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South
Indian Inscriptions |
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PANDYAS
Earliest Vaṭṭeluttu Inscription in the Pāṇḍya country.
45. The earliest inscription collected during the year in the Pāṇḍya country
(No. 156) comes from Piḷḷaiyārpaṭṭi in the Ramnad distrcit. It is engraved in
archaic Vaṭṭeluttu characters of about the 7th century A.D. on a pilaster in the
rock-out cave of the Kāśi-Viśvanātha temple in the village, and mentions a
certain Īkkāṭṭūrukkorrūru [Aiñ]jan, who was probably responsible for the excavation
of the cave. The present
inscription is important because it helps
us to fix approximately the age of this
rock-cut cave, which lies outside the domain of the Pallava king Mahēndravarman I who claims to have introduced this new style of temple construction
into South India. The Pāṇḍya country abounds in similar rock-cut caves which
form a separate group by themselves with special characteristics of their own,
which offer good scope for comparative study with those of other types found
in South India.
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Śaḍaiya-Maran (Rājasimha III).
46. Next in point of time come the Vaṭṭeluttu records of SaḍaiyaMāran from
Ukkirankōṭṭai (Tinnevelly district) (Nos. 194, 196 and 200) and Madura (No.
203), all of which excepting the last are dated in years opposite to the 2nd year. In the inscriptions of the former
village, the place receives the name. Karavandapuram which is stated to have been situated in Kaḷakkuḍi-nāḍu (No.
194). In the Ānaimalai inscription of Parāntaka (Ep. Ind., Vol. VIII, p. 318,
fn.), it has been suggested that Karavandapuram alias Kaḷakkuḍi might be
identified with Kaḷakkāḍ in the Tinnevelly district. But the present record
would point to its identification with Ukkirankōṭṭai itself, and there is also a
village by name Kaḷakkuḍi in its vicinity after which the nāḍu should have been
named. The palӕography of the records of Śaḍaiya-Māran makes them assignable to the 10th century A.D., in which case the king would probably be identical with Rājasiṁha , the son of Parāntaka Vīra-Nārāyaṇa Śaḍaiyan. No. 194,
dated in the 13th opposite the 2nd year of his reign records an agrrement
made by Pūdi Pōrān (Pōśan ?), a Veṭṭikkuḍi for the daily supply of ghee by the
standard measure Śōḷiyam for a perpectual lamp before god Āditya-Bhatāra in
the temple situated at the eastern entrance of Karavandapuram in Kaḷakkuḍi-nāḍu, in return for fifty sheep presented by Tuḍarūri of Kaṇṇūr in Karunīlakkuḍi-nāḍu, the wife of Tenṇavan Pallavadiyaraiyan alias Māran Śūran. It is
interesting to note that even in this early period the standard measure adopted
in the Pāṇḍya country was called ‘ Śōḷiyam’. Another fragmentary inscription
engraved near this record and dated in the same year, probably also belongs to
this king. It registers a sim lar agreement given by the same person for fifty
sheep received from Dēvaṅkurran of Dēvaṇmaṅgalam in Teṅparappu-nāḍu. An
interesting feature of these two records is that the gift and the inscribed stones are
placed in the protection of the nagarattār and the soldiers (madiṭ-chevagar, rampart guards). In another record from the same place (No. 196), the duty of enforcing the execution of the endowment made, was entrusted to these two bodies.
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