THE CHOLAS
which records a gift to the shrine of Vijayanāyakkar. About a furlong from
this place again is a rock in a field bearing an inscription of Rājarāja (III) which
mentions Gaṇḍarādittap-perumbaḷḷi (No. 448). It is possible that there may have
been two shrines in this place one named Gaṇḍarādittap-perumbaḷḷi after the
Chōḷa prince Gaṇḍarāditya and the other called Nāṭṭār-perumbaḷḷi evidently
founded by the people or assembly of the local nāḍu (principality).
Parantaka I.
30. There are two inscriptions of Parāntaka I (Nos. 8 and 443) both dated
in the 40th year of his regin. One of these (No. 443) which is engraved on the
side of a steep rock near the top of a hill
at Jambai refers to a temple of the Sun-god
named Śrī-Gaṇḍarāditya-Ādittagarattudēva which was founded on the top of the
Vāḷaiyūr-kunram (hill) in the time of Uḍaiyār Aiyyanaḍi and to the gift top it of
the income from the village Śirupanaiyūr. The provenance of the inscription
suggests that the temple should have existed somewhere close by. It is not clear
who the ‘Aiyyanaḍi’ was in whose time the temple was constructed. If we take the
expression to mean ‘His Highness the father’ and thus to refer to Parāntaka’s
father Āditya I, we have to suppose that the latter also bore the surname
Gaṇḍarāditya and that the endowment for worship made in his regin had been
somehow in abeyance till the 40th year of his son. From the context of the record,
however, it seems more appropriate to apply the term ‘Aiyyanaḍi’ to Parāntaka
himself, as the order regulating the expenses of the temple out of this income was
issued by an officer named Tennavan Brahmādarājan on the 162nd day of the
4th year, which date can be taken to be only that of Gaṇḍrāditya, the son of
Parāntaka, who is known to have taken part in the administration of the country
as co-regent with his father after the demise of his elder brother Rājāditya in
A.D. 949. It may also be incidentally mentioned here that a certain Tiruvaḍigaḷ
Aiyanaḍi of Śiruvēḷur in Vēśālippāḍi figure in the 7th year of a Parakēsarivarman at Kōyil-Tēvarāyanpēṭṭai in the Tanjore district (No. 257 of 1923).
Aditya II.
31. The next king represented in the collection is Parakēsarivarman ‘who
took the head of Vīra-Pāṇḍya’ (i.e. Āditya II), of whom there are two inscriptions both coming from the South Arcot
district. They are both dated in his 3rd
year (Nos. 380 and 399) and record gifts of land as ērippaṭṭi for the maintenance of
the local irrigation tanks of the places, one by the king himself in co-operation
with the Ūrār of Śirupākkam and the other by a certain Oḷikaṇḍan alias Śiṅgattaraiyan at Meyyūr in Kurukkai-kūrram, a subdivision of Milāḍu.
Rajaraja I.
32. Four inscriptions in the collection (Nos. 156 164, 382 and 464) belong to
the reign of Rājarāja I. No. 164 which is form Tiruvorriyūr is a fragment dated
in the 24th year of Rājarāja and recording an endowment for the daily supply
of a flower-garden to the deity by a certain Uḍaiyān Pirāntaka……., who was
probably an officer under the king. No. 382 from the South Arcot district
dated in the 15th year of Rājarāja introduces a feudatory chief by name Rāśingapanman (Rājasiṁhavarman) Rājarāja-Vāṇakōvariyan. While he was
staying at Tañjāvūr in the college (kallūri) to the north of the king’s (?) palace,
he is stated to have made a gift of land to a certain Kāḷi Tūduvan alias Paḷḷikkaṭṭilēriya Nāṭṭupēraiyan, probably on the occasion of his succeeding to the headship of the nāḍu.
Rājēndra-Chōḷa I.
33. Rajendra-Chōḷa is represented in the collection by two inscriptions of
which No. 157 from Turaiyūr in the Trichinopoly district is dated in his 8th year, and records an endowment for the maintenance of a Brahman who was to recite
the Śrī-Rudra during the early morning service of the deity and to teach the Vēdas
to scholars during the rest of the day.
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