Hindu temples and maths · The Chola empire of Kulottunga III · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Tirumala

The hill temple of Venkateswara (Vishnu) on the Tirumala range above Tirupati.

The English Wikipedia records that Ramanuja set up the Tirupati Jeeyar matha in 1119 and installed the Govindaraja image at Tirupati; the Pandya king Jatavarman Sundara I gilded the vimana about 1262 (later). Gifts came from the Pallava and Chola kings in earlier centuries; the pages we read give no dated gift of the 1190s. The temple holds villages and has its own accounts.

Who holds it

Name
not named in any source we reached
Title
The Jeeyar matha and the temple managers (Sri Vaishnava)
Since
not known
Born
not known
Confidence
low

Overlord

Local chiefs of the Chola dependency: not pinned

What it holds

  • Temple villages
  • The Jeeyar matha and the temple's accounts

Allies and rivals

Local chiefs of the Chola dependency: not pinned

How things stand that morning

A growing pilgrim temple under a chief we cannot name.

Wealth

Villages, offerings.

Military

No armed force is recorded for the house.

Where the sources disagree

  • No board place; added from the assignment.

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.

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.

4 more in the sources library for Southern India and Sri Lanka.

Sources and studies

  1. Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, English Wikipedia

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.