South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

(Vishṇu) atKâṭṭuttumbûr (i.e. Śôlapuram), which must be identical with the temple of Perumâḷ (Vishṇu) on which the inscription is engraved. The temple was named Kanakavalli-Vishṇu-gṛiha after the village of Kanakavalli, in which some land was granted to it. The name of the person who built the temple and granted land to it is lost.

TEXT.

1 Svasti sr[î] [||*] Kô V[i]śaiya-[Ka]mpavikkiramaparumarkk=iyâṇḍu irubattu-mu(mû)nrâvadu [Pa]ḍuv[û]r-kkôṭṭattu=Ppa[ṅ]-
2 gaḷa-nâṭṭu=Kkâṭṭuttumbûr Nârâyaṇa-bhaṭṭâragarkku śrî-kôy[i]l eḍuppittu Ka[na]kava[lli]-Vishṇu-gṛiham ennu-
3 m nâmathê(dhê)yattâl amaippittu idanukku [tri]kâlam ârâdhippadarkum tri[kâ]lam tiru-amurdukkum na-
4 ndâ-viḷakkum ârâdhippânukku jîvitamum âga i-kkôṭṭattu i-nâṭṭu Kanakavalli êri ki(kî)l bhûmi i-^[1]

TRANSLATION.

Hail ! Prosperity ! (In) the twenty-third year of the Vijaya-Kampavikramavarman a sacred temple was caused to be built to the god Nârâyaṇa (at) Kâṭṭuttumbûr in Paṅgaḷa-nâḍu, (a subdivision) of Paḍuvûr-kôṭṭam ; (it) was endowed with the name Kanakavalli-Vishṇu-gṛiha ; and, for the worship at the three times (of the day), for offerings at the three times (of the day), (for) a perpetual lamp, and as a living for the worshipper, [there was granted] to it land below the tank of Kanakavalli in the same kôṭṭam (and) in the same nâḍu.

C.-INSCRIPTION OF SAKA-SAMVAT 871.

This Tamil inscription (No. 428 of 1902) is engraved on a rock near a pond called Kaḷḷaṅguṭṭai, south-west of Sôlapuram.

The date of this inscription is expressed in three different ways, viz. (a) “ the year two ;” (b) the Śaka year 871 (in words) ; and (c) “ the year in which the emperor Kannaradêva-Vallabha, having pierced Râjâditya, entered the Toṇḍai-maṇḍalam.” The second and third portions of the date furnish an interesting confirmation of the Âtakûr inscription, according to which the Râshṭrakûṭa king Kṛishṇa III. had killed the Chôḷa king Râjâditya at Takkôlam in Śaka-Saṁvat 872 current, the Saumya-saṁvatsara – A.D. 949-50.^[2] As the date of the Śôlapuram inscription does not contain a cyclic year, it is impossible to say if its Śaka year has to be taken as expired or current. In the former case the date would be the same as that of the Âtakûr inscription, and in the second case it would be A.D. 948-49. The “ year two ” with which the Śôlapuram inscription6 opens cannot refer to the reign of Kṛishṇa III., because we know from the Dêôlî plates that Amôghavarsha, the father of Kṛishṇa III., had died and that the latter was reigning^[3] in A.D. 940.^[4] Hence, as far as I can see, the “ year two ” can only refer to the reign of the Chôḷa king Râjâditya. This would indirectly confirm Professor Kielhorn’s calculation of the date of an inscription at Kûram, according to which the 40th year of Parântaka I., the father and immediate predecessor of Râjâditya, corresponded to A.D. 946.^[5] It may now be provisionally assumed that Parântaka I. reigned from about A.D. 907 to at least 946, and that Râjâditya was crowned in about A.D. 948 and was killed by Kṛishṇa III. in about A.D. 949.

The purpose for which the subjoined inscription was engraved was to record the construction of the pond near which it is found, and which was called the Kaḷḷinaṅgai pond
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^[1] The remainder of the inscription is lost.
^[2] See above, Vol. VI. p. 51.
^[3] Above, Vol. V. p. 195, vv. 27 and 28.
^[4] Dr. Fleet’s Dyn. Kan. Distr. p. 420.
^[5] See p. 1 above.