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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA the eldest (Mūtta) annong the princes (other than the king and the Yuvarāja) of the royal family, seems to be what is indicated by the title.[1] In the compound titles like Peruṁbiḍugu Muttaraiyan, Viḍēlviḍugu Muttaraiyan, Vijayālaya Mūttarattaraiyan, Anapāya Mūttaraiyan and Parāntaka Mūttaraiyan, the person referred to probably bore the title on the principle stated just now and exercised the authority of Mūttaraiyar (third dignity of senior or first prince) in the time of that king whose surname he bore.[2] In other combinations like Erikal-Mutturāju, Jayatuṅganāṭṭu-Mūttatambirān or Śiraivāy Mūttatambirān (Tambirān=Rāja), the prefix to the title stands for the seat or area of his authority. Among the Telugu Chōlas, Dhanañjaya, the third of the brothers, according to the genealogy found in the Mālēpāḍu plates is called Muturāju in the present inscription ; his position in relation to the throne was thereby recognised, although he was the third brother and his two elder brothers Sundarananda and Siṁhavishṇu had sons of their own (tē putrānuputry=ānubhūta-rājyaśriyaḥ). Similarly we find Puṇyakumāra, the second son of Chōla-Mahārāja as stated in the Mālēpāḍu plates, holding the title Erikal-Muturāju according to inss. E. and F below as he had an elder brother Guṇamudita who probably held the position of Yuvarāja and who was perhaps the Erigal-Dugarāju of the two subjoined inscriptions of Chōla-Mahārāja (C and D). An important fact emerges when we understand the political significance of these three terms occurring in early Telugu Chōla inscriptions, Mahārājādhirāja, Dugarāja or Yuvarāja and Mutturāja, viz., that the kingdom established by these Chōlas was divided into three well-defined charges each held by a price of the royal family including the king who held direct rule over one part while exercising sovereignty as Adhirāja over the other units to which the prices of the royal family were sent out as viceroys. May it be, that succession to the throne was regulated by seniority in age and not by the law of primogeniture ?[3]
The well-known expression applied to Karikala in the Mālēpāḍu plates, viz., Trairājyasthitim-ātmasāt-kṛitavataḥ has never been satisfactorily explained. It seems to us now that in the light of the foregoing discussion it must be taken to mean that for a part of his reign, if not the whole of it, Karikāla was his own Yuvarāja and Mutturāja and dispensed with the assistance of sub-kings of which lesser monarchs found need to avail themselves. The context in which the expression occurs fully supports this view.[4] Rēvaṇakālu, who figures as the donor in the present inscription, may be identified with the donor of the Pōṭladurti-Mālēpāḍu inscription of Chōla-Mahārāja.[5] The name seems to be a Telugu rendering of the Sanskrit name, Rēvaṇapādāḥ, the suffix pāda being literally rendered in Telugu as kālu or kāḷḷu meaning foot or feet. Another person bearing a similar name, viz., Kuṇḍikāḷḷu, figures as the donor in the Erraguḍipāḍu inscription of Erikal-Mutturāju (inscription B below).[6] ______________________________
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