Thread by @zeneraalstuff

What do you say about the nobility of a King who built the greatest of structures, not for his own edification, but for the worship of his Lord? As an expression of the finest that his civilization would offer? Who commissioned thousands of statues and whose family renovated /1

hundreds of temples, but no likeness of his is known to exist? No one knows where he lived, or who has left no palaces to himself and his progeny?
Who commissioned a giant building project, but who ensured that each one who contributed to the upkeep of the temple was not left /2

out when they struck their names on the ramparts. From his sister, to his wives, to his courtiers to the goatherd who contributed a flock to keep a lamp burning daily? They each, the temple courtesan Echumandai, the goatherd Nakkan, the General Krishnan Raman, /3

the Princess Kunthavai all live on in immortality with the Great King Rajarajan?
What would you say of his son, Rajendran, who ruled the Eastern Seaboard and ran naval expeditions across the Bay of Bengal, but who lived out his last days in a humble hamlet /4

among the children and teachers of a Veda Pathashala?
It is a nobility that speaks to us across the centuries of the greatness of Sanatana Dharma.
And what of the noble King Serfoji, who write to the British to give up his pension in exchange for letting his annachatrams /5

continue with their task of feeding the poor and the indigent?
What of the Baniyas and Chettiars who continue annachatrams from their personal funds to this day?

These are not allegorical stories from the Puranas but of lives lived right here, among us, /6

Annadanam Amravaneshwaran was a man who was known to never refuse a hungry person. He was unable to pay his taxes and gave the reason that all his farming income had been spent on his daily annadanam. To test this, a British collector used to regularly send people /7

in the dead of night and ask him for food. The people of the Kaveri delta even today speak of annadhanam organized for the 1933 Mahamaham by Theperumanallur Sivan. /8

And to end this thread, a story from the mouth of the Mahaperiyava himself of Kumbakonam Kumaresa Chettiar and his wife Sivakami Achi /9

There is nothing anyone has to teach us about generosity or sharing. It comes naturally as long you are Dharmika. My intention behind sharing these stories is not to beat our own drum. Just that we Hindus are no less than any other community in being socially responsible /END