SII 3.64: original edition by Eugen Julius Theodor Hultzsch

Author of digital edition: Emmanuel Francis (emfr).

Summary: This inscription (No. 106 of 1892) is engraved on the west and south walls of the first prākāra of the Ādhipurīśvara temple at Tiruvoṟṟiyūr in the Saidāpēṭ tāluka of the Chingleput district.¹ The name of the temple is derived from Ādhipura,² i.e. ‘the mortgagevillage,’ which is the Sanskrit equivalent of Oṟṟiy-ūr. That this Śiva temple is a very ancient one, follows from the fact that Oṟṟiyūr is mentioned by each of the three authors of the Dēvāram.³

Like the two next following inscriptions (Nos. 65 and 66), this one is dated in the 2nd year of the reign of Rājakēsarivarman, alias Rājēndra-Chōḷadēva (II.). From the Chellūr plates of Vīra-Chōḍa⁴ we know that Rājēndra-Chōḍa was the original name of Kulōttuṅga I., who is distinguished from his maternal grandfather Parakēsarivarman, alias Rājēndra-Chōḷa I., by the surname Rājakēsarivarman. That the Rājēndra-Chōḷa of this inscription is identical with Kulōttuṅga-Chōḷa I. follows from its historical introduction, which mentions the capture of elephants at Vayirāgaram and the conquest of the king of Dhārā at Śakkarakōṭṭam. The first of these two deeds is also referred to in the later inscriptions of Kulōttuṅga I.⁵ And both these and the Kaliṅgattu-Paraṇi report that he conquered Śakkarakōṭṭam when still a Yuvarāja.⁶ Further the subjoined inscription says that he took possession of the eastern country, by which his original dominion, the country of Vēṅgī,⁷ may be meant. Perhaps he took Vēṅgī from his uncle Vijayāditya VII., who appears to have received it from the Chōḷa king Vīrarājēndra I.⁸ The southern limit of the dominions of Rājēndra-Chōḷa II. in the second year of his reign is perhaps roughly indicated by a line connecting Tiruvoṟṟiyūr, Tiruvālaṅgāḍu and Kōlār, the localities of the inscriptions Nos. 64 to 66. The subjoined inscription implies that he felt himself already at that time as a member of the Chōḷa family to which his mother and grandmother belonged,⁹ and not as an Eastern Chālukya, because it mentions as his crest the tiger, and not the boar. But he cannot yet have taken possession of the Chōḷa country on the banks of the Kāvērī. For, his victory over the Kuntala king (Vikramāditya VI.) and his accession to the Chōḷa throne are referred to only in later inscriptions of his, and in these he bears the new name Kulōttuṅga, which, to judge from verse 11 of the Chellūr plates,¹⁰ he assumed on the very occasion of his coronation as Chōḷa king and after his victory over Vikramāditya VI.¹¹

The purpose of this inscription is to record that a general, whose name we know already from an inscription of Adhirājēndra,¹² granted 240 kāśu, which the temple authorities employed for purchasing certain land from five villages. Three of these belonged, like Tiruvoṟṟiyūr itself, to Puḻal-nāḍu, a subdivision of Puḻaṟkōṭṭam; one to a sub- division of Puliyūr-kōṭṭam; and the last to Eḻumūr-nāḍu. Both Puḻal¹³ and Puliyūr¹⁴ now belong to the Saidāpēṭ tāluka. Puḻal-nāḍu must have comprised the north-eastern portion of that tāluka, where we find Tiruvoṟṟiyūr and two of the three other villages which the inscription locates in Puḻal-nāḍu, viz. Maṇali¹⁵ and Āmbilavāyil.¹⁶ Eḻumūr-nāḍu owes its name to Eḻumbūr (Egmore), now a portion of the city of Madras.

Language: Tamil (tam) [Grantha (grantha), Tamil (tamil)].

Repository: South Indian Inscriptions (Original Edition) (south-indian-inscriptions).

Identifier: DHARMA_INSSIIv03p0i0064.

File path: SII03/DHARMA_INSSIIv03p0i0064.xml.