Thread by @TheSouthfirst

The scholar who rediscovered ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ Raja Raja #Chola.

As #PonniyinSelvan1 hits the screens tomorrow, this might seem hard to believe: There was a time not too long ago when no one knew who Raja Raja was.

A thread
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People were not even aware just around 115 years ago that Raja Raja was responsible for building the big temple in Thanjavur in the early 11th century.

Some believed it was the Sangam age ruler Karikala Chola, who lived around 1,000 years earlier, who built it.
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It took the epigraphist and historian Venkayya to rediscover Raja Raja based on the inscriptions in the Thanjavur temple.
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The copper plates from Tiruvalangadu — which throw more light on the Cholas — were discovered during Venkayya’s tenure.

It was a chance meeting at the Pancha Rathas of Mamallapuram that paved the way for Venkayya’s discoveries.
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A school teacher then, he was a tourist that day in Mamallapuram and was surprised to see a foreigner trying to read the inscriptions there.

The foreigner was German Sanskrit scholar Eugen Hultzsch.
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Hultzsch had been hired by the Government of Madras as its chief epigraphist.

Impressed by the curiosity, ability, and enthusiasm of Venkayya, Hultzsch asked the latter to quit his job as a school teacher and join the fledgling epigraphy department of the ASI.
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Venkayya did so at the end of the academic year and the rest is history, and led to South Indian history being understood and written.

Few might have now heard of Venkayya but at least Raja Raja & his son Rajendra are well known. Not to forget Ponniyin Selvan the novel.

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Venkayya had the privilege of working with several giants of Tamil literature such as Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai, U Ve Swaminatha Iyer, and others.

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For more on the scholar, read this article by R Gopu:

thesouthfirst.com/tamilnadu/v-ve…
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For even more on Venkayya, you can refer to this book by his great-granddaughter Sunitha Madhavan.

Details about where the book is available are mentioned at the end of the above article.
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