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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA EIGHT INSCRIPTIONS OF KADAVARAYA CHIEFS K. S. VAIDYANATHAN, COIMBATORE Thefollowing eight Tamil inscriptions are taken up for editing here on account of the important information which they contain. These inscriptions are only a few among several that throw light regarding a family of chiefs called Kāḍavarāyas, who claim to belong to Kūḍal. Though the texts of the inscriptions have been made available in the S. I. I. the contents of most of them have not been noticed anywhere. Some of the records, as will be shown in the sequel, are also useful to students of Tamil Literature. All the eight epigraphs come from the South Arcot District : two of them (Nos. I and VII) are from Tiruvaṇṇāmalai in the Tiruvaṇṇāmalai Taluk ; three (Nos IV, V and VIII) from Tiruvadi, one (No. III) from Tirumāṇikuli in the Cuddalore Taluk ; and the remaining two (Nos. II and VI) from Tiruveṇṇainallūr and Tirunāmanallūr in the Tirukkōilūr Taluk. Excepting No. I, all the others are dated. No. II belongs to the 7th year of the reign of Kōpperuñjiṅga, Nos. III, IV, V and VI are dated in the 3rd, 13th, 12th and 7th years of the reign of the Chōḷa king Kulōttuṅga II, and Nos. VII and VIII are both dated in the 13th year of Kulōttuṅga III. There are no orthographical peculiarities that call for any special remarks. The use of Grantha letters in the midst of Tamil words, is not a special feature and hence we do not collect the instances. But the sense conveyed by a few clauses in No. I deserves to be noted. They are (i) Kuḍa-tiśai-kKarunāṭar tenpulaṅ=kurugavum (l. 4), (ii) Vaḍa-tiśai-tTeluṅgar vaḍakkirund=aliyavum (l. 4), (iii) Nannan-verpil . . . . . taṅ-kōn Vāgaiyun=kuraṅgum viśaiyamun=tīṭṭi (l. 4). The verb kurugu in (i) may mean ‘to go’ or ‘to diminish’ and its subject may be either Karunāṭar or tenpulam. If we take Karunāṭar as the subject, tenpulam would become the object and the clause would mean that the Karunāṭas went to tenpulam, i.e., the southern region, the region of the god of Death. If the subject of the verb kurugu be tenpulam the clause would mean that the southern land or portion of the dominion of the Karunāṭar of the Western region became diminished. The ordinary sense of vaḍakkirundu used in (ii) is ‘remaining in the north’ and as such the expression means ‘caused the Teluṅgas to be confined in the north’. _______________________________
[1]Survey of India map 46H/1 and 5. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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