CHENNAI, INDIA, November 21, 2008: The discovery of inscriptions belonging to both Aditya Chola I and Rajendra Chola I in the Kailasanatha temple, built by an earlier Pallava king, show that the Chola kings quickly established total supremacy in the heart of the Pallava kingdom. The Kailasanatha temple is situated at Uttaramerur in Kanchipuram district.
Throughout their reign, the Pallavas were in constant conflict with both Chalukyas of Badami in the north and the Tamil kingdoms of Chola and Pandyas in the South. They were finally defeated by the Chola kings in the 8th century CE.
Six important inscriptions have come to light in a 1,200-year-old Siva temple in Tamil Nadu, from different centuries. Some tell interest stories about the daily affairs of the temple. The inscription of Aditya Chola I (871-907 A.D.) talks about the donation of nine “kalanju” (weight or coin) of gold by a woman called Adithan to keep a lamp perpetually alight in the Brahmesvara Mahadeva temple. In the inscription, it is said that the village “thotta variam” (garden committee) would use the interest accruing from the gold to provide one measure of oil daily to light the lamp “as long as the sun and the moon shine.”