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South
Indian Inscriptions |
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THE HOYSALAS
47. The Hoysaḷa records in the year’s collection come mainly from Śrīraṅgam
and Jambukēśvaram in the Trichinopoly district.
Naraharibhūpāla (i.e.) Vīra-Narasiṁha.
No. 69 from Śrīraṅgam is dated in Śaka 1154, with other astronomical details
giving the English equivalent A.D. 1232, April 6, Tuesday. It registers a gift of
land for offerings to god Śrīraṅganātha by
a certain Śrīrāma-Bhaṭṭa of the Bhārad- vāja-gōtra, who is described as the priest worshipping in the temple of Kṛishṇa
(Kulalūdina-Piḷḷai), which had been built at Dōrasamudram by Umādēvī, the queen
of Billāḷa (II). In a Sanskrit verse at the beginning of this inscription it is stated
that this Śrīrāma-Bhaṭṭa, son of a great teacher of Kuruhapura, was proficient
in mantric lore and that he was an ardent Vaishṇava. He is said to have lived
in the time of king Narahari-bhūpāla i.e. Narasimha, who bears the title
‘ Chōḷēndra-pratishṭhāguru’, and this has reference to the help rendered by him
to king Rājarāja III earlier in his reign against the Pāṇḍya king and the Pallava
Peruñjiṅgadēva I. In the fifth prākāra of the Śrīraṅgam temple itself there is
a highly ornate shrine of Vēṇugōpāla-Kṛishṇa, with sculptures and figurines
resembling Hoysaḷa work but with no inscriptions on its walls. It is possible that
this shrine came into existence during the period of the Hoysaḷa occupation of
Śrīraṅgam and its environs.
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Vira-Somesvara.
48. The several records belonging to Vīra-Sōmēśvara copied in this as well
as in the previous years come mostly from Jambukēśvaram. We know that Vīra-
Sōmēśvara settled himself in the south
with his capital at Kaṇṇanūr-koppam, five
miles to the north of Śrīraṅgam. As he was an ardent Śaivite, the Jambukēśvaram
temple was the recipient of his royal patronage, as testified to by his numerous
epigraphs found engraved on its walls, which mention also the names of several
shrines which were erected in this period. The beautiful seven-storyed gōpura on the east side was completed by him, as indicated in No. 19 of 1891. As the
Pāṇḍya emblem of two carps flanking an aṅkuśa is found sculptured in relief on
the inner face of its two main ceiling beams, it is evident that the constructed of
this gōpura was begun by a Pāṇḍya king, probably Māravarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya I
of A.D. 1216, and that it was completed by the Hoysaḷa king. Sōmēśvara’s
records are not found at Śrīraṅgam, the famous Vaishṇava centre, close to
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