South Indian Inscriptions Volume 2 - Rajarajesvara Temple Inscriptions at Tanjavur @ whatisindia.com

This inscription contains an order of king Tirumalaideva, by which a number of villages were exempted from taxes. This was probably done, because they had been granted to the Tanjavur temple. The date of the inscription is Saka 1377 (expired), the cyclic year Yuvan, i.e., A.D. 1455. Consequently, the king to whose reign it belongs, must be distinct from the Karnata king Tirumalaideva, whose four inscriptions near Velur are dated in Saka 1488 (expired). It is not impossible that Tirumalaideva is identical with Timma, the founder of the second dynasty of Vijayanagara, for whose grandson Narasa, Nrisimha or Narasimha we have the dates Saka 1404 and 1418. In favour of this identification it can be adduced, that in the subjoined inscription, Tirumalaideva receives the same birudas, which were borne by Narasimhadeva according to an inscription at Virinchipuram, and that some of the fiscal terms, which occur in the text of the royal order, are of Kanarese extraction.

Both the spelling and the execution of this inscription are not very careful.[1] Lines 2 to 6 are damaged by a crack, which has caused the loss of a few letters. The language is Tamil, with the exception of line 1, which consists of a Sanskrit sloka.

Translation

1. “Of a gift and protection, protection is more meritorious than a gift; by a gift (one) obtains (only) heaven, by protection the eternal abode.”

2. Let there be prosperity! Fortune! [On the 17^th day] of the month of Sittirai in the Yuvan year, which was current after the Bhava year (and) after the Saka year one thousand three hundred and seventy-seven, the illustrious Mahamandalesvara Medinisvara Ganda Kattari Saluva-saluva Tirumalaideva-maharaja (addressed the following) order (nirubam) to Variyan, the Karanattan[2] in the village (agaram) of Tanjavur . . . . . . . Ta[n]jamamanigandangurai, Nagalapuram, Paramaraneri, Velangudi, (which was) the chief village (of a division) of fifty (villages),[3] Ammaia[ppapu]ram, Tenalur, Karuppur, Maruvur,[4] Rajendra-Sora-nallur, Sungandavi[r]tta-Sora-nallur,[5] alias Tirumalairajapuram, and Samudra . . . . . . puram : -

3. “Having remitted to your villages . . . . . . . the prime minister’s quit-rent (pradhani-jodi), the Karanam’s quit-rent (karanikka-joli), the village-watchman’s quit-rent,[6] (the dues on) animals, trees and tanks,[7] and all other dues (? Upadhi) of whatever kind, (we order that these villages) to the extent up to which they were granted, shall remain tax-free (sarvamanya) and undisturbed, as long as the moon and the sun endure.”

4. Mantramurti caused (the above) to be engraved, as ordered by the king.

[1] Plate xix in Dr. Burnell’s South-Indian Palaeography, second edition, is based on this inscription. The table contains three mistakes : — The sign entered as a is not Aa, but a vicarious form of a ; the sign entered as ku is not gu, but ku ; and the sign entered as lu is not lu, but loo (Grantha nnya)

[2] Karanathan is another form of, or a mistake for, karanathan which is used instead of karanum, ‘a village-accountant,’ in a Mamallapuram inscription, Vol. I, No. 40, text line 60.

[3] Another division of fifty villages in mentioned in two Mamallapuram inscriptions, Vol. I, No. 40, text line 16, and NO. 41, text line 33.

[4] According to Mr. Sewell’s Lists (Vol. I, p. 276), Karuppur and Maruvur are the names of two villages in the Tanjavur talluqa.

[5] This village is the object of the grant recorded in No. 22.

[6] Thalaiyarikam seems to be the Tamil equivalent of the Kanarese term, which occurs in a Vijayanagara inscription of Krishnaraya ; Epigraphia Indica, p. 402, note 40.

[7] On mavadai maravadai kulavadai see p. 117, note 6.

Other Volumes

Volume 8

Chola Inscription

Volume 10

Telugu Inscriptions from Andra Pradesh

Volume 12

Pallava Inscriptions

Volume 14

Pandya Inscriptions

Volume 16

Telugu Inscriptions
of the Vijayanagara Dynasty

Volume 17

Inscriptions Collected During 1903-1904