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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA The carving on the mountain of Nannan, the Vāgai, kuraṅgu and viśaiyam of his (Vēṇāvuḍaiyān’s) father Peruñjiṅga, is of great interest. It is a well known fact that kings and ruling chiefs of South India used to wear garlands made of (or golden garlands made in the shape of) the flowers of particular kinds of trees and had the emblems of some animals such as the tiger, fish, elephant, boar, etc. From clause (iii) noted above, we learn that the flower of the Vāgai tree was used by the Kāḍavarāyas of Kūḍal and that their banner contained ‘ Kuraṅgu’, i.e., the Monkey. The adoption of the Monkey in the banner is not novel. The epic hero Arjuna had Hanūmān on his banner. What is difficult to explain is the carving of viśaiyam, which term means victory. Whether the chief engraved an inscription glorifying the deeds of valour of his father or simply carved his emblem in such a way as to give a subdued position to the emblems of the enemy kings overcome by him it is not possible to say with certainty. It the seals of the Chōḷa king, Rājēndra-Chōḷa I, we see clearly that the tiger, the emblem of the Chōḷas, is given a more prominent place than the fish and the bow, which are the emblems of the Pāṇḍya and the Chēra whom he had subdued. It is not unlikely that a similar device was made by Vēṇāvuḍaiyān.
A genealogy covering all the members of the house of the Kāḍavarāyas of Kūḍal being a great desideratum, I shall discuss it below. Two inscriptions[1] dated in Śaka 1108 (=A. D. 1186), discovered at Tiruveṇṇainallūr and Vriddhāchalam, furnish the following genealogy :─ 1. Vaḷandanār2alias Kāḍavarāyar 2. Āṭkoḷḷiyār alias Kāḍavarāyar
3. Ēliśaimōgan Kāḍavarāyan
4. Araśanārāyaṇan Kachchiya-
5. Āḷappirandān Viraśēkharan A few other inscriptions of the Madras Epigraphical collection also refer to some of these chiefs and enable us to know the time when they lived, the full names and titles they bore, and the part they played in the political history of the country. They also mention other members whose names are not included in the above pedigree. To know the complete genealogy and history of the family, these inscriptions are useful. In inscription No. III of Tribhuvanachakravartin Kulōttuṅga-Chōḷa, dated in the 3rd year of his reign, figures a chief called Mōgan Āṭkoḷḷi alias Kulōttuṅgaśōla-Kāḍavarāyan, who made a gift of his pāḍikāval rights on certain lands to the temple of Tirumāṇikuli. As mention is made in the inscription of two villages called Tiruppērambalamponmēyndaperumāḷnallūr and Ediriliśōlanallūr almost in the same words as found in another inscription3 of Kulōttuṅga II discovered in the same place, we are enabled to ascribe both the records to the same Chōḷa sovereign. The year of the inscription is thus equivalent to _______________________________
[1] No. 74 of 1981 and no. 463 of 1921 of the Madras Epigraphical collection (See A. R. on Epigraphy, Madrasa’
for 1918, p. 130, and for 1922, p. 107)
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