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South
Indian Inscriptions |
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CHOLAS
Parakesarivarman â who took Tanjai.
34. This dynasty is represented in the collection by 42 inscriptions which
come mainly from the South Arcot and the Tanjore districts and range in date
from the 9th to the 13th centuries A.D. The earliest of the these is an epigraph on a
herostone (No. 51) copied at Vīrachōḷapuram in the Tirukkuoilur taluk (South
Arcot) and now kept in the Museum, Madras. It is incised in a peculiar boxheaded variety of early Tamil characters and is dated in the 3rd year of Parakēsarivarman ‘who took Tanjai, (Tañjai-koṭṭa=Tañjai-koṇḍa). It may,
however, be noted that some Tamil epigraphs from the Punganur taluk belonging to the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Kṛishṇa III have been found to be engraved in
box-headed characters also (No. 236 of 1931-1932). The present record
has to be assigned to Vijayālaya, who is known (from the Tiruvālaṅgāḍu plates) to have revived Chōḷa line of kings by taking possession of
Tañjāpurī, either directly from the Pallavas or from their feudatories
the Muttaraiyans. Several early inscriptions of Parakēsarivarman which
have been found in the Tanjore and South Arcot districts have been on good
grouns attributed ot Vijayāla. But so far no stone-inscription has been
found which couples the conquest of Tanjore with the name Parakēsarivarman.
The existence of this inscription in the South Arcot distrcit at this early period
is significant as it would indicate the decline of the Pallava power in this
region. Vijayālaya’s sphere of rule should in fact have extended even further
north into the Toṇḍai-maṇḍalam since a record of Vijayālaya is referred to in
this region in an inscription of the later king Vikrama-Chōḷa (No. 164 of 1915).
The conquest of Toṇḍai-nāḍu was however completed by Vijayālaya’s son
Āditya I (S.I.I. Vol. III, p. 221) who is stated to have defeated Aparājita, the
last of the Pallava kings. The present epigraph records the death of a certain
Mukkan of Attiyūr in Karpūṇḍi-nāḍu in a cattle-raid. The slab on which the
inscription is engraved bears in relief an effigy of this warrior armed with a bow
and an arrow. Considering the importance and antiquity of the record, its text
and translation are given below (see also plate).
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TEXT.
1 Ta[ñ]chai koṭṭa Kōp-Parakē-.
2 saripa[n*]ma[r*]k-
3 ku yāṇḍu
4 3-vadu Karpū-
5 ṇḍi-nāṭṭa A-
6 ttiyū[r] Karam-
7 bai Kali-
8 tuḍan Mu-
9 kkan Aṇiya-
10 n toru
11 koḷa
12 toru mīṭ-
13 ṭu paṭṭān [|| *]
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TRANSALATION.
In the third year of king Parakēsarivarman, who took Ta[n]jai when
Aṇiyan lifted the cattle, Kalituḍan Mukkan of Karambai, (a hamlet of) Attiyūr,
in Karpūṇḍi-nāḍu recovered the herd but died (in the affray).
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