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THE VIJAYANAGARA KINGS
singing the appropriate songs is assigned to a member of the Oduvār class belonging to the temple establishment. The donee in the present record was probably
one such functionary.
Bukka II.
61. Bukka II is represented by 5 inscriptions. A gift of service-land is
made in No. 417 of his reign, dated in Śaka 1326 to an āvañjikkāran who was
newly appointed to do service in the temple of Tirunāgēṥvaram-Uḍaiyār at
Tiruppālaippandal in the Tirukkoyilur taluk. An āvañjikkāran is ‘a drummer’,
who has beat the drum during the time of worship in the temple. An officer
of the king named Tripurāridēva-Uḍaiyar is referred to in two inscriptions
from the same taluk, No. 411 dated in
Vikrama (corresponding to Śaka 1322), and
No. 491 dated in Śaka 1326, in the former of which he granted the right of collect-
ing taxes in specified parrus in Magadai-maṇḍalam. In Śaka 1327, a gift of a tax free village was made to the temple at Tiruppālaippandal for the welfare of the
king (no. 413). Śivandelundān-Śāmantanār was the officer who was in authority
in the Trichinopoly region at this period, and his gift of some land, cows and
a silver salver to the Raṅganātha temple at Śrīraṅgam is mentioned in No. 86.
This record which is dated in Śaka 1327, Pārthiva, does not mention the name
of the Vijayanagara king, who evidently was Bukka II.
Vīrabhūpati-Uḍaiyar.
62. The next ruler is Vīrabhūpati-Uḍaiyar, son of Vīra-Dēvarāya (I), whose
records in this year are dated from Śaka 1333 to 1338. One of them from
Tiruppālaippandal (No. 409), dated in
Śaka 1337 registers a provision made by
Mahāpradhāna Mañjappa-Uḍaiyar for a service to be conducted in the temple for
Tirunāgīṥvaramuḍaiya-Nāyanār for the welfare of his overlord. Another
(No. 406) from the same place dated a year later (Śaka 1338) provides for
midnight offerings to the god, also for the welfare of the king, by Mahāpradhāna Annadāta-Uḍaiyar, son of Chavuṇḍappa-Uḍaiyar. He has figured already in two
records from the North Arcot district (No. 568 of 1902 and 209 of 1911), dated
in Śaka 1335 and 1339 respectively. In the former record his gōtra is specified
as Vāsishṭha. From Jambukēṥvaram also two records (Nos. 75 and 76) dated
in Śaka 1357 which falls in the time of Bhūpati’s successor Dēvarāya II, refer to
the construction of a gōpura in that temple by Chauṇḍapēndra, son of Ādityarasa of the same Vāsishṭha.-gōtra (Ep. Rep. for 1936-37, para. 56). It may
be noted that Chauṇḍaparasa of the Vāsishṭha-gōtra, who is described as the
son of Chinnayārya and Kāmāmbā and the (elder) brother of Ādityadēva and
Mañchapārya, was the author of the work called Prayōgaratnamālā, and that
he was a mantrin and lived in the reign of Vīra-Bhūpati (Sources of Vij. Hist..
p. 54). Ādityarasa also figures in a Chidambaram record (No. 315 of 1913) of the
reign of Vīra-Bhūpati.
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Devaraya II.
63. Records belonging to the time of Dēvarāya-Mahārāya II are fairly
numerous in the collection, and they come mainly from Śrīraṅgam. Two of
these are connected with the gift of villages
made by the king for worship to god
Raṅganātha during the trusteeship of Uttama-Nambi and his brother Chakrarāya (Nos. 121 and 119). The income from the villages Śuṇḍekkāyi, Kōvattakkuḍi,
Toḍeyūr and Karuguḷe are stated to have been made over for the expenses of
worship in the temple. The several other benefactions made to the temple by
these two persons are also enumerated in a few inscriptions which are in Sanskrit
and Tamil verse. No. 84 states that Uttama-Nambi was the recipient, evidently on behalf of the temple, of the presents of a pearl umbrella, a pair of kāhaḷas and of dīpikās (lamp-stands), a golden seat, a gold vessel and an ivory
shield from king Prauḍha-Dēvarāya. The additions made to the Śrīraṅgam
temple during the time of Chakrarāya, the brother of Uttama-Nambi, are mentioned in some records in Tamil verse. He is said to have constructed a portion
in the Perumāḷtōlan-tirumaṇḍapa in the temple (No. 80). He cleared the
jungle to the east of the temple and colonised the precincts of the temple of
Alagiyaṥiṅga. In the Raṅganātha temple itself, he built a maṇḍapa in front
of the shrine of Annamūrti and installed an image of Hanumān a maṇḍapa near by, and the image of Lakshmī in the
porch which he had erected near the
kitchen of the temple (No. 82).
Annamūrti shrine in the Śrīraṅgam temple.
Another inscription credits him with the consecration of the Daṥāvatāra images in a temple on the southern bank of
the Sahyajā (Kāvērī) in Śaka 1360, Kāḷayukti )No. 83).
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