Manimangalam is a small town located in the

Kanchipuram district Kancheepuram district is one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. The area comprising the present day Kancheepuram district was earlier a part of Chingleput district. The original Chingleput district was split in 1997 into f ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

state in Southern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, famous for its ancient temples and inscriptions documenting the history of the ancient Tamil kings

Demographics

According to the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, the town had a population was 8198, of which 4,117 were males and 4,081 were females. The literacy rate is 72.60%. The town is located at a distance of from

Tambaram Tambaram is a southern suburb of Chennai, India. Located in the Chengalpattu district of Tamil Nadu, it is governed by Tambaram City Municipal Corporation and is a part of the Chennai Metropolitan Area. Etymology Tambaram is an ancient town ...

History

Manimangalam is a town of historic significance. This place became famous in the Pallava period as the site of the Battle of Manimangala, in which the Pallava king,

Narasimhavarman I Narasimhavarman I was a emperor of the Pallava dynasty who ruled South India from 630 CE – 668 CE. He shared his father Mahendravarman I's love of art and completed the work started by Mahendravarman in Mamallapuram. During his reign famo ...

is said to have defeated the Chalukya King

Pulakeshin II Pulakeshin II (IAST: Pulakeśin, r. c. 610–642 CE) was the most famous ruler of the Chalukya dynasty of Vatapi (present-day Badami in Karnataka, India). During his reign, the Chalukya kingdom expanded to cover most of the Deccan region in p ...

, and as one of the places mentioned in the

Tamil copper-plate inscriptions Tamil copper-plate inscriptions are intaglio printing, copper-plate records of Land grant, grants of villages, plots of cultivable lands or other privileges to private individuals or public institutions by the members of the various South Indian ...

of Kūram (in the modern-day

). It is said that the town housed exporters and merchants of precious jewels. As gathered from inscriptions in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

in local sites, the town was also known by ''Ratnagrahara'' and ''Ratna Grama'' (''The village of jewels'') The town houses the 1000-year old

Rajagopala Perumal Temple Rajagopala Perumal Temple is a Hindu temple located at Manimangalam, near Tambaram, a suburb of Chennai, India. The temple is dedicated to Vishnu. History The earliest references to Manimangalam are in relation to a battle fought between th ...

, devoted to

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...

, and which is believed to have been built during the period of the

Medieval Cholas Medieval Cholas rose to prominence during the middle of the 9th century CE and established one of the greatest empires of South India. They successfully united South India under their rule and through their naval strength extended their influen ...

, and the Dharmeswara Temple, devoted to

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...

, which is believed to have been built by

Kulottunga I Kulottunga I (;1025 CE - 1122 CE) also spelt Kulothunga (), was a Chola Emperor who reigned from 1070 CE to 1122 CE succeeding his cousin Athirajendra Chola. He also served as the Eastern Chalukya king from 1061 CE to 1118 CE, succeeding his ...

during the

Later Chola The Later Chola dynasty ruled the Chola Empire from 1070 C.E. until the demise of the empire in 1279 C. E. This dynasty was the product of decades of alliances based on marriages between the Cholas and the Eastern Chalukyas based in Vengi, a ...

period. In inscriptions found in both these temples, it is gathered that the town had several other appellations - it went by the name of ''Loka-Mahadevi-Chaturvedi-Mangalam'' during the time of

Rajaraja I Rajaraja I (947 CE – 1014 CE), born Arunmozhi Varman or Arulmozhi Varman and often described as Raja Raja the Great or Raja Raja Chozhan was a Chola emperor who reigned from 985 CE to 1014 CE. He was the most powerful Tamil king in South ...

(alias ''Rajakesarivarman''), by ''Raja-Sulamani-Chaturvedi-Mangalam'' during the reign of the following kings

Rajadhiraja ''RajadhiRaja'' () is a 2014 Malayalam-language action thriller film, directed by Ajai Vasudev and written by the duo of Udayakrishna-Siby K. Thomas. The film stars Mammootty and Raai Laxmi, alongside an ensemble supporting cast including ...

, Rajendra and Veera Rajendra and also by a few other names . From the time of Kulothunga Chola I to the end of the third Kulothunga period, the town was called 'Pandiyanai Irumadi Venkonda Chola Chaturvedi Mangalam' ('the town belonging to the Chaturvedi Chola who conquered Pandyas twice'). During the 18- year reign of Raja Raja III, the town was called "Grama Sikamani Chaturvedi Mangalam" (''Jewel among habitations'').

Temples

The Rajagopala Perumal temple is dedicated to the worship of Vishnu, in the form of ''Dwaraka-Pati'' ('the Lord of

Dvārakā Dvārakā, also known as ''Dvāravatī'' (Sanskrit द्वारका "the gated ity, possibly meaning having many gates, or alternatively having one or several very grand gates), is a sacred historic city in the sacred literature of H ...

'), and was also known in Tamil as . Besides this, there are two other temples in the town devoted to Vishnu called the Vaikuntha-Perumal temple and the Krishna-swami temple. There is another temple called Kailasa-Nathar temple devoted to Siva.

References

Villages in Kanchipuram district Archaeological sites in Tamil Nadu {{Kanchipuram-geo-stub