Kundavai Nachiyar or Kundavai Pirattiyar was the elder sister
of the Chola Emperor Rajaraja, the Great. Compared to the commonality of the
princesses since ancient times, this illustrious Chola Princess stands apart.
She is considered to be the first prominent Tamil woman who lived 1000 years
ago in the Chola soil. Kundavai had a great love and affection towards her
father, brother and husband, but her top priority was always the welfare of the
Chola Kingdom and she was dare to sacrifice anything for the same.
Early Life of Princess Kundavai
Kundavai was born at Thirukovilur to Parantaka Chola II (Sundarachola) and his queen Vanavanmahadevi during the latter half of the 10th century. Her elder brother was Aditya Karikalan and her younger brother was Arulmozhivarman (later Rajaraja, the great). Princess Kundavai, was an embodiment of beauty, intelligence, diplomatic steadfastness and stands quite unique among all the other women during her time. She resolved not to get married to any foreign prince and wanted to stay in the Chola Kingdom for the rest of her life. Kundavai’s father supported her to exercise her free will. This deference to her wishes even at such a young age is a mark of respect for her patriotism to her motherland.
The intense love for the mother might under some circumstances be converted to intense attachment between the sister and brother. It happened in the case of Kundavai and Arulmozhivarman because when Kundavai’s mother performed sati after the death of Sundara Chola, Arulmozhivarman looked to his elder sister for guidance and affection which were given to him aplenty by her. Amidst the political intrigues and conspiracies in the Chola Kingdom, Kundavai brought up her younger brother with great care and affection. It is also to be mentioned here that when her elder brother Aditya Karikalan was plotted and killed by their enemies, Princess Kundavai stood like a rock and played a huge role in shaping young Arulmozhivarman to become one of the greatest monarchs of India.
Kundavai’s Love and
Marriage
In spite of having a great responsibility of bringing up her
younger brother, Kundavai does fall in love with the brave and
adventurous warrior prince of Bana clan, known as Vallavarayar Vandhiyadevar. Princess
Kundavai married him but even from her marriage, she stood indispensable in her love for the
Chola Kingdom, which shows her great patriotism for her mother country. Being a
Chola princess she showed keen interest in her country and even after her
marriage, there is no proof to say that she left her mother’s place along with
her husband. Besides, she makes her husband Vandhiyadevar himself to involve
into various difficult situations for the sake of her brother’s safety and
welfare of the Chola Kingdom. Her
husband Vandhiyadevar has to be complimented here very much because he also
joined hands with her and stayed permanently in the Chola country and proved
his mattle as the Chief of the Samantas till the period of her nephew, Rajendra
Chola I.
Kundavai Nachiyar – A Loving
Sister
Arulmozhivarman showed utmost respect to his sister Kundavai Nachiyar who tackled every tricky situation with her intelligence. Like a mother hen, she protected all those who are near and dear to her and it is said that even she had treated her adversaries with so much grace. She was highly esteemed throughout South India and that’s probably why princesses of many royal homes are sent under her care. Almost as a matron, she grooms these princesses in arts, music and literature.
Kundavai Nachiyar – A
Diplomatic Mentor
Kundavai Nachiyar was considered to be a diplomatic mentor
with great stability in mind and never changes or adopt herself for any
circumstances. She takes the right
decisions at the right time. For instance, whenever Kundavai realizes that the Chola
kingdom is under danger, she summons her brother back home immediately and he
always obeyed her promptly. This is due
to the reason that Rajaraja Chola knows the tactful diplomatic tendency of her
sister very well. Kundavai inspired her
brother into taking up the mantle of securing Eelangai for Chola Kings. She wanted him to become a separate sovereign
king and rule over Eelangai because she truly believed that he was born to
rule. As an outcome he is said to be the
first ruler from India who invaded and captured many parts of Eelangai with the
help of his navy. Thus Kundavai had formulated ambitious plans diplomatically for
her brother and raised him up successfully to become a finest warrior and a
noble king that the world will remember forever.
Rajaraja Chola I
Kundavai Nachiyar –
King’s Adviser in Administration
Kundavai assisted Rajaraja Chola even in his administration
and the management of temples. For the first
time in the history of monarchy, Rajaraja Chola got coronated as the ruler of
the Chola Empire through the means of democracy. He was the first ruler to introduce
the Kudavolai system (selection by lot) for selecting the village
officials. This has been done in order
to strengthen the local self-government and he installed a system of audit and
control by which the assemblies and other public bodies were held to account
while retaining their autonomy.
Another significant event is, with the motivation gained from
her sister Kundavai, Rajaraja Chola embarked on a mission to recover the hymns
after hearing short excerpts of Thevaram in his court. Nambi Andar Nambi, a temple priest helped the
ruler to find the scripts in a chamber inside the second precinct of Thillai
Nataraja Temple at Chidambaram. As an
outcome, Rajaraja Chola consecrated the images of the saint-poets through the
streets of Chidambaram and thus came to be known as Tirumurai Kanda Cholan. This act of the ruler is considered to be
an important contribution for the Tamil society and a video clipping from the
Tamil film “Rajaraja Cholan” establishes this historical fact.
