Texts

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This is a fragmentary record engraved in Pallava-Grantha characters of the 7th century A.D. A major portion of the inscription is erased, but from the preserved portion, the names of musical notes such as gāndhāram, pañchamam, dhaivatam, nishādam etc., can be read. A certain order is noticeable in the arrangement of the notes in seven sections with subsections. Unfortunately the subsections have been so erased as to make it impossible to follow the method adopted here. As the palaeography of the inscription resembles that of the Kuḍimiyāmalai epigraph, this record also may be attributed to the time of Mahēndravarman l.

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0007A.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This inscription in Pallava-Grantha characters is much obliterated. Of the king’s name, only the epithet or surname ‘Mahāmalla’ is preserved, and the record has to be assigned to king Narasiṁhavarman I of the Pallava dynasty of Kāñchī. It is dated in the 13th year of the king’s reign. From the characters it may be ascribed to about the 7th century A.D. Bādāmi is herein mentioned under the ancient name of ‘Vātāpi.’ According to Dr. Fleet, the present inscription will have to be assigned to the end of the reign of Pulakēśin II.¹ (Published in Ind. Ant., Vol. IX, p 99. The revised text of the inscription is given below with a plate).

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv11p0i0001.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: The subjoined Grantha inscription is engraved on the outside of the east wall of the innermost prākāra of the great temple at Chidambaram in the South Arcot District. It consists of two verses in the Sragdharā metre, each of which eulogises the victories of Kulottuṅga-Choḷa over the five Pāṇḍyas. The first verse further states, that the king burnt the fort of Korgāra (Korgāra-durga) and defeated the Keraḷas. Korgāra is probably a Sanskritised form of Koṟkai in the Tinnevelly District, the ancient capital of the Pāṇḍyas.¹ The second verse records, that Kulottuṅga-Choḷa placed a pillar of victory on the Sahyādri mountain, i.e., the Western Ghāṭs. This he must have done after his conquest of the Keraḷas, which is mentioned in the first verse. According to a grant published by Mr. Fleet,² Kulottuṅga-Choḍa-deva was the name of two of the Eastern Chalukyan successors of the Choḷa kings. Of the first of these, who was also called Rājendra-Choḍa and ruled from Śaka 985 to 1034, the Chellūr grant reports that he conquered the Kerala and Pāṇḍya countries.³ From an unpublished Chidambaram inscription⁴ it appears, that the surname Kulottuṅga-Choḷadeva was also borne by the maternal grandfather of the last-mentioned king, the Choḷa king Rājendra-Choḷa-deva, among whose conquests we find both the Keraḷa and Pāṇḍya countries.⁵ Consequently, it is impossible to say to which Kulottuṅga-Choḷa the subjoined inscription has to be referred.⁶

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv01p0i0155.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary:

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv01p0i0018.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary:

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv01p0i0001.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: The construction of a temple of Nirañjanēśvarattu-Mahādēva at Tiruvoṟṟiyūr by a certain Nirañjanaguravar of the place and the gift of 20,000 kuḻi of land by purchase from the assembly of Maṇali for its upkeep, are recorded in this inscription of Vijaya-Kampavarman dated in the 19th year. The document was drawn up by Rudrappōttar Kumāra-Kāḷan, the madhyastha of the village. The communities Mandirattār and Kombaṟuttār are mentioned in ll. 29-30. The inscription is stated to have been engraved by Tiruvoṟṟiyūr-Āchāryaṉ alias Paramēśvaran, son of Śāmuṇḍāchārya. The puḷḷis are marked in the inscription.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0105.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: The subjoined inscription, engraved in Pallava-Grantha characters, states that this rock-cut Śiva temple called Śrī-Śikhari-Pallavēśvaram was caused to be made at Siṅhapura by king Chandrāditya. This is the only record hitherto found for the king (See Plate V). This rock-cut temple contains no sculptures or ornamentation of any kind and it may be said to correspond to ‘the Mahēndra Style’ of architecture. The palaeography of the present record also suggests that the king who bore this title or name probably flourished in the time of Mahēndravarman or Narasiṁhavarman I at the latest. As, however, this title does not occur among the numerous birudas found for these in any rock-cut shrine, we have to conclude that Chandrāditya was a Pallava prince of this time, about whom we have at present no information. Siṅhapura is identical with Śiṅgavaram which is the name of a village close by. The present name of Mēlaichchēri must have been given later to this hamlet with reference to the principal village Śiṅgavaram.

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0115.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: The first portion of this record consists of a string of birudas in Sanskrit which describe the family, character and achievements of Kōpperuñjiṅgadēva. The concluding portion is in Tamil and contains an order of the chief issued, through his officer Nīlagaṅgaraiyar, to the residents of Āṟṟūr remitting, in favour of the god Āḷuḍaiya-Nāyaṉār, from the 5th year of the chief’s rule, the tax aripāḍikāval excluding kāvalpēṟu, on their village which was hitherto collected by the king. In the Sanskrit portion the chief is called Pallavakula-pārijāta, Kāḍavakula-chūḍāmaṇi, Avanipālana-jāta, etc. He claims supremacy over the Chōḷa, Pāṇḍya, Chēdi, Karṇāṭa and Āndhra kings. The chief’s conflict with Gaṇḍagōpāla and the extent of his dominions are indicated by the titles ‘Gaṇḍa-bhaṇḍāra¹-luṇṭāka’ Kshīrāpagādakshiṇanāyaka, Kāvērī-kāmuka and Peṇṇānadī-nātha. The title ‘Khaḍgamalla’ corresponding to the Tamil ‘Vāḷvalla’ explains the heroism, while the epithets ‘Bhāratamalla’ and ‘Sāhityaratnākara’ describe the cultural attainments of the chief. His connection with Mallai i.e., Mahābalipuram and Conjeeveram is indicated by the titles Mallāpuri-vallabha² and Kāñchīpurī-kānta.³ The last verse in the Sanskrit portion gives a clue to the identification of Kōpperuñjiṅga. This verse, conveying a double entendre, refers to the attempts of the chief to enjoy Dhātrī, i.e. Earth, when it is implied that the town Kāñchī was taken and Madhya-(dēśa) i.e., Naḍu-nāḍu was conquered. Since the capture of Toṇḍai-maṇḍalam and Naḍu-nāḍu is to be attributed to the elder Peruñjiṅga, this record may be assigned to him. The officer Nīlagaṅgaraiyar, from the title piḷḷaiyār applied to him, appears to have been a favourite and important officer of Kōpperuñjiṅgadēva. Three generations of Nīlagaṅgaraiyars are known, viz., (l) Kulōttuṅgaśōḻa Kaṇṇappaṉ Nallanāyaṉār Pañchanadivāṇaṉ Nīlagaṅgaraiyar (16th year of Kulōttuṅga-Chōḷa 111),⁴ (2) the officer figuring in the present inscription, and (3) his son, Pañchanadivāṇaṉ Aruṇagiriperumāḷ Nīlagaṅgaraiyar figuring in the time of Vijaya-Gaṇḍagōpāla,⁵ Sundara-Pāṇḍya⁶ and Kōpperuñjiṅgadēva II.⁷ They were in power in the present Chingleput district under the Chōḷas and their successors and sometimes issued orders in their own names.⁸ Aripāḍikāval may be explained as a tax payable in kind to the king for protection.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0120.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This inscription records in Tamil and Sanskrit the benefactions of the chief Sakalabhuvanachakravartti Kāḍavaṉ Avaṉiāḷappiṟandāṉ Kōpperuñjiṅga. He is called Bhūpālanōdbhava,¹ Kāṭhakavaṁśa-mauktika-maṇi and the conqueror of the Āndhra and the Karṇāṭa kings. The record states that the chief constructed a temple for Hēramba-Gaṇapati on the banks of the tank at Tribhuvanamādēvī and that he repaired the embankments, sluices and irrigation channels of the tank which had breached in several places. Since the inscription refers to the conquest of the Chōḷa (country), Madhyamamahī (i.e., Naḍu-nāḍu) and Tuṇḍiradēśa (i.e. Toṇḍai-maṇḍalam) by the chief, he may be identified with Kōpperuñjiṅga I. Hēramba-Gaṇapati is generally represented with five elephant heads, 10 arms and as riding on a lion. [An early sculpture of this deity is found in a rock-cut temple at Tirupparaṅkuṉṟam near Madura-Ed.]

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0126.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This inscription is engraved in Pallava-Grantha characters in a single line on the beams of the upper and lower verandahs of the rock-cut cave (plates III and IV.) It gives a long list of birudas, some of them obscure in their import, of the Pallava king Mahēndravikrama (I) with whose name the inscription commences. These titles are in Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu and indicate the character, erudition and personal tastes of the king. Some of these birudas are also found in the upper cave at Trichinopoly (No. 8 above). The rock-cut temple is described in the Memoir of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 17, page 16.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Undetermined.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0013.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: Like the previous record this inscription also enumerates a few birudas of Mahēndravarman I (plate IV.) As this inscription is found on a detached pillar, it is evident that it must have formed part of a structural temple of the time of Mahēndravarman I. which has now disappeared. West face.

Languages: Sanskrit, Telugu.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0014.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This inscription gives Vīrapratāpa, Bhuvanaikavīra¹ and Aḻagiya-Pallava as the titles of Kōpperuñjiṅgadēva. It is dated in the 27th year and records the writ of the officer Kachchiyarāyaṉ issued under orders of the chief to the trustees of the temple of Brahmīśvaram-Uḍaiyār regarding 20 mā of land which was situated in Paṉaiyūr, a hamlet of Ōgūr and originally granted, free of taxes, for the maintenance of a maṭha. The new order now issued retained only 4 out of 20 mā of land as maḍappuṟam transferring the remaining 16 mā as dēvadāna in order to conduct, from its income, a festival on the day of ‘Tiruvōṇam’ the natal star of the chief, to provide 1 padakku of rice daily in the month of Āvaṇi for offerings to the god during the service Aḻagiyapallavaṉ-śandi instituted in his name and for repairs to the temple. The astronomical details of date given correspond to A.D. 1269, November 2, Saturday.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0230.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: The present inscription which is not dated gives the surnames Kāḍavaṉ Avaṉiyāḷappiṟandāṉ, Sarvajña, Khaḍgamalla,¹ and Kṛipāṇamalla to Kōpperuñjiṅga II. It records that the chief constructed a sluice, with a feeder-channel, to the tank at Oḻugaṟai. In the Sanskrit version appended to the epigraph the channel is stated to have been named ‘Tribhuvananṛipanātha.’ The village Oḻugaṟai is in French India about 2 miles from Pondicherry. It was also known as Kulōttuṅgaśōḻanallūr (A.R. No. 175 of 1904), evidently after Kulōttuṅga-Chōḷa I.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0246.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This is a Grantha inscription praising the greatness of Mahārājasiṁha, i.e. Kōpperuñjiṅga (II), son of Jīyamahīpati by his wife Śīlavatī. Jīyamahīpati is the same as the Tamil Śīyaṉ in the name Aḻagiya-Śīyaṉ. No. donation to the local temple is recorded in this inscription, but its eulogistic character is emphasised by engraving a Nāgarī¹ and Telugu² version of it in the same temple. The chief is called an ornament of the Kāṭhaka race, Avanyavanasaṁbhavaḥ, Sarvajña, Khaḍgamalla, Niśśaṅkamalla³ etc. He claims to have ‘destroyed the pride of the Karṇāṭa king’ and to have been a ‘Sun to the lotus tank of the Chōḷa family’. He was a devotee at the feet of the god at Chidambaram, where he built the eastern gōpura⁴ resembling Mount Mēru from the riches obtained by the conquest of his enemies and called it after his own name. The decorations on the four sides of this gōpura are said to have been made with the booty acquired by subduing the four quarters and from riches used in his tulārōhaṇa-ceremony. The inscription also refers to the gifts made by the chief to the temples, among others, at Drākshārāma, Ēkāmra (Conjeeveram), Vīraṭṭānam, Śvētajambu (Jambukēśvaram), Madura⁵ and Kāḷahasti. His inscriptions are not, however, found in the last mentioned three places; but they are found at Tirupati close to Kāḷahasti wherein he is styled ‘Kāñchi-Nāyaka.’ His Drākshārāma inscription is dated in Śaka 1184 (A.D. 1262) and since his gift at this place is referred to in the present record, the latter has to be placed after that date, if not at a later time in the very same year. Two important statements made in this inscription establish Kōpperuñjiṅga’s relationship with the Chōḷas and the Pāṇḍyas. He claims to have elevated in the south a Chōḷa prince ‘who was shuddering with fear’ (l. 9). The Chōḷa prince referred to was evidently Rājēndra-Chōḷa III who must have received assistance from the Kāḍava chief, probably against Rājarāja III. He also calls himself a sūtradhāra in the installation (sthāpanā) of the Pāṇḍyarāya. This suggests that Kōpperuñjiṅga should have proceeded to the north as an advance-guard of the Pāṇḍya ruler Jaṭāvarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya I.

