South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

A. D. 1135-6. This is the earliest reference that we have to this family. The Kāḍavarāya herein referred to is no doubt identical with (2) Āṭkoḷḷiyār alias Kāḍavarāyar of the above genealogy. It is worthy of note that the chief Āṭkoḷḷi bore the title Mōgan and had the surname Kulōttuṅgaśōla Kāḍavarāyan. A second reference to this chief is found in an inscription^[1] of Kōpperuñjiṅga dated in the 11th year of reign. It states that in the 12th year of the reign of Tribhuvanachakravartin Rājarājadēva, a tax-free gift of land was made by Āṭkoḷḷi Kāḍavarāyan for offerings and worship to an image which he had set up in the temple of Vaikuṇṭha Perumāḷ at Tiruveṇṇainallūr for being blessed with a son. That the Tribhuvanachakravartin Rājarāja, in whose twelfth year the grant was made, is the second king of that name and not the third, is assured from the fact revealed in Inscription II which belongs to the 7th year of Kōpperuñjiṅga which speaks of the pulling down of the śrīvimāna of the temple of Vaikuṇṭha-Perumāḷ that had become dilapidated, of its reconstruction in the 29th year of the reign of Kulōttuṅga III, and of the re-engraving of the older inscription on the new structure. The date of the chief’s gift is thus A. D. 1158 corresponding to the 12th year of Rājarāja II. From the two references cited here it will be seen that Āṭkoḷḷi Kāḍavarāyan continued to live from A. D. 1135 to 1158. At Grāmam in the South Arcot District, there is an inscription^[2] dated in the 3rd year of the reign of Tribhuvanachakravartin Rājarājadēva which registers a gift by Mōgan Āḷappirandān alias Anapāya Kāḍavarāyan. As Anapāya is a surname of Kulōttuṅga II and as Mōgan has been noted above to be a title of Āṭkoḷḷi Kulōttuṅgaśōla Kāḍavarāyan, the chief that figures here may be identified with him without any difficulty, Rājarāja II being the immediate successor of Kulōttuṅga II. The date of this record is A. D. 1148. The full name of this chief is thus Mōgan Āḷappirandān Āṭkoḷḷi alias Kulōttuṅgaśōla (or Anapāya) Kāḍavarāyan.

From the fact that Āṭkoḷḷi Kāḍavarāyan figures in the records of Kulōttuṅga II and his successor Rājarāja II from A. D. 1135 onwards, it may be concluded that his father Vaḷandanār must have been a contemporary of Vikrama-Chōḷa (A. D. 1118-1135).

In the genealogy, No. 2 Āṭkoḷḷi Kāḍavarāyan is said to have had two sons, viz. No. ^[3] Ēliśaimōgan Kāḍavarāyan, the conqueror of the four quarters (Nāludikkumvenrān) and No. ^[4] Araśanārāyaṇan Kachchiyarāyan alias Kāḍavarāyan. Four inscriptions, Nos. VI, V, IV and 137 of 1900, which belong to the reign of Kulōttuṅga II, dated respectively in the 7th, 12th, 13th and 15th years, speak of gifts made by these two chiefs, the earlier two inscriptions referring to the younger Araśanārāyaṇan and the later two referring to the elder Ēliśaimōgan. Though all the names and surnames of these two chiefs look more like titles than real names, yet the inscriptions which mention them seem to distinguish the two by calling the elder by the names Ēliśaimōgan and Kāḍavarāyan and the younger by the names Araśanārāyaṇan and Kachchiyarāyan. The inscriptions are of importance as they belong to the very time when the chiefs flourished and furnish the various titles borne by them, which titles, it may benoted, do not find mention in the genealogy given above : besides, they also refer to the numerous gifts which the chiefs had made. These inscriptions confirm the relationship that is said to have existed between them. Inscription No. VI belonging to the 7th year of the reign of Kulōttuṅga II comes from Tirunāmanallūr in the South Arcot District. It registers a gift made by Paḷḷi Āḷappirandān Mōgan alias Kulōttuṅgaśōla Kachchiyarāyan of Kūḍalūr in Peruganūr-nāḍu to the temple of Tiruttoṇḍīśvaramuḍaiyār. Among the articles of gift one silver kachchukkōram called after the name Araśanārāyaṇan and weighing 224 kalañju, and one bell-metal dish called after Āḷappirandān and weighing 200 palam are noteworthy. The costly gold and silver articles presented by the chief and the assignment of the income of pāḍikāval accruing from two entire villages testify to the wealth and power of the chief. It is specially worthy of note that two of the articles

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^[1]No. 486 of 1921.
^[2] No. 181 of 1906.