South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

An inscription of the Chôḷa king Parântaka I. (A. below) states that the stone temple of Tiruttoṇḍîśvara was built by his son Râjâdityadêva. Hence it is also called Râjâdityêśvara in some of its inscriptions.

Besides the shrine of Tiruttoṇḍîśvara or Râjâdityêśvara, the same temple included the shrine of Agastyêśvara, which is mentioned in several inscriptions of the temple. Another inscription (No. 365 of 1902) records a gift to the temple of Kalinârîśvara. This temple has been recently demolished by the villagers, and the only portion of it that survives is a sculptured stone which bears the figure of a kneeling elephant, above the elephant a hauda with a stout male person reclining in it, and the single word śrî-Kalinârai in Pallava-Grantha characters (No. 376 of 1902). It may perhaps be concluded from this, that the demolished temple of Îśvara (Śiva) was built by a Pallava king named Kalinârai, and that the man riding on the elephant is meant to represent this king.

According to the subjoined Tamil inscriptions, the ancient name of Tirunâmanallûr was Tirunâvalûr. The Śaiva saint Sundaramûrti, who was born at Tirunâvalûr and was the protégé of a chief of that place,^[1] derived from it the surname Nâvalûran, which he applies to himself in some of his hymns. Tirunâvalûr belonged to the district of Munaippâḍi (C. below) or Tirumunaippâḍi (A. and B. below). In the time of Râjêndra-Chôḷa I. it bore the surname Râjâdittadêvapuram,^[2] which is due to the fact that its temple had been founded by Râjâditya, and was included in Mêlûr-nâḍu, a subdivision of Tirumunaippâḍi, a district of Jayaṅgoṇḍa-Chôḷa-maṇḍalam (F. below).

The subjoined inscriptions contain the names of a few other villages in the neighbourhood of Tirunâmanallûr. Of these, Śevalai in Veṇṇainallûr-nâḍu (C. below) survives in the two villages Periyaśevalai and Śinnaśevalai^[3] (i.e ‘great and small Śevalai’) close to Tiruvaṇṇainallûr^[4] Êkadhira-chaturvêdimaṅgalam (D. below) cannot be identified, as it is not the name, but the surnames of some village, Arumbâkkam^[5] (E. below) is situated 2 miles south of Tirukoilur.

A. INSCRIPTION OF PARANTAKA I.

This inscription (No. 335 of 1902) is dated in the 28th year of “Parakêsarivarman who took Madirai (Madhurâ),” i.e. of the Chôḷa king Parântaka I.^[6] who ruled from about A.D. 900 to about 940.^[7] It records the gift of two lamps by a servant of Kôkkiḷânaḍi, the queen of Parântaka I. and the mother of his son Râjâdityadêva. The latter is the Râjâditya who, recording to the large Leyden grant^[8] and the Âtakûr inscription of A.D. 949-50,^[9] was killed in battle by the Râshṭrakûṭa king Kṛishṇa III.

TEXT.

1 Svasti [s]r[î] [||*] [Madi]r[ai] ko[ṇ]ḍa kô=Pparakêśa-
2 ripa[ṇ]ma[r*]kk-i[yâṇ]ḍu irubatteṭṭâvadu [T]irumu-
3 ṇaippâḍi-Ttirunâvalûr Tiruttoṇḍi(ṇḍi)śvara[n]
4 tiru-kkar-rali śe[y*]vitta Râjâdittadêvar tâ[y]âr na[m]-birâṭṭiyâr
5 Kô[k]kila[na]ḍigaḷ pari[b]â(vâ)rattâḷ Śittirakômaḷam va(vai)tta n[o]ndâ-viḷak-

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^[1] See page 136 below.
^[2] Other inscriptions have the shorter form Râjâdittapuram.
^[3] Nos. 267 and 268 on the Madras Survey Map of the Tirukoilur tâluk.
^[4] No. 273 on the same map.
^[5] No. 97 on the same map.
^[6] South-Ind. Inscr. Vol. II. p. 379 f.
^[7] See ibid. p. 381. If Professor Kielhorn’s calculation of the date of the Kûram inscription (p. 1. above)
should be corroborated by the discovery of a similarly dated record of the same reign, it would follow that Parântaka I.
reigned from about A.D. 906 to about 946.
^[8] Arch. Survey of S. India, Vol. IV. p. 206 f.
^[9] Above, Vol. VI. p. 51.