Museum at Gangaikondacholapuram, capital of Cholas

To mark his victorious expedition of the Gangetic plains, King Rajendra-I of the famed Chola dynasty built a new town named Gangaikondacholapuram in the present-day Ariyalur district of Tamil Nadu and raised a replica of the famous Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur built by his father Raja Raja Chola.

Archaeological excavations by the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA) since 2020 in Maligaimedu near the ancient town has led to unearthing of remains of a palace built by King Rajendra I. And on Tuesday, Chief Minister M K Stalin announced that a grand museum will be built in Gangaikondacholapuram which will display the artefacts and materials excavated in the past two years.

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“King Rajendra-I was running his empire from Gangaikondacholapuram. Apart from conquering several countries, the Chola king established trade links with several countries including China. We have decided to establish a museum to showcase to the world the engineering marvels of King Rajendra and technical know-how of Tamils in ship building,” the CM said.

Stalin made the announcement after visiting Maligaimedu on Monday. Over 1,100 Antiquities like iron objects (nails), copper objects, copper coins, ivory objects, glass beads and bangle fragments, hopscotches, terracotta objects and ceramics like coursed red ware, red ware, black ware, black slipped ware, decorated ware and Chinese ware (Celadon and Porcelain) have been unearthed, implying trade links with Chinese.

Archaeologists have now unearthed remains of the Chola palace which includes a 30 brick-course, 3-metre structure, and iron nails of various sizes.

TNSDA has exposed the buried structure (palace) to understand the plan of the palace. In the course of digging, some trenches revealed structural activities. Burnt bricks with the measurements of 27x13x5 cm and 30x15x8 cm, while roofing tiles also were found in various sizes.

While the surface structure is made of bricks, the superstructure is made of wood and a large granite stone has been used to cover the underground, giving us a sneak peek into the engineering marvel that Cholas were well-versed with.

As the capital of the Chola dynasty from about 1025 CE, the city controlled political affairs of entire South India for about 250 years and the excavation site Maligaimedu implies a mound of the palace by its name.

It is widely believed that Maligaimedu was the palace of the Chola kings and the available nature of structural evidence also supports this view, a source in the TNSDA said, adding that stone and copper plate inscriptions explicitly confirm the fact that Gangaikondacholapuram was the political seat of the Chola empire.