Dear SB, The scans look absolutely wonderful and contain very useful information. Thanks a lot for the same and please let us know which book contains all this - is it "Thanjavur" by Kudavoil ??
Coming to kamal's questions :
* True that thakka yagap parani was in praise of rajaraja II but it does contain lot of references to his ancestors including rajaraja - if I am not wrong. Coming to the specific quote - please note that the later part of the stanza refers to dakshina meru. Though darasuram temple was called rajarajeswaram it did not have the special name dakshina meru nor the god was called dakshina meru vitankar. So the quote seems to refer to periya koil only. But the lines do not talk about "pon vimanam" at all.
* True that it was paranthaka who contributed the golden vimana. I don't know how the author concludes that the golden vimana of chidambaram was after periya koil. If you read the stanza it simply states that chidambaram temple was built (renovated ?) as good as dakshina meru by kulothunga (?). This is my understanding.
* Karuvoor puranam cannot be treated as a primary source but can be taken to be a secondary source. I'm not sure how this book was dated as belonging to 16th or 17th cen.- it is very difficult to date these literature unless we find something inside the book that can be linked to historical facts or figures.
* We can investigate this further only after seeing the original inscription referred by author, its period etc. The essay does not give the details of the inscription.