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This question is motivated after watching the story portrayed in the opening scene of the Tamil movie Dasavatharam starring Kamal Hassan where the scene is claimed to be based on historical events of 12th century. In the scene a vaishnavite Rangaraja Nambi played by Kamal Hassan is drowned in the ocean along with the idol of Vishnu for not converting to Shaivism and for not revealing the location of Ramanuja - the great exponent of Sri Vaishnavism. My question is, is there any evidence that the Cholan king persecuted vaishnavites?

Naveen
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    Yes, Sri Vaishnava accounts describe in great detail the persecution of Ramanujacharya and his disciples at the hands of a certain Chola king, known as Krimikantha Chola. It's because of this persecution that Ramanujacharya left Sri Rangam and went to Melkote. He only returned to Sri Rangam after the Chola king had died. There's some dispute over whether Krimikantha Chola is the same as Kulothunga Chola, but yes, there is some historical basis to opening scene in Dasavatharam. There was a Govindaraja statue in Chidambaram thrown into the ocean by Krimikantha Chola. – Keshav Srinivasan May 05 '16 at 01:58
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    This book identifies the Krimikantha Chola with Kulothunga Chola I: https://books.google.com/books?id=1AoaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA287&img=1&pgis=1&dq=chola+govindaraja&sig=ACfU3U016CnR8j56NL9gDtpPgUXGDE0wNQ&edge=0. By the way, Ramanujacharya's guru Periya Nambi, aka Mahapurna, and his disciple Kurathalwan, the father of Parashara Bhattar, both had their eyes plucked out by Krimikantha Chola for refusing to divulge Ramanujacharya's location. (At the time Ramanujacharya was escaping to Melkote.) – Keshav Srinivasan May 05 '16 at 02:03
  • @TheDestroyer I haven't heard that story, but I think Periya Nambi and Kursthalwan both died after their eyes were plucked out, so it can't be them. – Keshav Srinivasan May 05 '16 at 03:24
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    @Keshav Was Lord Govindaraja retrieved from the ocean by any chance? – Surya May 05 '16 at 05:24
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    @Surya Yes, 500 years later he was reinstalled, although he had to be reinstalled within the Chidambaram Nataraja temple, since the original Govindaraja temple in Chidambaram had been destroyed by Krimikantha Chola. So to this day, Govindaraja remains one of the few Swayambhu Vishnu statues to be located within a Shiva temple. I give an example of another such temple in my question here: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5203/36 – Keshav Srinivasan May 05 '16 at 13:04
  • @Surya By the way, it's because the Govindaraja moolavar at Chidambaram had been thrown into the ocean that Ramanujacharya built the Govindaraja temple in Tirupati. In any case, it's still not clear to me what the story Vishnu's Govindaraja form is, which is why I posted this question: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/179/36 – Keshav Srinivasan May 05 '16 at 13:07
  • @KeshavSrinivasan, this site says Kurathazhwar lived for long serving Ramanujar after that cruel incident - http://www.saranagathi.org/acharyas/kuresar/life.htm , btw I also heard that some devotee got his eyes back in an upanyasam by Velukkudi swamin – ram May 06 '16 at 01:46
  • @KeshavSrinivasan. I read and heard form a Sri Vaishnava preacher that Kurathalwan and Shri Ramanujacharya met each other at Srirangam, 12 years after the incident. Periyar Nambi(Mahapurna) died immediately after the incident. –  Jul 01 '16 at 16:05

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None whatsoever.

http://rramakrishnan.com/H/000/Tamil/Hinduism/Vaishnavism/Srivathsan---Persecution-of-Ramanuja.pdf

There was a power struggle between the established Vaishnava priesthood and Ramanuja and for stability the King sided with the established priests. The absurd stories that people like Dushyant Sridhar trot out - about sanskrit word play about "Siva paratvam" and putting out of eyes never happened. casting the idol into the sea might have been due to the idol having been worn out.

Calling a historical king 'krimikantha chola' is merely Vaishnava hate-speech.

https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/middle-chola-temples/d/doc211912.html

"Thus we see that liberal endowments and gifts were made to Vishnu temples and allied institutions by the king, the members of the royal family, his officers and feudatories, and the public at large throughout his long reign and large empire. In the face of such overwhelming evidence, it is difficult to sustain the theory that he was a persecutor of Vaishnavism in general and of Ramanuja in particular. With very few exceptions, all the Cholas followed a policy not merely of negative tolerance but of positive interest in other faiths, devout Saivites as they were. (Also refer to The Colas by K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, p.295 and Note 43 on p.300.){GL_NOTE: 83506 :}"

S K
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    The writer is a Shaivite. It is like quoting from your own blog – Nayonika Vats Jul 10 '20 at 20:54
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    It's important to take historical accounts from both the supposed victim and perpetrator carefully. Feelings and biases can distort historical events. That being said there likely was some religious persecution as Shaiva and Vaishnava relationships were tense. Or at the very least unsteady relationships. Disregard for such is just ignorance, but blind faith in the source is also wrong. – Haridasa Dec 14 '23 at 11:03
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I do not know if this qualifies to be called as an answer, so the moderator or high-rep members are free to take a call on this.

In Tirupati, there is a place called Manchineella Gunta, a few kilometers from the Railway station, where an idol of Sri Govindaraja Swamy is present. This idol can be see after 4:10 min in this youtube video.. (This is a real idol and yours truly has been to this place).

Here is another youtube video that talks about this original Govindaraja Swamy idol in Tirupati.

According to the locals, this is the original Govindaraja Swamy idol in Chidambaram, which was removed by the Chola king. Apparently, the idol is slightly damaged and so it cannot be placed in a temple for puja. This idol has somehow ended up in Tirupati. If the original idol was placed in the sea by the Chola king, it is not clear how it was retreived. (Or, it is also possible that the orginal idol was removed by the Chola king, but not placed in the sea).

As of now, I am not able to ascertain if the local stories about this idol are true.

estimator
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