Sirkazhi

08/08/2014

History of Sirkazhi
The earliest mention of Sirkazhi is found in the history of the Chola king Kocengannan from the Sangam Age (3rd century BCE to 4th century CE), who is believed to have won a bloody battle here. During the 7th–8th century, there were widespread disputes between the Hindu sects of Saivism and Vaishnavism. Tirugnanasambandar and Thirumangai Azhwar, belonging to Saivism and Vaishnavism, respectively, and both natives of Sirkazhi, had disputes over their religious compositions and theologies during the period. The Chola Kings ruled over the region for more than four centuries, from 850 to 1280, and were temple patrons. There 41 inscriptions from the Chola kings in the temple that record various gifts like land, sheep, cow and oil to the temple.

27/06/2014

Scorpion on top of a stone idol in sirkazhi..

26/06/2014

Pitchavaram , chidambaram

07/06/2014

Poompuhar !! Take time to know more abt us neighboring towns..
Interesting

Poompuhar, known as Kaveripattinam, also is one of the most notable ancient Chola ports and is located at the confluence of river Kaveri and the Bay of Bengal. Manimekhalai mentions that the Chola king had lost his son and in his grief he forgot to celebrate the annual Indra festival. This enraged the goddess Manimekhalai who caused the city to be swallowed up by the sea. Though the reference is only to a supernatural incident, it may be taken as an echo of some actual sea erosion due to high tidal wave that lashed out on the city.

Onshore exploration near Chinnavanagiri, south of Poompuhar brought to light ringwells along with megalithic black and red wares. A few ringwells were also noticed near Vanagiri, Tranquebar and Poompuhar. A Sangam period brick structure was exposed near the present Kanagi statue. Another brick structure in L-shape was noticed in inter-tidal zone during low tide. These findings suggest that the shoreline is moving landward and a large part of the ancient city of Poompuhar must have been submerged in the sea.



Offshore explorations opposite to mouth of river Kaveri brought to light stone structures. By airlift operation, a large number of sherds of pottery belonging to 4th-5th century AD were recovered. Similarly, in the north of Poompuhar a lot of pottery of historical period was found. These evidences indicate that a part of ancient city was submerged in the sea; the remains are lying at about 8 m water depth.

A mid-17th century map of Tranquebar shows a complete plan of the town along with the then shoreline. A careful study of the map suggests that Tranquebar town was well protected by a seaward fort wall and the Siva temple was sufficiently landward within the fort wall. It is estimated that during the 17th century AD the shoreline was at least 50 m away from the fort wall and a temple was located around 250-300 m from the shoreline. This observation unequivocally suggests that the shoreline has transgressed about 300 m in the last 300 years infringing at an average rate of one meter per year. If the same trend had continued for the last 2000 years, it might be expected that the ancient city of Poompuhar must have been submerged in 5 to 10 m water depths off Poompuhar.

About 3.5 km off Poompuhar a shipwreck was discovered at a water depth of 19 m, a major portion of which is buried under sediment. A metal detector survey suggested a maximum length of 50 m and width about 15 m. Airlift operation has shown that the ship was wooden hulled. The exploration of the shipwreck brought to light a large number of lead ingots which are classified into three types: (i) boat shaped with an inscription of W: BLACKETT and a date 1791 and 1792, (ii) A Roman letter 'D' with crown symbol and boat shaped and (iii) plain with rectangular shape. Besides the lead ingots, 2.1 m long iron cannon, gun-powder boxes and a copper rudder gudgeon were also noticed.

After airlifting it is observed that copper was extensively used for construction of the ship. The exposed timber of the ship has been highly affected by teredo. There are no records to ascertain the country of origin of the ship.

07/06/2014

The Bhramapureeswarar temple, also called Sattainathar temple, is an ancient temple complex dedicated to Shiva, and has three Shiva shrines.[72] The temple is mentioned in the Saiva canonical work, Tevaram, by Thirugnana Sambanthar, Tirunavukkarasar and Sundarar, the foremost Saivite saints of 7th–eighth century CE and is classified as Paadal Petra Sthalam.[72] There is a separate shrine for Sambandar celebrating the miracle of Parvathi suckling the child Sambandar when he was crying for milk.[72][73] Shiva is worshipped in three different forms; the Shivalingam (Bhrammapureeswarar), Uma Maheswarar (Toniappar) at the middle level, and Bhairavar (Sattanathar) at the upper level.[73] The original temple was enlarged during the period of Kulothunga Chola I, Vikrama Chola, Kulothunga Chola II and Kulothunga Chola III (as in Chidambaram – 11th through the 13th centuries). Every year in the Tamil month of Chithirai (April – May), a 10-day festival is celebrated

05/06/2014

Vaitheeswaran koil temple

14/01/2014

Folks !! Pongal Thirunal Nalvazhthukal.. Have a great Week ahead :)

16/09/2013

Sattanathar Temple, Sirkazhi

09/09/2013