North Indian Inscriptions

TIRUKKALUKKUNRAM INSCRIPTIONS.

TEXT OF D.

1 Svasti śrî [||*] Kachchiyun=Tañ[j]aiyuṅ=koṇ-
2 ḍa Kannaradêvarku yâṇḍu pat[t-o]nba-¹
3 dâvadu [|*] Kaḷattûr-k[kô]ṭṭattu² tan [kû]rru=³
4 Ttirukkalu[k*]kunrattu śrî-Mûlastâ-
5 nattu⁴ terkil=ambalam Karaiy-uḍaiya
6 Śattan Śennippairaiyan⁵ amba-
7 lamm=e[ḍut]tu idanukku ambala-ppuram=â[ga Iś]â-
8 naśivan=âgiya Nakkaḍi-Baṭṭan pakkal vilai-koṇḍa
9 bhûmi Kaḷarichcheruvuṅ=kiṇarum taṇṇ[î]r aṭṭu[va]-
10 darkum agniy=iḍuvadarkumm=âga⁶ ambala-pa-
11 ṭṭi⁷ vaiyttamaiyil sabhaiyômum iva-
12 n pakkal⁸ irai-dravyam koḍu emm=ûrum śantr-âdi-
13 ttarum uḷ-aḷavum iraiy=ilitti=[kku]ḍuttôm [|*] i-[d*]dha[r]mma-
14 m rakshittân aḍi talai m[ê]lina [|*] i-d*]dha[rmma]m irakkinân
15 Geṅgaiy-aḍai=Kkumariy-iḍai elu-nûrru=kkâda-
16 mum śeydâr śeyda⁹ pâpattil paḍuvâr [||*]

TRANSLATION.

......(Line 1.) Hail ! Prosperity ! In the nineteenth year (of the reign) of Kannaradêva, the conqueror of Kachchi and Tañjai.

......(L. 3.) “Whereas Śâttan Śennippêraiyan of Karai had built a hall (ambalam) to the south of the holy Mûlasthâna (temple) at Tirukkalukkunram in Kaḷattûr-kôṭṭam (and) in the subdivision called after itself, and had given as a dependence (? puram) of this hall, viz. for providing water and for supplying fire to the hall,¹⁰ a well and (one) paṭṭi of land (called) Kaḷarichcheruvu,¹¹ which he had purchased from Iśânaśiva alias Nakkaḍi-Bhaṭṭa,─ (we), the members of the assembly (sabhâ), having taken from this (person) the money for taxes, gave (the land) tax-free for as long as our village,¹² the moon and the sun endure.”
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extreme south of the peninsula has been explained by supposing that the river was swallowed up by the son. In his History of Tinnevelly, p. 19 ff., Dr. Caldwell has shown, from explicit statements contained in the Periplûs, that Kumari was not a river but a place, and that people did, in ancient times as now, not bathe in a river but in the sea. Dr. Caldwell adds that the title Kumarichchêrppan, which is given to the Pâṇḍya king on account of the proximity of his dominions to Cape Comorin, also implies that Kumari was not a river but a tract of land.
......¹ In the original the symbols for e and t of to are joined together.
......² The symbol for ê and k of kô are joined together in the original.
......³ In the original it looks as if there were three r’s here instead of two, of which the first is joined to the kû which precedes it.
......⁴ Read Mûlasthânattu.
......⁵ Read ºpêraiyan ; it is not impossible that the emgraver has himself made this correction.
......⁶ Over the ku of ºkumm=âga some symbol which looks like the modern Tamil nâ is cut, and between ºkumm=âga of this line and sabhai of the next, the modern Tamil numeral ‘nineteen’ appears to be engraved ......⁷ Over the ṭi of paṭṭi and the ai of vaiytta, the modern Tamil symbol for the numeral ‘ten’ engraved.
......⁸ Above the l of pakkal the modern Tamil numeral ‘eight’ is engraved.
......⁹ Over the aksharas śeyda p⺠the modern Tamil numeral ‘seventy-seven’ is engraved.
......¹⁰ In the Kûram plates, provision is made for water and fire required for a maṇḍapa at Kûram ; see South- Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I. p. 151.
......¹¹ The word kaḷari means ‘uncultivated ground’ and śeruvu means ‘a field’. Kaḷarichcheruvs was probably a proper name, denoting a certain tract of rice-fields.
......¹² It is not common in inscriptions to make the duration of a grant co-extensive with that of the village in which the object granted lies.