Annual Reports

INTRODUCTION

  An inscription (No. 18), dated in the 10th regnal year of the same king re- cords a sale of land as poliyūṭṭupparru by the sabhā of Chandralēkhai-chaturvēdimaṅgalam to the temple authorities towards the interest on the sum of 400 kalañju borrowed by them from the god Paḷḷikoṇḍaruḷiya-Anantanārāyaṇasvāmin in the 10th year of the reign of Maduraikoṇḍa-Kōp-Parakēsaridēva, i.e., Parāntaka I. It is interesting to note that for a period of over a century and a half between the tenth year of Parāntaka I (917 A.C.) and the tenth year of Kulōttuṅga I (1080 A.C.), this transaction was kept in force by regular payments of interest.

   No. 26 of the 40th year of kulōttuṅga’s reign mentions the king with the epithet Śuṅgandavirttaruḷina and records the provision made by him for sacred bath and offerings to the deity on the day of Pūśam (i.e., Pushya) which was probably the asterism on which Kulōttuṅga assumed ruling powers over the Chōḷa dominion (see Annual Report on Indian Epigraphy, 1947-48, p. 3).

   A record (No. 39), dated in the 8th regnal year of Vikrama-Chōḷadēva (1126 A.C.) registers the sale of 3½ mā of land by Sāndūr Magilalaṅkāradāsam of Mūṅgilkuḍi and his younger brother Kurugūr-Nambi for 8 kāśu to Araiyan Ādittadēvan alias Ēnādi Araiyan of Puḷiyaṅguḍi. The land is stated to have been acquired from Periyakōyil-Piriyar by the donors in exchange for their own garden called Kōdaiyāṇḍāḷ-tirunandavanam made over to Periyakōyil-Piriyar at the latter’s request. Śūḍikkoḍuttāḷ-tirunandavanam, another flower garden called after Āṇḍāḷ, is referred to in a later inscription of the time of Kulōttuṅga III (1186 A.C.) from this same temple (No. 119 of 1938-39).

   An inscription (No. 44) engraved on the north wall of the Dorai-maṇḍapam in the third prākāra refers to the 3rd year of the reign of one Jaṭāvarman Tri- bhuvanachakravarttigaḷ Kōnērinmaikoṇḍān and records the assignment of land yielding 2,000 kalam of paddy and a revenue if 163 pon in Anbil, a dēvadāna village in Irājarāja-vaḷanāḍu as maḍappuram in the Avanivēndarāman-maṭha established in the name of the king by Dēvapirān Alagiyaperumāḷ alias Sundarapāṇḍya-Kāliṅgarāyar of Viḷattūr in Milalaikkūram. Two records from Iluppūr (Nos. 299 and 300 of 1943-44), dated in the 2nd year and 100th day and the 3rds year respectively of Jaṭāvarman Sundara-Pāṇḍyadēva refer to the service called Avanivēndarāman-śandi and to the Avanivēndarāman-maṇḍapa, both called after the king. Hence the king of the record is probably identical with Jaṭāvarman Tribhuvanachakravartin Sundara-Pāṇḍya. SundarapāṇḍyaKāliṅgarāyar perhaps took his name after his overlord Sundara-Pāṇḍya. It may be stated that Sundara-Pāṇḍya of this record is different from either Sundara- Pāṇḍya I (accession 1250-51 A.C.) or Sundara-Pāṇḍya III (accession 1302 A.C.) whose natal stars are known to be Mūlā (A. R. on Epigraphy, Madras, 1921, para. 41) and Pushya (ibid. 1918, para. 50) respectively while the natal star of Avanivēndarāman, probably identical with the king of the present record is known to be Uttiraṭṭādi in Āni (No. 149 of 1933-34). He is perhaps to be identified with Sundara-Pāṇḍya II (accession 1276 A.C.).

   A record (No. 35) of Bukka I engraved on the south wall of the third prākāra of the Raṅganātha temple is the earliest among records of the Vijayanagara kings found in this temple. It is interesting on account of the mention it makes of the benefactions of Gōppaṇaṅgaḷ who was acting under the orders of Chikka-Uḍaiyār, i.e., Kampaṇa II. Gōppaṇaṅgal, the Brāhmaṇa general of Kampaṇa II, is well known as the person who was responsible for bringing back the image of god Raṅganātha to Śrīraṅgam in Śaka 1293 and installing it in the temple from where it had been removed elsewhere for safety during the Muslim invasions of the South in the 14th century A.C. The record under notice is dated four years later, in Śaka 1297, Rākshasa, Pushya ba. 3, Thursday, Tai 15 (1376 A. C., January 10, Thursday) and states that Gōppaṇaṅgal granted the village of Turaiyūr to the temple and also endowed 970 pon for repairs in the temple and for maintaining a flower garden and a feeding house (sattra) in Pallavarāyar-maḍam. We are told in the Kōyilolugu, a Vaishṇava hagiological work which contains an account of the Śrīraṅgam temple, that this general made a gift of 52 villages to it. From the present inscription we learn the name of at least one of them, viz., Turaiyūr.