South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

The object of inscription A is to record the gift, by purchase, of a piece of land to meet the expensed of offerings to the god Tiruchchēlūr-Mahādēva in Rājakēsari-chaturvēdimaṅgalam, a village in Nallūr-nāḍu, a sub-division of Nittavinōda-vaḷanāḍu, by Araiyan Kaṇṇappan alias Rājakēsari Pērayan of Kāḷikuḍi, a village in Kiḷiyūr-nāḍu, a sub-division of Pāṇḍikulāśani-vaḷanāḍu, in the 9th year of the reign of the king Parakēsarivarman alias Tribhuvanachakravartin śrī-Parāntakadēva.

Inscription B is incomplete and stops after mentioning the date, i.e. the 9th year of the reign of the king who is styled here as Rājakēsarivarman alias Chakravartin śrī-Pirāntakadēva.

Both these inscriptions contain a new praśasti or meykkīrtti which commences with the words Pūmaṅgai vaḷara in A and Puvi maṅgai vaḷara in B. Even though there are some slight variations in the wording between them in the first two metrical lines of the meykkīrtti, yet we can safely take both of them as identical, as these variations do not make any difference and as such variations are found in the standard versions of similar meykkīrttis of other Chōḷa kings also.^[1] We have already mentioned that the king is styled Parakēsarivarman and Tribhuvanachakravartin in A, while he is named Rājakēsarivarman and Chakravartin in B. The third inscription of the king at Tiruvālaṅgāḍu, the text of which has already been published,^[2] does not contain any meykkīrtti, but mentions him as Parakēsarivarman and Tribhuvanachakravartin as in A. Considering that the two complete records call him Parakēsarivarman and Tribhuvanachakravartin, we may not be wrong in assigning these titles to him, ignoring the title of Rājakēsarivarman of the incomplete record B.^[3]

The importance of these records lies in the problem of the identity of the king in whose time they were issued.

We have so far known only of two kings, grandfather and grandson, having the name Parāntaka. The former, more famous, with the title Madiraikoṇḍa, was a Parakēsarivarman and the latter, otherwise known as Sundarachōḷa, was a Rājakēsarivarman. Neither of them had the title Tribhuvanachakravartin which came into vogue only during the time of Kulōttuṅga I. Parāntakadēva of the present records is quite different from the two Parāntakas mentioned above and lived at a much later period.^[4]

The names of the territorial divisions mentioned in the record A, viz. Nittavinōda-vaḷanāḍu and Pāṇḍikulāśani-vaḷanāḍu came into existence during the reign of Rājarāja I after whose titles Nityavinōda and Pāṇḍyakulāśani these divisions were named. Again the temple at Tiruvaḍatturai wherein the record B is found engraved does not contain any inscription earlier than the time

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^[1] K. A. N. Sastri, The Cōḷas, Vol. II, pp. 2, 61, 96.
^[2] SII, Vol. V, No. 879.
^[3] It was possibly due to some such mistakes having crept in, that the record was left incomplete.
^[4] The Annual Report on South Indian Epigraphy for the year 1924 tries to identify the king of inscription A with Parāntaka I Madiraikoṇḍa and says : “ The importance of this inscription lies in the fact that it is the first stone record so far known of a Chōḷa king before the time of Rājarāja I containing an introduction or eulogy. This introduction is purely eulogistic without recounting any of the king’s exploits. Generally in inscriptions commencing with historical introductions, the king is said to be seated on the throne with his consort whose title is also given. But in the present record which is dated in the 9th year, this fact is omitted. Perhaps we are to suppose that the king was not married till then ” (p.100). In the above review, the palaeography of the record does not appear to have been taken into consideration. Further, the mention of the king’s consort occupying the throne along with the king is found to be made only in the inscriptions of Kulōttuṅga I and his successors. In the meykkīrttis of the Chōḷa monarchs prior to the time of Kulōttuṅga I, with the exception of the meykkīrtti beginning with the words Vīramē tuṇaiyāgavum of Vīrarājēndra, which meykkīrtti was also later adopted by Kulōttuṅga I as his own, the queen’s title is generally not mentioned.