In search of: Grave of Indian King Raja Raja Chola - Was he murdered?

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• published: 17 Dec 2015
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Read the full story here: http://goo.gl/M29uE1 In this video, I am gonna show you my search for the grave of the Indian King Raja Raja. I was told that his tombstone lies in the small village of Udayalur. This is where he is rumored to have been buried or cremated. When I visited this place, I was surprised to see a lingam which is about 2 feet tall and this elderly gentleman told me that the rest of the structure is buried underneath about 14 feet deep. It is a rather simple lingam with a diameter of only one and a half feet. He says this Lingam is the tombstone of Raja Raja. I asked him if he knew how Raja Raja died, and he told me he died naturally of old age and was cremated right here. Why would a great king have such a small, anonymous grave? You can see there are no inscriptions, no other carvings on this lingam or anywhere in this site. Remember, Raja Raja built the greatest temple in India which is now declared a world heritage site and his accomplishments and other information are inscribed all over the walls in many temples. So, I asked this gentleman, if there is any evidence to prove that this is in fact Raja Raja's grave. He told me there used to be a pillar here and it was donated to a temple called Paalkulathu amman temple, a few miles away. He said that this pillar has inscriptions which proves that Raja Raja died here. So, I decided to travel to this temple and take a look at this pillar myself. As soon as I reached the temple, I immediately spotted the pillar. The pillar does contain the word "RajaRaja" so it is obviously related to the King, but I was not able to completely understand what the inscription said. So, I took a lot of pictures and copied the entire writings on a scratchpad. I contacted an epigraphist, who was able to tell me exactly what was written in this pillar. I've posted the entire inscription and it's translation on my website phenomenalplace.com and you can take a look at it if you are interested. I double checked this information with another expert as well. What the inscription says is that "the Royal Palace of Raja Raja Chola was renovated by 4 people". The inscription includes those 4 names and that is all the information we see on this pillar. The inscription has no reference to the death or grave of the King at all. This shows that the site of this lingam is probably not Raja Raja's grave and there is no actual evidence to claim so. This raises the question of what happened to Raja Raja, how did he die? Where did his funeral take place? Think a moment, there are hundreds of inscriptions about Raja Raja's accomplishments, how he conquered various territories, how he built the great temple and even when he was born. But there is no information whatsoever about when or how he died and where he was buried or cremated. So I decided to go back to Thanjavur to find out more about his death. I contacted several archeologists and they told me that the only reason why a King's death would not recorded is if the King died an unnatural death. So, if a King committed suicide or was murdered, then the ancient Tamils would not record that. I spoke to a lot of locals in Thanjavur to see if anyone knew how he died. The locals tell a very different, but consistent story. It turns out that Raja Raja was actually murdered by a woman from Sri Lanka. Let's hear what this gentleman says. In 993 A.D, Raja Raja conquered half of Sri Lanka and the defeated King Mahinda V fled to the south, to avoid being captured. Unable to defeat Raja Raja in the battlefield, King Mahinda sent a Buddhist woman from Sri Lanka who slowly got into the inner circle of Raja Raja. When Raja Raja was standing on the 8th floor inspecting the progress of the Big Temple, she simply pushed him down. This fall killed him instantly. People claim this is why the temple was not properly finished and his son created a whole new capital in a different city because he thought that this was a cursed place. This story also explains why his son Rajendra Chola went after Sri Lanka with a vengeance, conquering the entire island. He then found King Mahinda who was hiding, brought him back and kept him as a lifelong prisoner. Mahinda V died in prison around 1029 A.D. Although this story explains why there is no record of Raja Raja's death or his tomb, again, I have to point out that I don't have any actual evidence to prove this. So, my quest for Raja Raja's grave and the nature of his death remains incomplete but I'm gonna keep searching. I hope you liked this video, I am Praveen Mohan. Thank you for watching and talk to you soon. Read the full story here: http://goo.gl/M29uE1 Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/phenomenalplace/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/phenomenalplace Facebook: https://goo.gl/5e5Mrl Website: http://www.phenomenalplace.com