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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA SRIRANGAM INSCRIPTION OF SADASIVARAYA ; SAKA 1467 the east end and thus saw that there was no room for Kshudra elements to interfere and mounted a yantra so that nobody could live within the temple.’ This account has omitted to mention the important act of compensation arranged by the Jīyar and other technical measures adopted by him. Otherwise it corroborates some of the details given in our record. About the date of this Jīyar our inscription does not give any indication except that he was a contemporary of a Chōḷa king. However, the following facts may be stated here. We know of one Śrīraṅga-Nārāyaṇa Jīyar, who flourished in the 13th century A.C. and was connected with the administration of the Śrīraṅganātha temple for a long time.[1] This Jīyar was first known as Kūra-Nārāyaṇa Jīyar in the early years of his career when he composed the Sudarśanaśatakam. He was also known as Kūra-Nārāyaṇa Kavi. His original name was Nārāyaṇa. He is stated to have received his initiation from Kūrattālvār[2] at Tirumāliruñjōlai-malai. Hence he was called Kūra-Nārāyaṇa Jīyar. The Kōyilolugu places the date of this Sudarśanaśatakam in about the same period as that of Nañjīyar.[3] The facts stated about this Nārāyaṇa Jīyar in the Kōyilolugu and those mentioned in our inscription concerning Nalantigal Nārāyaṇa Jīyar would render it quite possible that the two persons are identical. The date of the events recorded about Nalantigal Nārāyaṇa Jīyar must lie during the period of Kandāḍi Tōlappar,[4] called Sēnāpati Dhurandharar, who was a contemporary of Nambiḷḷai, the successor of Nañjīyar. Hence Kūra-Nārāyaṇa Jīyar alias Nalantigal-Nārāyaṇa Jīyar must have lived as a contemporary of both Nañjīyar and Nambiḷḷai who were great āchāryas in the line of Rāmānuja, and even lived further on. His long association with the administration of the temple had made him very popular and his admirers and friends ventured to establish a new pontifical seat named after him in rivalry with the established line of Rāmānuja and succeeded in making him the first Śrīraṅga-Nārāyaṇa Jīyar with special honours. Though the dates of these religious heads have not been settled accurately, it can be safely asserted that Nalantigal-Nārāyaṇa Jīyar of our record lived form the middle of the 12th century up to the middle of the 13th. This inscription does not unfortunately give any clue about the identity of the Chōḷa king who is stated to have settled the dispute.
The technical expressions in which the ideas about the methods to prevent erosion are couched deserve special mention. The words kili-yāru and malaḍan-āru and the cognate verbs from which these nouns are derived are very aptly expressive of the operations involved. The word kilittu embodies the sense of force conveyed by the action. The expression malaḍu śeyvittu is both literary and technical. The use of the word malaḍu is quite in keeping with the literary tradition of personifying rivers as women. At the same time the ineffectiveness of that section of the river and barrenness of that part of the land are precisely indicated. The names kili-yāru and malaḍanāru[5] remind us of the small rivulets and channels in the vast distributary system of the Kāvērī and also of their names like koraiyāru (kuraiyāru), pettāru (perrāru) and vaḷappāru(vaḷarppāru). Perhaps Kīḷpalāru is the name of one such kind of water course. Palāru in this name may be a corrupted form of piḷḷaiyāṛu, just a variant of perrāru. The divisions named after this āru came to be known as Kīlpalāru and Mēlpalāru according to their directions from this āru.[6] _________________________________________________
[1] Above, Vol. XXIV, p. 289. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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