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0247.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This record engraved in Pallava-Grantha characters on two detached pillars, gives the birudas of a Pallava king. From the florid variety of the alphabet¹ used and from the occurrence of the titles Atyantakāma, Atiraṇachaṇḍa, etc., the king may be identified with Narasiṁha II whose identical birudas are also found engraved in the Kailāsanātha temple at Conjeeveram which is definitely known to have been constructed by him. As Tiruppōrūr is close to Mahābalipuram, it is possible that the pillars belonged to a structural temple of the time of Narasiṁha II built somewhere in this locality and may have been fixed up in their present position in the Kandasvāmin temple at a later date. First Pillar.

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0027.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This is a label inscription¹ in the Pallava-Grantha script engraved on the lateral face of a stray granite slab fixed at the northern entrance into the Okkapiṟandāṉkuḷam street. From general appearance, the slab seems to have formed the lintel of a structural temple in the village. The inscription reads ‘Śrī-Mahēndravarmmēśvaragṛiham’. A similar label is also found in the same village in the Kailāsanātha temple, engraved on the two wing-stones of the steps leading to the Mahēndravarmēśvara shrine which is stated to have been built by Mahēndravarman III (S.I.I. Vol. I. p. 23). The original location of this slab may be traced to this shrine where the present lintel appears to be a later substitution or to some other shrine not far from its present position.²

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0031.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: Of the two monolithic caves, one at the foot and the other half-way up, of ‘the rock’ at Trichinopoly, the latter alone contains inscriptions, two of which, published in South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I, pages 29 and 30, state that the cave (upper) was constructed by Guṇabhara (i.e.) Mahēndravarman I. A verse inscription (No. 9 below) engraved on the beam over the inner row of pillars here, calls the cave ‘Laḷitāṅkura-Pallavēśvara-gṛiham’ after the title ‘Laḷitāṅkura’ of this king, which also occurs in his record at Pallāvaram. His birudas are engraved in bold Pallava-Grantha and Tamil characters on all the pillars in the upper cave at Trichinopoly. The outer wall of the sanctuary in this cave seems to have contained an inscription, but only a few letters of its first line are now visible, the rest being completely damaged. The name ‘Mahēndravikrama’ is found mentioned in the inscription on the extreme left outer pillar and most of the birudas occurring here are also found in the records of this king at Pallāvaram and other rock-cut excavations of his time. Some of these titles are unintelligible and appear to be Telugu in origin. The bottom of each of the four pillars contains a biruda in the Pallava-Tamil characters, of which only two are now clear, viz. Piṇapiṇakku and Chitti[rakāra]ppuli. It is of interest to note that the birudas are alphabetically arranged and so engraved on the front face of the pillars. The same arrangement, though followed in the Pallāvaram inscription, is not so conspicuous there as in the present record (plates I and II). The characters employed in the present inscriptions are of an ornate nature and provide an interesting contrast with the simpler variety of letters found in the Pallāvaram record of the same king, where almost all these birudas are repeated. A description of the cave is found in the Memoir of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 17, pages 13-15.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Undetermined.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0008.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This inscription records an endowment of 60 kaḻañju of gold, made in the 8th year of Vijaya-Aparājitavarma-Pōttaraiyar, by Paiytāṅgi Kaṇḍaṉ, chief of Kāṭṭūr in Vaḍakarai Iṉṉambar-nāḍu, a subdivision of Śōḻa-nāḍu, for providing on the day of his natal star Svātī, offerings to the deity and for burning a perpetual lamp in the temple of Mahādēva at Tiruvoṟṟiyūr. The money was deposited with the Karmakkīḻvar of Tiruvoṟṟiyūr and the offerings included rice, ghee, plantains, sugar, vegetables, arecanuts, betel-leaves, tender cocoanuts, pañchagavya, sandal paste and camphor.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0092.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This is a Sanskrit verse engraved in Pallava-Grantha characters¹ stating that the (upper) cave called ‘Laḷitāṅkura-Pallavēśvaragṛiham’ was constructed by the Pallava king Laḷitāṅkura (i.e. Mahēndravarman I).

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv12p0i0009.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary:

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv01p0i0002.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary:

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv01p0i0003.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This interesting inscription engraved in the Pallava rock-cut cave-temple on the hill at Tiruchchirāppaḷḷi is dated in the 4th year and 2,501st day of the reign of king Māṟañjaḍaiyaṉ, who is also called Pāṇḍyādhirāja Varaguṇa[varman]. Having destroyed the fort at Vembil (i.e., Vēmbaṟṟūr near Kumbakōṇam), the king was staying at Niyamam at the time of the issue of this record. He is described as an ornament of both the solar and lunar dynasties, probably because of an earlier marital alliance between the Chōḷa (solar) and the Pāṇḍya (lu2nar) ruling families. The king is stated to have made a gift of 125 kaḻañju of gold to the temple of Tirumalai-Bhaṭāra, by which the liṅga in the rock-cut cave is evidently meant. From the fact that provision was made for burning five lamps in this temple on the day of Ārdrā every month, it is probable that Ārdrā was the natal star of this king.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv14p1i0010.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This record belongs to the reign of the Pāṇḍya king Varaguṇa-Mahārāja and is dated in the 4th year and 4635th day of his reign. The puḷḷi is marked in many consonants which fact proves its early date. The Sanskrit verse at the beginning states that a certain Kaḍambavēḷāṉ donated 15 kāśu and that from its interest a lamp was to be maintained in the temple of Śiva of Nūtanagrāma. The Tamil portion records that Maṟavaṉ Aṇukkappēraraiyaṉ alias Kaḍambaṉvēḷāṉ of Perumāttūr in Muttūṟṟu-kūṟṟam made a gift of 15 paḻaṅgāśu and a lamp stand for burning a perpetual lamp in the temple and another similar amount for the supply of garlands to the deity. Tirupputtūr (Nūtanagrāma) is said to be a brahmadēya in Koḻuvūr-kūṟṟam.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv14p1i0015.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: These two records engraved in early Grantha and Vaṭṭeḻuttu characters belong to Māṟañjaḍaiyaṉ who is also called Parāntaka. They are important because the Kali year 3871 is also quoted for this king, thus furnishing a valuable chronological land mark for early Pāṇḍya history. The rock-cut temple of Narasiṁha was begun by Māṟaṉ-Kāri alias Muvēndamaggalappēraraiyaṉ, a vaidya of Karavandapura alias Kaḷakkuḍi and an Uttaramantrin (minister) of the Pāṇḍya king,¹ but as he died subsequently, the work was completed by his brother Māṟaṉ-Eyiṉaṉ alias Pāṇḍimaṅgala-Viśaiyaraiyaṉ who succeeded him in the office of minister, who added the mukhamaṇḍapa and had the consecration ceremony performed. As the person first mentioned had also the title Madhurakavi, it has been tentatively assumed that he had some connection with the Vaishṇava Āḻvār named Kāri Māṟaṉ alias Nammāḷvār, the author of the Tiruvāymoḻi. Karavandapuram has been identified with Ukkiraṉkōṭṭai in the Tirunelveli taluk of the district of the same name, in the inscriptions copied from which, the village is called Kaḷakkuḍi and Kaḷandai.²

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv14p1i0001-0002.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This bilingual inscription consists of a portion in Sanskrit and a portion in Tamil. The Sanskrit portion states that Teṉṉavaṉ-Pallavādhipa alias Māṟaṉ-Āditya born at Pōḻiyūr in Pōḻiyūr-nāḍu made a gift of 40 Kṛishṇa-kācha for burning a lamp in the temple of Śūlapāṇi at Śrīsthalī. The Tamil portion, dated the in the 4th+1st year and 593rd day of the reign of Māṟañjaḍaiyaṉ states that Māṟaṉ-Āchchaṉ of Pōḻiyūr in Pōḷiyūr-nāḍu gave a donation of 40 kaḻañju to the Sabhā of Maṇaṟkuḍi for a lamp to be burnt in the temple of Tirukkaṟṟaḷi-Bhaṭāra at Tirupputtūr, a brahmadēya in Mīkuṇḍāṟu in Koluvūr-kūṟṟam and another gift of kaḻañju to the vaṇṇār of the place. This chieftain Māṟaṉ-Āchchaṉ has figured in another record from Kuttalam in the Tirunelveli District.¹

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv14p1i0005.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This inscription of Māṟañjaḍaiyaṉ is dated in the 4th year opposite to the 6th, which apparently is a wrong citation for 4+6th year. The Sanskrit ślōka at the beginning states that Paṭṭā, the daughter of Māṟaṉ and the wife of Śaṅkara donated 10 dināra for a lamp to the god Śrīsthalīśa. The Tamil portion records the same fact in greater detail. The brāhmaṇa Mōśi Kaṇḍaṉ Śaṅkaraṉ is stated to be the son fo the kiḻār of Arukandūr and the amount of gift is specified as 10 kāśu. The endowment was left under the protection of Āyiratteḻunūṟṟuvar. What exactly is meant by this name is not clear.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv14p1i0009.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary:

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv01p0i0004.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary:

