bay of Bengal. And further beyond, below the curve of the earth's shoulder, lay India. The Pallavas had gone; so had the thriving town of Kadaram. But we felt a sense of triumph. At long last, we were standing on the Pallavas' landfall beyond Mamallapuram.
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