South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

siṁha of the Sanskrit inscriptions and Kōpperuñjiṅga of the Tamil inscriptions are identical and are not different from the Kōpperuñjiṅga referred to in the Tiravēndipuram inscription. According to him Kōpperuñjiṅga’s father, Jīyamahīpati was identical with Alagiyaśīyan. Mr. Venkayya cites three inscriptions where the name Alagiyaśīyan Avaniyāḷappirandān Kōpperuñjiṅga occurs and states that in them the name Alagiyaśīyan is found prefixed to that of Avaniyāḷappirandān Kōpperuñjiṅga. Alagiyaśīyan and Kōpperuñjiṅga have been taken as names and Avaniyāḷappirandān as a title. Students of epigraphy know that in double names the first denotes the name of the father while the second is the name of the son. Mr. Venkayya, it may be noted, has not identified Jīyamahīpati with Alagiyaśīyan Kōpperuñjiṅga ; he has only equated it with the first part Alagiyaśīyan of this double name. It will be unjust to foist on Venkayya a conclusion which he had not arrived at, may, which he was positively against. Though the credit of having raised the question whether there was only one king or more than one of the name Kōpperuñjiṅga is due to Mr. Venkayya, he has not suggested or postulated that there might have been two Kōpperuñjṅgas related to one another as father and son and that the younger has perhaps to be identified with Mahārājasiṁha of the Tripurāntakam inscription. Mr. Venkayya has assigned the Tripurāntakam, Drākshārāma and four Tiruvaṇṇāmalai inscriptions to one Kōpperuñjiṅga, whose attitude to the Chōḷas in times earlier than the date of the Tiruvēndipuram inscription, is expressed in the epithet ‘ the sun to the lotus tank of the Chōḷa family’.

Two of the inscriptions found in the Vaikuṇṭha-perumāḷ temple at Tiruveṇṇainallūr are of importance as they afford hints regarding the relationship that existed between Kōpperuñjiṅga and Maṇavāḷapperūmāḷ. One of them,^[1] which is not dated in any king’s reign, tells us that the mother of a Kāḍavarāyan presented the image of Alaga (Alagiya)-Pallava-Viṇṇagara-Emberumān ; that its shrine, after the death of Kāḍavarāyan’s father Maṇavālapperumāḷ, had been neglected and allowed to go into ruin ; and that Kāḍavarāyan repaired it and gave some lands for its upkeep. There is every possibility that the image Alagiya-Pallava-Viṇṇagara-Emberumān, was called after the name of the husband of the lady that consecrated it. If this is the case. Maṇavāḷapperumāḷ should have borne the surname Alagiya-Pallavan, and it may be noted that we have already found that Alagiya-Pallavan was one of Maṇavāḷapperumāḷ’s surnames. The other inscription^[2] is dated in the 35th year (A. D. 1213) of the reign of Tribhuvanavīradēva. It refers to the setting up of the image of the goddess Periyapirāṭṭiyār in the temple of Vaikuṇṭhattu-Emberumān by the mother of Alagiyapallavan Kōpperuñjṅgadēva and to a gift of lands made to it by certain individuals. From the double name Alagiyapallavan Kōpperuñjiṅgadēva it might either be gathered that Kōpperuñjiṅga was the son of Alagiyapallavan or that he also had the surname Alagiyapallavan as suggested by Mr. Venkatasubba Ayyar.^[3]It is very likely too that the Kāḍavarāyan mentioned in the former inscription, as being the son of Manavāḷapperumāḷ alias Alagiyapallavan is not different from Peruñjiṅga.

The only relationship, which is not apparent and which is at the same time difficult to make out, is that of Maṇavāḷapperumāḷ with any of the members known so far. The fact which points to the unmistakable connection of Peruñjiṅga and his father Maṇavāḷapperumāḷ with the members of the Kāḍavarāya chiefs noted above, is that they belonged to Kūḍal or Kūḍalūr. Peruganūr-nāḍu was under the control of the two famous sons of Āṭkoḷḷiyār alias Kāḍavarāyar and was doubtless identical with Perugai which figures among the places that comprised the dominion of Vēṇāvuḍaiyān, the younger son of Kōpperuñjiṅga, as reported in Inscription No. I. It is also mentioned in another record of the same place as the native place of Āḷappirandān

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^[1]No. 484 of 1921.
^[2] No. 487 of 1921.
^[3] See above, Vol. XXIV, No. 6.