Second day exploration at Udayalur for Raja Raja Chola King’s burial site

Thanjavur: Experts from state archaeology department and remote sensing department of Bharathidasan University, Tiruchy, for the second day on Tuesday continued the exploration of the site said to be the burial ground of King Raja Raja Cholan one at Udayalur near Kumbakonam to find out whether it is his burial ground.

The team from archaeology department headed by R.Sivanandam, Deputy Director, state Arcaheology department, Chennai with Bhaskar and Loganathan from Chennai, Sakthivel from Madurai and Thangadurai from Thanjavur as members and team headed by Ramesh of remote sensing department of Bharathidasan University explored three acres of area around the Siva temple located on the site using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) from 9 am to 4 pm. Images will be sent to state archaeology commissionarate, which in turn will send it to Madras High court which ordered the exploration following a petition from an advocate of Ramanathapuram district.

“It will take ten days for making the images and report will be sent after that,” said T.Thangadurai, Archaeology Officer, Thanjavur.

He also said that study was also conducted at Pallipadai temples around Patteeswaram. Pallipadai temples are the ones raised on the ‘Samadhi’ of queens and kings.

Thirumurugan, an advocate from Ramanathapuram filed the petition before Madras High court, praying for exploration as the King, a great warrior and emperor deserved the construction of a ‘Manimandapam’ at that spot.

He also demanded erection of a larger than life size statue of the king either in Indian Ocean or Bay of Bengal like the ones erected for Shivaji in Maharashtra and Sardar Patel in Gujarat. “State Archaeology department has not taken up the exploration though inscriptions indicate about the Samadhi,” said Thirumurugan in the petition.

“An inscription speaks about a Thirumandapam and palace of the King that had existed in this place. We are looking for the evidence,” said Thangadurai.

Pazhayarai near Kumbakonam remained the capital of the Cholas for some time. Cholanmaligai near Pazhayarai is said to be the place where Cholas lived. It is also said that their army lived in some places like Ariyapadai, Pampapadai, Manapadai and Pudupadai in that area around Patteeswaram, he added.