what were the development during the chola period in the field of religion?
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The development during the chola period in the field of religious In the field of religion the Chola period was generally one of consolidation though new trends were also evident. Sankara had already written his commentary on the Brahmasutra. His monistic interpretation was challenged by Ramanuja who also wrote a commentary on the same text but with a different bias of qualified non-dualism.
Meykandar wrote his Sivagnanabodam which introduced the crux of Saiva-Siddhanta philosophy in a nut-shell.
The Vaishnava and the Saiva texts were explained in a number of ancillary works each one of which can claim to be a classic. The Chola kings were all of them Saivas. The devotion of some of the Chola rulers for example, Kulottunga II verged on fanaticism. The Chola persecution of Ramanuja led to the flight of the latter to Melkote from where he converted Bittideva to Vaishnavism.
Persecution only strengthened Vaishnavism, Chidambaram was the chief beneficiary of Chola religious patronage; Srirangam was however the headquarters of Ramanuja the high priest of Sri Vaishnavism. Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I are known to have taken a tolerant view of the activities of other religionists. Some of them munificently endowed Vaishnava shrines also. They could liberally endow a Buddha Vihara at Nagappattinam.