Tag: religious patronage
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Holding the Sacred: Princess Kundavai and Sembiyan Mahadevi on Faith, Power, and Continuity in Chola India
Across the Chola centuries, two women shaped faith in profoundly different ways. Sembiyan Mahadevi built stone temples that anchored Shaiva devotion in permanence, while Princess Kundavai sustained religious life through careful administration, plural patronage, and ritual continuity. Read together, their stories reveal how faith survives not only through monuments, but through care, negotiation, and the…
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The Divine Architect: Princess Kundavai’s Quiet Architecture of Faith in Chola India
In the tenth century, when empires expanded through war and stone, Princess Kundavai shaped something quieter and more enduring. Through inscriptions, temple endowments, and carefully sustained rituals, she practiced faith as governance—funding lamps, feeding priests, protecting Jain and Vaishnava institutions, and guiding the spiritual economy of the Chola world. This deeply researched essay traces her…
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