Annual Reports

INTRODUCTION

   A prince of the Bāṇa family named Aggapa figures in a record at Chinna Pappūru (No. 6) in Tadpatri taluk. He bears the titles Nandagirinātha, Parivipuraparamēśvara, etc., which are usually associated with the rulers of this family after about the 10th century A. D. This record has, therefore, to be assigned to this period and palaeography supports this view. At Sannamūru in the Podili taluk, Nellore District, was copied an inscription (No. 99) of a Bāṇa chief also named Aggaparāju. But this record is dated Śaka 930, Vaiśākha Punnama, Friday, corresponding to A. D. 1008, April 23, Friday. It states that the chief granted to god Agrastēśvara of Srannagūru some lands situated in Pedda-rājya and Koṇḍuka-rājya. It needs to be ascertained how the Bāṇa chief happened to exercise sway over these divisions, for the territory of this family was situated further south-west, in the areas covered by the district of North Arcot, Anantapur and Cuddapah and part of Eastern Mysore. One of the circumstances which might have led to the advent of the Bāṇa chief Aggaparāju to this region might be the Western Chalukya advance into this part of the country under Bayal-Nambi, the general of Āhavamalla (Satyāśraya) in A.D. 1006 (S.I.I., Vol. VI, No. 102). In the wake of this invasion, Aggaparāju, a scion of the Bāṇas, who were hereditary Western Chālukya subordinates administering parts of Anantapur and Cuddapah Districts, might have found his way into Pedda-rājya and Koṇḍuka-rājya. It might be of interest to note here that another Bāṇa chief named Chūra Ballirāja has left a record at Koṇidena, Guntur District (S.I.I., Vol. VI, 640) dated Śaka 107[3] (A.D. 1151) in which it is states that the village Rāmakūru in Kammanāḍu was his fief (jīvitam). It is not improbable that he was a descendant of Aggaparāju mentioned above.

   From Rajauna, Moughyr District, Bihar State, was secured an inscription dated in the 5th regnal year of King Śūrapāla (No. 153). The record is engraved on a stone slab depicting the twelve Ādityas. The king undoubtedly belongs to the Pāla dynasty of Bengal and is very probably to be identified with Śūrapāla I, also called Vigrahapāla I, who was the successor of Dēvapāla and the predecessor of Nārāyaṇapāla and who ruled about the middle of the 9th century A. D. The only date so far known of this king was his 3rd regnal year. The present inscription shows that he ruled at least up to his fifth regnal year.

   An inscription (No. 204) of Taila II, the founder of the later dynasty of the Western Chāḷukyas was discovered at Lakshmīpur. It is dated in Śaka 913 and mentions Chaṭṭayyadēva, one of the early members of the Kadamba family.

   At Ayyankōvilpaṭṭu and Pūndōṭṭam, near Viluppuram, South Arcot District, were copied several inscriptions (Nos. 32-7) of the time of Chōḷa Rājarāja I in which reference is made to a place called Nṛipatuṅgajayantāngi-chaturvēdimaṅgalam which was apparently the old name of one or both the villages mentioned above, if not of Viluppuram itself. The village seems to have been founded by a ruler who was distinguished by the biruda Nṛipatuṅga-jayantāṅgi and it is not unlikely that this king belonged to the Chōḷa dynasty and was an ancestor of Rājarāja I. The exact significance of the title is not clear. Nṛipatuṅga is the well-known Pallava ruler of the 9th century A. D. whose sway over this region is attested by his Bāhūr Plates which register the grant of certain villages round about Bāhūr bordering on the Villupuram taluk.

   Among the other inscriptions of the Chōḷa dynasty, of which a considerable number has been copied this year, the earliest is an epigraph (No. 84) of Parakēsarivarman engraved on a stone slab at Tiruppandiyūr in the Tiruvallur taluk, Chingleput District. The inscription which is dated in the third year of the king’s reign, registers an endowment in gold made by Vīmaḍigal, son of Tēvaḍi Bhaṭṭan, a Jaina, for the upkeep of the village tank. On palaeographic grounds, the record may be assigned to king Parāntaka I, who bore the epithet Parakēsarivarman. It may be noted that the records of Parāntaka I dated so early in his reign as the 3rd year (=A. D. 909-910) are not found in this area.

   Of the inscriptions copied at Śrīraṅgam, Tiruchirapalli District, the bulk belongs to the reign of the Chōḷa king, Kulōttuṅga I. One of them (No. 108) is of particular interest as it helps to ascertain the exact day of his coming to the