EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
to the later alphabet wherein it is hardly distinguishable from (ch) with the corresponding
letters of the plates. The secondary i is written more on the top than on the side of the
consonant as it is in later forms. The puḷḷi[1] appears to be marked in a number of cases. The
vowels a and â are the same as those employed on the Kîl-Muṭṭugûr stones.[2] Though the
Vaṭṭeluttu of this inscription resembles to a certain extent the characters of the Madras
Museum plates, yet as the Grantha alphabet used in the latter seems to be more developed than
that of the Sanskṛit portion of the subjoined records, it is safer to suppose, at least provisionally,
that the Mârañjaḍaiyan of the latter is earlier than the Jaṭilavarman of the Museum plates.
The king is here called Mârañjaḍaiyan, i.e. Śaḍaiyan, the son of Mâran (or Jaṭilavarman,
the son of Mâravarman in Sanskṛit).[3] His minister Mâraṅgâri,[4] mentioned above, excavated the
cave at Ânaimalai, but died before its conmsecration.[5] His younger brother Mâran Eyinan alias
Pâṇḍimaṅgalaviśaiyaraiyan, who succeeded him as minister, subsequently built the maṇḍapa
in front and performed the consecration ceremony.
Form the Trichinopoly cave inscription of Varaguṇa-Pâṇḍya[6] we learn that he was
also surnamed Mârañjaḍaiyan. But an inscription of his found at Uttamapâḷaiyamv[7] in the
Madura district couples Śaka 792 with his 8th year. His accession must therefore be placed
about A.D. 862. The Mârañjaḍaiyan of the Ânaimalai inscription was thus a predecessor of
Varaguṇa and may have been his grandfather.
It is worthy of note that Madhurakavi was the name borne by one of the Vaishṇava
Âlvâra, and the Madhurakavi of the subjoined inscriptions was also a Vaishṇava. Nammâlvâr,
who, according to Vaishṇava tradition, was a contemporary of Madhurakavi Âlvâr, was called
Kârimâran, i.e. Mâran, the son of Kâri. Is it possible that he was the son of the minister
Mâraṅgâri ? If this be the case, it is not apparent way he has omitted to mention the shrine
built by his father, while the Tirumôgûr temple, which is situated close to it, is the subject
of a hymn[8] by Nammâlvâr.
TEXT OF No. I.[9]

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[1] It occurs in p and n of the word maṅgalappêraraiyan (l. 3 f.), in ṅ of Mâraṅgâri (l. 4 f.), in y and n of
=jeyda pinnai (l. 7), in n of anujan (l. 8), in y of eydina (l. 9), in ṇ of Pâṇḍi (l. 9), and in n of Mâran (l. 11).
[2] Above, Vol. IV. p. 177.
[3] In the Madras Museum plates, the king (called Jaṭilavarman, the son of Mâravarman, in the Sanskṛit portion
and Neḍuñjaḍaiyan in the Tamil portion) bears the surname Parântaka along with a number of other titles. This
would lead us to identify the Mârañjaḍaiyan of the subjoined records with the donor of the Madras Museum plates.
But the alphabet of the latter seems to be more developed than that of the former. A vîragal in the Vaṭṭeluttu
alphabet (No. 277 of the Government Epigraphist’s collection for 1895) set up in the Trevandrum Museum belongs
to the 27th year of Mârañjaḍaiyan. The writing seems to resemble that of the Museum plates, and the inscription
refers to Viluñam.
[4] Hare again the minister is called Vaidyan. The Madras Museum plates tell us that Mûrti Eyinan alias
Vîramaṅgalappêraraiśan, who was the king’s Mahâsîmanta in the 17th year of his reign, was a Vaidya. The
inscription quoted in the paper on the Madras Museum plates refers to a fourth member of the same family, viz.
Śâttaṅgaṇavadi alias Amṛitamaṅhalavaraiyan, who was a Mahâsâmanta in the 6th year of Mârañjaḍaiyan.
The last as well as the two brothers mentioned in the Ânaimalai inscriptions were natives of Karavandapuran.
[5] The Tamil word nîrttaḷittal (or more correctly nîrtteḷittal) is synonymous with the Sanskṛit samprôkahaṇa,
which according to Monier-Williams’ Dictionary means ‘ the of sprinkling well over, consecration (of a
temple, etc.)’.
[6] No. 414 of the Government Epigraphist’s collection for 1904.
[7] No. 705 of the Government Epigraphist’s collection for 1905.
[8] Pattâmpattu, Mudal Tiruvâymoli beginning tâḷa tâmarai=ttaḍamaṇi-vayal-Tirumôgûr.
[9] From an inked estampage supplied by Mr. T. A. Gopinatha Rao.
[10] The metre of this verse and of the next is Âryâ.
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