Hey guys, let's take a look at the ruins called Maaligai Medu located in the small village
of Gangai Konda Cholapuram.
This was one of the Royal Palaces of Rajendra Chola, the greatest Indian King who lived
in the 11th century.
To call Rajendra Chola the greatest King of India is actually an understatement because
he conquered a much larger area which now spans to more than 10 different countries,
including Malaysia, Maldives, Indonesia and Bangladesh and countries like Cambodia and
Thailand were also under his rule, because they were paying taxes and tribute, to him.
So he should be ranked as one of the greatest kings in the world.
This was one of the royal palaces that he built.
It is surprisingly small and we don't know exactly how he used this building.
While the Chola Kings used granite to build great temples, they used bricks for their
houses.
These bricks are a thousand years old and you can see how perfectly they're baked and
aligned just like modern day houses.
This is also one of the reasons why palaces and houses of Cholas don't exist today.
Since their houses were built with bricks, they could be easily destroyed by Kings who
came at a later time, and local people have also destroyed them by taking them apart for
their own construction.
My Measurements show some intriguing details.
These walls are about 53 inches thick.
Now why would a brick wall in a palace need to be 4 and a half feet thick?
We're talking 10th century where there was no form of artillery, so it was not for defense.
The only logical reason for such thick walls is to support the weight of more floors on
the top.
This is confirmed by the fact that several granite pillar bases with circular holes are
found on this site.
Pillars like these would have been placed on top of them and you can even see the outer
square where the pillar once stood.
Is it possible that the Cholas built multi-storied buildings 1000 years ago?
So, I started to research if Cholas ever mentioned multi-storied buildings in their copper plates
or stone inscriptions and also talked to the locals if they knew something of the sorts.
I found out 2 interesting things: (1) What we see here, is not the ground level, but
the second or third floor of the palace.
The ground level is roughly 60 feet deep.
Locals told me that they find all sorts of granite & brick structures as deep as 60 feet
in this village, whenever they dig foundations for their houses or dig water wells.
Believe it or not, this little village called Gangai Konda Cholapuram, was the capital of
the massive Chola empire a 1000 years ago.
It turns out that some major natural calamity happened and the entire city lays buried under
the ground.
So what we see here, is actually the second or third story of the building.
Secondly, there are multiple writings and stone tablets that point out that this was
a multi storied building.
The inscriptions clearly mention multiple levels of the Royal palaces.
Now, imagine this being the third floor which is built with a wall thickness of 4 and a
half feet . It was constructed to easily support another 5 floors.
Which means that Rajendra Chola had an 8 storied palace like a modern day apartment complex.
Or it could have been a pyramidal structure like the Thanjavur Palace built in the 17th
century.
After all, all the temples built by Cholas, have multiple levels, so why shouldn't their
houses be so?
This shows that the whole concept of going vertical instead of taking up a large space
on the ground was not something that's recently invented but something that existed 1000 years
ago.
After the catastrophe, half of this palace would have buried while the remaining half
would have stood above the ground level.
The Kings who came afterwards, destroyed whatever is above the ground.
Another intriguing detail is that archeologists found several Chinese porcelain potsherds
here.
This is truly fascinating because historians argue that the world was not connected until
a few hundred years ago.
But Rajendra Chola and his father RajaRaja had international connections around the world.
While these potsherds prove Chinese connection, a year ago, I showed you a sculpture which
proves that the Cholas were in contact with the French.
So they covered both East and West, a thousand years ago.
I am Praveen Mohan, I hope you liked this video.
Please do subscribe and I'll talk to you soon.