Tiruchirappalli

History at a glance

1. Chola period
   Inscriptions are cut at both temples. Srirangam's eventually run past 640.
2. Chola, Pandya, Hoysala, Vijayanagara
   Successive dynasties expand Srirangam to its seven enclosures and twenty-one towers.
3. c. 1700 AD
   Construction of the Rajagopuram begins.
4. 1987
   The Rajagopuram is completed, 13 tiers, by the 44th jeeyar of Ahobila Mutt.
5. Current
   Srirangam is on UNESCO's Tentative List as ref 5894 — a candidate, not an inscribed site.
6. Puranic
   Parvati, sent to earth for mocking Shiva's penance, shapes a lingam from Cauvery water under the Venn Naaval tree in the Jambu forest, and receives instruction from Shiva — she facing east, he facing west.
7. Puranic
   Two of Shiva's attendants, cursed to be born an elephant and a spider, worship the same lingam — one bringing water, one spinning webs for shade — and destroy each other over it.
8. 1st century CE
   Srirangam's origins are traced to ancient Tamil Sangam literature.
9. c. 1,800 years ago
   The Jambukeswarar temple is founded by the Early Chola king Kocengannan.
10. 6th-9th centuries
    Eleven of the twelve Alvars sing Srirangam in 247 verses of the Naalayira Divya Prabhandham, making it the foremost of the 108 Divya Desams.

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