We are constantly looking at the research records of the Cholas. Following that, we will see the traces of the Cholas in Thailand in the next post. All the photographs I took in Phimai of these Thai Cholas have been destroyed.This town is in Nakhon Ratchasima province. At the same time, all the photographs I took at the Palace and Government Museum in the capital Bangkok are safe with me. There is only one temple in Phimai. The museum in this Phimai is set in a very spectacular location.
The factory where I work is located near the town of Phimai. I went there on a Business visit for my Company Seagate. Since it was a non working day , I had decided to visit the historical places in Bhimai on the next day, a holiday. Thus I asked my friend to arrange the rental vehicle. He also arranged a rental vehicle.When the rental car driver was asked to take him to some historical places, he took him to a remote picturesque village situated along a river bank. We went to that village and saw big pits were dug and there were skeletons in them. When looking at the place, it looked like a burial place for the people who lived in that period. At that place were the bases of Shiva Lingam. After the death of the kings and important people who lived in that period, it was the custom of the Cholas to worship them by placing a Shivalinga in the place where they were buried and erecting a pallipadai temple. But it was very surprising to see that method here as well. But I didn’t find any information here relating to its history.
Next the rental car driver who saw my interest told me sir there is a museum near this place. He said there are many such idols of Hindu gods.The rental car driver said that there is a temple called Phimai nearby and the temple looks like Angkor Wat temple but slightly smaller in size but it was built before Angkor Wat temple. Immediately I requested him to take me there. As he said when he visited there, the temple was similar to the Angkor Wat temple but much smaller size. There was more information than I had ever imagined.
The surrounding wall of the temple was in a very dilapidated state. When you look closely at the temple, you can clearly see that it had been a Hindu temple and that Shivlinga was worshiped there in ancient times. But at present the Shiv Linga inside the temple is moved and taken out and worship is done by keeping the Buddha statue in it. When the kings who lived in that period embraced a certain religion, they did not build a new temple for it, but removed only the idols from the previous temples and worshiped the gods of the religion they adopted in that temple. It can be seen that the same thing happened in Angkor Wat temple. There is no information whenT Buddhism was brought here and during the reign of which king. This can only be found out by researching it separately. I looked around this Phimai temple and took a lot of photos. Those photos are gone. It has not been found till date. We can give you complete information about this only when we travel again but I found the website link to the museum and temple which I have provided below
While looking around this Phimai temple, the shops near it were selling a book called Angkor Wat. I have uploaded some photos from that book on this website so that you can see them under Angkor Wat page.When visiting the museum, the Rama statue, Hanuman statue, and the statues of the kings kept there were all similar to the statues in Tamil Nadu. It was mentioned there that the king who ruled there, Rajendra Chola, changed his name to Rajendra because of his great attachment to him.
In the museum many Tamil inscriptions were written in Tamil characters. But the slip given in the museum stated that the letters were Sanskrit letters. But all those letters were Tamil letters. Immediately I said to the driver that all the characters in it are Tamil characters but it is wrongly mentioned. He went to the museum officials there and told this. But they seemed not aware of the difference between Sanskrit and Tamil
The museum has many rare Tamil treasures. That is why it is so sad to lose the photos taken there. Because those photographs as the only evidence to prove that all the characters there were Tamil characters. I will look for it one more time and if I can’t find it, I will travel there again and try to inform you about it.The museum exhibits a lot of gold jewelery used during that period.
I had also visited the Thailand Palace and Thailand museum.When you go inside this museum, you can see how elephants were led and fought in that period, and the models were made there to know what kind of ships they used in that period.The Chola influence in South East asia can be seen when you visit these South East asia countries. Among the Tamil kings, the Cholas were the kings who ruled the largest territory. Even though the Cholas ruled Thailand across the sea, they followed the norms of Tamil Nadu in terms of construction and warfare. The museum contains a lot of very ancient information.
As far as Thailand is concerned, even today the kings there claim to be the descendants of Rama. Even the kings here add Ramavarman in their names. But as far as Tamil nadu is concerned, the kings who ruled there never displayed Rama in such a big way in any place. Many temples have been erected and worshiped only by praising Shiva as the main deity. It seems to me that the name Rama may have been added due to the influence of kings from the northern part of India in later days.
But there is no historical record of any kings from northern India who invaded and conquered countries across the sea. If so, it is possible that some king belonging to the lineage of the Cholas who lived later may have written in praise of Rama here inplace of Shiva.Because not only here but also in Thailand Rama is mentioned as the main god in the books. Although the people living in Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia mostly follow Buddhism, Ramayana is still the national book of those countries. To be so, in the earlier period, a group of Tamils may have gone and spread the Ramayana to all countries.
The most important thing to mention in this museum is how the elephant troops fought in the earlier period, and how the army soldiers wore armour then, the information like photographs were beautifully kept here. The model of a ship as it was in that period was very well done. It has been my long time desire to build a ship like that. The time is not yet available for that. The battlefield scenes set up in this museum are brilliantly done.
One can see the image of Tamilnadu sculpture in the statues and sculptures here. But only the facial structure of female sculptures in these two countries is slightly different.While entering the temples in our Tamil Nadu, there are large statues of Dwara Balaagrs on both sides, similar statues are placed in the Buddhist temples there. Looking at it, it seemed to me that this temple must have been converted from a Hindu temple in the earlier period to a Buddhist temple.
With this I have completed the first major phase of this website. After writing this, if you have seen it in the history section, I am going to write a sequel called Cholas in my view. We will continue to travel in the coming posts.In this sub topic, I will try to elaborate more on the Chola conquest and influence in the South East Asian countries. The journey continues….