A temple town between the Kaveri and the Arasalar with the Kumbeswarar, Nageswaran and Sarangapani temples and the Mahamaham tank, close to the palace towns of Palaiyarai and Darasuram and to the Tribhuvanam temple which Kulottunga III is building (it stands about five kilometres north-east).
It has been a Chola centre since the ninth century. In the brief and board it is the commercial and ritual centre of the home districts.
Who holds it
- Name
- Kulottunga III Chola; the temples' managers and the town's merchants
- Title
- see the lord or tenant line below
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- medium
Lord in 1200
Kulottunga III Chola; the temples' managers and the town's merchants
How things stand that morning
A busy temple town beside the king's palace towns. Kulottunga III's Tribhuvanam temple (Kampaharesvara) is going up nearby; the 'king's temple' is finished in his reign (a later event).
Wealth
Temple endowments, the metal trade, delta rice.
Threats
- Famine from July 1200
Charter
No charter known
Council
The temple managers and the merchant and Brahmin bodies of the Chola delta; no person named
Communities
Brahmins, temple servants, metalworkers, weavers, merchants
Fairs and markets
The Mahamaham festival is a twelve-year bathing festival at the tank; whether 1200 is a festival year is not established
Militia
No figure
Walls and castle
No wall is described in the pages we read
Trade and crafts
Brass and bronze vessels, cloth, rice trade, jewellery and temple goods
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 1200Famine hits the delta's temple towns.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
- Tribhuvanam (Kampaharesvara): Kulottunga III's new temple, under construction.
- Tiruvidaimarudur: Temple town with the Mahalingeswarar shrine, enlarged under Kulottunga III.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry kumbakonam gives Kudamukku as the old name and lists it as a Chola town: agreed.
- The Mahamaham tank date: we give none for 1200.
Evidence: Temple and tank are well known; the town's government is not described.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
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.