About 2 weeks ago, I was in a real cranky mood. My scooter was off for a waxing session and its delivery delayed. After indulging in a bit of yelling around the house and ensuring everybody was as cranky as I was, I called my friend – Deeva to help me escape the negative environment in the domestics.
We went and had our Lunch at a restro near the pondy beach followed by a walk on the sea front. At around 3 we were totally bored of life and having nothing better to do decided to retreat to our residences. On the way back an idea struck. Deeva’s home village had an old Chola temple. And I as always had an eye out for architecture and History. The recent reading of “Ponniyan Selvan” by Kalki made me all the more excited. We were on his Gladiator bike and we had the whole sunny afternoon. So we filled the tank up and set out.
Our destination was Thirubhuvanai. It lies on the Podicherry-Villipuram Highway on the south west region of the town. On the way we crossed Villianur another small town of the Pondicherry UT. Then we halted at a railway crossing at Kandamangalam. In deeva’s word’s Kandamangalam was the last station under British India before the railway and the road passed into French Pondicherry. Customs offices were housed here and the place was famous for smuggling of rice from French Pondicherry to British India. As the slow passenger puffed away we were off again.
Thirubhuvanai lies in one of the south-westernmost or rather westernmost parts of Pondicherry. Its now famed for its industrial estates which houses a lot of electronic companies like TVS and Whirlpool. Historically Thirubhuvanai is related to Parantaka Chola I . He named the village Thirubhuvanamadevi Chaturvedimangalam. the temple was constructed by him and contains a lot of chola inscriptions depicting the social life in the village. the place abounds in the depictions of the Lion the emblem of Cholas. One sculpture shows the Chola lion killing a Chera elephant. The temple also houses sculptures depicting sceanes from the Gita and Ramyana. The temple is now maintained by the ASI.
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