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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
TIRUVORRIYUR INSCRIPTION OF CHATURANANA PANDITA : ( 1 Plate ) V. RAGHAVAN, MADRAS The inscription1 edited here is well-known and has tempted every writer to refer to it for the interesting account it gives of the romantic career of a distinguished Chōḷa general. A sad interest attaches to this contribution, owing to the unexpected passing away of Mr. A. S. Ramanatha Ayyar of the Epigraphy Office, Madras, who, during the study of it for editing, brought it to me for correction and interpretation of the Sanskrit portion. For enabling me to edit it in these pages, I must thank the Government Epigraphist for the permission given by him, and the Superintendent for Epigraphy, Madras, for the facility he gave for consulting the impressions and transcripts of this and the related inscriptions. The inscription is engraved on a stone slab built into the floor between the first two pillars in the inner prākāra on the southern side of the entrance to the garbhagṛiha of the main shrine of Ādhipurīśvara at Tiruvorriyūr near Madras. The lower part of the stone has evidently been cut off and consequently some of the lines towards the close of the inscription have been lost. An examination of it on the spot now shows that, since the time when it was copied by the Department in 1912, further obliteration of some letters, especially towards the end, has been caused. The inscription, which is engraved in an ornamental style, is in two parts, Sanskrit and Tamil, the former being in Grantha characters. In the Sanskrit part, the following orthographical peculiarities may be noticed. The avagraha is omitted (l.6) ; in two places where the visarga coalesces with a following s, only one s is written (ll. 4,8) ; in some cases, a consonant following a rēpha is duplicated (ll.7,8,9,11). In writing the name of the place, Tiruvorriyūr the peculiar Tamil sound r is written in Tamil character (l. 11). The marking off of the halves and ends of verses is irregular ; the halves are not marked at all, and, except in one case, the ends are shown by a single daṇḍa. In one instance, even the third quarter of a verse is so marked off.
In the Tamil part, the chief feature is the writing of Sanskrit words and sounds in the text in Grantha characters, śrī, dēva, bha, bali, dhū and dēvāra. Long medial ē is always written only with the sign of the short medial. Some of the expressions in the Tamil part are literary. The palaeography of the inscription does not call for any remarks. The object of the inscription is to record a gift of one hundred gold Nishkas, bearing an interest of three Māshas per Nishka per annum, to the assembly of Narasiṁhamaṅgala, by Vaḷabha Chaturānana for conducting a special service on the day of Dhanishṭhā, the star of his nativity, to Lord Śiva at Tiruvorriyūr. The inscription is dated in the 20th year of Kannaradēva, the conqueror of Kachchi (Kāñchī) and Tañjai (Tanjore), i.e., the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Kṛishṇa III who came to the throne in A.D. 939.2 It therefore belongs to the year A.D. 959, which is ten years after the battle of Takkōlam to which our inscription has a vital reference. It is stated here that the subject account herein who was the beloved general of Rājāditya could not, unfortunately, be present on the battle field of Takkōlam. _______________________________________________
[1] No. 181 of 1912 of the Madras Epigraphical Collection. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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