The greatest Vaishnava temple of the south, on the island between the Kaveri and the Kollidam below Tiruchirappalli.
The Sri Vaishnava teacher Ramanuja (d. 1137) is remembered for reorganising its worship and administration. The temple holds villages by royal gift (Chola, Hoysala and later Pandya kings), runs its own stores, accounts and craftsmen and acts as a bank for the villages round it. Kulottunga III renovated parts of it (English Wikipedia). It stands on the island that controls the crossings of the two rivers, so any army moving on the delta passes it.
Who holds it
- Name
- not named in any source we reached
- Title
- Managers of the Ranganatha temple (the temple trust of the Sri Vaishnava community)
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Overlord
Kulottunga III Chola as protector; earlier Chola kings (including Kulottunga I) and the Hoysala kings gave to it
What it holds
- Temple villages and lands granted by kings
- The temple's stores, accounts and workshops
- The festivals and the pilgrim trade
- The Srirangam fords and island crossings (board)
Allies and rivals
Kulottunga III Chola as protector; earlier Chola kings (including Kulottunga I) and the Hoysala kings gave to it
How things stand that morning
A rich and secure Vaishnava centre under Chola protection.
Wealth
Endowed villages, offerings, pilgrim traffic.
Military
No armed force is recorded for the house.
Threats
- Famine from July 1200
- A war on the Kaveri crossings (not shown)
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- From about 7 July 1200The delta famine; the temple's stores are a refuge and a target.Depends on: A failed monsoon. The famine is a regnal-year statement found only in the brief and the campaign board's calendar (no page read confirms it). Stopped by: A good monsoon.
Places of note
- Jambukesvaram (Tiruvanaikaval): The Saiva water-linga temple on the same island.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry srirangam-ranganatha (10.862,78.69) and srirangam-fords (10.877,78.688) agree with the island. The Koyil Olugu temple chronicle that records Ramanuja's arrangements is a later text and is not relied on.
- The seven concentric walls and the great gopura are in large part later than 1200 and are not carried back.
Evidence: The house is well known and its patrons and fabric are described in the pages we read; no page we read names its managers or any act of it in 1200, so the 1200 position is inferred.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: Drawn as a small disc round the shrine; the real estates were scattered villages.
Primary sources for Chola empire
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Lesser Chronicle (the continuation of the Mahavamsa), Dhammakitti and later monks of the Mahavihara tradition (the first continuation about the 13th century (chapters 37 to 79), carried on in stages to the 18th century). The only narrative source for Lanka in 1200. Read online
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- The Leiden grants of Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I concerning the Srivijaya vihara at Nagapattinam, The Chola chancery (Rajaraja I, Rajendra I, Kulottunga I) (the Larger plates about 1005 to 1014 (completed under Rajendra I); the Smaller plates 1090). Background documents for the relations between the Cholas and the Malay world. Read online
- Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Various (Kakatiya chancery and temple scribes), edited by P. Sreenivasachar (inscriptions of the 10th to 15th centuries; edited 1940 to 1942). The Kakatiyas of Orugallu (Warangal) are known for 1200 almost entirely from inscriptions, and this Hyderabad Archaeological Series corpus is the main printed collection. Read online
- Epigraphia Carnatica: inscriptions of the Mysore country, Various (Hoysala chancery and temple scribes), edited by B. Lewis Rice and R. Narasimhachar (inscriptions of the 4th to 19th centuries; the series ran from 1886 to 1905, revised from 1972). The Hoysala kingdom of Veera Ballala II (reigning 1173 to 1220) is documented almost wholly by the inscriptions in this series, arranged by district and taluk with full English translations. Read online
- Epigraphia Zeylanica: lithic and other inscriptions of Ceylon, Various (the Polonnaruwa kings' chanceries), edited by D. M. de Zilva Wickremasinghe, H. W. Codrington and S. Paranavitana (inscriptions of the 3rd century BC to the 18th century; the series ran from 1904). Prints with translation the stone records of the Polonnaruwa kings who held or lost the throne around 1200. Read online
- South Indian Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of India), Various (Chola, Pandya and other chanceries and temple scribes), edited by E. Hultzsch, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Sastri and successors (inscriptions of the 7th to 17th centuries; the series ran from 1890). The temple inscriptions printed here are the primary record of the Tamil country in 1200. Read online
- Travancore Archaeological Series, Various (Kerala chiefs, temples and merchant guilds), edited by T. A. Gopinatha Rao, K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer and A. S. Ramanatha Ayyar (inscriptions of the 9th to 18th centuries; the series ran from 1910 to 1938). The main corpus for the Kerala coast. Read online
4 more in the sources library for Southern India and Sri Lanka.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.