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv01p0i0005.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: North wall of the first prākāra of the Pālvaṇṇanāthasvāmi temple. Chaḍaiyavarmaṉ Tribhº Kōnērin-maikoṇḍāṉ Abhirāma Varatuṅga-rāma Vīrapāṇḍya Śaka 1511: 1588 A.D. This epigraph commences with a Sanskrit verse invoking Śiva. The details of date viz., Śaka 1511, regnal year 2, Sarvadhāri, dakshiṇāyana, Dhanu-Ravi 6 Wednesday, ēkādaśi, Svāti-nakshatra corresponding to 1588 A.D., December 4. It records the grant of Vaṅgaikuḷam in Mallayampaṭṭu in Āriya-nāḍu as kuḍinīṅg-dēvadāṉa to Śeṇbagavaṉap-perumāḷ Irāmīchchuraṉ, who has to expend annually 20 paṇam to meet the expenses of the birth-day celebration of the king on the star of Pūsa falling in the month of Puraṭṭāśi. An order (ōlai) was issued to this effect by the vāśalttāṉigar to the kaṇakkar (accountant) and drafted in the name of Ādichaṇḍēśvaran.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv25p0i0272.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: On the 30th April 1891, Professor Julien Vinson, of Paris, was good enough to send me a reprint¹ of his paper Spe4cimen de Pale4ographie Tamoule, which contains an analysis of, and extracts from, the subjoined copper-plate inscription. The original plates had been discovered in 1879 at Kaśākūḍi, 4 kilometres from Kāraikkāl (Karikal),² by M. Jules de la Fon, of Pondicherry. Professor Vinson’s paper, which is based on a tracing prepared by M. de la Fon, convinced me of the importance of the inscription and induced me to apply through Government to His Excellency the Governor of the French Settlements in India for a loan of the original plates. This request was most graciously and promptly complied with. After I had transcribed the plates and prepared impressions of them, they were returned to their present owner. The Kaśākūḍi copper-plates, eleven in number, are strung on a ring. On this is soldered the royal seal, with the figure of a bull which faces the left and is surmounted by a liṅga. The bull was the crest of the Pallavas,³ while their banner bore the figure of Śiva’s club (khaṭvāṅga).⁴ The Grantha and Tamil characters of the inscription resemble those of the Kūram plates (Vol. I, No. 151). The major portion of the inscription is in the Sanskrit language (lines 1 to 104). The particulars of the grant are repeated, with considerable additions, in the Tamil language (ll. 104 to 133). The concluding portion of the inscription is again in Sanskrit (ll. 133 to 138), with a short parenthetical note in Tamil (l. 137). The immediate object of the inscription is to record the grant of a village, made in the 22nd year of the reign (ll. 80 and 105) of the Pallava king Nandivarman (verses 27 and 30, and l. 79). As in other Pallava copper-plate inscriptions, the grant proper is preceded by a panegyrical account of the king’s ancestors, which adds a large number of new details to our knowledge of the Pallava history. After nine benedictory verses, the author names the following mythical ancestors of the Pallava dynasty:— Brahmā (v. 10). Aṅgiras (11). Bṛihaspati (12). Śaṁyu (13). Bharadvāja (14). Drōṇa (15). Aśvatthāman (16). Pallava (17). Aśōkavarman (19). This last king can scarcely be considered a historical person, but appears to be a modification of the ancient Maurya king Aśōka. Then follows a passage in prose, which informs us that, after this Aśōkavarman, there ruled a number of other Pallava kings, viz., [S]kandavarman, Kal[i]ndavarman, Kāṇagōpa, Vishṇugōpa, Vīrakū[r]cha, Vīrasiṁha, Siṁhavarman, Vishṇusiṁha and others (l. 48 f.). Some of these names actually occur in the inscriptions of that ancient branch of the Pallavas, whose grants are dated from Palakkada, Daśanapura and Kāñchīpura, viz., Skandavarman, Siṁhavarman, Vishṇugōpavarman,⁵ and Vīrakōrchavarman.⁶ The Amarāvatī pillar-inscription (Vol. I, No. 32) mentions two kings named Siṁhavarman. But the order in which these names are enumerated, is completely different in each of the three available sources for the history of the early Pallavas, viz., the Amarāvatī pillar, the early copper-inscriptions, and the prose introduction of the Kaśākūḍi plates. For this reason, and on account of the summary manner in which the early kings are referred to by the author of the Kaśākūḍi inscription, it is a mistake to derive a regular pedigree from the latter, as was done by Professor Vinson (l.c., p. 453); and it must be rather concluded that, at the time of Nandivarman, nothing was known of the predecessors of Siṁhavishṇu, but the names of some of them, and that the order of their succession, and their relation to each other and to the subsequent line of Siṁhavishṇu, were then entirely forgotten. With verse 20 we enter on historical ground. The list of kings from Siṁhavishṇu to the immediate predecessor of Nandivarman agrees with the Udayēndiram plates of Nandivarman Pallavamalla (No. 74). Siṁhavishṇu appears to have borne the surname Avanisiṁha, and is stated to have defeated the Malaya, Kaḷabhra, Mālava, Chōḷa, Pāṇḍya, Siṁhaḷa and Kēraḷa kings. His successor Mahēndravarman I. “annihilated his chief enemies at Puḷḷalūra” (v. 21). The ‘chief enemies’ were probably the Chalukyas, who, in their turn, considered the Pallavas their ‘natural enemies.’⁷ As Puḷḷalūr is the name of a village in the Conjeeveram tālluqa,⁸ it appears that the Chalukya army had made an inroad into the Pallava dominions, before it was repulsed by Mahēndravarman I. His son Narasiṁhavarman I. is reported to have conquered Laṅkā, i.e., Ceylon, and to have captured Vātāpi,⁹ the capital of the Western Chalukyas. The Kūram and Udayēndiram plates supply the name of the conquered Chalukya king, Pulakēśin or Vallabharāja, i.e., Pulikēśin II.¹⁰ The conquest of Ceylon to which the Kaśākūḍi plates refer, is confirmed from an unexpected source. From the 47th chapter of the Mahāvaṁsa¹¹ we learn that the Singhalese prince Māṇavamma lived at the court of king Narasīha of India and helped him to crush his enemy, king Vallabha. The grateful Narasīha supplied Māṇavamma twice with an army to invade Ceylon. The second attack was successful. Māṇavamma occupied Ceylon, over which he is supposed to have ruled from A.D. 691 to 726. As both the Pallava inscriptions and the Mahāvaṁsa mention the war with Vallabha and the conquest of Ceylon, the identity of Narasīha and Narasiṁhavarman I. can hardly be doubted. As, however, the latest date of Pulikēśin II. is A.D. 642,¹² the accession of Māṇavamma must have taken place about half a century before A.D. 691.¹³ No details are given about the reign of Narasiṁhavarman’s son Mahēndravarman II. The latter was succeeded by his son Paramēśvarapōtavarman I. who, as we know from the Kūram and Udayēndiram plates, defeated the Western Chalukya king Vikramāditya I. at Peruvaḷanallūr. The Kaśākūḍi plates do not contain any historical information about him, nor about his son Narasiṁhavarman II. and his grandson Paramēśvarapōtavarman II. According to the Udayēndiram plates, the next king, Nandivarman, was the son of Paramēśvaravarman II. The Kaśākūḍi plates contain an entirely different account of Nandivarman’s parentage. In line 72, he professes to be “engaged in ruling the kingdom of Paramēśvarapōtarāja;” and in verse 27, he is said to be ruling, at the time of the inscription, the kingdom of Paramēśvarapōtavarman II., i.e., to have succeeded or supplanted the latter on the throne, and to have been “chosen by the subjects.” This plebiscite may have taken place after the death of the legitimate king; or, more probably, Nandivarman may have been an usurper who ousted and destroyed him and his family. At any rate, he was a remote kinsman of his predecessor. For, he was the son of Hiraṇya (verses 9 and 30) by Rōhiṇī and belonged to the branch (varga) of Bhīma (verse 30). According to verse 28, this branch of Bhīma took its origin from Bhīmavarman, who was the younger brother of Siṁhavishṇu. The names of three princes who intervened between Bhīmavarman and Hiraṇya, are recorded in the same verse. The name Hiraṇyavarma-Mahārāja occurs several times in a much obliterated inscription of the Vaikuṇṭha-Perumāḷ temple at Kānchīpuram. At the beginning of this inscription, Paramēśvarappōttaraiyar of the Pallava-vaṁśa is mentioned as deceased (svargastha). It is therefore not improbable that the inscription recorded the accession of Hiraṇyavarman or of his son Nandivarman after the death of Paramēśvarapōtavarman II. The latter may have been the founder of the Vaikuṇṭha-Perumāḷ temple, which is called Paramēśvara-Vishṇugṛiha, i.e., ‘the Vishṇu temple of Paramēśvara,’ in another inscription of the Vaikuṇṭha-Perumāḷ temple.¹⁴ With the addition of the new branch, the list of the later Pallavas stands as follows:— Unnamed ancestor.[C1]1. Siṁhavishṇu. [C1]2. Mahēndravarman I. [C2]Bhīmavarman. [C1]3. Narasiṁhavarman I. [C2]Buddhavarman. [C1]4. Mahēndravarman II. [C2]Ādityavarman. [C1]5. Paramēśvarapōtavarman or Paramēśvaravarman I. [C2]Gōvindavarman. [C1]6. Narasiṁhavarman II. [C2]Hiraṇya. [C1]7. Paramēśvarapōtavarman or Paramēśvaravarman II. [C2]8. Nandivarman. Other forms of the name Nandivarman are Nandipōtarāja (l. 90) and simply Nandin (l. 88). The form Nandipōtavarman occurs in the Vakkalēri plates,¹⁵ which refer to the defeat of the Pallava king by the Western Chalukya king Vikramāditya II., and the form Nandippōttaraiyar in an inscription of his 18th year in the Ulagaḷanda-Perumāḷ temple at Kāñchīpuram.¹⁶ He bore the sovereign titles Mahārāja and Rājādhirāja-paramēśvara and the birudas Kshatriyamalla, Pallavamalla (l. 78), and Śrīdhara (verse 29). According to verse 30, he was a devotee of Vishṇu. At the request of his prime-minister (l. 89), Brahmaśrīrāja (l. 91) or Brahmayuvarāja (ll. 103 and 106), the king gave the village of Koḍukoḷḷi (ll. 99, 105 f.) to the Brāhmaṇa Jyēshṭhapāda-Sōmayājin (l. 93) or (in Tamil) Śēṭṭiṟeṅga-Sōmayājin (l. 108 f.), who belonged to the Bharadvāja (l. 94) or Bhāradvāja (l. 108) gōtra, followed the Chhandōgasūtra (ll. 94 and 108), and resided at Pūniya (l. 95) or Pūni (l. 108), a village in the Toṇḍāka-rāshṭra (l. 95). The village of Koḍukoḷḷi, on becoming a brahmadēya, received the new name Ēkadhīramaṅgalam (l. 100). It belonged to Ūṟṟukkāṭṭu-kōṭṭam (l. 105) or (in Sanskrit) Undivanakōshṭhaka (l. 98), a subdivision of Toṇḍāka-rāshṭra, and was bounded in the east and south by Pālaiyūr, in the west by Maṇaṟpākkam and Koḷḷipākkam, and in the north by Veḷimānallūr (ll. 98 f. and 111 ff.). Connected with the gift of the village was the right to dig channels from the Śēyāṟu or (in Sanskrit) Dūrasarit, the Veḥkā or Vēgavatī, and the tank of Tīraiyaṉ or Tīralaya (ll. 101 f. and 115 ff.). Of these geographical names, the following can be identified. Toṇḍāka-rāshṭra is,—like Toṇḍīra-maṇḍala, Tuṇḍīra-maṇḍala and Tuṇḍāka-vishaya,¹⁷—a Sanskritised form of the Tamil term Toṇḍai-maṇḍalam. One of the 24 ancient divisions (kōṭṭam) of the latter was Ūṟṟukkāṭṭu-kōṭṭam, which owed its name to Ūṟṟukkāḍu, a village in the present Conjeeveram tālluqa.¹⁸ This kōṭṭam was divided into four subdivisions (nāḍu), one of which was Pālaiyūr-nāḍu.¹⁹ The head-village of this subdivision, Pālaiyūr, appears to be identical with the village of Pālaiyūr, which formed the south-eastern boundary of the granted village, and perhaps with the modern Pālūr at the north-western extremity of the Chingleput tālluqa.²⁰ The western boundary of the granted village, Maṇaṟpākkam, would then be represented by the modern Mēlamaṇappākkam.²¹ For the granted village, Koḍukoḷḷi, itself and for the two remaining villages which formed its boundaries, no equivalents are found on the maps at my disposal. The village at which the donee resided, Pūni, may be the modern Pūṇḍi, which belongs to the Conjeeveram tālluqa,²² but is in close proximity of Pālūr and Mēlamaṇappākkam in the Chingleput tālluqa. The proposed identification of these three villages is made more probable by the reference, made in the Kaśākūḍi plates, to two rivers near which the granted village of Koḍukoḷḷi was situated. Of these, the Vēgavatī or Veḥkā passes Conjeeveram and falls into the Pālāṟu near Villivalam.²³ The Śēyāṟu forms the southern boundary of the modern Conjeeveram tālluqa and joins the Pālāṟu opposite Mēlamaṇappākkam, which I have identified with Maṇaṟpākkam, the western boundary of Koḍukoḷḷi. The executor (ājñapti) of the grant was Ghōraśarman (ll. 103 and 106), and the author of the Sanskrit portion, which, as in the Kūram plates (l. 89) and the Udayēndiram plates (ll. 101 and 105), is called a praśasti or eulogy, was a certain Trivikrama (verse 31). To the Sanskrit portion is affixed a Tamil endorsement (l. 104 f.), which directs the inhabitants of Ūṟṟukkāṭṭu-kōṭṭam to execute the order of the king. The subsequent Tamil passage (l. 105 ff.) records that, on receipt of the royal order, the representatives of Ūṟṟukkāṭṭu-kōṭṭam marked the boundaries of the granted village under the guidance of their headman, and formally assigned all rights to the donee. Another Tamil sentence (l. 132 f.) states that the grant was executed in the presence of the local authorities (?), the ministers and the secretaries. Then follow, in Sanskrit, three imprecatory verses (l. 133 ff.) and the statement that the document was written by His Majesty’s great treasurer (l. 136). The inscription ends with a docket in Tamil (l. 137) and a few auspicious Sanskrit words.