INTRODUCTION
Bogaya and Vallaiya is not clearly stated in the inscription. They may be
related to each other as father and son. But an inscription (Ep. Carn., Vol. IV,
Kr. 63) from Gōvindanhaḷḷi, dated Śaka 1159 (1237 A. D.), describes two generals
named Bōgayya and Mallayya as sons of Kētana and as recipients, from king
Sōmēśvara, of a grant of eleven villages which they, in their turn, conferred on
several Brāhmaṇas in the presence of god Śrī-Rāmanātha at Sētu. In view of
the proximity of the date of this record to that of the inscription under review, it
may be surmised that Bōgayya and Mallayya may be identical with Bōgaya and
Vallaiya of the Śrīraṅgam epigraph, in which case Mallayya will have to be construed as another form of Vallaiya. It is not unlikely too that, of the two brothers
Bōgaya and Mallaya of the Gōvindanhaḷḷi record, the former’s (i. e. Bōgayya’s)
son was Vallaiya.
A fragment of a Chōḷa epigraph (No. 168) on the outer tiers of the Nālikēṭṭān-Vāsal is of some interest. It seems to refer to the settlement of accounts amounting to 940 kāśu, for the non-payment of which Pāradāyan Tiruvaraṅga-Purushōttaman suffered imprisonment (śirai-irundu). The accounts, as the record
says, were settled by the officer Rājēndrachōḷa-Mūvēndavēḷār. The epigraph
affords an instance of punishment by imprisonment, not commonly met with in
inscriptions.
Two large stone pillars in the passage of the Nālikēṭṭānvāśal bear epigraphs
surmounted by graffito designs, one of which represents a rampant tiger with
open mouth, raised right foot and twisted tail, and the other the mythical bird Gaṇḍabhēruṇḍa. The inscription (No. 177) engraved below the latter emblem
is too damaged to yield any information. All that could possibly be said is that
it mentions Kaṇṇanur.
No. 179, engraved in characters of about the 15th century A. D. below the
design of a rampant tiger, is a Chēra record which commences with a Sanskrit
verse giving a genealogical account of the Kēraḷa king Champaka. It describes
him as the daughter’s son (dauhitra) of king Jayasiṁha, son of Gōdēśvara, the
sister’s son of Kulaśēkhara and the brother of Mārttāṇḍa. A bilingual inscrip-
tion (Nos. 126 and 127 of 1905) on a bell in the Nambi temple at Tirukkuruṅguḍi
in the Tirunelvēli District dated in Kollam 644 (1469 A. D.) mentions the Chēra king
Āditya as the donor of the bell and traces his descent from the lineage of Jayasiṁha (Jayasiṁh-ānvaya). It is difficult to determine whether this Āditya is to
be regarded as identical with the donor Champaka of the record under review,
which, we may note, specifies his matrilineal descent from Jayasiṁha. An inscrip-
tion (No. 30 of 1925) from Mūvalūr in the Mayavaram Taluk, Tanjore District,
contains some verses in Tamil said to have been composed at the instance of
Chēramān Perumāḷ Vañchi-marttāṇḍan Tiruppāmūtta-Tiruvaḍi who is described
as an adept in all arts (akhila-kalā-vallabha). He is perhaps identical with Mārttāṇḍa, mentioned in the record under review. The significance of the tiger crest,
which is the emblem of the Chōḷas, above this epigraph is inexplicable.
No. 197 is a fragmentary record of king Harihara II of Vijayanagara. It opens
with a Sanskrit verse containing the chronogram Rājyalōkē for Śaka 1312 which
is expressed also in numerals in the Tamil portion of the inscription. It records
a gift of a tūkku-viḷakku (hanging lamp) and 30 cows to the deity by Aṇṇappauḍaiyar, son of Viṭṭharasa of the Vasta gōtra. We learn from another record
(A. R. Ep., No. 72 of 1938-39) from the same temple, dated six years later than
the present epigraph, that Aṇṇappa was responsible for the construction of the
pavement to the 1000-pillared maṇḍapa in the temple, the consecration of god
Viṭṭhala therein and the gilding of the central shrine and also the gift of an aureola
and provision for offerings to and worship of the god.
No. 206, which is in Sanskrit verse in Grantha characters, mentions Dēvarāya
as the ruling sovereign and the chief Sāḷuva, son of Guṇḍa (III) and Māḍāmbikā
and grandson of Maṅgu. The record is not dated. Sāḷuva is obviously Narasiṁha, a scion of the Sāḷuva family. Dēvarāya, the overlord of Sāḷuva according
to the present record, is stated to be the son of Vijayēśvara. The earliest known
date for Sāḷuva Narasiṁha being 1456 A. D. (A. R. Ep., No. 253 of 1904), Dēvarāya of the present record may be identified with Mallikārjuna (1446-1466 A. D.)
who is also known as Immaḍi-Dēvarāya and whose father Dēvarāya II had the
title Vijaya (Sewell, Hist. Ins. S. Ind., p. 215). The Sāḷuvābhyudayam of
Rājanātha Ḍiṇḍima gives the name of Sāḷuva Narasiṁha’s mother as Mallāmbikā
which is possibly a variant of Māḍāmbikā. The inscription stops abruptly with
the mere mention of this chief who calls himself a bhūmiramaṇa.
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