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THE PANDYAS
month quoted here as a similar śandi was instituted to celebrate the king’s asterism
Aviṭṭam, in the month of Puraṭṭāśi in the Śiva Temple at Tiruvālīśvaram (No. 340
of 1916), and in all months of the year in the Rudrakōṭīśvara temple at
Chaturvēdimaṅgalam (No. 303 of 1928). The latest record of this king (No. 30)
in the year’s collection is of his 11th year and mentions as donors Vēṇāḍuḍaiyār
and his younger brother Maduraipperumāḷ alias Magadarāyar. It is not clear
whether this Vēṇāḍuḍaiyār was identical with Araiyan Pūvan alias Vēṇāvuḍaiyār
of Kīlaikkoḍumaḷūr mentioned in a record of Māravarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya, II
(No. 149 of 1894).
Jaṭāvarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya ; his title ‘Śēranai-venranâ
45. Of the records of (Nos. 28, 373 and 492),
No. 28 beginning with the introduction Samasta-jagad-ādhāra, etc., and therefore
assignable to the first king of the name registers a royal remission of taxes made
Jaṭāvarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya ; his title ‘Śēranai-
at the instance of his brother-in-law (machchunanār) Malavarāyar on the villages
Muṭṭaipāḍi, Vīratoṅgapuram, and Pāgaṅguḍi in Viḷā-nāḍu, a subdivision of’
Pāṇḍikulapati-vaḷanāḍu for worship and offerings to the god TiruvānaikkāUḍaiyār during the festival called Śēranai-venrān-tirunāḷ celebrated in the temple
in the name of the king on the day of his asterism Mūlā in the month of Chittirai.
The Śēranai-venrān-maṇḍapa at Śrīraṅgam should be also attributed to this
Pāṇḍya king. As the title ‘Śēranai-venrān’ is applied in the record specifically to
this king, the suggestion made in th Epigraphical Report for 1926-27, para. 4, that
it was possibly a title of Māravarman Kulaśēkhara would have to be modified.
The special honours during auspicious and inauspicious occasions granted to the Pāraśivas (Pāraśavas) attached to the temple at Elavānāśūr in the South Arcot
are district mentioned in No. 492 of the 13 + 3rd year of a Jaṭāvarman Sundara-
Pāṇḍya. There were vouchsafed in a vyavasthā-patra granted by the tānattār of the
temple of Ūrbāgaṅkoṇḍaruḷiya-Nāyanār extending to them the same privileges as
were then obtaining in Pāṇḍi-maṇḍalam, Śōla-maṇḍalam, Magala-maṇḍalam and
at Tirumudukuram, Tiruvāmāttūr, Tiruvadigai and Tiruveṇṇainallūr in Naḍuvil-
maṇḍalam. A similar privilege granted to this community is also recorded in
an inscription at Tiruvēndipuram, in the same district, which is dated in the
same 13 + 3rd year of a ‘Māravarman’ Sundara-Pāṇḍya (No. 141 of 1902).
Uniformity was sought to be effected in according temple honours to the Pāraśivas in the regions specified above, which nearly covered the whole of the
Tamil country. According to the Manusmṛiti, the Pāraśava was an anulōmaja, being the offspring of a Brahman father and a Śūdra mother.
His subordinate Vīranārasiṅgadēva-Yādavaraya.
46. A damaged record of Sundara-Pāṇḍya without any distinguishing
title and dated in the 11 +1st year, coming from Kuntrapākkam in the
Chittoor district (No. 186) registers a gift of land for offerings and worship to
the god Tiruvagattīśvaramuḍaiya-Nāyanār evidently of this village, situated in
Tiruvēṅgaḍa-kōṭṭam, a district of Jayaṅ-
goṇḍaśōla-maṇḍalam by the Yādava chief
Vīra-Nāraśiṅgadēva. As there are no inscriptions of any other Sundara-Pāṇḍya
prior to Jaṭāvarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya I in this region, this record may be attributed
to him. The Yādavarāya were a family of feudatory chiefs figuring in Chōḷa
inscriptions from the time of Kulōttuṅga III to about the 15th year of Rājarāja
III, when they seem to have asserted their independence and issued records in
their own name. In para. 42 above it is supposed that there must have been more
than one chief bearing the name Vīrā-Nārasiṁha, and the chief mentioned in the
present record was evidently a later member of that name as district from Vīra-Nārasiṁha figuring in the regin of Kulōtuṅga III (406 of 1896). An inscription
from Tirupati (No. 89, Tirupati Inscriptions, Vol. I) equates his 50th regnal year
with the cyclic year Vikrama corresponding to A. D. 1280, which would give A. D.
1230-31 as the initial year of his independent rule, which seems, however, to have
received a temporary set-back in the time of Sundara-Pāṇḍya.
A slab now set up before the Vēdavyāsa-Bhaṭṭar-tirumāḷigai in the North
Chittirai Street at Śrīraṅgam, contains an inscription (No. 122) belonging to the
reign of Perumāḷ Sundara-Pāṇḍya. On the top of this slab is elaborately sculptured the Pāṇḍya emblem which consists of a pair of carps with two elephant
goads between them. In the middle is also sculptured the Vaishṇava emblem
of a Chakra surmounting a pillar, with an umbrella and a pair of chauris over it. This damaged record seems to indicate that the maṭha was probably
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