HOW DID HE DO IT?
JATAVARMAN SUNDARA PANDYA'S
THULABAARA DHAANAM
VIDYALANKARA
DR.S.JAYABARATHI
In the 2500 years period of available Tamil history, the rule of the Imperial
Cholzas was an important factor.
The Cholzas
were ruling over the whole of Tamilnadu and parts
of Andra for the better part of 3 centuries lasting from 9th to
12th centuries.
It took
the Cholzas immense repeated efforts lasting a century to overcome the Pandyas.
Rajendra got so fed up that he abolished the rule of the Pandyas and appointed
his sons as the Pandya kings. Not kings of Pandya country, but as Pandya
kings themselves.
The Pandyas
bided their time for two centuries.
The nemesis
to the Cholza Empire came in the person of Maaravarman Sundara Pandiya
I(1216 - 1240) He devastated Cholza nadu and Cholza nadu became very weak.
40 years
later, another Sundara Pandiya appeared on the scene.
He was Jatavarman Sundara Pandiya. He conquered the Cholza territories
and created the New Pandya Empire.
He ransacked
Cholza naadu.
But he
donated much of whatever booty that he captured.
The biggest
beneficiaries to his benevolence were the Chidhambaram and the SriRanggam
temples.
He perfomed
what was known as the 'Thulabaara Dhaanam'.
'Thulabaram'
is a weighing scale.
He caparisoned
his Royal elephant with full ornaments. He climbed upon the howdah(ambaari)
with his royal queen. The elephant mahout was also on the elephant. The king
and queen were fully bedecked in their splendour. The custom was that the
king would wear the most costly ornaments.
Marco
Polo, a few years later. has mentioned that the king was wearing ornaments
worth a city's ransom.
Thus fully
attired, he weighed himself, his wife, the mahout, the elephant with all
the paraphernalia.
He gave
an equivalent weight of gold and other ornaments to the Temple of SriRanganathar
and Chidhambaram.
Please read
carefully.
This is
a historical fact. Therefore it had really taken place.
Now the
questions are:
How did
the Emperor Jatavaraman Sundara Pandya measure out an exact weight?
How tall
was the beam of the scale-"tharaasu".
How long
was the cross-beam of the tharaasu?
What material
would have takenthe stress and strain and born the weights - the weight of
the elephant etc., and theweight of the gold?
What iron
was used in the making of the tharaasu?
What was
the total weight of the tharaasu?
What formula
would you use to measure the distance of the fulcrum from the end?
How heavy
and how thick should be the pivot which would bear the weight of the arms
and the weights, if it should be iron?
How high was the platform and scaffolding on which the weight readers
were standing?
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