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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
Two Pandya copper-plate grants from Sinnamanur No. 206 Two Pandya copper-plate grants from Sinnamanur No. 207 Tirukkalar Plate of Rajendra Chola I No. 209 Tirukkalar Plate of Kulottungs-Chola I No. 211 Tirukkalar Plate of Kulottunga-Chola III & Rajakesarivarman Click here to continue Copper-plates from Sinnamanur, Tirukkalar... ...Of
king Jatila, the second in the genealogical list (D) given above,
nothing is stated in the plates in the Sanskrit portion, the Tamil
portion omitting his name altogether.
On the hypothesis, however, of Arikesari Parankusa being
identical with Termaran of the Velvikudi grant, Jatila will have to
be identified with (No. 7) Parantaka Nedujadaiyan, thedonor of the
Velvikudi grant â it
being inexplicable, however, why this king of whom we hear so much
in the Velvikudi and in the Madras Museum plates, should have been
mentioned without any remarks in the Sanskrit portion and omitted
altogether in the Tamil portion.
The other kings who follow are later names in the Pandya
genealogy and their achievements are detailed in the genealogical
table (D) given above. The
successor of Jatila was Rajasimha (II)[1]
of whom nothing is stated. After
him came Varaguna or Varaguna-Maharaja of great prowess who was
separated by two generations or roughly 50 years from Termaran (No.
6 of A) the contemporary of Pallavamalla Nandivarman already
mentioned. Consequently,
he should have flourished about he beginning of the 9th
century A.D. Though very scanty information is supplied about this
king by the bigger Sinnamanur plates, still he is familiar to
students of epigraphy and we know of very many references in
inscriptions to Varaguna or Varaguna-Maharaja[2],
sometimes also called Maranjadaiyan.
We learn, e.g., that Varaguna, for the first time, carried
his conquests northward into the Chola country against Idavai[3]
on which occasion also he should perhaps have destroyed the
fortified walls of Vembil (Vembarrur).
Varaguna thence pushed further north into the Tondai-nadu
making there a grant from his camp at Araisur, a village on the
banks of the Pennar to the temple of Erichcha-Udaiyar at
Ambasamudram in the Tinnevelly district.
Again, a inscription at Kalugumalai[4],
also in the Tinnevelly district, supports the above statement by
referring to an expedition of the king (herein called only
Maranjadaiyan) against Arividurkkottai and casually mentions the
village Pundanamali (i.e., Poonamalli) in Tondai-nadu.
The Tiruvisalur inscription dated in the 4th year
of the reign of Varaguna-Maharaja might also belong to this same
king[5].
The Aivarmalai inscription which supplies the initial date
Saka 784 or A.D. 862 to Varaguna must refer to the later
Varagunavarman who was the grandson of Varaguna I. An inscription from Tiruvellarai which is dated in his 13th
year, and where the king is called Maranjadaiyan supplies
astronomical details for the verification of the date.
The actual calculation, worked out by Mr. Sewell at page 253
of Ep. Ind., Vol. XI, fits in with the 13th year
of this Varagunavarman II, viz., Monday the 22nd
November, A.D. 874. This
is the second sure date in the Pandya
chronology, the first being
A.D. 769-70 (or thereabouts) of the Anamalai inscription, for king
Maranjadaiyan Parantaka, Nedunjadaiyan, the donor of the Velvikudi
grant and of the Madras Museum plates.
Thus the initial date of Varaguna II got from the Aivarmalai
inscription, is A.D. 862 and the nearest possible date of Parantake
Nedunjadaiyan is A.D. 770. The
difference between these two dates i.e., 92 years, suggests
at least four generations and Rai Bahadur Venkayya has, accordingly
in his genealogical table of the Pandyas given at page 54 of his Annual
Report on Epigraphy for 1908, Part II, taken the Varaguna of the
Aivarmalai inscription to be the second of that name who, according
to the Udayendiram plates, killed the Ganga king Prithvipati I in
the battle at Sripurambiyam or Tiruppurambiyam near Kumbhakonam,
being himself subsequently defeated by the last Pallava king
Aparajita or Aparajitavikramavarman son of Nripatunga[6].
Leaving alone the second Varagunavarman for the present, it
may be stated that in the time of Varaguna-Maharaja I the Pandya
dominion was largely extended as to include in it the Chola and the
Pallava country right up to the bank of the Pennar in Tondai-nadu.
This invasion could not have been allowed to pass without
severe resistance by the kings concerned, viz., the Cholas and the
Pallavas, and consequently, we see that in the next reign king
Srivallabha (10) had to fight fierce battles, three of them being at
Kudamukkil, i.e., Kumbhakonam in the heart of the Chola country,
against perhaps the allied Cholas, Gangas and Pallavas.[7]
This was perhaps the commencement of the struggle.
