Uraiyur with the Rock of Tiruchirappalli

Who holds it

Name

Kulottunga III Chola; the Rock and the head works are crown property; Srirangam is a separate temple lordship

Title

see the lord or tenant line below

Born

not known

Confidence

medium

Lord in 1200

Kulottunga III Chola; the Rock and the head works are crown property; Srirangam is a separate temple lordship

How things stand that morning

A Chola garrison town on the Kollidam and Kaveri; the head works of the Grand Anicut and the Uyyakondan channel are maintained as part of the crown's irrigation.

Wealth

Cloth, rice, tolls at the fords and the water rights of the head works.

Military

A garrison on the Rock; no figure.

Threats

• Failure of the monsoon
• A Pandya or Kongu raid on the south-west road (not shown in 1199-1200)

Charter

No charter known; crown city

Council

The royal governor, the Srirangam and Jambukesvaram temple managers, the merchants of the Uraiyur nagaram; none named for 1200

Communities

Weavers, merchants, Brahmins, temple servants, soldiers; Jain and Buddhist remains survive on the Rock

Fairs and markets

Temple festivals at Srirangam and Tiruvanaikaval; no dated fair

Militia

Royal garrison on the Rock and at the fords; no figure

Walls and castle

The Rock Fort (a steep granite hill with Pallava rock-cut temples) is a natural citadel; the town's wall is not described in the pages we read

Trade and crafts

Cloth (Uraiyur was a weaving town from the Sangam age), rice, the grain of the Kaveri head; control of the Kaveri and Kollidam crossings

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; the head works become the point of conflict between villages.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.
2. 1216 to 1219 (outside 1200)Maravarman Sundara Pandya I sacks Uraiyur (the English Wikipedia pages differ on the year).Depends on: Chola weakness. Stopped by: Chola strength.

Places of note

• Thiruvellarai: Temple town north of Srirangam.
• The Grand Anicut (Kallanai): The ancient dam on the Kaveri at the head of the delta.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry uraiyur (10.813,78.677) and tiruchirappalli-rock (10.828,78.697) are about three kilometres apart; they are one urban area by 1200 in the sense that the Rock is Uraiyur's citadel.
• The campaign board entry the-grand-anicut-kallanai at 10.828,78.816 is the Kallanai dam: accepted.
• The campaign board entry the-vennaru-head (10.832,78.842) and the-uyyakondan-channel (10.828,78.63) are the head of the Vennar and a channel on the south bank: accepted.

Evidence: The place and its waterworks are well known; its 1200 officers are 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.