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THE CHOLAS
The Chōḷa vassals Siddharaiśan and Vāṇakōvaraiyan.
Trichinopoly district. No. 76 dated in the 7th year of the king registers an endowment of 2,000 kāśu by a lady and her daughter to the temple. The monthly
interest on the amount is given as 40 kāśu, i.e., two per cent. per month, which
is a high rate even for those times, when interest as high as eighteen per cent.
per annum was known. With this interest, worship was to be conducted to the
deity on the day of Rōhinī every month, which was the natal star of the former’s
husband Vāgalarkōḍāli alias . . . . nātha-Pallavaraiyar. In an inscription of the
19th year of the king (No. 67), Nūṅkama-mahādēvī, the wife of Madhurāntaka-Pottappichchōlan alias Siddharaiśan is said to have made a gift of twelve Bhujabala-māḍai to the Śrīraṅgam temple for a lamp. This chief is evidently
the Telugu-Chōḷa Nallasiddharasa, the subordinate of Kulōttuṅga III, whose
queen Nūṅkamā figures in a record from Nandalūr (No. 601 of 1907). No. 89
found engraved on the inner wall of the Veḷḷaigōpura in the East Uttira Street
at Śrīraṅgam gives no regnal year for the king but gives him the title ‘ he who
took Īlam, Madura, Karuvūr and the crowned head of the Pāṇḍya’. It does
not contain any reference to the temple of Raṅganātha by name, but states that
the worship to a deity in a certain (unspeci-
fied) temple which is claimed to be the kuladhanam of the king, and repairs to the prākāra wall called after Magadēśan alias Aḍaiyavaḷaindān were left in charge of
a certain Tāyilumnllān alias Kulōttuṅgaśōla-Vāṇakōvaraiyan. As Kulōttuṅga
III and his Vāṇakōvaraiya feudatory are not known to have been such ardent
Vaishṇava devotees as to call the Śrīraṅgam temple as their kuladhana, and as
we know they had a leaning towards Śaivaism, it may be supposed that the slabs
bearing this inscription probably belonged to some portion of the prākāra wall
of the neighbouring Jambukēśvara temple and were inserted later in their present
position. Tāyilumnalla-perumāḷ of the present inscription also figures in a
record from Ūṭṭattūr (No. 521 of 1921) and was probably identical with Rājarājadēvan Ponparappina-Vāṇakōvaraiyan (No. 440 of 1913). It may also be
the Jambukēśvaram temple contain some verses of the praśasti of this chieftain
(No. 482 of 1908).
Of the inscriptions referring themselves to the reign of Kulōttuṅga-Chōḷadēva
without any historical introduction, there are seven records in the collection
(Nos. 82, 155, 212, 228, 230, 271 and 282). In No, 282 dated in his 14th year,
which comes from Pādūr in the Tirukkoyilur taluk of the South Arcot district,
Tirumunaippāḍi is mentioned as being situated in Rājarāja-vaḷanāḍu which
could have been so named only after king Rājarāja II; while in No. 271 from
Pēraṅgiyūr in the same taluk dated in the 33rd year of Kulōttuṅga the same
Tirumunaippāḍi is referred to as situated in Gaṅgaikoṇḍaṥōla-vaḷanāḍu which
was a surname of Rājēndra-Chōḷa I. For this reason the latter inscription should
be assigned to Kulōttuṅga I and the former to Kulōttuṅga III. Of the other
records, Nos. 230, 212 and 228 are dated respectively in the 20th, 33rd and 35th
years of the king and may be referred to the reigns of Kulōttuṅga III, the latest
known date of Kulōttuṅga II, as presumed above, being only his 18th year.
Rājarāja III, his queen (?) Sōmaladēviyar.
33. Rajarāja III is represented by 7 inscriptions ranging up to the 26th year
of his reign. No. 72 from Śrīraṅgam dated in his 21st year registers an endowment of 1,00,000 kāśu for burning a lamp
the supply of in the temple and for the supply of
flower-garlands to the deity, by Dēviyār
Sōmaladēviyār. From the way in which this donatrix is mentioned simply as Dēviyār it appears as if she was one of the queens of Rājarāja III. It is evidently this same Sōmaladēviyār who is mentioned in a record from Jambukēśvaram,
dated in the 25th year probably of the same king (No. 22 of 1891). The political
friendship between the Chōḷas and the Hoysaḷas in this period will have to be explained by the existence of some marriage relationship between these two families.
Another record from the same place (No. 30) dated in Rājarāja’s 24th year
registers a gift of land to the temple by a certain Viṭṭhaya, a sēnabōva of
Bhīmaṇṇa-Daṇḍanāyaka, one of the mahāpradhānis of Hoysaḷa Sōmēśvaradeva.
Rajēndra-Chōḷa III.
34. Rājēndra-Chōḷa III figures in two inscriptions (Nos. 114 and 117) both
from Jambukēśvaram. Both of them record royal orders issued in his 3rd and
5th years, one granting a remission of
taxes on 36 and odd vēli of land belonging
to the local temple, and the other on lands in 7 different villages for the benefit
of the temple of Pōsaḷēśvaram-Uḍaiyār at Kaṇṇanūr built by Vīra-Sōmēśvaradēva,
referred to in the inscription as māmaḍi (maternal uncle). Nos. 115 and 116,
also from Jambukēśvaram, are both dated in the 5th year of Kōnērinmaikoṇḍan.
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