A King’s Booty

A king’s booty and his offerings to the Lord

Inscription in the Great Temple in Thanjavur, in the north wall of the central shrine, lower tier

“Hail! Prosperity! The sacred silver utensils presented by Sri Rajarajadeva in the twenty-ninth year of his reign to the Supreme Lord of the Sri-Rajarajeswarram temple including:

  1. The sacred silver utensils presented from his own treasures.
  2. The sacred silver utensils seized after defeating the Chera kings and the Pandyas in Malainadu.
  3. The sacred utensils made from the silver acquired after defeating the same.

These were recorded on stone after being weighed with the stone called Adavallan”

  • The detailing of the items runs to several tens of lines of inscriptions.
  • These appear as the only offerings in silver, all else in the temple is of gold and precious stones.
  • There are approximately 200 separate items listed.
  • At current day values they appear to weigh 50000 gms (50 kg) and current day value appears to be 34-37 lakh rupees.
  • Note that several lines of the inscriptions are damaged or missing, so this is a conservative estimate.
  • 1 silver bowl = 280 Kazhanju = 1492 gms (1.5 kazhanju = 8 gms)
  • 10 gms silver bowl = 1500 rs = 4.5 x 3.6 cms (Current day)
  • 1 gm silver = 74 Rs as on Aug 9th 2020

References:

  1. South-indian Inscriptions Volume Ii, Tamil Inscriptions Of Rajaraja, Rajendra-chola, And Others In The Rajarajesvara Temple At Tanjavur by Venkayya V, published 1913, accessed at Digital Library of India.
  2. Tamil units of measurement from Wikipedia.

 

  • 09th Aug, 2020
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