1,000-year-old Chola temple found half-buried in paddy field

Chennai : A half-buried stone structure surrounded by thick vegetation may not attract tourists to this remote village of Tiruvallam in Vellore district. But when a senior archaeologist recently walked to the site, the half-buried structure attained significance. With the help of inscriptions on the slabs of the ruined structure, he discovered that king Vikrama Chola (1118-1135), a Chola king who ruled the region during the 12th century , had donated generously to the temple.

Situated among the paddy fields in Kambarajapuram, a remote village barely a kilometer from Tiruvallam town, the temple is in ruins. Despite lying close to the historic Shiva temple in Tiruvallam, this one is today a neglected site.The temple is known as `Karuppu Koil’ because of the black colour of the rock used for its construction. “The most interesting aspect of the temple is that it has beautiful `Makara Thoranas,” (Crocodile arches). Although half of the structure is buried under earth, I couldn’t read the inscriptions completely. There are chances of getting more inscription stones if we remove the mud surrounding the temple,” said K Sridharan, former superintending archaeologist of the State department of archaeology , who recently surveyed the shrine.

Although Sridhar believes that the temple had received donations from Vikrama Chola, he has another point to make when it comes to the existence of the temple. “I think the structure must have been there since the 10th century .I could understand from the scattered inscription slabs that Vikrama Chola had donated valuables to the temple.We will get a clear picture only if we study the inscriptions in detail,” he said. As the ruined temple doesn’t belong to either the state archaeology department or the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), no one takes care of it. “It has been more than five decades since a Pooja was performed here. There is no sign of worship. It’s a picture of ruins. If we don’t take care of it now, even portions that survived will disappear soon,” he said.

Source : TOI