|
The Indian Analyst
|
South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA 33rd year of the reign of the Chôḷa king Parântaka I.[1] found in the temple, the hill is called Tiruvânaimalai. It is also referred to in his Dêvâram by Tiruñânasambandar, the great Śaiva saint, as a stronghold of the Jainas.[2] Tradition has it that Tiruñânasambandar drove out the Jainas from the vicinity of Madura after converting the then reigning Pâṇḍya king Neḍumâran to the Śaiva faith.[3] There are still vestiges of Jaina dominancy on the hill. On a rock with sculptures overhanging a natural cave there are a number of Tamil inscriptions,[4] one of which mentions Ajjaṇandi.[5] The cave is evidently one of those which the Jainas occupied in old times. The first inscription is engraved on the left side of the entrance into the central shrine. The letters are cut boldly and deeply, and, being in the interior, the record is in good preservation ; at the end of lines 5 and 6 are a few damaged letters which can be easily supplied from the context. The alphabet is Grantha. The final m is represented by a smaller m with a vertical stroke on its top ; see e.g. =idam in l.3. The letter ṇa is of a more archaic type than that of the Gaṅga-Pallava period,[6] and ya is also slightly different from the common form of that time.
The record consists of three verses, of which the first mentions the son of Mâra of the Vaidya family,[7] who was the minister (mantrin, v. 2) of the Pâṇḍya king Parântaka. He was apparently an expert in the art of composing poetry and hence is called Madhurakavi. His actual name, Mâraṅgâri, occurs in the second inscription, where he also bears the title Mûvêndamaṅgalappêraraiyan. He was a native of Karavandapura (v. 1) or, according to the second inscription, of Kaḷakkuḍi.[8] The third verse contains the date─ a Sunday in the month of Kârttika of the year 3871 (expired) of the Kaliyuga era= A.D. 770. On this day an image of the god Vishṇu was set up in the cave.
The second inscription, which, though well preserved, is not cut so deeply as he first, is
a supplement to the latter and is engraved on the right side of the entrance. The characters of
this record are an archaic form of Vaṭṭeluttu and Grantha. The latter is employed in some
Sanskṛit words that occur in the inscription, viz. mantri (l. 2), Vaidyan (l. 2 f.), svargg-ârôhaṇa
(l. 6 f.), anujan (l. 8) and mantra-padam (l. 9). The Vaṭṭeluttu of this inscription seems to
be the same as that of the Madras Museum plates of Jaṭilavarman published by Mr. V.
Venkayya ;[9] compare r, n, t, u and particularly k (which has not yet assumed the shape peculiar
[1] No. 63 of the Government Epigraphist’s collection for 1905.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| > |
|
>
|