Rajaraja’s Honouring of
Kundavai Nachiyar
Kundavai enjoyed high status in the Chola Kingdom and the
respect given to her by Rajaraja Chola is reflected in his inscriptions. The
King had a practice of naming the elements of his administration as a way of
honouring his close relatives. As a
matter of honour, Kundavai’s name was used very often for naming temples,
cheris, mutts, tank, nadu, chaturvedimangalam, and many more. An important thing which has to be mentioned
here is that, in the Brihadeeswara Temple, which was constructed during
Rajaraja’s period at Thanjavur, the emperor’s own donations are inscribed in
the most important place of this temple which are the exterior walls of the central
sanctum sanctorum. The only other person whose gifts to the temple are inscribed
in the same place are those of his sister, Kundavai.
Philanthropical
Activities of Kundavai Nachiyar
If shaping young Arulmozhivarman to become a
great monarch was Kundavai’s seminal contribution, her philanthropical
activities were enormous. She showed herself impartial to all faiths which has been authenticated by an
inscription of Rajendra I dated in his 12th regnal year which
mentions her building of three temples – one for Shiva, one for Vishnu and a
third for the Jaina faith.
Kundavai’s donations to the famous Thanjavur
Brihadeeswara temple included staggering quantities of gold and vessels. She
also commissioned artisans to make metal icons of deities for this temple, two
of which were of Parvati (Uma Paramesvari), the consort of Lord Shiva (Dakshinameru Vitankar). The other
two were idols of her parents showing her devotion to them. She liberally donated for daily
offerings of garlands and clothes for the deities. For this she had set up and deposited the
money with various village assemblies so that the interest paid on the
deposited money could be used for the above purposes.
Tax-free grants of land were often given by Chola kings
to the scholars and the clipping will highlight her acts of donation. One such
village, called Kundavai Chaturvedimangalam, was her gift to Vedic scholars. She sponsored the construction of irrigation tanks,
one of which is called ‘Kundavai-pperiri’ (the tank of Kundavai) and another is
called ‘Sundara-Chola-ppereri’ bearing the name of her father in north Tamil
Nadu.
On the top of all these things, her remarkable deed which has
to be well complimented was the establishment of a hospital in Thanjavur for
people’s welfare. An inscription
belonged to Rajendra I, mentions that she bought some land and nine house sites
from the Mahasabha of Rajakesari Chaturvedimangalam for the maintenance of a
free dispensary founded by her at Thanjavur and she named it as “Sundarachola
Vinnagar Atular Salai” after her father, Sundarachola. The land given by her for the same was known
as Maruttuvakkani.
Kundavai Nachiyar, identified herself to be an independent
and self-confident woman, spent last years of her life in her father’s house,
dying in the seventh year of the reign of her nephew, Rajendra Chola I.
Kundavai Nachiyar – An
Assessment
The royal women during the Chola period enjoyed respect and
access to property and wealth of the kingdom.
Like their male counter-parts they had the liberty and freedom to quench
their spiritual desire and took up various welfare programmes for people’s benefit.
As a Chola Princess, Kundavai Nachiyar rose to a position equal to that of the
great monarchs and it is very much relevant to state her as the “Architect of the Chola Empire” as
well.
Rajaraja, the great Chola Emperor had a deep respect for her
sister and it is to be mentioned here that this sister – brother relationship was very
special and it has been well portrayed in the world famous Tamil historical
novel “Ponniyin Selvan” by Amarar
Kalki Krishnamurthy. Kundavai Nachiyar was not only a
mentor, guide and counsel to her younger brother, but she was also the one who
brought up her nephew Rajendra Chola and inspired him to achieve great deeds
that are still being sung today. She has
engraved her name deep in the History of Tamil Nadu by showing her tolerant
religious attitude and performing enormous philanthropical activities.
Kundavai Nachiyar truly sets a fine example of how a royal
princess should behave and history is much indebted to her for being the
guiding force of the two great Chola kings. Her
legacy has been memorialized in the inscriptions, temples, icons, irrigation
tanks, novels, books and films. Found to be a strict matron and a diplomatic
mentor, Princess Kundavai when scratch the surface, we could find a warm
gracious woman who is every inch a queen herself. And, no women in the history of South India
have established her name and fame as this most famous Kundavai Nachiyar.
YOUTUBE LINK : https://youtu.be/huUhMmE9ggM
REFERENCES
1. Balambal, V., Kundavai – A
Chola Princess, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Published
by Indian History Congress, Vol.39, Volume I, 1978, pp.77-83.
2. Chandrababu, B.S. and Thilagavathi,
L., Woman: Her History and Her Struggle for Emancipation,
Bharathi Puthakalayam, Chennai, 2009.
3. Kalki Krishnamurthy, Ponniyin
Selvan, Vol.1 -5 , Vikatan Publications, Chennai, 1950.
4. Vikiraman, Nandhipurathu
Naayagi, Part I (Tamil), Pustaka Digital Media, 2016.
5. http://www.streeshakti.com/bookK.aspx?author=26
6. http://www.storiesintamil.in/kundavai/
7.https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2016/mar/05/An-Illustrious-Chola-Princess-Who-Groomed-the-Mighty-King-899962.html
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