Cheap-ass director of cheap-ass movies, Pa Ranjith, insults our great king rAjarAja chOzha as a robber of dalit lands. There is zero evidence for this assertion.
On the contrary, although land was (and still is) recognized as belonging to the state, rAjarAja recognized the separate lands owned by paRaiyars (पऱैयर्-s), a caste well-recognized as dalit today and gave them tax-exemptions, along with Hindu temples & Jain monasteries; read on.
Here are two inscriptions from the great shiva temple of tanjAvUr (तञ्जावूर्), the बृहदीश्वर. The first one is from the second tier of the south wall. Will post original and translation; have even highlighted relevant portions. This is but a sample.
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You can also read the english here if the print is difficult: …
paRayas, apart from kammanas (artisans), Agamika temples (referred to as shrI-koyil) but also village temples (of ayyan & piDAri); these & many more were deducted from the chOzha tax “grid”.
What you see here is just a small sample. It shows the tax scheme for tanjAvur (the capital, तञ्जावूर्) & 2 villages: palaiyUr (पलैयूर्) & ArappAr (आरप्पार्) in the chOzha empire. In each of these 3 units, paRayas were given tax exemption for their lands along with temples.
A vicious conspiracy is taking place—to portray one of bhArata’s most revered and loved kings as a “dalit oppressor”; the noble king who engraved the name of every person of every community who contributed to the building of one of the greatest temples ever. Those who call themselves Hindus must show that this endless playing of the victimhood card by some anti-hindu, filthy ideologues cannot & will not be allowed to tar the image of our religion & great forebears whose memories we cherish. Long live rAjarAja & his blessed name! There is now a toxic thinking that if some people invoke certain cards or activate certain triggers, the Hindus will cowardly allow them to get away with anything they do or say. Any tamizh who insults great forebears like rAjarAja should not dwell peacefully on tamizh soil.
The second inscription is from the upper tier of the north wall of the same temple (बृहदीश्वर). Again, I will post original as well as translation, along with highlights of relevant parts. Those knowing tamizh can confirm the translation with little difficulty:
Translation of relevant parts, with highlights corresponding to exact portions highlighted in original: …
Certain lands, we see, are exempted from tax in every village. Again, this is just a sample. Posting the entire original of the inscription here with highlights will be a long and tiring exercise. We see that the lands of paRayar cultivators were clearly exempt from tax.
We also note that rAjarAja did not differentiate between Agamika temples (Which his inscriptions refer to as “shrI-koyil”) and the local village temples for deities such as ayyanAr or piDAri. He exempted the lands of both types of temples from taxes.