Thanjavur (Tanjore)

Who holds it

Name

Kulottunga III Chola; the city is crown demesne with a royal governor and the temple managers

Title

see the lord or tenant line below

Born

not known

Confidence

medium

Lord in 1200

Kulottunga III Chola; the city is crown demesne with a royal governor and the temple managers

How things stand that morning

The greatest temple city of the delta and a seat of the court. The Rajarajesvaram is under the care of its managers; the Chola kings' temple building in 1200 is at Tribhuvanam and Chidambaram, not here.

Wealth

The crown's and the temple's rice revenue, bronze casting and the delta grain trade.

Military

No garrison figure is given in the pages we reached.

Threats

• Famine from about July 1200
• A Pandya sack in 1216 to 1219 (outside 1200)

Charter

No charter known; crown city. The Chola inscriptions show a merchants' body (nagaram) and Brahmin assemblies in the delta; the Thanjavur one is not documented in the pages we read

Council

Temple managers of the Rajarajesvaram, the royal governor, merchant and Brahmin assemblies; no named person for 1200

Communities

Brahmins, temple women, bronzesmiths, weavers, merchants, soldiers, officers

Fairs and markets

Temple festivals; no dated fair

Militia

Royal guards when the court is in residence; the temple's own watch; no figure

Walls and castle

A palace quarter and the fortified precinct of the great temple; the surviving fort walls and moat are of the Nayak age (sixteenth century) and are not carried back

Trade and crafts

Rice, cloth, bronze casting, temple trade; the Thanjavur lords of the temple lands buy and sell grain through the nagaram

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.

1. From about 7 July 1200The delta famine falls on Thanjavur's markets and temple stores.Depends on: A failed monsoon over the Kaveri country. 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.
2. 1216 to 1219 (outside 1200)Maravarman Sundara Pandya I sacks Thanjavur and Uraiyur (the English Wikipedia pages differ on the year).Depends on: Chola weakness after 1216. Stopped by: Chola strength.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry thanjavur-tanjore lists the town at 10.787,79.138 and the Rajarajesvaram at 10.783,79.132: both fit; the temple is a few hundred metres south-west of the town centre.
• The campaign board entry rajarajesvaram-thanjavur is covered in the religious array (the temple); this record is the town.
• The treasury at Thanjavur is in our earlier king record as a lead from the campaign board; we found no source for it.

Evidence: The temple and the dynasty are well documented; the town's government in 1200 is not.

"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.