South Indian Inscriptions

INTRODUCTION

here represented as the ruling king of Śaka 1102, Vikārin, Kārttika-śu. 12, Sunday, regularly corresponding to 1179 A.D., October 14. The fact that ŚivachittaPermāḍi, who was the elder brother of Vijayāditya, is not mentioned as the ruling monarch renders it probable that the latter began to rule independently from about the date of this inscription. The seal of the charter bears the legend śrī- Vishṇudāsaḥ, in Nāgarī characters, above the figure of a rampant lion facing left with its tail twisted and turned up. This record has been published in Fp. Ind., Vol. XXIX, pp. 29 ff.

  No. 9 was secured from Muḍikoṇḍān, Nannilam Taluk, Tanjore District. It is dated in Śaka 1486 during the reign of Sadāśivarāya of Vijayanagara and records the grant of the village of Muḍigoṇḍān, together with its hamlets, to a number of Brāhmaṇas by Achyuta, son of Śevvappa-Nāyaka. The vijñapti of the grant was Rāmarāja of Āravīḍu. From the description of the donor given in the plates, he appears to be identical with Nāyaka chief of that name who ruled over Tanjore during this period. Among the donees whose names are given at the end of the grant, figures a poet named Vēṅkaṭādri. He is described as well-versed in the Vaishṇavite lore including the Draviḍ-āgaṁa, i.e. the Nālāyira Divya-prabandham, and as the son of Aubaḷārya of the Śrīvasta gōtra, Āpastamba sūtra and Yajus śākhā. Another donee mentioned in the charter is Āchchā-dīkshita who was the son of Appayādhvarin of the Bhāradvāja gōtra and Drāhyāyaṇa sūtra and belonged probably to the family of Appayya-dīkshita.

B.—Stone Inscriptions

   Three new Brāhmī inscriptions (Nos. 140-142), copied in the caverns on the hill at Tirupparaṅkunram, near Madurai, Madras State, are the earliest epigraphs in the year’s collection. They were exposed to view in the course of repairs carried out recently to these caverns. They belong to the same class of records as those found in other caverns in the Districts of Madurai, Ramanathapuram and Tirunelveli in South India (cf. A. R. EP., 1912, p. 50 and Plate). Probably they record the names of persons who carved out the stone beds in these caverns.

   In the rock-cut cave temple of Subrahmaṇya at Tirupparaṅkunram, a Sanskrit inscription (No. 143), engraved in florid Grantha characters on the lintel of the door-way of the Durgā shrine was copied. It consists of a single verse in the Sragdharā metre and records that Sāmanta Bhīma, who appears to have belonged to a Vaidya family, excavated the Śiva temple on the hill and installed in it an image of Gaṇapati in the Kali year 3874 (773 A.D.), Taisha (Pushya) 6. Māraṅgāri, another member of this family, already known from an inscription at Ānamalai, about 15 miles from Tirupparaṅkunram excavated a rock-cut temple for Vishṇu in the Kali year 3871 (770 A. D.), three years before the date of the record under review (cf. Ep. Ind., Vol. VIII, pp. 317 ff.). In the present record the hill is called Paramaśikharin which is obviously the Sanskrit rendering of the Tamil name Tirupparaṅkunram.

   No. 1 on a boulder in the bed of the Brahmaputra river near Tezpur in the Darrang District, Assam, belongs to king Harjaravarman of the Mlēchchha (Sālas-tambha) dynasty of Prāgjyōtisha and is dated in the Gupta year 510 (829 A.D.). See P. N. Bhattacharya, Kāmarūpaśāsanāvalī, pp. 185 ff. It is worthy of note that the Gupta era was in use in Assam during this period when the Vikrama and Śaka eras were popular in other regions. Another inscription (No. 15) on a rock at Kānālibarshī, on the other side of the Brahmaputra near Gauhati, is dated Madhumāsa (Chaitra) 13, Śaka 1127 which is given in figures as well as in the chronogram turaga-yugm-ēśa (īśa=11, yugma=2, turaga=7). It records the defeat of the Turushkas (Muhammadans) in Kāmarūpa on the side date corresponding to the 7th March, 1206 A. D. (cf. P. N. Bhattacharya, op. cit., introduction, p. 44).

   At Guṇḍlāpalle in the Ongole Taluk of the Guntur District, Madras State, was copied an undated and damaged Telugu inscription (No. 128) of the time of Vijayāditya, apparently of the Eastern Chālukya family. It records a gift of land made by his subordinate Kaḍeyarāja and mentions Aytakavva, the wife (dēvu) of Kali-Viṭrāju (i.e. Kali-Viṭṭa-rāja). The imprecation at the end of the record states that those who would destroy the gift should be considered as traitors to Tribhuvanāṅkuśa. Since Tribhuvanāṅkuśa was the title of some of the kings of the Eastern Chālukya dynasty, king Vijayāditya of the record must have been a member of this family. His identity, however, is doubtful. The record may