An old palace town south-west of Kumbakonam which was the residence of the early Chola kings and where Rajaraja I's mother and queens lived.
It is bracketed in the brief and board with Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Thanjavur as the seats of the court. Close by are Darasuram (Rajarajapuram, with the Airavatesvara temple built by Rajaraja II, 1146-1173), Patteeswaram (the Durga shrine) and Swamimalai. We could not confirm from the pages we read that Kulottunga III lives here in 1200; the campaign board's note and the brief say the court uses it.
Who holds it
- Name
- Kulottunga III Chola; a royal palace and its household
- Title
- see the lord or tenant line below
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- medium
Lord in 1200
Kulottunga III Chola; a royal palace and its household
How things stand that morning
A residence of the court and a chain of temple villages around the Kudamurutti and Arasalar channels. Whether Kulottunga III is in residence on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.
Wealth
Temple villages and delta paddy.
Military
Palace guard only; no figure.
Threats
- Famine from July 1200
Charter
No charter known; a royal palace town with temple villages
Council
Palace household officers and the temple managers of the villages; the Brahmin sabha of Patteeswaram; none named
Communities
Brahmins, temple servants, royal household, bronzesmiths, stone carvers, weavers
Fairs and markets
Festivals at Patteeswaram and Darasuram
Militia
Palace guards; no figure
Walls and castle
The palace enclosure at Palaiyarai (only mounds and temple ruins remain); no wall is recorded
Trade and crafts
Rice, cloth, bronze and stone carving for the temples (the Airavatesvara of Darasuram is the best surviving example)
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 in the delta.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
- Patteeswaram: The Durga shrine and temple village.
- Swamimalai: The Murugan hill shrine and bronze-casting village.
- Thiruppurambiyam: Temple village near Kumbakonam.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry palaiyarai-pazhaiyarai lists the town at 10.933,79.333; the gazetteer does not hold Palaiyarai, so those coordinates are used.
- The campaign board entry darasuram-airavatesvara is the Airavatesvara temple (religious array) and its village; patteeswaram-village and swamimalai are temple villages covered here as points.
Evidence: The place and its temples are known; the court's use of it in 1200 rests on the brief and board.
"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.