THE HOYSALAS

Shrines erected during his time at Jambukesvaram.
  Jambukēśvaram; and this justifies the remark made in the opening verse of the Śrīraṅgam inscription of Jaṭāvarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya I (Ep.Ind., Vol. III, p. 14) that Sōmēśvara had ‘ reduced to a pitiable state the lotus-pond of Śrīraṅgam’. His records are prefaced by te usual historical introduction beginning with ‘ Svasti samasta-bhuvanāśraya’ etc. and range in date from the 2nd to the 27th year ; but as noted already in A. S. R. for 1909-10, p. 156, no records from the 9th to the 20th year of his reign have come to light here and none even in this year’s collection. No. 120 dated in the 4th year refers to an assignment of paddy accruing from two villages for the conduct of worship in the temple of Śaīkara- Nāyanār in the fourth prākāra of the temple of Tiruvānaikkā-uḍaiya-Nāyanār. It is not known if the shrine situated on the bund of the temple tank to the east of the main temple is identical with the shrine of Śaṅkara-Nāyanār referred to above. In another record dated in the third year of his reign, the king instituted a festival called Vīra-Sōmēśvaran-tirunāḷ in his name in the Jambukēśvaram temple (No. 121) and made munificent endowments for it. In No. 119 of this year and in other records copied in previous years (No. 18 of 1891) the names of several Hoysaḷa shrines which came into existence in this period are mentioned viz., (I) Vallāḷīśvaram, built in memory of the king’s grandfather Ballāḷa II in the northern suburb of Tiruvānaik- kā, (2) Padumalīśvaram, built in the name of his grandmother Padmalādēvī (No. 495 of 1914) and (3) Sōmalīśvaram erected as a paḷḷippaḍai at Pur[ō]śaikku¬ḍi in Pāchchir-kūrram in Rājarāja-vaḷanāḍu over the remains of Dēviyār Sōmaladēviyār (No. 124). (4) In the 22nd year of the king (No. 118), another shrine named Tyāgavinōdīśvaram was built by a certain Tyāgapperumāḷ of Kalvakkūr in the north side of the third prākāra of the temple at Tiruvānaikkā. (5) Another temple named Prasannīśvaram may also have come into existence in the time of the king bearing the title Rājākkaḷnāyan, probably Hoysaḷa Rāmanātha (No. 92 of 1910). (6) Nos. 122 and 123 refer to the gift of land made for the merit of Kāḷaladēvī, the mother of Sōmēśvaradēva, to the temple of Pōsalīśvaram-Uḍaiyār, probably the one at Kaṇṇanūr (No. 18 fo 1891) which was built for her merit. Thus we see that the reign of Sōmēśvara was a period of great architectural activity, but the structures that were built in this locality exhibit poor quality of local craftsmanship without the high ornateness that is generally associated with Hoysaḷa art. All records of Sōmēśvara contain at the end the sign-manual of the family, namely, ‘ Malaparoḷgaṇḍa’ engraved in Kannaḍa characters.

   As regards the shrine of Sōmalīśvaram-Uḍaiyār referred to above, it may be noted that there were three royal personages in the Hoysaḷa family bearing the name Sōmaladēvī, viz. (1) the queen of Narasimha II (S. I. I. VII, No. 1043), (2) the sister of Narasimha (Ep. Carn., Vol. IX, Intro. p. 21) and (3) the queen of Sōmēśvara who died in A.D. 1253 (Bangalore Museum Plates); but as a Sōmala- dēvi is referred to as living, in a record of the 25th year (No. 22 of 1891), probably of Rājarāja III, No. 1 above was probably the lady in whose name the paḷḷippaḍai shrine was built. In para. 33 above we have noticed a Dēviyār Sōmaladēviyār in a record of Rājarāja III, and it has been surmised that she was a Hoysaḷa princess married into the Chōḷa family. She was probably identical with No. 2 mentioned above and that was the reason why Vīra-Narasimha espoused the cause of Rājarāja III.

Ramanathadeva.
   49. Ramanāthadēva (A.D. 1255-95) is represented by a few inscriptions from Śrīraṅgam. In two of them (Nos. 62 and 65) one of his consorts named Kamalādēvī, daughter of Ariya-Piḷḷai, one of the pradhānis of the king, is mentioned as having made a gift of land for providing a flower-garden to god Raṅganātha at Śrīraṅgam, for the collective merit of herself and her daughters Periyataṅgi Irai-akkan and Vichchaṇṇan, while No. 64 mentions another daughters of the general, named Sōmaladēvī (Chikka-Sōmaladēvī of No. 26 of 1891), who made a similar endowment of land for a flower-garden on behalf of her daughter named Śiruttaṅgi.
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An ārōgyaśālā of his time in the Śrīraṅgam temple.
   Of much importance is the incomplete inscription dated in the 3rd year of the king’s reign (No. 80), which is engraved on a slab of stone set up in front of the Dhanvantari shrine in the fourth prākāra of the Raṅganātha temple. It registers a gift of land by Chaṅgadēva Śiṅgaṇṇa-Daṇḍa- Nāyaka, the pradhāni of the king, to his physician Garuḍavāhana-Bhaṭṭa, for maintaining a śālai (hospital) in the tirunaḍaimāḷigai to the west of the north gōpura in the fourth prākāra of the temple. This land was situated in Mummuḍi- śōla-chaturvēdimaṅgalam in Vilā-nāḍu, a subdivision of Pāṇḍikulēśani-vaḷanāḍu

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