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv02p0i0073.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: This inscription has been already published by the Rev. T.Foulkes in the Indian Antiquary (Vol. VIII, p. 273 ff.) and in the Manual of the Salem District (Vol. II, p. 355 ff.). The original plates, together with the originals of four other copper-plate inscriptions¹ which were also edited by Mr. Foulkes, are preserved at Udayēndiram,² a village at the southwestern extremity of the Guḍiyātam tālluqa of the North Arcot district, and were kindly borrowed for me from their present owner by Mr. F.A.Nicholson, I.C.S., Acting Collector of North Arcot. The present whereabouts of two other copper-plate inscriptions from Udayēndiram,³ of which Mr. Foulkes obtained transcripts in the Telugu character, I was unable to ascertain. According to Mr. Foulkes, these two inscriptions formed part of a find of “five, or, by another account, seven sets of copper-plate inscriptions,” which was made in 1850 in a subterranean chamber in the Brāhmaṇa street at Udayēndiram. Mr. Foulkes then believed that the remaining three or five sets of the find were lost. As, however, Mr. Foulkes’ other grants (I, II, III, IV and V) are now preserved at Udayēndiram and are five in number, I think that they must be identical with the apparently missing five of the seven sets discovered at Udayēndiram in 1850. The copper-plates which bear the subjoined inscription, are five in number. When they reached my hands, they were strung on a ring, which is cut and bears a circular seal. This contains, in high relief, on a counter-sunk surface, a recumbent bull, which faces the proper right and is placed on a pedestal between two lamps. Over the bull is a seated figure on a pedestal, and between two symbols which I cannot make out. The diameter of the seal is 3(1/4) inches, and that of the ring 4(1/2) to 4(7/8) inches. The ring is about (3/8) inch thick. A comparison of this description of the ring and seal with that given by Mr. Foulkes in the first paragraph of his edition of the plates, suggests that, when he examined the plates, they were accompanied by a different ring and seal. Besides, the seal which is now attached to the plates, does not resemble the seals of other Pallava grants, but is closely allied to the seal of the Udayēndiram plates of the Bāṇa king Vikramāditya II. (Mr. Foulkes’ No. V) and of the Gaṅga-Bāṇa king Pṛithivīpati II. Hastimalla (No. 76 below).⁴ I therefore believe that it may have originally belonged to one of the two Udayēndiram grants of the Bāṇa dynasty, which are now missing (Mr. Foulkes’ grants B and C), and that the original seal-ring of the Pallava plates may have been attached by mistake to one of these two grants and lost along with the latter. The inscription consists of two distinct portions,—a grant of the Pallava king Nandivarman Pallavamalla in the Sanskrit language and the Grantha character (ll. 1 to 105), and a short inscription of the time of the Chōḷa king Madirai-koṇḍa Kō-Parakēsarivarman in the Tamil language and character (ll. 105 to 109), which, however, looks as if it had been written by the same hand as the first or Pallava part of the inscription. Further, the Grantha and Tamil alphabet of both portions of the inscription is considerably more modern than that of other Pallava grants, and even than that of two other copper-plate inscriptions of Madirai-koṇḍa Kō-Parakēsarivarman.⁵ Consequently, the plates are either a forgery, or they are a copy, made at a later date, of two inscriptions, one of Nandivarman Pallavamalla, and one Madirai-koṇḍa Kō-Parakēsarivarman, the originals of which are not within our reach. The Sanskrit portion of the inscription records that, in the twenty-first year of his reign (l. 38), the Pallava king Nandivarman (v. 4, ll. 36 f. and 37 f.), surnamed Pallavamalla (ll. 36, 46 and 47), granted a village to one hundred and eight Brāhmaṇas (l. 64 f.). This grant was made at the request of one of his military officers or vassals, named Udayachandra (v. 1 and l. 61), who belonged to the race of Pūchān (v. 2, l. 45 f. and v. 7), that had been in the hereditary service of the Pallava race, and who resided at the city of Vilvala (v. 2 and l. 44) on the river Vēgavatī (l. 41). This river passes Conjeeveram, and falls into the Pālāṟu near the village of Villivalam,⁶ which accordingly must be the Tamil original of Vilvala, the Sanskrit name of the capital of Udayachandra. The three opening verses refer to the god Sadāśiva, the chief Udayachandra, and the race of the Pallavas, respectively. Then follows, in prose, a genealogy of the reigning Pallava king, the mythical portion of which (l. 8 ff.) contains the following names:— Brahmā. Aṅgiras. Bṛihaspati. Śaṁyu. Bharadvāja. Drōṇa. Aśvatthāman. Pallava. The list of the historical descendants of Pallava from Siṁhavishṇu to Paramēśvaravarman II. (l. 11 ff.) need not be repeated here, because it agrees with the list in the Kaśākūḍi plates (p. 344), and because the battles which Narasiṁhavarman I. and Paramēśvaravarman I. are reported to have won,⁷ were noticed in the introduction to the Kūram plates (Vol. I, p. 145). A long prose passage (l. 19 ff.) opens with the words: “The son of this Paramēśvaravarman (II.) (was);” is interrupted by verses 4 to 6, which refer to the Pallava king Nandivarman; and appears to be taken up again by the words: “His son was Nandivarman Pallavamalla” (l. 36 f.). Mr. Foulkes concludes from this, that there were two successive Pallava kings of the name Nandivarman, the second of whom was the son of the first and bore the distinctive surname Pallavamalla.⁸ I do not think it probable that verses 4 to 6 are to be considered as forming one sentence with the first prose passage (l. 19 ff.), but would prefer to treat these verses as a parenthesis, and the second prose passage (l. 36 f.) as the end of the same sentence which begins with the first prose passage. In this way we obtain only one Pallava king named Nandivarman, who bore the surname Pallavamalla and was the son of Paramēśvaravarman II. This statement is at variance with the Kaśākūḍi plates, according to which Nandivarman Pallavamalla was not the son of his predecessor, but belonged to an entirely different branch of the Pallavas. Here is another point which might induce us to stamp the Udayēndiram plates as a forgery. For, it is difficult to understand how one and the same king could call himself the son of his predecessor in an inscription of his 21st year, and the son of somebody else in an inscription of his 22nd year. Two explanations might, however, be attempted. Nandivarman may have thought it political to give himself out for the adopted son of his predecessor; or it may be assumed that, through mere carelessness, the scribe who drafted the inscription, used the word putra, ‘son’ (ll. 19 and 37), while he wanted to represent Nandivarman only as a successor, and not as the son, of Paramēśvaravarman II. The most interesting portion of the inscription is the account of the services which Udayachandra rendered to his royal master. When Pallavamalla was besieged in Nandipura by the Dramiḷa princes, Udayachandra came to his rescue and killed with his own hand the Pallava king Chitramāya and others (l. 46 ff.). The name Chitramāya sounds more like a biruda than a real name. Thus the ancient Pallava king Narasiṁha had the biruda Amēyamāya,⁹ and Rājasiṁha that of Māyāchāra.¹⁰ It is not improbable that the Dramiḷa princes whose leader was Chitramāya, were the relations and followers of Nandivarman’s predecessor Paramēśvaravarman II. and that they had to be overcome by force, before Nandivarman could establish himself on the throne. Further, Udayachandra is said to have bestowed the kingdom many times on Nandivarman by his victories at Nimba[vana], Chūtavana, Śaṁkaragrāma, Nellūr, Nelvēli, Śūṟāvaṛundūr, etc. (l. 48 ff.). Of these localities, Nellūr is the head-quarter station of the present Nellore district. Another of them, Nelvēli, is mentioned a second time immediately after, as the place near which Udayachandra killed the Śabara king Udayana (l. 52). The Śabaras are generally identified with the modern Sauras, a hill-tribe in the Gañjām and Vizagapatam districts. As, however, the different names of savage tribes are often treated as synonyms by Sanskrit writers, and as the Tamil name Nelvēli cannot possibly be located in the Telugu districts, it may be that the author of the inscription is referring to one of the hill-tribes of the Tamil country, and that Nelvēli is meant for the modern Tinnevelly.¹¹ An additional argument in favour of this view is that, immediately after the description of the war with the Śabaras, the author refers to Udayachandra’s achievements “in the Northern region also.” He there pursued and defeated the Nishāda chief Pṛithivivyāghra, who was performing an Aśvamēdha, and drove him out of the district of Vishṇurāja, which he subjected to the Pallava king (l. 55 ff.). Nishāda is, like Śabara, one of the words by which Sanskrit writers designate savage tribes. The district of Vishṇurāja, which was situated to the north of the Pallava country, can be identified with certainty. As Nandivarman was a contemporary of the Western Chalukya king Vikramāditya II. who reigned from A.D. 733-34 to 746-47,¹² he was also a contemporary of the Eastern Chalukya king Vishṇuvardhana III. whose reign is placed by Dr. Fleet between A.D. 709 and 746.¹³ He is evidently the Vishṇurāja of the Udayēndiram plates,¹⁴ and his district (vishaya) is the country of Vēṅgī, over which the Eastern Chalukyas ruled. The last two items in the list of Udayachandra’s deeds are, that he destroyed the fort of Kāḷidurga,¹⁵ and that he defeated the Pāṇḍya army at the village of Maṇṇaikuḍi (l. 59 ff.). The grant which was made by Nandivarman Pallavamalla at the request of Udayachandra, consisted of the village of Kumāramaṅgala-Veḷḷaṭṭūr, which belonged to the district called Paśchimāśrayanadī-vishaya, and of two water-levers (jala-yantra) in the neighbouring village of Koṟṟagrāma, which appear to have been added in order to supply the former village with means of irrigation. As in the case of other grants, the original name of the village was changed into Udayachandramaṅgalam in commemoration of Udayachandra, at whose instance the donation was made (l. 62 ff.). The description of the boundaries of Udayachandramaṅgalam is given in great detail (l. 65 ff.). Among the boundaries we find, in the east, a small river; in the south, the temple of Koṟṟagrāma, the same village, a portion of which had been included in the granted village; in the north, the village of Kāñchidvāra, which, in its Tamil form Kāñchivāyil, is referred to in line 107 of the present inscription, and in another copper-plate grant from Udayēndiram;¹⁶ and in the north-east, the river Kshīranadī, the Tamil name of which is Pālāṟu. As the modern village of Udayēndiram is situated on the Pālāṟu river; as the original of the present inscription is preserved, and was most probably discovered, at Udayēndiram; and as the Tamil name Udayēndiram bears a close resemblance to the Sanskrit name Udayachandramaṅgalam, and still more so to the forms Udayēnduchaturvēdimaṅgalam and Udayēndumaṅgalam, which occur in two other Udayēndiram grants,¹⁷—there is no doubt that Mr. Le Fanu is correct in identifying the granted village of Udayachandramaṅgalam with the modern Udayēndiram.¹⁸ This village is now situated on the northern bank of the Pālāṟu, while Udayachandramaṅgalam is said to have been bounded by the Kshīranadī on the north-east, and by an unnamed small river on the east. It must be therefore assumed that either, as Mr. Le Fanu suggests, the Pālāṟu has changed its bed, or that the name Udayēndiram has travelled across the river in the course of the past eleven centuries. Paśchim-āśrayanadī-vishaya, the name of the district to which the granted village belonged, is a literal Sanskrit translation of the Tamil territorial term Mēl-Aḍaiyāṟu-nāḍu, which, according to another Udayēndiram grant (No. 76 below), was a subdivision of the district of Paḍuvūr-kōṭṭam. The remainder of the prose portion enumerates the Brāhmaṇa donees (l. 75 ff.), who, according to line 64, were one hundred and eight in number. The actual number of the donees is, however, sixty-three, and that of the shares one hundred and thirty-three. This discrepancy is a third point which suggests that the inscription may be a forgery. Of the two concluding verses, the first (v. 7) refers to the race of Pūchān, and the second (v. 8) informs us that the inscription,—which, like the Kūram and Kaśākūḍi inscriptions,¹⁹ is styled a eulogy (praśasti, ll. 101 and 105),—was composed by the poet Paramēśvara, who also received one of the shares of the granted village (l. 101 f.). The Tamil endorsement (l. 105 ff.) is dated in the 26th year of the reign of Madiraikoṇḍa Kō-Parakēsarivarman, i.e., of the Chōḷa king Parāntaka I.,²⁰ and records that the villagers of Udayachandramaṅgalam agreed with those of the neighbouring village of Kāñchivāyil,²¹ which was also called Igaṉmaṟaimaṅgalam, to form one village of the two. Another copy of the Tamil endorsement has been added on the first, originally blank side of the first plate of another Udayēndiram grant.²²

