South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

No. 34.- TWO INSCRIPTIONS OF VIDUGADALAGIYA-PERUMAL.

BY E. HULTZSCH, PH.D.

A.- INSCRIPTIONS AT TIRUMALAI NEAR POLUR.

This first volume of my South-Indian Inscriptions contains some records, the full bearing of which could not be made out at the time of their publication though want of experience and in the absence of copies of cognate inscriptions. Several of them have been already republished in this journal.^[1] I now re-edit another, which was imperfectly read and rendered before,^[2] from a fresh inked estampage.

The subjoined inscription is engraved on the outer wall of the doorway which leads to the painted cave at Tirumalai near Pôḷûr in the North Arcot district. It is somewhat worn and not very easy to read. The alphabet is Tamil and Grantha. The inscription consists of three portions :─ a sentence in Tamil prose, a Sanskṛit verse in the Śârdûla metre, and a Tamil verse. Each of these three passages records in different words the same fact, viz. the restoration of the images of a Yaksha and a Yakshî, which were set up on the Tirumalai hill. In this connection the names of three kings are mentioned :─ (1) Elini (ll. 1 and 7) or Yavanikâ[3] (l. 4) ; (2) Râjarâja (l. 6) or Vagan^[4] (l. 9) ; and (3) Viḍugâdalagiya-Perumâḷ (l. 10) or Vyâmuktaśravaṇôjjvala^[5] (l. 6). Elini is stated to have belonged to the family of the kings of Chêra (l. 1) or Kêraḷa (l. 3), i.e. Malabar, or of Vañji (l. 7), the traditional capital of the Chêra kingdom, which is perhaps identical with the modern village of Chêramân-Perumâḷ-Kôyilûr near Tiruvañjikuḷam in the Cochin State.^[6] Both Elini and Râjarâja receive the title Adigaimân (l. 1), Adhikanṛipa (l. 5 f.) or Adigan ^[7] (l. 9), i.e. ‘ the lord of Adigai,’ the modern Tiruvadi near Cuddalore.^[8] The third king is called the lord of Takaṭâ (l. 6) or Tagaḍai (l. 10). As noted by Mr. Venkayya, this place is mentioned in the Tamil poem Puranânûṛu as Tagaḍûr, and Mr. V. Kanakasabhai Pillai has identified it with Dharmapuri, the head-quarters of a tâluka in the Salem district.^[9] This statement is corroborated by two Chôḷa inscriptions (Nos. 307 and 308 of 1901) in the Mallikârjuna temple at Dharmapuri, according to which Tagaḍûr, the modern Dharmapuri, was the chief town of Tagaḍûr-nâḍu, a subdivision of the Gaṅga country (Gaṅga-nâḍu), a district of Nigarili-Śôla-maṇḍalam.^[10] Viḍugâdalagiya-Perumâḷ was the son of Vagan (l. 9) or Râjarâja (l. 6), who seems to have been a remote descendant (ll. 5 and 9) of Elini. Both he and his ancestor Elini must have been adherents of the Jaina religion, because

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^[1] Above, Vol. IV. Nos. 9, 22 and 52, and Vol. V. No. 13, A.
^[2] South-Ind. Inscr. Vol. I. No. 75.
^[3] Yavanikâ is the Sanskṛit equivalent of the Tamil elini, ‘ a curtain.’
^[4] According to the dictionaries, the Tamil Vagan and the Sanskṛit Baka are names of Kubêra, who is also called Râjarâja.
^[5] The Tamil words viḍu, kâdu and alagiya correspond to the Sanskṛit much, iravaṇa and ujjvala. The word looks like a nickname. Perhaps the king had protruding eara.
^[6] See South-Ind. Inscr. Vol. III. p. 31, and my Annual Report for 1900-01, paragraph 4.
^[7] For references to Adigan, Adigaimân and Elini in Tamil literature see Ind. Ant. Vol. XXII. pp. 66 and 143. Adiyama, who was a feudatory of the Chôḷa king and was defeated by Gaṅgarâja, a general of the Hoysaḷa king Vishṇuvardhana (Bombay Gazetteer. Vol. I. Part II. Index), may have been one of the chiefs of Adigaḷ.
^[8] The Kaliṅgattu-Paraṇi (x. verse 68 f.) mentions ‘ the great city of Adigai,’ which Mr. V. Kanakambhal Pillai has identified with Tiruvadi in the Cuddalore tâluka of the South Arcot district ; Ind. Ant. Vol. XIX. p. 339 f. In the time of the Vijayanagara kingdom this town was the head-quarters of the province (râjya) of Tiruvadi ; ibid. Vol.. XIII. p. 153. This province is distinct from Tiruvaḍi-râjya (with the lingual ḍ), which was situated in the Tinnevelly district ; above, Vol. III. p. 240, and Mr. Venkayya’s Annual Report for 1899-1900, p. 28.
^[9] See the two pages of the Ind. Ant. quoted in note 7 above.
^[10] There is another village named Tagaḍûru in the Nañjanagûḍu tâluka of the Mysore district, which was included in Hiriya-nâḍu ; Mr. Rice’s Ep. Carn. Vol. III., Nj. 117 and 118.