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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
No. 23.- TWO TAMIL INSCRIPTION AT AMBUR. Âmbûr is a town of 10,000 inhabitants in the Vêlûr tâluka of the North Arcot district,[1] and a station on the Madras Railway. The temple of Nâgêśvara in the town contains an inscription of Kulôttuṅga-Chôḷa ; one of the Hoysaḷa king Vîra-Vallâḷa ; and one of the Vijayanagara king Râjaśêkhara, the son of Mallikârjuna (dated Śaka-Saṁvat 1390 expired, Sarvadhârin). In the Kâṅgarettikka Street two rough stone slabs are set up. Each of them bears at the top a Tamil inscription and below, on a countersunk surface, a bas-relief, which represents a warrior who is advancing towards the proper left, holds a bow in his left hand and a sword in his right, and is pierced by arrows. The head of the warrior is placed between two chaurîs, which appear to signify his being received into svarga on account of his heroic death. Behind the warrior on the left slab is a basket of fruits. The warrior on the right slab has a lamp in front, and a pot and another lamp at the back. These articles may be explained as offerings for the benefit of the souls of the two deceased warriors. The inscriptions at the top of the two stones are nearly identical with each other. The first (A.) records the death of a son, and the other (B.) the death of a nephew, of a certain Akalaṅkattuvarâyar. The end of the three first lines of the inscription A. is broken away, but can be restored with the help of the corresponding portion of B. Similarly, the breaks at the end of lines 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 of B. can be filled up with the help of A. The alphabet is Tamil and resembles that of the Kîl-Muṭṭugûr inscription of the 32nd year of Parântaka I.[2]. The lines were ruled off by the mason before he engraved the two inscriptions.
The death of the two warriors took place at the occasion of a cattle raid, which the Nuḷamba had organized against Âmaiyûr. By ‘ the Nuḷamba ’ we have probably to understand one of the Pallava rulers of Nuḷambapâḍi.[3] Âmaiyûr, i.e. ‘ the tortoise village,’ is an old form of the name Âmbûr. Just as the village of Udayêndiram,[4] it is said to have been situated in Mêl-Aḍaiyâru-nâḍu, a subdivision of the district of Paḍuvûr-kôṭṭam. As started before, the son and the nephew of a certain Akalaṅkattuvarâyar fell in the affray. The name Akalaṅkattuvarâyar corresponds to the Sanskṛit Akalaṅka-Yuvarâja.[5] He was the chief of the Koṇḍar[6] of Perunagar-Agaram (A. line 8 f.), a place which I cannot identify, and was a servant of Pirudi-Gaṅgaraiyar. The date of the two inscriptions is the 26th year of the reign of ‘ the king, the victorious Nṛipatuṅga-Vikramavarman.’ A king named Nṛipatuṅga is the grantor of a Grantha and Tamil inscription on seven copper-plates, of which Mr. Sewell has furnished a few particulars.[7] This Nṛipatuṅga is said to have been the son of Dantivarman and a descendant of Pallava, and the seal of his grant bears the bull-crest fo the Pallava kings. The original copper-plates were formerly preserved in the office of the Collector of North Arcot, but cannot be traced there now. At Bâhûr near Pondicherry, M. J. de la Fon discovered a set of five copper-plates of the Pallava king Nṛipatuṅgavarman. The original plates were sent to Paris some years ago, but it is not known in whose hands they are at present. M. de la Fon was good enough to furnish me with a transcript prepared by a Tamil Paṇḍit, on which the following extracts are
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