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South
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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
No. 29.─ TRIPLICANE INSCRIPTION OF DANTIVARMAN.
BY. V. VENKAYYA, M.A.
Madras was “ a mere fishing village up to the year 1639 A.D., when the English became
possessed of it by a grant from the puppet sovereign Srîraṅga of Vijayanagara, then at Chandragiri.”[5] Some of the suburbs of Madras are, however, very ancient. Leaving aside St. Thomé
connected with the St. Thomas legends,[6] Mailapur (or Mayilâppûr) and Tiruvâmûr
(Tiruvânmiyûr) are mentioned in the Tamil poem Dêvâram composed in the 7th century A.D.[7]
The former is also believed to have been the residence of the immortal Tiruvaḷḷuvar,[8] a couplet
of whose is quoted in the ancient Tamil work Maṇimêgalai.[9] Tiruvallikkêṇi (the modern
Triplicane) is referred to in the Tamil scriptures of the Vaishṇavas known as Nâlâyiraprabandham by the saints Pêyâlvâr,[10] Tirumaliśai-Âlvâr[11] and Tirumaṅgai-Âlvâr, the last of whom
informs us that the (Pârthasârathisvâmin) temple was founded by an unnamed king of the
Toṇḍaiyar, i.e. by a Pallava king.[12] Egmore (Elumbûr in Tamil) is mentioned in records
of the Chôḷa king Kulôttuṅga I. and was apparently the headquarters of a subdivision (nâḍu)
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[5] Mr. Sewell’s Lists of Antiquities, Vol. I. p.175.
[6] The Roman Catholic Church at St. Thomé is believed to be built over the grave of St. Thomas ; ibid. p. 176.
Râmarâya of Vijayanagara is said to have led an expedition against the place in A.D. 1558 ; Mr. Sewell’s Forgotten
Empire, p. 193.
[7] The saint Tiruñânasambandar is reported to have revived at Mayilâppûr a dead girl, whose bones had been
preserved by her father in a pot. The temple is called Kapâlîchcharam (i.e. Kapâlêśvara) in the hymn composed
by the saint. Jainas and Buddhists seem to have lived at that time in the vicinity of Mayilâppûr.
[8] Ind. Ant. Vol. VII. p. 221.
[9] Essay on Tamil literature by the late Professor M. Seshagiri Sastri of Madras, No. I. p. 33 f.
[10] Iyarpâ, III. 16.
[11] Ibid. Vol. 35.
[12] Periyatirumoli, verse 130.
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