Annual Reports

INTRODUCTION

   The other record (No. 165) is engraved in box-headed characters of the southern variety assignable to the 4th century A. D. and is in the Sanskrit language. It records the construction of a sanctuary (dharmasthāna) by king Rudrasēna at Chikkambarī. The inscription is undated and the name of the family to which the king belonged is unfortunately lost in the record. It is well-known, however, that there were two kings of the name Rudrasēna in the Vākāṭaka dynasty. The earlier of them, viz., Rudrasēna I was a staunch Śaiva, a fervent devotee of Svāmi Mahābhairava, while the other, Rudrasēna II, the grandson of the former, was a devotee of Chakrapāṇi (Vishṇu). The ruins of the ancient temple in whose neighbourhood the inscribed slab was found show such sculptures as the Nandi, the Liṅga, the image of Gaṇapati, etc., which would show that its author was a Śaiva. It would, therefore, be reasonable to assign the record under review to the earlier of the two kings, viz., Rudrasēna I. The palæography of the epigraph also supports this view. It may be remarked that this is the earliest and the only lithic record of this king known so far.

   No. 174 is an inscription (plate II) engraved on a pillar in the ruins called the Sōlākhaṁba in the village of Behar in the Narasingarh State (Central India). The record consists of a couplet (gāthā) in the Ardhamāgadhī dialect said to have been composed by Āṇadēva in praise of a temple (amarālaya). The record is assignable palæographically to about the 11th century A. D.

   No. 104 belongs to Mārañjaḍaiyan (alias) Varaguṇa-Mahārāja, an early Pāṇḍya king and is dated in his 4th year opposite the 9th i.e., the 13th regnal year. The record is fragmentary and it registers a provision made for burning two perpetual lamps in the temple of the god of Tirumayilraṅgam in Iḍaiyārrumaṅgalam. Iḍaiyārrumaṅgalam literally means a place situated between the two rivers which in the present case are the Kāvērī and the Koḷḷiḍam. It is tempting to identify this place with Iḍavai in the Chōḷa country against which this Pāṇḍya monarch is known to have marched on an expedition. Two epigraphs from Śālaigrāmam in the Ramnad District, written in Vaṭṭeluttu characters of about the 10th century A. D. also belong to the Pāṇḍyas. One of them (No. 35a) refers itself to the reign of Śaḍaiyamārar and is dated in his 2+1st regnal year while the other (No. 34) belongs to VīraPāṇḍya who bears the epithet ‘Śōlanralaikoṇḍa’ and is dated in the 15+5th year of his reign. The fact that the characters of the two records are almost identical suggests that the reigns of the two kings were not far removed from each other. Yet another Pāṇḍya record belonging to Jaṭāvarman Sundara-Pāṇḍyadēva from Kīlaiyūr (No. 98), records the restoration by a royal order (tirumukham) of lands belonging to certain Brāhmaṇas which were illegally occupied by the Paḷḷis of the village of Rājarājachaturvēdimaṅgalam who are said to have made false entries in the revenue registers declaring the said lands as sold to them by the Brāhmaṇas.

   Among the Chōḷa inscriptions, the earliest is a short epigraph engraved at the top of a sculptured slab set up in front of the Kāḷiyamman temple at Cheṭṭittāṅgal in the Chidambaram taluk (No. 105). It is written in characters of the 10th century A. D. and belongs to the reign of Parakēsarivarman Āditya (II), ‘who took the head of the Pāṇḍya’. The sculptures depicted on the stone represent two persons each in the act of cutting off his own head held by the tuft in the left hand, with sword held in the right hand. The circumstances under which this act of self-immolation was done are unfortunately not clear ; but similar acts of self-decapitation in order to fulfil certain vows are known from inscriptions.

   An inscription of Tribhuvanachakravartin Rājēndrachōḷadēva (No. 91) records the exemption from levy of taxes on a piece of land bought by the inhabitants of Rājarājachaturvēdimaṅgalam on their representation that the land was to be used as crematorium for the village. Another record of the same kings (No. 88) refers to Kīlaikkaṭṭu, the modern Kīlaiyūr from which it comes, as the pontifical seal (āchāryasthāna) of the Patañjali-maṭha belonging to the Lakshādhyāyi-santāna. The Lakshādhyāyi-santāna seems to have had under its control a few other matḥas such as the Kollā-matha at Vāranāsi and the Naḍuvil maḍam at Tiruvānaikkāval.