South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

No. 10─KILUR INSCRIPTION OF NANDIVARMAN, YEAR 16

K. G. KRISHNAN, OOTACAMUND

The inscription^[1] edited here is engraved on a rock in the prākāra of the Vīraṭṭānēśvara temple at Kīlūr, Tirukkōvilūr Taluk, South Arcot District. The next of the record has been published in the South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. VII, No. 925. Palaeographically the inscription may be attributed to the ninth century A. D. The script as well as the language of the record is Tamil. The inscription is dated in the sixteenth year of the reign of Kō-Vijaiya-Nandivikramaparuman and records a gift by Maravam^[2] Pūdi alias Tennavan Iḷaṅgōvēḷār. The gift consisted of twentyfour kalañju of pure gold weighed by Viḍēlviḍugu, the standard stone, out of the interest of which the Nagarattār of Tirukkōvalūr undertook to supply ghee for burning a lamp day and night in front of Mādēva of Tiruvīraṭṭānam at Tirukkōvalūr.

The record is important in that it proves the contemporaneity of Bhūti Vikramakēsari, the earliest well-known Koḍumbāḷūr chief, with the Pallava king Nandivarman (III). The genealogy of the family of the Irukkuvēḷs, to which this chief belonged, has been thoroughly discussed by Shri K. V. Subrahmanya Iyer and Shri K. S. Vaidyanathan.^[3]

The name of the donor in this record consists of two words, viz. Maravan and Pūdi. While the former stands for his father’s name, the latter is his own name and is only a Tamil variant for Sanskrit Bhūti.^[4] It is known from the Mūvarkōyil inscription^[5] of Bhūti Vikramakēsari that Vikramakēsari was a title earned by him for his success in battle against the Pallava king as well as Vīra-pāṇḍya and Vañji Vēḷ (i.e. the Chēra king). Maravan Pūdi alias Tennavan Iḷaṅgōvēḷār figures in a number of inscriptions of Rājakēsarivarman who has been identified with Āditya I. Of these, a record^[6] from Tiruppalātturai, dated in the 27th regnal year of a Rājakēsarivarman, mentions one Tennavan Iḷaṅgōvēḷār alias Maravan Pūdiyār. Karraḷi, the wife of Tennavan Iḷaṅgōvēḷār alias Maravan Pūdi who is the same as the donor of the present record, figures as the donatrix in another inscription^[7] from Tiruppalātturai. It is not unlikely that the same Karraḷi is spoken of as one of the wives of Bhūti Vikramakēsari in his Mūvarkōyil record. Varaguṇā, his other wife, may be identified with the homonymous lady mentioned as the wife of Tennavan Iḷaṅgōvēḷār in another inscription^[8] of Rājakēsarivarman. Bhūti Parāntakan, a son of this chief according to the Mūvarkōyil inscription, built a stone temple for the god at Andanallūr in the

______________________________________________

^[1] A. R. Ep., No. 296 of 1902.
^[2] The final n is change to m in association with p of Pūdi. This is in accordance with the rule Melleluttu miginu mānamillai in the Tolkāppiyam (Eluttadikāram, Puḷḷimayaṅgiyal, Sūtra No. 341).
^[3] QJMS, Vol. XLIII. p. 79 ff.
^[4] The best examples of such double names referring to both the father and the son will be found in A. R. Ep., Nos. 147 and 148 of 1937.
^[5] JOR, Vol. VII, p. 1 ff.
^[6]SII, Vol. VIII, No. 560. The identification of this Rājakēsarivarman with Āditya I is supported by palaeography and the high regnal year quoted in the inscription. The absence of the praśasti of Rājarāja I, viz. Tirumagaḷ pōla, etc., in it would confirm this view.
^[7] SII, Vol. VII, No. 581.
^[8]Ibid., No. 568. In the impressions the letters Te…n can be read before the word Iḷaṅgōvēḷār.