It perhaps ended only with the defeat of Varaguna II, by the
Pallava king Aparajita at Sripurambiyam, near Kumbhakonam, where his
Ganga ally Prithivipati I also died.
The Chola enemies of the Pandyas, now turned against their
allies, the Pallavas Rajakesarivarman Aditya I overran the
Tondai-nadu in the north and occupied it.
But the Pandya king Rajasimha III (No. 13), the son of
Parantaka (Sadaiyan, defeated the king of Tanjai (Tanjore) at
Naippur, fought a battle at Kodumbai (Kodumbalur) the seat of one of
the powerful Chola subordinates, burnt Vanji anddestroyed the king
of southern Tanjai (perhaps another subordinate of the Cholas) at
Naval. Adityaâs son
Parantaka I defeated this rajasimha-Pandya, the nephew of Varaguna
II and captured the Pandya capital Madura, thereby acquiring for
himself the well-known title Madiraikonda.
The mention of Maya-Pandya as in rebellious union against
Srivallabha (10) and that of Ugra (perhaps also a Pandya king)
against Parantaka Viranarayana Sadaiyan (12) show internal
dissensions in the Pandya family which must have been the cause of
their eventual downfall. The
Pandya king Parantaka appears to have courted the friendship of the
rising powerful Chola and to have married Vanavanmahadevi, evidently
a Chola princess as the title[8] the flag of both the lunar
and the solar racesâ borne by his son Rajasimha clearly shows. Of
the topographical and other proper names mentioned in both the sets
of Sinnamanur plats, viz., Chitramuyari, Talaiyalanganam, Nelveli,
Sankaramangai, Kunnur, Singalam, Vilinam, Kudamukkil, Sennilam,
Kharagiri, Pennagadam, Kongu, Ulappinimangalam, Tanjai, Naippur,
Kodumbai, Vanji [on the northern bank of the Ponni (Kaveri) river],
Naval Chulal, Rajasingapperungulakkil, Narcheygaiputtur, Ala-nadu,
Puttur, Miygundaru, Koluvur-kurram, Maniyachi or
Tisaichchudarmangalam, Vada-Kalavalinadu, Pullamangalam, Sola-nadu,
Vembarrur in Kalavali-nadu, Kura in Kil-Vemba-nadu, Suruli-aru
(river), Marudur, Kuvalaimalai, Korranputtur, Kundur and Anda-nadu,
almost all are familiar and known to us from inscriptions.
The first two are not identified, the second being known only
to literature. Kudamukkil
is Kumbhakonam ; Vilinam is a port in the Travancore State ;
Singalam in Ceylon ; Pennagadam is a village in the Tanjore District
; Kongu comprises the modern districts of Salem and Coimbatore ;
Tanjai is the well-known Tanjore ; Kodumbai is Kodumbalur in the
Pudukkottai State. Rajasingakulakkil
may be identified with Rajasingamangalam in the Sivaganga Zaminari.
It is called Varagunamangalam in its inscriptions.
Narcheygaiputtur must be identical with Sinnamnur in the
Periyakulam taluk where these plates were obtained.
The stone inscriptions of the place, however, show that it
bore the name Arikesarinallur and was a brahmadeya in Ala-nadu,
a subdivision of Pandi-mandalam.[9]
A hamlet of it was Korranputtur, identical, perhaps, with the
native village of the donee.[10]
Mention is also made in stone inscriptions of the places
Mandaragauravamangalam ind Arapadasekharamangalam, which had
assemblies similar to that of Arikesarinallur that met together in a
common places evidently division in which Sinnamanur was situated.
Kottarpolil-Puttur is identical with Tirupputtur in the
Ramnad district and is the headquarters of a taluk. From No. 90 of
the Madras Epigraphical collection for 1908, we learn that it was
situated in Migundaru in Koluvur-kurram, which is the description
given of Kottarpolil-puttur in these plates.
Pullamangalam is a village in the Papanasam taluk of the
Tanjore district. It
was situated in Kilar-kurram. Kil-Vemba-nadu
is a subdivision of the Pandya country in which Tinnevelly was
situated. As scuh, the
village of Kura must be looked for near about Tinnevellly.
Surliyaru is the river that takes its rise from the
Suruli-malai, 7 miles from Cumbum in the Periyakulam taluk of the
Madura district, and flows past Cumbum and Sinnamanur and joins the
Vaigai. Anda-nadu is
that territorial division of the Pandya country in which
Periyakottai in the Dindigul taluk was.
Hence Kundur and Korranputtur must be traced out in that
locality. Larger
Sinnamanur Plates. Text.[11]
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