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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA may be derived from brahmadēyam which in Tamil would be written piramadēyam, and this in colloquial usage would easily change into Piramiyam by the elision of dē. The god in the temple at the place is called Tiruvalañjuli-Mahādēva (or -Paramēśvara) and Āḷuḍaiyār-Tiruvalañjuli-Nāyanār. Tiruvalañjuli here may show that the temple is situated on the bank of the river whose water forms here a clockwise eddy. Piramiyam has contributed 28 inscriptions[1] to the Madras Epigraphical Collection for the year 1920. The peculiarity about these inscriptions is that while they are all in the Tamil language, some (nine) are engraved in the Vaṭṭeluttu alphabet[2] and the rest (nineteen) are in the Tamil alphabet.[3] This feature of the inscriptions enables us to know and distinguish at sight which of them are earlier and which later. The earliest inscriptions of Piramiyam in Vaṭṭeluttu characters are Nos. 208 and 209 engraved on a slab lying in a field near the village. The former belongs to the reign of Sārvabhauma Varaguṇa-Parāntaka of the Chandrāditya kula and is dated in the 6+9th year and the latter bears the date 6+16th year, evidently of the same king’s reign as could be gathered from the double date, though his name is lost. Of the rest, two belong to the reign of Vīraśōla-Kalimūrkka-Perumāḷ and are dated in the 17th and 24th years of his reign[4] and four belong to the reign of Kalimūrkka-Vikrama-Chōḷa and are dated in the 20th, 32nd, 41st and 42nd years of his reign.[5] These six inscriptions along with another from Koḍuvāy dated in the 14th regnal year of Vīraśōla-Kalimūrkka-Perumāḷ are edited here.
This being the first time any inscription of the Koṅgu country and also of the kings noticed herein, is being edited, I may say a word about the country and the dynasty to which the kings belonged. Koṅgu as a common noun means ‘honey’ of ‘flower-dust or pollen’. The term must have been applied to the country that abounded in it. The Koṅgu country is one of the oldest territorial divisions of South India. It was bordered on the west and, to some extent on the south, by the Chēra country, on the south by the Pāṇḍya country, on the east by the Chōḷa country and Kōnāḍu, and on the north by the territory of the Adigaimāns. If the last named territory is treated as forming part of Koṅgu, for which there is no warrant as we find the co-existence of the two (i.e., Koṅgu and the territory of the Adigaimān) from the earliest days, the northern boundary would be the Pallava dominions. Having these territories as boundaries, the central region of Koṅgu was sheltered by a series of mountain ranges of considerable height such as the Palni hills, the Kollimalai ranges, part of the Sherveroys, the Anaimalais and the Nilgiris, and was watered by the Kāvērī river with its numerous tributaries─ the northward flowing haḷḷas (streams) in the Kollegal Taluk, the Bhavānī, the Noyyal (or Kāñchimānadī) and the Amarāvati flowing south to north. In spite of these several streams and rivers that were in the country, water scarcity was greatly felt in the region at all times. In ancient times a highway called Koṅga-peruvali led to this country from the east, and it seems to have been an early trade route. The wealth of the territory lay in its hill produce, silk and beryl, the last of which was produced in large quantities at a place called Paḍiyūr, six and a half miles north-west of Kāṅgayam.[6] A very good breed of bulls and cows from Kāṅgayam is celebrated in the Saṅgam works.[7] ______________________________________________________________ [1] ARSIE, 1920, Nos. 182 to 209.
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