avanams of rice to the shrine and was tasked with growing oil seed for Koneswaram annually. Tenth-twelfth century Chola empire Trincomalee figured prominently during the medieval golden age of the Tamil Chola Dynasty, due to the proximity of the Trincomalee bay harbour with the rest of the continent and its benefits for the Chola's maritime empire and the two powerful merchant guilds of the time – the Manigramam and the Five Hundred Lords of Ayyavolu in their trade with the far east and conquest of Srivijaya of the Malay archipelago and Indonesia. The Koneswaram temple compounds and its adjacent region, from Periyakulam and Manankerni in the north, Kantalai and Pothankadu in the west, and Verugal in the south, formed a great Saiva Tamil principality. Residents in this collective community were allotted services, which they had to perform at the Koneswaram temple. An inscriptional record containing a praiseful poem of Raja Raja Chola I, who ruled the northern Malabar country from 993 to 1014 CE was discovered in the 1970s within the premises of the Koneswaram temple. The 1033–1047 CE Tamil inscriptions of the nearby Choleeswaram temple ruins of Peraru, Kantalai and the Manankerni inscriptions reveal the administrative practices of the Chola King Ilankeshvarar Devar (Sri Cankavanamar) with the Koneswaram shrine and the Trincomalee region at the time. Construction activities at the temple were aided by architect and Chola dignitary Muventavelan Kanavati. The Palamottai inscription from the Trincomalee district, found amongst the inscriptions in nearby Kantalai, records a monetary endowment to the "Siva temple of Then Kailasam (Kailash of the South)" by a Tamil widow for the merit of her husband. This was administered by a member of the Tamil military caste – the Velaikkarar, troops deployed to protect shrines in the state that were closely associated to King Ilankeshvarar Devar. King Gajabahu II who ruled Polonnaruwa from 1131 to 1153 CE is described in the Konesar Kalvettu as a devout worshipper of Lord Shiva and a benefactor of the temple of Konamamalai. King Chodaganga Deva, a descendant of King Virarajendra Chola's grandson Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva – the progenitor of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh – made rich donations after visiting Konamamalai on Tamil New Years Day 1223 CE, according to a Sanskrit inscription in Grantha script excavated on a doorjamb at the Hindu temple. A millennium-old Tamil inscription of the Chola Vatteluttu alphabet was discovered in