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MISCELLANEOUS
inscription dated in Prajōtpatti, corresponding to A.D. 1571 (No. 278). In two
labels (Nos. 84 and 85) engraved on two slabs in the Śrīraṅgam temple, Vīrappa-Nāyaka and Koṇḍama-Nāyaka are mentioned as the sons of Kṛishṇappa-Nāyaka.
These two Nāyaka chiefs are represented by two crudely drawn figures on the stone.
The Keḷadi chief Basavappa-Nayaka.
76. There is a copper-plate record (No. 3 of App. A) of the Kelaḍi chief Basavappa-Nāyaka in this collection, which comes from Kāḍpaṭṭi in the Jamkhandi
State, Dharwar. It gives the genealogy
of the chief for three previous generations,
namely, Siddappa, Śivappa and Sōmaśēkhara and is dated in Śaka 1632, Virōdhi.
It registers a gift lands at Tikkamuḷukere-grāma and Kaidoṭṭi-grāma in
Gājanūru-sīme to the Vīraśaiva teacher Charamūrti-Rāchavaṭṭidēva, the disciple
of Charamūrti Kabbinakanthe Karibasavarājadēva, made by purchase from
several Muhammadan owners. The document was engraved and granted on
the representation made by a certain Mariyappa.
The Mysore chiefs Chāmarāja-Oḍeyar and Kṛishṇarāja-Oḍeyar.
77. Two copper-plate grants belonging to the time of the Mysore family come
from the Coimbatore distrcit. Copper-plate No. 12, dated in Śaka 1657, Pramādīcha,
belongs to Chāmarāja-Oḍeyar whose
agent in the Kōyambattūr-śīrmai was a certain
Kumāra-Dēvappayan. The record registers the gift of tolls levied at specified rates on articles of merchandise from
traders, for providing worship to god Vēlāyudhasvāmin at Ponmalai in Kiṇattukkaḍavu in Vīrākka-nāḍu. The endowment was left in the charge of the Paṇḍārasannadi of Tiruvāḍuturai. The other document (C. P. No. 13) belongs to the
reign of Kṛishṇarāya-Oḍeyar ruling from Śrīraṅgapaṭṭaṇam and is dated in
Śaka 1683. It also registers a gift of lands to the same temple, while Kurikkara-Mādayyar was in charge of the Kōyambattūr-śīrmai. These chiefs Chāmarāja and Kṛishṇarāja may be identified with Chāmarāja VIII (A.D. 1731-34) and
Immaḍi Kṛishṇarāya III (1734-61). Though Kṛishṇarāja lived for five years more
i.e. till 1766, Haidar Ali had acquired all power into his hands by about A.D. 1761,
the date in which the present record was issued (Mysore Gazetteer, p. 2486).
Kandāḍai Rāmānujayyaṅgār and Mādhavayyaṅgār at Śrīraṅgam.
78. A record of topical interest is No. 87 form Srīraṅgam, which is dated
in the cyclic year Saumya. It is incised in characters of the 15th century A.D.
over a panel containing the image of an ascetic wielding a sickle in his hands,
sculptured on the jamb of the eastern gōpura called the Veḷḷai-gōpura in the fifth prākarā. The record states that as the scale of allowances in the temple of Raṅganātha had been withheld and great irregularity prevailed in the conduct of worship, Periyāḷvār, the śrīkāryam of the Irandakālameḍutta Alagiyamaṇavāḷadāsan,
committed suicide as a protest, by falling off from the gōpura. Similar instances
of acts of self-immolation, made in protest, for restoration of worship in temples
are recorded in inscriptions copied previously (Ep. Rep., for 1915, para. 60 and
for 1934-35, p. 73). As a result of the protest recorded in the present
case, full paḍittaram was subsequently restored and in memory of his act of self-sacrifice the blowing of the ekkāḷam and the privilege of being carried in procession
in a car and other honours were shown to the image of this Periyālvār. Regarding
this tragic incident the Kōyilolugu (pp. 129 and 130) has some more details to
offer. “After the expiry of the term of agentship of Tirumalairāja in the Tiruchchirāppaḷḷi-śīrmai, in the Khara year, Kōnērirāja succeeded him and had his
military camp at Tiruchchirāppaḷḷi itself. He had a partiality for the people of
the Śiva temple at Tiruvānaikkāval and so he was inclined to create some hindrances to the Śrīraṅgam temple. He demanded certain unauthorised levies such
as, puravari, kāṇikkai, paṭṭu-parivaṭṭam, etc., So two jīyars and some ēkāṅgis of the Śrīraṅgam temple ascended the eastern gōpura of the Akaḷaṅkan-tiruvīdi
and sacrificed their lives by falling down from it, but the troubles continued.
When these were reported on many occasions to Narasā-Nāyaka, he came on an
expedition to Tiruchchirāppaḷḷi and defeated Kōnērirāja. In the next year Naḷa
on Aippaśi, 14, when Nāgama-Nāyaka and Kumāra Narasā-Nāyaka came to Śrīraṅgam, Kandāḍai Rāmānuja interceded and got back for the temple the dēvadāna lands which had been previously misappropriated. These were accomplished
through the agency of Mādhava-Ayyaṅgār, who also had images of these martyrs
sculptured in the jamb of the gōpura.” While the inscription is engraved over the
sculptured of only figure, the other jamb opposite to this contains two similar
figures without any explanatory inscription. These two ascetics had probably
also sacrificed themselves similarly. We
known that Kōnēṭirāja was ruling in the
vicinity of Trichinopoly in about Śaka 1412
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