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv02p0i0074.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: The subjoined inscription was first made known by the Rev. T.Foulkes in the Manual of the Salem District, Vol. II, p. 369 ff. It is engraved on one of the five sets of copper-plates, which appear to have been discovered at Udayēndiram in A.D. 1850 and are now in the possession of the Dharmakartā of the Saundararāja-Perumāḷ temple at Udayēndiram.¹ I owe the opportunity of using the original plates to the courtesy of Mr. F.A.Nicholson, I.C.S. The copper-plates are seven in number. They measure about 8(3/4) to 8(7/8) by 3(1/4) inches. The edges of each plate are raised into rims for the protection of the writing, which is in very good preservation. The plates are strung on a copper ring, which had been already cut when Mr. Foulkes examined the plates. The ring is about (1/2) inch thick and measures about 5(1/4) inches in diameter. Its ends are soldered into the lower portion of a flower, which bears on its expanded petals a circular seal of about 2(1/8) inches in diameter. This seal, which I have figured in the Epigraphia Indica (Vol. III, p. 104, No. 4 of the Plate), bears, in relief, a bull couchant which faces the proper right and is flanked by two ornamented lampstands. Above the bull are an indistinct figure (perhaps a squatting male person) and a crescent, and above these a parasol between two chaurīs. Below the bull is the Grantha legend Prabhumēru. From the Udayēndiram plates of the Bāṇa king Vikramāditya II.² we learn that his great-grandfather had the name or surname Prabhumēru. The occurrence of this name on the seal of the subjoined grant suggests that the Gaṅga king Pṛithivīpati II. adopted a Bāṇa biruda and placed it on his seal when the Bāṇa kingdom was bestowed on him by the Chōḷa king Parāntaka I. As, however, the seal-ring had been already cut when Mr. Foulkes examined the plates, the possibility remains that, as in the case of the inscription No. 74,³ the present seal may have originally belonged to another set of plates, perhaps to those of Vikramāditya II.⁴ The first five plates bear 28 Sanskrit verses in the Grantha alphabet. The alphabet and language of the two last plates (and of a portion of the last line of plate Vb) is Tamil. A few Tamil letters are used in the middle of the Sanskrit portion, viz., ḻi of Vaimbalguṛi in line 42, ṟam of Śrīpuṟambiya in line 45, and ṟi of Paṟivi in line 62. A few words in Sanskrit prose and Grantha characters occur at the beginning of plate I and at the end of plate VII (svasti śri, l. 1, and ōn namō Nārāyaṇāya, l. 101). The Sanskrit portion opens with invocations of Vishṇu and Śiva (verses 1 and 2). The next few verses (3 to 11) contain a genealogy of the Chōḷa king Parāntaka I. Then follows a genealogy of the Gaṅga-Bāṇa king Pṛithivīpati II. surnamed Hastimalla (vv. 12 to 23), and the information that, with the permission of his sovereign Parakēsarin or Parāntaka I., he granted the village of Kaḍaikkōṭṭūr to the village of Udayēnduchaturvēdimaṅgalam (vv. 24 to 26). Excluded from the grant was certain land which belonged to the Digambara Jainas (v. 27 f. and l. 97 f.). The Tamil portion contains a minute description of the boundaries of Kaḍaikkōṭṭūr and adds that the grant was made by Śembiyaṉ-Māvalivāṇarāya (i.e., the Gaṅga-Bāṇa king Pṛithivīpati II.) in the 15th year of the reign of Madirai-koṇḍa Kō-Parakēsarivarman (i.e., the Chōḷa king Parāntaka I.), and that the granted village was clubbed together with Udyaśandiramaṅgalam into one village, called Vīranārāyaṇachchēri in commemoration of Parāntaka’s surname Vīranārāyaṇa. The Chōḷa genealogy (vv. 3 to 11) may be subdivided into three portions, viz., mythical ancestors, ancient Chōḷa kings, and direct predecessors of Parāntaka I. The mythical ancestors (v. 3) are Brahmā, Marīchi, Kāśyapa, the Sun, Rudrajit, Chandrajit and Śibi. The four first of these are named in the same order in the Udayēndiram plates of Vīra-Chōḷa⁵ and in the Kaliṅgattu-Paraṇi;⁶ in the Vikkirama-Śōṛaṉ-Ulā,⁷ Marīchi is placed after Kāśyapa. Śibi is mentioned by name in the large Leyden grant (l. 13) and alluded to in the Kaliṅgattu-Paraṇi (viii. 13) and in the Vikkirama-Śōṛaṉ-Ulā (ll. 20 to 22). The ancient Chōḷa kings to whom the subjoined inscription refers (v. 4), are Kōkkiḷḷi, Chōḷa, Karikāla and Kōchchaṅkaṇ.⁸ The Leyden grant mentions the same persons in different order, viz., Chōḷa (l. 17), Karikāla (l. 24), Kōchchaṅkaṇṇān⁹ (l. 25) and Kōkkiḷḷi (l. 26). The Kaliṅgattu-Paraṇi alludes first to Kōkkiḷḷi as having wedded a Nāga princess (viii. 18), then to Kōchcheṅgaṇ as contemporary of the poet Poygai (ibid.), and last to Karikāla as having built embankments along the Kāvērī river (viii. 20), while the Vikkirama-Śōṛaṉ-Ulā alludes first to Kōkkiḷḷi (l. 19 f.), then to Karikāla (l. 26), and last to Kōchcheṅgaṇ (l. 27 f.). It will be observed that each of the four documents which record the names and achievements of these ancient Chōḷa kings, enumerates them in different order. One of the four kings, Kōkkiḷḷi, can hardly be considered a historical person, as he is credited with having entered a subterraneous cave and there to have contracted marriage with a serpent princess,¹⁰ and as the Vikkirama-Śōṛaṉ-Ulā places him before the two mythical kings Śibi and Kavēra; and the king Chōḷa of the Udayēndiram plates and of the Leyden grant is nothing more than a personification of the Chōḷa dynasty,—just as Pallava, the supposed son of the hero Aśvatthāman and founder of the Pallava race.¹¹ The two remaining kings, Kōchcheṅgaṇ and Karikāla, are the heroes of two Tamil poems, the Kaḷavaṛi by Poygaiyār and the Paṭṭinappālai by Rudraṅgaṇṇaṉār. These two poems must be considerably more ancient than the Kaliṅgattu-Paraṇi, which belongs to the time of Kulōttuṅga I. (A.D. 1063 to 1112), because the author of this poem (viii. 18 and 21) believed them to be actually composed before the time of Parāntaka I. and during the very reigns of Kōchcheṅgaṇ and Karikāla. While the Kaliṅgattu-Paraṇi places Kōchcheṅgaṇ before Karikāla, who is represented as having inscribed on Mount Mēru the history of his predecessors, and among them of Kōchcheṅgaṇ (viii. 19), the Leyden grant calls Kōchcheṅgaṇ a descendant of Karikāla, and the Vikkirama-Śōṛaṉ-Ulā refers to the two kings in the same order. The Leyden grant even represents the mythical king Kōkkiḷḷi as a descendant of Kōchcheṅgaṇ. A comparison of these conflicting statements shows that, at the time of the composition of the three documents referred to, no tradition remained regarding the order in which Kōchcheṅgaṇ and Karikāla succeeded each other. Probably their names were only known from ancient Tamil panegyrics of the same type as the Kaḷavaṛi and the Paṭṭiṉappālai. It would be a mistake to treat them as actual ancestors of that Chōḷa dynasty whose epigraphical records have come down to us. They must rather be considered as two representatives of extinct dynasties of the Chōḷa country, whose names had survived in Tamil literature either by chance or on account of their specially marked achievements. To Karikāla the Leyden grant (l. 24 f.) attributes the building of embankments along the Kāvērī river. The same act is alluded to in the Kaliṅgattu-Paraṇi and the Vikkirama-Śōṛaṉ-Ulā. The Kaliṅgattu-Paraṇi (viii. 21) adds that he paid 1,600,000 gold pieces to the author of the Paṭṭiṉappālai. According to the Porunarāṟṟuppaḍai, a poem by Muḍattāmakkaṇṇiyār,¹² the name of the king’s father was Iḷañjēṭcheṉṉi. The king himself is there called Karigāl, i.e., ‘Black-leg’ or ‘Elephant-leg,’¹³ while the Sanskritised form of his name, Karikāla, would mean ‘the death to elephants.’ He is said to have defeated the Chēra and Pāṇḍya kings in a battle fought at Veṇṇil.¹⁴ According to the Śilappadigāram,¹⁵ his capital was Kāvirippūmbaṭṭiṉam.¹⁶ In one of his interesting contributions to the history of ancient Tamil literature,¹⁷ the Honourable P.Coomaraswamy allots Karikāla to the first century A.D. This opinion is based on the fact that the commentaries on the Śilappadigāram represent Karikāla as the maternal grandfather of the Chēra king Śeṅguṭṭuvaṉ, a contemporary of Gajabāhu of Ceylon. Mr. Coomaraswamy identifies the latter with Gajabāhu I., who, according to the Mahāvaṁsa, reigned from A.D. 113 to 135. With due respect to Mr. Coomaraswamy’s sagacity, I am not prepared to accept this view, unless the identity of the two Gajabāhus is not only supported by the mere identity of the name, but proved by internal reasons, and until the chronology of the earlier history of Ceylon has been subjected to a critical examination. The last of the four ancient Chōḷa kings to whom the subjoined inscription refers, is Kōchcheṅgaṇ, i.e., ‘king Red-eye.’ Poygaiyār’s poem Kaḷavaṛi, which has been translated into English by Mr. Kanakasabhai Pillai,¹⁸ describes the battle of Kaṛumalam, in which Śeṅgaṇ defeated and captured a Chēra king. The Kaliṅgattu-Paraṇi and the Vikkirama-Śōṛaṉ-Ulā state that the prisoner was set at liberty by the king, after the Kaḷavaṛi had been recited in the presence of the latter. The Leyden grant (l. 26) calls him “a bee at the lotus feet of Śaṁbhu (Śiva).”¹⁹ By this it alludes to the fact that Śeṅgaṇ was considered as one of the sixty-three devotees of Śiva.²⁰ The Periyapurāṇam calls him the son of the Chōḷa king Śubhadēva by Kamalavatī, and attributes to him the foundation of the Jambukēśvara temple.²¹ His name is mentioned by two of the authors of the Dēvāram: Sundaramūrti invokes him in the Tiruttoṇḍattogai,²² and refers to a temple which Kōchcheṅgaṇāṉ had built at Naṉṉilam;²³ and Tiruñāṉaśambandar mentions two other temples which the Chōḷa king Śeyyagaṇ²⁴ had built at Ambar²⁵ and at Vaigal.²⁶ The last two references prove that Śeṅgaṇ must have lived before the 7th century, to which, as shown by Mr. Venkayya,²⁷ Tiruñāṉaśambandar belongs. Finally, Mr. Venkayya²⁸ has found that the Nālāyiraprabandham speaks of a visit of the Chōḷa king Kōchcheṅgaṇāṉ to the Vishṇu temple at Tirunaṟaiyūr.²⁹ Verses 4 and 5 of the Udayēndiram plates and lines 28 to 31 of the large Leyden grant mention the names of the grandfather and father of Parāntaka I., Vijayālaya and Āditya I. Both kings are described in general terms, and no special deeds or events are noticed in connection with them. It may be concluded from this that they were insignificant princes, and that Parāntaka I. was the actual founder of the Chōḷa power. The king during whose reign the present grant was issued, bore various names. The Leyden grant (ll. 32 and 40) calls him Parāntaka. The same name occurs in verses 21 and 25 of the Udayēndiram plates. He was also called Vīranārāyaṇa, a name which occurs in verse 6, and which is presupposed by Vīranārāyaṇachchēri, as the granted village was termed after the name of “His Majesty” (l. 73 f.). Another name of his was Parakēsarin (v. 24), which forms part of his Tamil designation Madirai-koṇḍa Kō-Parakēsarivarman (l. 71), i.e., ‘king Parakēsarivarman who took Madirai (Madhurā).’ The conquest of Madhurā and the defeat of its ruler, the Pāṇḍya king Rājasiṁha, is referred to in verses 9 and 11. Parāntaka I. is also reported to have repulsed an army of the king of Laṅkā (Ceylon) and to have earned by this feat the surname Saṁgrāmarāghava (v. 10). Hence he calls himself ‘Kō-Parakēsarivarman who took Madirai (i.e., Madhurā) and Īṛam (i.e., Ceylon)’ in some of his inscriptions.³⁰ He defeated, among others, the Vaidumba king,³¹ “uprooted by force two lords of the Bāṇa kings” (v. 9), and conferred the dignity of “lord of the Bāṇas” on the Gaṅga king Pṛithivīpati II. (v. 21). His queen was the daughter of a king of Kēraḷa (v. 8). The Leyden grant (l. 35 f.) reports that “(this) banner of the race of the Sun covered the temple of Śiva at Vyāghrāgrahāra with pure gold, brought from all regions, subdued by the power of his own arm.” As stated before,³² this verse refers to the gilding of the Kanakasabhā or ‘Golden Hall’ at Chidambaram. Mr. P. Sundaram Pillai has pointed out that the expression ‘Golden Hall’ (Poṉṉambalam) occurs already in the Dēvāram of Appar (alias Tirunāvukkaraiyar), the elder contemporary of Tiruñāṉaśambandar.³³ Consequently, it seems that Parāntaka I. did not gild the Chidambaram temple for the first time, but that he only re-gilded it. Mr. Sundaram adds that “Umāpati Śivāchārya, to whose statements we are bound to accord some consideration, ascribes, in the 14th century, the building of the Golden Hall and the town (Chidambaram) itself to a certain Hiraṇyavarman of immemorial antiquity.” Though the name Hiraṇyavarman actually occurs among the Pallava kings of Kāñchī,³⁴ it looks as if his alleged connection with the Golden Hall were only due to the circumstance that the word hiraṇya, ‘gold,’ happens to be a portion of his name. The gilding, or rather re-gilding, of the Chidambaram temple by Parāntaka I. is alluded to in the Vikkirama-Śōṛaṉ-Ulā (ll. 30 to 32). The Kaliṅgattu-Paraṇi (viii. 23) mentions his conquest of Ceylon and Madhurā. The same two conquests and the gilding of the Chidambaram temple are referred to in a hymn by Gaṇḍarāditya, the second son of Parāntaka I.³⁵ According to this hymn, the capital of Parāntaka I. was Kōṛi,³⁶ i.e., Uṟaiyūr, now a suburb of Trichinopoly.³⁷ The present inscription is dated in the 15th year of his reign (l. 71 f.). A list of other inscriptions of his was given on page 374 above. The genealogy of the Chōḷa king Parāntaka I. is followed by an account of the ancestors of his feudatory Pṛithivīpati II. surnamed Hastimalla (vv. 12 to 23). This passage opens with a verse (12) glorifying the Gaṅga family, which is said to have had for its ancestor the sage Kaṇva of the race of Kāśyapa³⁸ and to have “obtained increase through the might of Siṁhanandin.”³⁹ As in the copper-plate grants of the Western Gaṅgas, the first king of the Gaṅga dynasty is stated to have been Koṅkaṇi, who resided at Kuvaḷālapura, the modern Kōlār,⁴⁰ “who was anointed to the conquest of the Bāṇa country,”⁴¹ and who, in his youth, accomplished the feat of splitting in two a huge stone pillar with a single stroke of his sword.⁴² The device on his banner is said to have been a swan (sitapiñchha, v. 14). To the period between this mythical ancestor and the great-grandfather of Pṛithivīpati II. the inscription (v. 15) allots the reigns of Vishṇugōpa, Hari, Mādhava, Durvinīta, Bhūvikrama, and “other kings” of Koṅkaṇi’s lineage. The remainder of the genealogical portion of the inscription supplies the following pedigree of the Gaṅga kings: Śivamāra. Pṛithivīpati I. surnamed Aparājita. Mārasiṁha. Pṛithivīpati II. surnamed Hastimalla. Pṛithivīpati I. fought a battle at Vaimbalguṛi (v. 17) and lost his life in a battle with the Pāṇḍya king Varaguṇa at Śrīpuṟambiya (v. 18). Śrīpuṟambiya has to be identified with the village of Tiruppirambiyam near Kumbhakōṇam.⁴³ Mr. Venkayya has shown that this place is mentioned in the Dēvāram of Tiruñāṉaśambandar and Sundaramūrti, and that king Varaguṇa-Pāṇḍya is referred to in the Tiruviḷaiyāḍalpurāṇam.⁴⁴ Pṛithivīpati II. was a dependent of Parāntaka I. and received from him the dignity of ‘lord of the Bāṇas’ (v. 21), who had been conquered by the Chōḷa king (v. 9). He defeated the Hill-chiefs (Girīndra)⁴⁵ and the Pallavas (v. 23) and bore the titles ‘lord of Paṟivipurī’ and ‘lord of Nandi,’ i.e., of the Nandidurga hill near Bangalore. His banner bore the device of a black-buck, his crest was a bull, and his drum was called Paiśācha (v. 24). In the Tamil portion of the inscription, Pṛithivīpati II. is referred to under the title Śembiyaṉ-Māvalivāṇarāya (ll. 72 and 101). The second part of this name consists of Māvali, the Tamil form of Mahābali, i.e., ‘the great Bali,’ who is considered as the ancestor of the Bāṇa kings,⁴⁶ and Vāṇarāya, i.e., Bāṇarāja or ‘king of the Bāṇas.’ The first part of the name, Śembiyaṉ, is one of the titles of the Chōḷa kings. The whole surname appears to mean: ‘(he who was appointed) Mahābali-Bāṇarāja (by) the Chōḷa king.’ According to verse 16, the Gaṅga king Pṛithivīpati I. rendered assistance to two chiefs named Iriga and Nāgadanta, the sons of king Diṇḍi, and defended the former of these two against king Amōghavarsha. This king can be safely identified in the following manner. The Chōḷa king Rājarāja ascended the throne in A.D. 984-85;⁴⁷ Rājarāja’s granduncle Rājāditya was slain by the Gaṅga king Būtuga, who was a feudatory of the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Kṛishṇa III., before A.D. 949-50;⁴⁸ Rājāditya’s father Parāntaka I., who reigned at least 40 years,⁴⁹ may accordingly be placed about A.D. 900 to 940. As Parāntaka I. was a contemporary of the Gaṅga king Pṛithivīpati II.,—Amōghavarsha, the contemporary of Pṛithivīpati I., must be identical with the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Amōghavarsha I., who reigned from A.D. 814-15 to 876-78.⁵⁰ Accordingly Mārasiṁha, the son of Pṛithivīpati I., must have reigned about A.D. 878 to 900, and must be distinct from another Mārasiṁha, who reigned from A.D. 963-64 to 974-75.⁵¹ Of the localities mentioned in the grant proper, Udayēndu-chaturvēdimaṅgalam (v. 26) and Udayaśandiramaṅgalam (the Tamil spelling of Udayachandramaṅgalam, ll. 74 and 99 f.) are two different forms of the name of the modern village of Udayēndiram, where the plates were found.⁵² In mentioning the name Udayachandramaṅgalam, the subjoined inscription presupposes the existence of the lost original of the Udayēndiram plates of Nandivarman Pallavamalla (No. 74), which record the foundation of that village in honour of the general Udayachandra.⁵³ The village granted, Kaḍaikkōṭṭūr, must have been situated close to Udayēndiram, because it was clubbed together with the latter into one village, called Vīranārāyaṇachchēri. Kaḍaikkōṭṭūr was bounded on the south-east and north by the Pālāṟu river (ll. 78 and 96), which passed through the village near the eastern boundary of the latter (l. 75). The village belonged to Mēl-Aḍaiyāṟu-nāḍu, a subdivision of the district of Paḍuvūr-kōṭṭam (l. 73 f.).⁵⁴ As I have already stated on page 365, Mēl-Aḍaiyāṟu-nāḍu⁵⁵ is the Tamil equivalent of Paśchimāśrayanadī-vishaya, the Sanskrit name of the district to which Udayēndiram belonged in the time of Nandivarman Pallavamalla.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv02p0i0076.