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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
No. 37─ HEMAVATI PILLAR INSCRIPTION OF (Plate 1) K. A. NILAKANTA SASTRI AND T. N. SUBRAMANIAM, MADRAS The text of this inscription has already been published in the South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. VI, No. 553. It is taken up here for detailed study in view of the fresh light it throws on the history of its period. The record is incised on two faces of a pillar found at Hēmāvati in the Madakasira Taluk of the Anantapur District, Andhra State.[1] The inscription under discussion is in the Tamil language and script with an admixture of Grantha characters for words of Sanskrit origin. It is couched in chaste language and incised fairly correctly. There is no orthographical peculiarity requiring special mention. Palaeographically it may be assigned to the 12th century A.D. The object of the record is to register the gift of some land to the temple of god Maṅgēśvaradēva at Peruñjeru in Śirai-nāḍu a sub-division of Nigariliśōla-maṇḍalam, by one Śikkaluḍaiya-śeṭṭiyār who is described as Vaḍḍha-vyvahāri and dēśimukhaya ; the gift was made with the permission of Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Uraiyūrpuravar-ādhīśvara Śrī-Māhēśvaran Tribhuvanamalla Mallidēva Chōḷa-mahārāja in the month of Āvaṇi in the cyclic year Vyaya, which was the second regnal year of Tribhuvana-chakravartin Kulōttuṅgachōḷadēva. It is further stated that the gift was placed in the hands of Īśānaśiva, the sthānapati of the temple of Tirumaṅgīśvaram-uḍaiyār with the libation of water by the illustrious hand of the king. It is not clear from the record to which of the reigns of the three Chōḷa kings bearing the name of Kulōttuṅga it belongs. The cyclic year Vyaya corresponded with 1046-47, 1106-67 and 1226-27 A.D. In no case did any of these years coincide with the 2nd year of the reign of any of the Chōḷa kings bearing the name Kulōttuṅga. While the other the dates did not fall in the reign of any Kulōttuṅga at all, the first one coincided with the 37th year of the reign of Kulōttuṅga I. But the palaeography, the difference in the regnal years 2 and 37 and the mention of Tribhuvanamalla Mallidēva Chōḷa-mahārāja make it impossible to assign this record to the time of that monarch.
Tribhuvanamalla Mallidēva Chōḷa-mahārāja mentioned in this inscription as ruling over the Śirai-nāḍu, a sub-Division of Nigariliśōla-maṇḍalam[2], with Peruñjeru as his capital figures also in other epigraphs found in that locality. A record[3] engraved on a stone set up at the southern entrance of the Oddappa (Śiva) temple at the same place, dated in Śaka 1084 Vṛisha, Pushya, __________________________________________________________ [1] The other two faces of the pillar contain two separate records. The third face bears an undated inscription (SII, Vol. VI, No. 554) in the Tamil language and script registering the gift of two pan of gold placed in the
hands of Īśāna-jīyar by Dēvaragaṇḍan Tāṅguvān alias Uttamaśōla Vaḷavadarayan of Śeyyūr in Toṇḍai-maṇḍalam
(i.e. modern Cheyyūr in the Madhurantakam Taluk of the Chingleput District), from the interest of which was to
be maintained the worship and a śandi-viḷakku in the temple for the merit of his father and mother in the shrine
of Svayambhūdēva alias Tiruvirāmīśvaramuḍaiya-mahādēva consecrated by him. The fourth face of the pillar
contains as incomplete and undated inscription (ibid., No. 555), in Kannaḍa, of the time of the Western Chālukya
king Jagadēkamalla containing a portion of the praśasti of a person who is described therein as the son Iruṅgōḷa
Chōḷa-mahārāja.
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