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Religions of Thanjavur


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In general, Cholas were the adherents of Hinduism. Throughout their history, they were not swayed by the rise of Buddhism and Jainism as were the kings of the Pallava and Pandya dynasties. Even the early Cholas followed a version of the classical Hindu faith. There is evidence in Purananuru for Karikala Chola's faith in Saivism in the Tamil country. Kocengannan, another early Chola, was celebrated in both Sangam literature and in the Saiva canon as a saint.

While the Cholas did build their largest and most important temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, it can be by no means concluded that either they were staunch Saivites or followers of Saivism only or that they were not favourably disposed to other faiths. This is borne out by the fact that the second Chola king Aditya I himself built quite a few temples for Siva and for Lord Vishnu. In AD 890, his inscriptions speak of his contributions to the construction of the Ranganatha Temple at Srirangapatnam (now in Mandya district of Karnataka) in the country of Western Gangas who were both his feudatories and had marital relations with him. During the time of Aditya I (871–903 AD) the Gangas of Kannada country had recognized his superiority which he acknowledged by marrying into that family and making grant contributions to the construction of the Sri Ranganatha temple at modern Srirangapatnam. Aditya I regularly gave many endowments to the Sri Ranganatha Temple at Srirangam around AD 896 and issued an inscriptional dictat pronouncing that the great temples of Siva and the Ranganatha temple at Srirangam to be the 'Kuladhanam' of the Chola emperors.

It was Aditya I's dictat which was faithfully carried out by his illustrious son Parantaka I and his successors wherein it was declared in edicts that the Siva Temple of Chidambaram (at that time the grand Siva temples of Tanjore and Gangaikonda Cholapuram were not in existence) and the Sri Ranganatha Swami temple of Srirangam were the 'Kuladhanams', i.e., tutelary
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