North Indian Inscriptions

RANGANATHA INSCRIPTION OF SUNDARA-PANDYA.

is now partially in ruins. I was told that the stones of several maṇḍapas and of the enclosure of the rank in front of the temple were utilised for building the bridges over the Koḷḷiḍam (Coleroon) and the Kâvêrî rivers. The south wall of the shrine still bears an inscription of the Hoysaḷa king Vîra-Râmanâthadêva, in which the temple is called Pôśaḷîśvara (for Poysa- ḷêśvara), i.e. ‘the Îśvara (temple) of the Poysaḷa (king).’ The name by which the temple goes now, Bhôjîśvara, is a corruption of the original Pôśaḷîśvara, and owes its origin to a confusion between the long-forgotten Poysaḷa king the popularly known king Bhôja. The walls of a neighbouring modern temple of Kâlî, called Śellâyi, contain detached inscribed stones on which some Hoysaḷa birudas are distinctly visible, and which, therefore, appear to have originally belonged to the Poysaḷêśvara temple.¹ The Poysaḷêśvara of the Kaṇṇanûr inscription is evidently the temple to which the Jambukêśvara inscription refers. Accordingly, there can be no doubt that the modern Kaṇṇanûr is the actual site of Vikramapura, the southern residence of Sômêśvara.

......As regards Vîra-Râmanâthadêva, he must have been a successor of Sômêśvara, an inscription of whose 23rd year is quoted in an inscription of the 4th year of Râmanâtha in the Jambukêśvara temple. His relation to the hitherto known chief line of the Hoysaḷa dynasty is established by an inscription of the Raṅganâtha temple, which records a gift by Ponnambalamahâdêvî,² who styles herself the uterine sister of Vîra-Râmanâthadêva and the daughter of the Hoysaḷa king Vîra-Sômêśvara by the Châḷukya princess Dêvalamahâdêvî.³ It thus appears that, while Sômêśvara was succeeded on the throne of Dvârasamudra by Narasiṁha III., his son by Bijjaladêvî,⁴ the southern part of his dominions went to Râmanâtha, his son by Dêvaladêvî. An inscription in the Jambukêśvara temple furnishes the name of one of the queens of king Râmanâthadêva. This was Kamalâdêvî, the daughter of a certain Ariya-Piḷḷai. The name of this queen’s younger sister was Chikka-Sômaladêvî,⁵ who appears to have received the Kanarese prefix chikka, ‘younger,’ in order to distinguish her from the elder Sômaladêvî,⁶ who was one of the queens of Râmanâtha’s father Sômêśvara. The two temples at Śriraṅgam and the above-mentioned temple at Kaṇṇanûr contain the following Tamil dates of the reign of Vîra-Râmanâthadêva :—

No. I.— Inscription on the north wall of the fourth prâkâra of the Raṅganâtha temple
..............................................at Śrîraṅgam.

......Poyśaḷa-śrî-Vîra-Râmanâthadêvarku yâṇḍu iraṇḍâvadu Kumbha-nâyarru pûrvva-pakshattu saptamiyum Budhan-kilamaiyum perra Bharaṇi-nâḷ.

......“The day of Bharaṇî, which corresponded to Wednesday, the seventh tithi of the first half of the month of Kumbha in the second year (of the reign) of the Poysaḷa śrî-Vîra-Râmanâthadêva.”
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......¹ Mr. Sewell’s account under “Samayâpuram” in his Lists of Antiquities, Vol. I. p. 267, has to be modified on the strength of the local information which I was enabled to collect.
......² This name is derived from Ponnambalam, “the Golden Hall” at the Chidambaram temple in the South Arcot district.

The last compound refers to the temple at Sômanâthapura in the Talakâḍu tâlukâ of the Maisûr district, which is mentioned in two inscriptions of Śaka-Saṁvat 1191 and 1192 ; see Mr. Rice’s Mysore Inscriptions pp. 48 ff. and 323 ff.
......⁴ Dr. Fleet’s Kanarese Dynasties, p. 69.
......⁵ Dêvar Irâmanâthadêvar araśimâril Ariya-Piḷḷai magaḷâr Kamalâdêviyâr taṅgaiyâr Śikkachchômala-dêviyâr.
......⁶ This queen is mentioned in three inscriptions of Vîra-Sômêśvaradêva, viz. one of the 6th year in the Raṅganâtha temple, one of the 25th year in the Jambukêśvara temple, and the Bangalore Museum plates of Śaka-Saṁvat 1175 (see p. 8 above, note 5).