Mēlappaḻuvūr, Agastyeśvara temple, time of Parakesarivarman, year (20)

Editors: Valérie Gillet, Emmanuel Francis.

Identifier: DHARMA_INSMelKil00016.

Summary: AIM, southern shrine; on the easternmost wall section of the southern façade of the ardha-maṇḍapa, lower inscription (the last line is engraved on the ledge); 20th (?) regnal year of matirai koṇṭa Kōpparakesarivarman = Parāntaka I (circa 927 A.D.).

Hand description:

Language: Tamil.

Repository: Mēlappaḻuvūr & Kīḻappaḻuvūr (tfa-melappaluvur-kilappaluvur-epigraphy).

Version: (bf3fb67), last modified (97538e4).

Edition

⟨1⟩ svasti śrī

matirai koṇṭa kōpparakēcarivaṉmakki yāṇṭu (2 10) Āvatu

kuṉṟakūṟṟa⟨ttu⟩⟨2⟩Avanika¡ṉ!⟨n⟩taṟppapurattu mahadevarkku Ittaḷi kuttapiḷ(l)ai kumiḻi tar(u)ṇaval ⟨3⟩ li Oru nontāviḷakku cantrādittaval Eriya vai⟨t⟩ta poṉ patiṉ ka⟨4⟩ḻañcu

Ippoṉ patiṉ kaḻañcum koṇṭōm koṇṭu Oru no⟨5⟩ntāviḷakkukku nicatam Uḻakku ney Aṭṭuvōm āṉōm Ava⟨6⟩ṉikantavappurattu nakarattōm Ivvaṉ […]

Apparatus

⟨1⟩ yāṇṭu (2 10)37 ARIE • There may be another number after 20 that could be a seven.

⟨6⟩ Ivvaṉ • This is followed by a few illlegible letters.

Translation by Gillet 2024

Fortune! Prosperity! This is the 20th (?) year of Kōpparakesarivarman who has taken (koṇṭa) Madurai. To Mahādeva (mahadevarkku, that is, mahādevarkku) of Avanikaṉtaṟppapuram [in] Kuṉṟakkūṟṟam, the dancing child (kūtta-piḷḷai) of this temple (ittaḷi), Kumiḻi Taruṇavalli, to burn (eriya) one perpetual lamp as long as the sun and the moon endure, gave (vaita, that is, vaitta) ten (patiṉ) kaḻañcus of gold; we have taken (koṇṭōm) all the ten kaḻañcus (kaḻañcum) of this gold; having taken [them] (koṇṭu), we will supply (aṭṭuvōm āṉōm) one uḻakku of ghee (ney) everyday (nicatam) for a perpetual lamp, we the Nagarattārs of Avaṉikantavappuram […]

Bibliography

Reported in ARIE 1923-1924 (ARIE/1923-1924/C/1924/358).

Edited and translated in Gillet 2024, based on autopsy and photographs (by Valérie Gillet, 2016-2018).

This digital edition by Valérie Gillet and Emmanuel Francis.

Primary

Gillet, Valérie. 2024. Minor Majesties: The Paḻuvēṭṭaraiyars and their South Indian Kingdom of Paḻuvūr, 9th-11th centuries A.D. New York: Oxford University Press. [URL]. Page TBC, item 16.

Secondary

[ARIE] ARIE 1923-1924. Annual report on South-Indian epigraphy for the year ending 31st March 1924. Edited by G. Venkoba Rao. Madras: Government Press, 1925. Pages 149–150, appendix C/1924, item 358.