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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 16─ TWO EASTERN GANGA INSCRIPTIONS AT KANCHIPURAM (1 Plate) T. V. MAHALINGAM, MADRAS The two subjoined inscriptions[1] are engraved, one in continuation of the other, on the south wall of the Aruḷāḷa Perumāḷ temple at Little Kāñchīpuram, Chingleput District, Madras State. They are edited here with the aid of their impressions kindly placed at my disposal by the Government Epigraphist for India. The language as well as the script of both the records is Tamil. Wherever Sanskrit words or phrases occur, they are written in the Grantha script, the rest being in Tamil characters. The orthographical peculiarities do not call for any special remarks. The object of the first inscription is to record the gift of the village of Uḍaiyakāmam in Antarudra-vishaya by Sōmaladēvī-mahādēvī, for offerings and worship, to the god Allāḷanātha while she was at Abhinava-Vārāṇavāsi.[2] The inscription is dated in the 19th year of the reign of Mahārājādhirāja Rājaparamēśvara Anantavarmarāhutadēva who is stated to have belonged to the Gaṅga family. The king is further described as the son of [the god] Purushōttama and a Paramavaishṇava who regularly observed the ēkādaśī-vrata and constantly meditated upon and practised the meaning of the mahāvākya. The inscription quotes other details of the date, viz., Mīna śu·5, Wednesday, Rēvatī. As the year of the commencement of this king’s reign is known to be 1211 A.D.[3], the particulars of the date given in the inscription seem to correspond to 1230 A.D., March 20, the tithi quoted having ended the following day at ·02. The nakshatra Rēvatī is misquoted for Rōhiṇī.
The second inscription records the gift of 128 cows and four bulls by Kaliṅgēśvara Aniyaṅkabhīmadēva-rāhuta for four perpetual lamps to the Perumāḷ. The sthānattār of the temple agreed to measure out the ghee required for the purpose. It is dated in the 20th year of the reign of the Chōḷa king Rājarāja III and contains the following astronomical details : Āḍi 12, Saptamī, Monday, Aśvatī, which correspond to 1235 A.D., July 8, the week day being Sunday and not Monday as quoted. These two Eastern Gaṅga inscriptions are of more than ordinary interest for two reasons. Firstly on account of the fact that both of them are found engraved on the walls of a temple at Little Kāñchīpuram far away from Orissa and secondly for the reason that, while the first inscription in which the Gaṅga king’s wife figures as the donor, is dated in the 19th regnal year of that king without reference to the contemporary Chōḷa king Rājarāja III, the second is dated in the latter’s 20th regnal year. It will be of interest to examine how the two Eastern Gaṅga inscriptions are found at Kāñchīpuram. It would appear that king Aniyaṅkabhīma III (1211-38 A.D.) took advantage of the ____________________________________________________
[1] A. R. Ep., Nos. 444 and 445 of 1919.
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