Annual Reports

INTRODUCTION

Agastiśvara temple in Vaḍamadurai mentions Paḍaivaḷavan Tāman Chandraśēkharan, one of the Manukulakēsaritterinda valaṅgai Vēḷaikkārar (a regiment of warriors of the Valaṅgai class chosen by and named after Manukulakēsari), as the donor. As the record, from its palaeography, is assignable to about the early part of the tenth century, the epithet Manukulakēsari, which must have been the title of the donor’s overlord, possibly refers to Āditya I ( 871-907 A.D.). It may not be out of place here to mention that Manukulāditya was the name of the king under whose patronage Sarvajñātman, the pupil of Surēśvarāchārya who was himself a pupil of the great Śaṅkarāchārya, wrote a work called Saṁkshēpaśārīraka (SII, Vol. III, part iv, Introduction, p. 9).

  A Chōḷa record (No. 267) from Veṅgal in the same Taluk, belongs to the 8th regnal year of a Rājakēsarivarman and registers a gift of 180 sheep for two perpetual lamps to god Tirumuṇḍīśvaradēva of the place by Mayilai Kaṇḍarāchchan (Gaṇḍarādityan) alias Śembiyan Iṅgaṇāṭṭu Mūvēndavēḷān of Śirriṅgaṇ. A record dated in the 3rd regnal year of Āditya II Karikāla (c. 965-66 A.D.) mentioning the chief Kōyilmayilai alias Parāntaka Mūvēndavēḷān of Śirriṅgaṇ in Iṅgaṇāḍu (SII, Vol. III, p. 376 No. 200) affords a clue to the identity of Rājakēsarivarman of the Veṅgal record. If Kōyilmayilai of the latter and Mayilai Gaṇḍarādityan of the present record, both hailing from Śirriṅgaṇ, are related to each other as father and son, it will be clear that Rājakēsarivarman of the Veṅgal inscription could only be Rājarāja I who is the Rājakēsarivarman of this period after Āditya II. That Veṅgal was called Satyāśrayakulakālapuram after one of the titles of Rājaraja I is revealed by No. 266 citing the

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27th year of the reign of this king. Another epigraph (No. 251) citing the 28th regnal year of the same king comes from Punnappākkam in the same Taluk. It registers an assignment of 500 kuli of land by Eluvakkan as ērippaṭṭi for the merit of her brother. She is referred to as the wife of a general (Śrīdaṇḍanāyaka) whose name is not clear on the stone but who is referred to as the general of Śaḷukki Vimalādityadēva. Śaḷukki Vimaḷādityadēva is obviously the Eastern Chālukya prince Vimalāditya who was the son-in-law of Rājarāja I. That this prince spent some days in the south in the realm of his father-in-law is known to us from another inscription found at Tiruvaiyāru in the Tanjore District (SII, Vol. V, No. 514). The present record is thus the second which may be taken to testify to the same fact, since the Tiruvallur Taluk where it has been discovered formed part of the dominions of the Chōḷas at the time of Rajaraja I.

   A record (No. 317) on the south wall of the Vāmana shrine at Śrīraṅgam, Tiruchirappalli District, is in the form of a memorandum (ninaippu) issued to the Śrīvaishṇavas of the Vāmana Nāyanār temple, who were assigned some land for being reclaimed and cultivated for offerings to the deity on specified occasions. In the body of the inscription is mentioned the 12th year of a certain king whose name can be made out as Vīrarājēndradēva. The record bears the signature of Śrīraṅga Nārāyaṇadāsan and it is said to have been engraved on the walls by the order of the Jīyar (Śrīmukhattukkalveṭṭu). The offices of the Jīyar and the signatory being innovations of a later period, i.e. 13th century A.D. (cf. Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIV, p. 289), Vīrarājēndra of this record can be no other than Rājēndra III (1246-79 A.D.) who bore this title (cf. No. 580 of 1907).

   An inscription of the time of the Hoysala king Sōmēśvara (No. 318), also from the Vāmana shrine at Śrīraṅgam, records a sarvvanamasya gift of land capable of yielding about 4300 and odd kalam of paddy to the Brāhmaṇas of Kāliṅgarāyachaturvēdimaṅgalam by Śīvanindākālan alias Kāliṅgarāyan of Cheluvāttūr. The date portion of the record is badly damaged. The epithet of the chief, the correct form of which is probably Jīvanindākālan, means a Kāla or Yama to those who indulge in Jīvanindā. Two other inscriptions, one from Śuttamalli (Tirunelveli District) and the other from Śannavanam (Ramnad District), attribute similar epithets to the chiefs Śembaiyadaraiyan and Māḷavachakravarti respectively (cf. No. 464 of 1909 and No. 8 of 1916). While specifying the details of the land constituting the endowment, the record under review mentions the deity Periyanāṭṭu Durgai. This goddess is perhaps the same as the Kāḷi of Samayapuram closely associated with Śrīraṅgam which derives a large portion of its revenue from the temple of the goddess.

   The temple of Narasiṁha on the top of the hill at Sholinghur (North Arcot District) has yielded seven inscriptions (Nos. 205-211), all of them belonging to the Vijayanagara period. The place is referred to as Ghaṭikāchala or Tiruk