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: These plates were discovered in 1911 by the late Rai Bahadur V.Venkayya, M.A., in the village Vēlūrpāḷaiyam, about 7 miles north-west of Arkonam in the North Arcot district. They have since been purchased by the Government for deposit in the Madras Museum. A detailed description of the plates and their contents has appeared in the Epigraphical Report for 1911, Part II, paragraphs 5 to 12. Mr. Venkayya also, has published a valuable note on them in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1911, pp. 521 ff. The plates are five in number and consist of eight written sides, the outer faces of the first and last being completely blank. They vary in length from 9(5/8)" to 9(3/4)", and are slightly convex on their right and left sides. The breadth of each plate is about 3(1/2)". The ring which holds the plates together is oval-shaped, and measures 7" x 6(1/4)", while the circular seal in whose massive bottom the edges of the ring are firmly fixed, is 3(1/4)" in diameter. The seal bears on a depressed surface an elongated figure of a Pallava bull in a recumbent posture facing the proper right with an ornamental lamp-stand on either side of it. The bull and the lamp-stands are placed on a straight line which is perhaps to be taken for the surface of a pedestal. Below this latter, there appear the faint traces of an expanded lotus flower. Above the bull are engraved in one row, eight symbols of which a goddess (perhaps Lakshmī), flanked by two lamp-stands occupies the centre. Another symbol which is recognisable is the svastika. The remaining four are indistinct. Above these again are the insignia of royalty, viz., two chauris mounted on handles and a parasol between them. Right round the margin of the seal is a defaced legend in Pallava-Grantha characters of which the syllables . . . . . . va-nāthasya Nan[tipa]ṉmas[ya] bhū[pa*]tēḥ [|] viśva-[vi]śva[ṁ]bharāpāla śrīḥ, are visible. The plates including ring and seal weigh 394 tolas. The inscription on the plates is engraved partly in Grantha and partly in Tamil characters. The writing discloses two different scripts, the first of which (ll. 1 to 28) is somewhat less deeply cut and slanting. The virāma or the puḷḷi in the Tamil portion of the inscription is marked almost regularly throughout, by a zigzag line resembling the final m of Grantha or by the usual dot. The grant consists of 31 Sanskṛit verses intercepted in the middle by a prose passage in Tamil from lines 47 to 63, and including at the end a short Tamil sentence in lines 68 and 69. Verses 1 and 2 are invocations addressed to the Supreme Being and to Śrīkaṇṭha (Śiva). The two next supply the legendary origin of the Pallavas from Vishṇu, down to the eponymous king Pallava, through Brahmā, Aṅgiras, Bṛihaspati, Śaṁyu, Bharadvāja, Drōṇa, and Aśvatthāman, and eulogise the family as being very powerful. From verses 5 to 8, we learn the names of some probably historical kings. One of them was Aśōkavarman in whose family was born Kāḷabhartṛi. His son was Chūtapallava; his son, Vīrakūrcha; from him came Skandaśishya; from him, Kumāravishṇu and after him, Buddhavarman. It is evident, as Professor Hultzsch has remarked, (above, p. 342), that Aśōkavarman “can scarcely be considered a historical person, but appears to be a modification of the ancient Maurya king Aśōka.” Kāḷabhartṛi is a possible synonym of Kāṇagōpa, who is mentioned in the Kāśākuḍi plates, in the group of kings that ruled after Aśōkavarman. Vīrakūrcha, the grandson of Kāḷabhartṛi (Kāṇagōpa), must be the Vīrakōrchavarman whose name occurs as that of the great grandfather (of the donor) in an odd Pallava plate published by Professor Hultzsch in the Epigraphia Indica (Vol. I, p. 397 f.) and the same as Vīravarman of the Pīkira, Māṅgaḷūr, Uruvupalli and the Chendalūr grants, all of which belong practically to the same period. Vīrakūrcha is stated to have married the daughter of a Nāga chief¹ and through her, to have acquired the insignia of royalty. Their son Skandaśishya seized from king Satyasēna the ghaṭikā of the Brāhmaṇas. The reference to a ghaṭikā at this early period is very interesting. It occurs also in the Tālagunda inscription of Kakusthavarman which is ascribed by Professor Kielhorn to about the first half of the 6th century A.D.² Skandaśishya is perhaps identical with the Pallava king of the same name, who is referred to in one of the Tirukkaṛukkuṉṟam inscriptions³, as having made a gift to the holy temple of Mūlasthāna at that village. If Skandaśishya is synonymous with Skandavarman as suggested by Mr. Venkayya in his article on the Tirukkaṛukkuṉṟam inscription, we shall have to identify him with Skandavarman II, particularly because the two generations after him supplied by the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates would, in this case, be the same as those found in the Chendalūr plates of Kumāravishṇu II.⁴ Satyasēna, the king from whom Skandaśishya seized the ghaṭikā, remains unidentified. Kumāravishṇu, the son of Skandaśishya, is next stated to have captured Kāñchī, and his son Buddhavarman to have been the conqueror of the Chōḷas. Mr. Venkayya mentions two distinct periods in early Pallava history, viz. (1) the period in which their grants are recorded in the Prākṛit language and (2) that in which the grants are in Sanskṛit.⁵ The first has been tentatively assigned to the beginning of the 4th century A.D. Evidently, the break suggested at the beginning of verse 5 in the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates with the words “Aśōkavarman and others,” included this earlier period of the Prākṛit charters, and counted within it such names as Śivaskandavarman, Vijayaskandavarman, Vijayabuddhavarman, Buddhyaṅkura and Vishṇugōpa. The Sanskṛit charters, which are to be referred probably to the 5th and the 6th centuries of the Christian era, supply the names of a number of Pallava kings who may now be arranged in order of succession, with the help of the information given in the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates. The capture, or rather the re-capture of Kāñchī attributed to Kumāravishṇu in these plates confirms Mr. Venkayya’s suggestion that that town was not the Pallava capital for some time during the interval between the Prākṛit period and the later Sanskṛit period. Kāḷabhartṛi (Kāṇagōpa) may have been the first of the kings of the second period which lasted down to (Kāṇagōpa) may have been the first of the kings of the second period which lasted down to Buddhavarman according to our plates, or down to his son Kumāravishṇu II according to the Chendalūr plates. The question however arises whether Kumāravishṇu (I) of the Chendalūr and the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates has to be identified with Yuvamahārāja Vishṇugōpavarman or to be treated as still another son of Skandaśishya (Skandavarman II). The former alternative was suggested by Mr. Venkayya together with the further supposition that Buddhavarman and Siṁhavarman II may have been brothers.⁶ But as the names Vishṇugōpa and Kumāravishṇu are mentioned simultaneously together among Pallava ancestors, as for instance, in the Vāyalūr pillar inscription of the time of Rājasiṁha,⁷ we may presume, perhaps tentatively, Kumāravishṇu I to be a third son of Skandavarman II. The following revised pedigree of the Pallava kings based on the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates and the Sanskṛit charters of Pīkira, Māṅgaḷūr, Uruvupalli and Chendalūr, is given provisionally, subject to the identifications and suggestions made above:— [C1]Kāḷabhartṛi (Kāṇagōpa) [C1]Chūtapallava (perhaps, a surname of Skandavarman I mentioned in the Uruvupalli grant) [C1]Vīrakūrcha (Vīrakōrchavarman or Vīravarman) [C1]Skandaśishya (Skandavarman II) [C1]Siṁhavarman I [C2]Yuvamahārāja- Vishṇugōpa or Vishṇugōpavarman [C3]Kumāravishṇu I [C1]Skandavarman III [C2]Siṁhavarman II [C3]Buddhavarman [C1]Nanḍivarman⁸ [C2]Kumāravishṇu II After v. 8 we are again introduced to another gap in the succession in which were included a host of kings such as Vishṇugōpa⁹ and others. Then appeared a king named Nandivarman I who brought under his control a powerful snake apparently called Dṛishṭivisha.¹⁰ In verse 10, Siṁhavarman, the father of Siṁhavishṇu, is introduced,—no connection being specified between himself and the Nandivarman just mentioned. Siṁhavishṇu was the conqueror of the Chōḷa country which was fertilized by the river Cauvery. What follows of the Pallava genealogy is not new. It is a repetition of the account already supplied by the Kāśākuḍi, Kūram and the Udayēndiram plates. Stone inscriptions written in the Pallava-Grantha characters commence from this period,—a fact which suggests that, with the conquest of Siṁhavishṇu, the Pallavas must have extended their dominion further south of Kāñchī into the Chōḷa country and adopted the Dravidian language generally found mixed up with Sanskṛit in the later stone inscriptions. From Siṁhavishṇu’s son Mahēndravarman I was born Narasiṁhavarman I. This King whose conquest of Vātāpi (Bādāmi) and the Western Chalukya Pulakēśin II has frequently been described, is stated in verse 11 to have defeated his enemies and to have taken from them the pillar of victory standing at Vātāpi.¹¹ Then came Paramēśvaravarman I, an enemy of the Western Chalukya king Vikramāditya I, whom, according to the Kūram and the Udayēndiram plates, he defeated at Peruvaḷanallūr. Paramēśvara’s “son’s son” was Narasiṁhavarman II, who re-organised the ghaṭikā of the Brāhmaṇas, and built a temple for Śiva “comparable with the mountain Kailāsa”. This is a clear reference to the building of the Kailāsanātha temple at Conjeeveram by Narasiṁhavarman II.¹² The latter’s son was Paramēśvara II. The usurpation of the Pallava throne by Nandivarman II, subsequent to the death of Paramēśvara II, is clearly stated in verse 15. The distant relation that existed between the usurper Nandivarman II and Paramēśvara II is described in the Kāśākuḍi plates. Two points in the account given above are worthy of note: (1) the omission of the name Mahēndravarman II after Narasiṁhavarman I and (2) the statement that Narasiṁhavarman II was the “son’s son”¹³ of Paramēśvara I. The latter is probably an error, since all the three published Pallava accounts agree in saying that Narasiṁhavarman II was the son, not the grandson, of Paramēśvara I. The former, however, may be different. For although the Kūram plates call Paramēśvaravarman I, the grandson of Narasiṁhavarman I, still the doubtful way in which this relationship is expressed in the Kāśākuḍi and the Udayēndiram plates, taken together with the statement of the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates, makes it appear as if Mahēndravarman II and Paramēśvaravarman I were both sons of Narasiṁhavarman I, thus reducing the seven generations between Siṁhavishṇu and Paramēśvaravarman II, to six. The usurper Nandivarman II who, according to the Kāśākuḍi plates, was sixth in descent from a brother of Siṁhavishṇu could not at the time of his usurpation be a generation older than Paramēśvaravarman II whose kingdom he usurped. Indeed, as hinted in the Udayēndiram plates, he must have been much younger to justify his being called there the son of Paramēśvaravarman. Consequently it appears probable that Mahēndravarman II and Paramēśvaravarman I were actually brothers and that the succession after Narasiṁhavarman I passed on directly to the latter, the former having, perhaps, died before him. Two successions after the usurper Nandivarman (Pallavamalla) are further supplied for the first time by the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates. Nandivarman II’s son by Rēvā was the Pallava-Mahārāja Dantivarman (verse 18). His queen was the Kadamba princess Aggaḷanimmaṭī; from these, was born king Nandivarman III, or according to the Tamil portion of the inscription, Vijaya-Nandivarman, in the sixth year of whose reign the subjoined grant was made. No specific historical facts are mentioned in connection with these kings. Nandivarman III is stated to have “acquired the prosperity of the Pallava kingdom by the prowess of his (own) arms” (verse 20). From this we may infer that the sovereignty over the Pallava kingdom had now been keenly contested either by outsiders or by some direct descendents of the Siṁhavishṇu line. In the Chingleput, North Arcot, South Arcot and Trichinopoly districts, there have been discovered a number of stone records (more or less of the same age as the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates) which refer themselves to the reigns of Dantivarman, Dantivarma-Mahārāja, Dantippōttaraśar or Vijaya-Dantivikramavarman, and also of Nandivarman with similar variations in the name. Again, the Bāhūr plates¹⁴ supply the names Dantivarman, (his son) Nandivarman and (his son) Nṛipatuṅgadēva or Vijaya-Nṛipatuṅgavarman, as members of the Pallava family, among whose ancestors were Vimala, Koṅkaṇika and others. From this latter statement Professor Hultzsch concluded that the kings mentioned in the Bāhūr plates were different from the Pallavas of Kāñchī and were only “Pallava by name but Western Gaṅga by descent.” It is now, therefore, diffcult to say if the Dantivarmans and the Nandivarmans of the stone records mentioned above, are to be identified with those mentioned in the Bāhūr plates, or with those of the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates or with both. Mr. Venkayya is inclined to connect the names in the Bāhūr plates with those of the Vēlūrpaḷaiyam plates, and suggests that Vijaya-Nṛipatuṅgavarman of the former was apparently the son of Nandivarman III of the latter. Against this the only objection is the ancestry which, in the one case includes the clear Western Gaṅga name (or surname) Koṅkaṇika, while in the other it does not. If, however, Mr. Venkayya’s suggestion is accepted, we must presume two facts to arrive at a concurrent genealogy, and to connect the kings of stone records with those mentioned in the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam and the Bāhūr plates. The prefix kō-vijaya and the suffix vikramavarman which are invariably found appended to the names of the kings in this series must have been introduced for the first time by the usurper Nandivarman Pallavamalla, who, we know, literally won the kingdom by victory (vijaya) and by prowess (vikrama)¹⁵, and that Nṛipatuṅgavarman who was decidedly the most powerful¹⁶ of this last branch of the Pallavas, and a son of the Rāshṭrakūṭa princess Śaṅkhā, must have contracted new relations with the Western Gaṅgas to justify the insertion of one or more of the names of that dynasty among his Pallava ancestors. Even with these suppositions granted, the identification of kings mentioned in stone records with the Nandivarmans and Dantivarmans of the copper-plate grants presents peculiar difficulties. The script of the copper-plates, though of the same age with that of the stone inscriptions often differs from it,¹⁷ and the information supplied by the latter is so meagre that hardly any points of contemporaneous nature that could help us in such identification, are forthcoming. In the present state of our knowledge therefore, it may be hypothetically presumed that kings of names Nandivarman and Dantivarman with or without the prefix kō-vijaya and the suffix vikramavarman, may be taken to be one or the other of the immediate ancestors of Nṛipatuṅga-Vikramavarman; while kings described as Dantivarma-Mahārāja of the Bhāradvāja-gōtra,¹⁸ Dantivarman and Nandivarman of the Pallava-tilaka-kula,¹⁹ and Nandivarman “who conquered [his enemies] at Teḷḷāṟu,”²⁰ have to be kept distinct. In conclusion it may be stated, by way of a resume4, that the Pallava history covers four separate periods extending from about the 4th to the 9th century A.D. with three gaps which remain yet to be filled up satisfactorily by later researches. These are (1) the period of the Prākṛit charters; (2) after a gap of a little more than a century, the period of the Sanskṛit charters; (3) after another gap (or rather two gaps) of about the same length the period of stone inscriptions when, the Siṁhavishṇu line was predominant; and (4) the last period when the Nandivarman line (developing later, into what has been called the Gaṅga-Pallava line) was powerful until it was completely crushed by the Chōḷas. A table of the kings of the Siṁhavishṇu line and of the collateral branch of Nandivarman Pallavamalla down to Nṛipatuṅgavarman of the Bāhūr plates is appended below:— [C1]Nandivarman I [C1]Siṁhavarman [C1]Siṁhavishṇu [C2]Bhīmavarman [C1]Mahēndravarman I [C2]Buddhavarman [C1]Narasiṁhavarman I [C2]Ādityavarman [C1]Mahēndravarman II [C2]Paramēśvaravarman I [C3]Gōvindavarman [C1]Narasiṁhavarman II [C2]Hiraṇya (I) [C1]Paramēśvaravarman II [C2]Mahēndravarman III [C3]Nandivarman II Pallavamalla [C1]Dantivarman or Vijaya-Dantivikramavarman (Hiraṇyavarman II)²¹ [C1]Nandivarman III, Vijaya-Nandivarman or Vijaya-Nandivikramavarman [C1]Nṛipatuṅgavarman or Vijaya-Nṛipatuṅgavarman The object of the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam grant was the gift of the village Śrīkaṭṭuppaḷḷi or Tirukkāṭṭuppaḷḷi to a temple of Śiva built at that village by a certain Yajñabhaṭṭa or Śaṉṉakkuṟi Yajñabhaṭṭa, surnamed Bappa-Bhaṭṭāraka,²² in the sixth year of the reign of king Nandivarman III. The request (vijñapti) was made by the Chōḷa-Mahārāja²³ Kumārāṅkuśa, while the executor (ājñapti or āṇatti) was the minister Namba (in Tamil, Iraiyūr-uḍaiyāṉ-Nambaṉ) of the Agradatta family. The donee was the Mahādēva (Śiva) temple of Yajñēśvara at Tirukkāṭṭuppaḷḷi. Verse 28 informs us that the composer of the praśasti²⁴ was the Māhēśvara Manōdhīra. Verse 31 and the Tamil sentence following it, supply the name of Pēraya, a clever carpenter of Maṉaichchēri in Kachchippēḍu (Conjeeveram), who engraved the writing on these plates. One point of great interest in the Tamil portion of the grant is the long list of exemptions (parihāra) and the written declaration (vyavasthā) with which Tirukkāṭṭuppaḷḷi was made over to the temple assembly (paraḍai, Skt. parishad). The former included items of collection whose significance is not quite clear, but which, as the inscription says, the king “could receive and enjoy.” It appears as though most of the items here mentioned were not necessarily sources of revenue to the State, as now understood, but only obligatory services which the king could enforce on the people for the benefit of the community. By the written declaration the donee was permitted to build (without any special license) mansions of burnt brick; to grow Artimissia, Andropogan Muricatum, red lilies and uḷḷi in gardens; to plant cocoanut trees in groves; to sink reservoirs and wells; to use large oil-presses; and to prohibit toddy-drawers from tapping for toddy, the cocoanut and the palmyra trees planted within the four boundaries of the village. The village Tirukkāṭṭuppaḷḷi is identical with Kāṭṭuppaḷḷi in the Poṉṉēri tāluk of the Chingleput district; Nāyaṟu-nāḍu of Puṛaṟ-kōṭṭam, in which the village is stated to have been situated, takes its name from the village Nāyar of the same tāluk, about 8(1/2) miles south-west of Kāṭṭuppaḷḷi. In the British Museum plates of the Vijayanagara king Sadāśivarāya of the 16th century A.D., Nāyattu-nāḍu (i.e., Nāyaṟu-nāḍu) is described as being a sub-division of Puḷali-kōṭaka (i.e., Puṛaṟ-kōṭṭam).²⁵

