Annual Reports

INTRODUCTION

tax-free. Queen Kalyāṇamahādēvī was not known before. Śākkaikkūttu mentioned in this record is known from another inscription of the 29th year of the same king (A. R. No. 65 of 1914) which records a gift made to Śākkaimārāyan Vikramaśōlan for his performing this dance. An earlier epigraph from Tiruviḍaimarudūr (S. I. I., Vol. V, No. 718) dated in the 4th year of Āditya II mentions the Āriyakkūttu dance which was performed in seven aṅgas by Kīrttimaraikkāḍan alias Tiruveḷḷarai Śākkai. The Tamil work Śilappadikāram also refers to a Kūttachchākkaiyan (canto 28, line 77) who performed a dance before Śeṅguṭṭuvan, the Chēra king. It may not be out of place to mention here that a kind of performance known as Śākkiyārkūttu is prevalent in Malabar even to this day (History of Keraḷa, Vol. III, p. 362).

   A record (No. 246) from Tirukkuvaḷai in the Nagapattanam taluk, Tanjore District, is dated in the 4th regnal year of Rājarāja III (1220 A.D.) and refers to an image of Adipatta-Nāyanār installed by Ālan, a fisherman of the place. It is interesting to note that Adipatta-Nāyanār who is one of the 63 Śaiva saints, was a native of Nāgapattaṇam and was himself a fisherman by caste.

   No. 265, another record from Tirukkuvaḷai, cities the 8th year of Jaṭāvarman Tribhuvanachakravarttin Sundara Pāṇḍyadēva and records a noteworthy benefaction of a chief named Pālaikkuruchchi-Uḍaiyān Tirumaraikkāḍ-uḍaiyān alias Vairādarāyan. It is said that the temple of god Tirukkōḷiḷi-uḍaiyār of the village was being frequently affected by the floods of the stream Chandramauḷip-pērāru on its northern side. The chief changed the course of the stream in its higher reaches on the borders of the village Kuṇḍaiyūr, converting the old course into a second road around the village and calling it Tirumaraikkāḍuḍaiyān, after his own name. Since the new road laid involved some encroachment into the fields belonging to the temple, the chief gave in exchange 2 vēli of land from his estate in Paramēśvara-chaturvēdimaṅgalam.

   Nos. 379 and 380 come from the temple of Śiva at Alagum in the Puri District. One of them (No. 380) is in Telugu and seems to cite the 23rd year of the reign of Anantavarmadēva while the other which is in Sanskrit, written in the Gauḍīya script, is dated in the 62nd year, also of the reign of king Anantavarmadēva (Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIX, pp. 11 ff.)

   The Telugu epigraph mentions Sarvalōkāśraya Vishṇuvarddhana Vijayāditya, Lōkamahādēvī and Rājarāja the last of whom appears to figure here as making a gift to the god of Gartta at A[ra]guma (i.e., Alagum). The relationship of these members to one another or to king Anantavarman is, however, not clear from the record. Palaeographically the epigraph may be assigned to the 11th century A.D. and so the Vijayāditya mentioned in it may be Vijayāditya VII (1063-1076 A.D.) of the Eastern Chālukya family who, according to the Vizagapatam copper-plate grant of Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga of Śaka 1040 (Ind. Ant., Vol. XVIII, p. 169, text-lines 86-89) had taken refuge in the court of Rājarāja Dēvēndravarman I, father of Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga of Kaliṅga. We know that one of the queens of the Chōḷa emperor Rājarāja I (985-1016 A.D.) whose daughter’s (Kundavā’s) son was Vijayāditya VII, bore the name Lōkamahādēvī. It is not, however, possible from the information available in the record to determine whether the princess mentioned in it is identical with Vijayāditya’s grandmother. The Sanskrit inscription citing the 62nd year of the king’s reign leaves hardly any doubt for identifying king Anantavarman with Anantavarman-Chōḍagaṅga who ruled for 70 years from 1078 A.D.

   From among the inscriptions copied in the temple at Śrīraṅgam, Nos. 295 and 308 are of considerable interest. The former dated in Śaka 1447 in the reign of Kṛishṇadēvarāya of Vijayanagara records an endowment made for reciting (the composition called) Jñānachintāmaṇi before the deity daily. The latter dated in Śaka 1454 in the reign of Achyutarāya records an endowment by Tirumalaiamman for the recital of Bhaktasañjīvi told by herself (Bhaktasañjīvi śonna Tirumalaiamman ubhaiyam=āga). While the authorship of the former is not known, the latter appears to have been a composition of Tirumalaiamman. A record from Naraśiṅgapuram (A. R. No. 240 of 1910) of Śaka 1456 dated 2 years later than the inscription under reference mentions a purāṇa called Bhaktisañjīvinī. The proximity of these two dates renders it possible to identify Bhaktasañjīvi with the purāṇa Bhaktisañjīvinī. Whether Tirumalaiamman could be identical with Ōduva Tirumalāmbā, the author of Varadāmbikāpariṇayam and the queen of Achyuta cannot, however, be established