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LATER PALLAVAS
Peruñjiṅgadēva—two chiefs of the name.
35. Peruñjiṅgadēva is represented by only four inscriptions in this year
(Nos. 185, 186, 199 and 275) and they come from Villiyanūr near Pondicherry
and Parikkal in the South Arcot district.
Of these the most important is No. 186
from Villiyanūr, which confirms the surmise made by the late Mr. Venkayya as
early as 1906 ‘ that there must have been two or more chiefs with the name Kōpperuñjiṅga’ (Ep. Rep. for 1906, p. 63). This inscription is dated in the 6th year
of Sakalabhuvanachchakravarttigaḷ Avaniyāḷappirandān Kōpperuñjiṅgadēva, and
records that Uḍaiyār Udaiyapperumāḷ alias Kāḍuveṭṭigaḷ of Perumaṅgalam audited
the accounts of the temple of Tirukkāmīśvaram-Uḍaiyār at Villiyanallūr, the
western hamlet of Olugarai alias Kulōttuṅgaśōlanallūr for the period commencing
from the 37th year of Tribhuvanavīradēva (i.e., Kulōttuṅga III) to the 11th year
of Alagiyaśīyar Kōpperuñjiṅgadēva, and finding that 64 cows 2 bulls had
to be accounted for by the Śivabrāhmaṇas, he insisted on their maintaining two
perpectual lamps in that temple. Since the present inscription dated in the 6th
year of Sakalabhuvanachchakravarttigaḷ Avaniyāḷappirandān Kōpperuñjiṅgadēva
quotes a higher regnal year, namely the 11th year of an Alagiyaśīyar Kōpperuñjiṅgadēva, these two chiefs must be different. It is therefore evident that
there must have been two chiefs of the name Kōpperuñjiṅga, one the father with
the name of Alagiyaśīyar and the other his son. This is in consonance with the
information contained in the Tripurāntakam inscription of Mahārājasimha (Kōpperuñjiṅgadēva II) (No. 197 of 1905) that his father was Jīyamahīpati
had a reign of at least 11 years. This does not, however, preclude the possibility
of his having had a longer reign. Of the numerous records of Peruñjiṅga, therefore, the attribution of some of them to one or the other chief has to be done
with caution, from the meagre internal evidence available in them.
No. 185 from the same temple dated in the 8th year of Peruñjiṅgadēva (II),
mentions that some tiruppaṇi in stone was accomplished in the temple and maṇḍapa in that year by Vīdiviṭaṅkan Tiruchirrambalam-uḍaiyān alias Nandiyarāyan,
the headman of Kōṭṭūr in Pūṅgunram. Since we find an inscription (No. 189
of 1902) dated in the 13th year, probably of Kulōttuṅga I or II in the same temple,
the tiruppaṇi referred to must have been only a renovation, the old inscriptions
having been left intact.
An inscription dated in the 22nd year of Peruñjiṅgadēva from Parikkal in
the South Arcot district (No. 275) records the construction of four tiers of the jagatippaḍai of the temple of Tiruvagnīśvaramuḍaiya-Nāyanār at Perukkal in
Mēlūrnāṭṭu Tirumunaippāḍi-nāḍu, a subdivision of Rājarāja-vaḷanāḍu, by
Kābiṅgan alias Periyanāṭṭut-taṭṭān, a goldsmith of the village. Owing to the
high regnal year quoted in it, it has to be attributed to Peruñjiṅgadeva II.
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