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv02p0i0098.

DHARMA team.

Summary: Taṇḍantōṭṭam (i.e. Tandantōttam, No. 134 of the Madras Survey map of the Kumbakonam taluk) is a village 6 miles east of Kumbakōṇam in the Tanjore district of the Madras Presidency. The existence of the plates was brought to the notice of the late Rai Bahadur V.Venkayya, M.A., by Mr. Narayanaswami Aiyar, Sub-Inspector of Police, Madras City. It is stated that they “were found with many other idols, while digging a foundation in the premises of a Śiva temple in the village of Thandanthottam, Kumbakonam taluk of Tanjore district, about 100 years ago. No one knew what it is and how they happened to be there.” The plates are 14 in number, each measuring about 11(1/4)" by 3(3/4)". When they were produced before Mr. Venkayya the plates were strung on a ring which did not appear to have been previously cut.¹ The ring is somewhat oval with diameters measuring 6(1/2)" and 7(3/4)". Its ends are secured at the bottom of a circular seal 3" in diameter. The seal bears in relief a couchant Pallava bull facing the proper right. Along the margin of the seal is a Grantha legend which is illegible. The ring on which the plates are strung was cut by me with the permission of Mr. Narayanaswami Aiyar in order to change out the plates and prepare ink-impressions. The two sides of the first plate, the first side of the second plate and the first five lines of its second side are in Sanskṛit verse, engraved in the Grantha alphabet and the rest, in the Tamil language and characters. The inscription must originally have consisted of many more plates, two or three of which at least are missing at the beginning. These would have supplied a genealogy of the Pallava kings similar to that of the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates of Vijaya-Nandivarman published above. The concluding words of some of the plates in the middle do not fit in with the opening words of the succeeding plates. Consequently, it is presumed that a few plates² of the grant portion are also lost. This presumption is confirmed by the fact that while the number of the donees according to the Sanskṛit portion has to be 308, the number actually registered is only 244, even including those whose names seem to have been added subsequently in comparatively later characters, or at least in a different hand. The first plate of the preserved portion begins by referring to a king who conquered the South and stating that a certain Hiraṇyavarman was born “again” for the “welfare of the worlds” (jagatām hitāya V. 1). His son was Nandivarman who perhaps held the biruda Ēkadhīra³. The next six verses are taken up with the praise of Nandivarman. Two historical facts referred to in this part of the inscription are interesting. One of them is that Nandivarman took away from the Gaṅga king a neck-ornament which contained in it the gem called Ugrōdaya (V. 6). The name of this Gaṅga king, however, is not furnished. The other is that Nandivarman was the owner of an elephant named Paṭṭavardhana (V. 7). With the permission of the king, a certain Dayāmukha caused a village to be granted to 308 Brāhmaṇas and called it Dayāmukhamaṅgala after his own name (V. 9). The executor (ājñapti) of the grant was evidently the very same person Dayāmukha entitled Kumāra, who is stated to have been the king’s treasurer (V. 10). The composer of the eulogy (praśasti) was Paramēśvara Uttarakāraṇika son of Param-Ōttarakāraṇika (V. 14). The Tamil portion is dated in the 58th year of Kōvijaya-Nandivikramavarman and registers a gift of land (converted into a village⁴) lying to the west of Taṇḍattōṭṭam (i.e. Taṇḍantōṭṭam) in Teṉkarai-Naṟaiyūr-nāḍu, a district of the Chōḷa country, to a number of Brāhmaṇas of Nalgūr⁵. To judge from the high regnal year, the Taṇḍattōṭṭam plates must belong to the reign of that Pallava king Vijaya-Nandivikramavarman whose Tiruvallam rock inscription is dated in his 62nd year i.e. 4 years later than our plates⁶. At the same time the alphabet of the plates and the name of the king lead us to infer that the Vijaya-Nandivikramavarman who issued these plates may be identical with Vijaya-Nandivarman III, the donor of the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates. If the inscription were preserved in full, this question would not have been left to surmise and conjecture. The father of Vijaya-Nandivikramavarman is here stated to have been Hiraṇyavarman; while, the father of Vijaya-Nandivarman, according to the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates, was Dantivarman. If the proposed identity of Vijaya-Nandivikramavarman with Vijaya-Nandivarman is accepted, the apparent discrepancy in the name of the father could be explained. The statement that Hiraṇyavarman “was born again,” evidently indicates a second king of that name and we may suppose that Dantivarman, the father of Vijaya-Nandivikramavarman, was also called Hiraṇyavarman like his grandfather Hiraṇyavarman I the father of Nandivarman Pallavamalla. If the foregoing surmises are confirmed by future researches, the Taṇḍantōṭṭam grant would be 52 years later than the Vēlūrpāḷaiyam plates of the same king. The donees whose enumeration occupies more than eleven plates of the inscription number 244. They belong to various gōtras and sūtras. To judge from their titles (such as Chaturvēdin, Trivēdin, Sōmayājin, Vasantayājin, Shaḍaṅgavid, Bhaṭṭa, Kramavid, Sarvakratuyājin, Daśapurīya⁷, Agnichit, and Vājapēyin) most of them must have been learned men as stated in verse 9. The largest number of shares assigned to a single individual is 12 and such a recipient was Attōṇa-Shaḍaṅgavi-Sōmayājin (No. 109) whose gōtra and sūtra are lost on one of the missing plates. The composer of the inscription, viz., Uttarakāraṇika alias Ayyaṉ Paramēśvara of the Rathītara-gōtra and Paviṛiya-sūtra (No. 128) received two shares. Among the other donees, Tiruvaḍigaḷ (evidently the name of the local Vishṇu temple or of the Śaiva devotees, as stated on page (41) of the introduction) got 5 shares while Mahādēva (the Śiva temple) was assigned 2 shares. One share was allotted to the reciter of the Bhārata; and the three arbitrators (madhyastha) got one share each. A share was assigned for “pouring water” and for “lighting fire” in the hall (ambalam). Perhaps this was the hall where the village assembly used to meet. Apparently the Bhārata was also recited in this same hall. The donees seem to have belonged to different parts of the country. The names of their native villages indicate that a pretty large number of them must have been originally residents of the Telugu country. Taṇukkil, Kārambichchēḍu, Iṛakkandoṟu, Iruṅgaṇḍi, Nambūr, Karañjai⁸, Piṇukkippaṟu⁹, Vēlpaṟu, Poppaṟu, Vaṅgippaṟu, Aṭṭambaṟu, Muḍipaṟu (or Muḍapaṟu), Virippaṟu, Arasappaṟu, Karippaṟu, Nūttilāppaṟu and Ponnambaṟu are apparently names of villages which were probably situated in the Telugu country. Kumiṛūr, Kāṭṭukkuṟi, Maṇaṟkāl, Mandiram, Paṟiyalūr, Pāḍagam, Pāṟkuḷam, Aṅgārai, Kaḷattūr, Veṇṇainallūr, Perumbūdūr, Kāynīrkuḷam, Īykkāṭṭukkōyil, Śiṟupaṛuvūr, Puliyūr (in Miṛalai-nāḍu), Aruvāgūr and Taramanallūr (in Aruvā-nāḍu)¹⁰ are distinctly Tamil names. The donees whose native villages may be presumed to have been situated in the Telugu country need not necessarily have immigrated into the Chōḷa country at the time of the grant. They might have been settled there sometime before. In any case it is clear that there was a large colony of Telugu Brāhmaṇas in the heart of the Chōḷa country during the first half of the 9th century A.D. The Telugu birudas of the Pallava king Mahēndravarman found in the Trichinopoly cave inscription,¹¹ testify to the influence of the Telugu people in the Chōḷa country already in the 7th century A.D. It is worthy of note that a large number of the village names are now held as titles by some well-known Śrī-Vaishṇava families—Dvēdaikōmapuram (Vēdagōmapura), Vaṅgippaṟu (Vaṅgippura), Uruppiṭṭūr (Uruppuṭṭūr), Kārambichchēḍu (Kārambichchēṭṭu), Śrīmalai (Tirumalai), Pattaṅgi, Vīravaḷḷi (Vīravalli), Muḍumbe, Taṇukkil, Kumāṇḍūr, Puttūr, Śēṭṭalūr and Kuṇḍūr being some. Maṇaṟkāl has evidently lent its name to one of the later Vaishṇava āchāryas of the 12th century, named Maṇakkāl-Nambi.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv02p0i0099.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: Madhyasthanātha temple - on the north and west walls of the central shrine and the west wall of the mukhamaṇḍapa. Iṟandakālameḍutta perumāḷ Śrīvallabhadēva: year 7, Śaka 1463, piḷava, Āvaṇi, 22, su. di. 7, Tuesday, Anusha: 1541 A.D. This inscription records a gift of one kuḻi and eight mā of land freed from taxes at Paṭṭakuṟichchi in Āri-nāḍu, to Kaṇdēru Sōmanātha Bhaṭṭa for compiling pañchāṅga (calendar).

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv30p0i0216.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: King: Prākrama Pāṇḍya Year Śaka 1384, Mithuna 28, ba. di. 13, Monday, Mṛigaśīrisha = 25th June 1462 A.D. but the day was Friday. This incomplete inscription records the creation of a brāhmaṇical settlement, which consisted of forty eight ma wet land twenty four mā of dry land, named after the prince Sheṇbagarāma pāṇḍyadēvar alias Vīrapāṇḍyadēvar, Vīrapāṇḍyach-chaturvēdimaṅgalam by the king infavour of eighteen Vēdic brāhmaṇas and one brāhmaṇa, who was to read Pañchāṅga. It is also stated that they were to recite Vedas and Purāṇas and read Pañchāṅga before the king. Besides these, land shares were also set apart to five brāhmaṇas. They were Mālādhara Bhaṭṭaṉ in Śaka 1378, Śrī Kṛishṇa Bhaṭṭaṉ in Śaka 1382, Padmanābha Bhaṭṭaṉ, Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭaṉ Parākrama Pāṇḍya Brahmādarāyaṉ and Kailāśanātha Bhaṭṭaṉ along with the above nineteen brāhmaṇas in Śaka 1384. The latter, Kailāśanātha Bhaṭṭaṉ, was to expound Purāṇas. The inscription also narrates in detail matters relating to the land shares i.e., boundaries, extent and other details. The nativity of these donees, their gōtras and sūtras are also given. It is evident that each of them was to get two mā of wet land and one mā of dry land.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv38p0i0010.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: King: Aḻagaperumāḷ Kulasēkharadēva Year: 2+42. Śaka 1395, Kaṟkkaṭaka 22, ba. di. 11, Tuesday, Mṛigaśrīsha = July 20, 1473. However, the star was Rōhiṇi. This incomplete inscription records the gift of two mā of land, exempted from taxes, (bhūdāna-iṟaiyili) to a certain Vīra Pāṇḍya Sundarapāṇḍya Bhaṭṭaṉ of Kauśika-gōtra and to some other brāhmaṇas, well-versed in Vēdas, (chaturvēdi-bhaṭṭargaḷ) for reciting Vēdas at the above temple.

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv38p0i0011.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary: [Note.—Letters enclosed in square brackets are doubtful on the stone. Those enclosed in round brackets are superfluous and must be omitted. Those in brackets with asterisks are inserted by the editor. The gaps are represented by dots but not always by as many dots as the number of lost or damaged letters.]

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv04p0i0130.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary:

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv05p1i0001.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary:

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv05p1i0224.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary:

Languages: Sanskrit, Tamil.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv05p1i0239.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary:

Languages: Sanskrit, Telugu.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv05p1i0002.

Emmanuel Francis.

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv06p0i0005.

Emmanuel Francis.

Summary:

Language: Sanskrit.

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

DHARMA_INSSIIv07p0i0095.