PART-II

TAMIL AND GRANTHA INSCRIPTIONS

I. INSCRIPTIONS AT MAMALLAPURAM

NO. 40. ON THE SOUTH BASE OF THE SHORE TEMPLE

This inscription is dated in the twenty-fifth year of Ko-Rajaraja-Rajakesarivarman, alias Rajara-deva.  It states, that the king “built a jewel-like hall at Kandulur,” and then given a list of the countries, which he is said to have conquered.  Among them Vengai-nadu is the well-known country of Vengi; Ganga-padi and Nulamba-padi are found on Mr. Rice’s Map of Mysore;[1] Kundamalai-nadu, “the western hill-country,” is Coorg ; Kollam is Quilon; Kalingam is the country between the Godavari and Mahanadi rivers; Ira-mandalam is Ceylon; Iratta-padi is the Western Chalukyan empire;[2] and the Seriyas are the Pandyas.  I have been unable to identify Tadigai-padi.

Sir Walter Elliot’s and Dr.Burnell’s tentative lists of Chola kings[3] contain a king Rajaraja, who reigned from 1023 to 1064 A.D. These figures rest on three Eatern Chalukya grants, of which two have since been published  by Mr.Fleet and one has been edited and translated above (No.39.)  From these three grants it appears, that the Rajaraja, who reigned from saka 944 to 985, was not a Chola, king, but a king of Vengi, and that his insertion in the list of Chola kings was nothing but a mistake.

The historical portion of the subjoined inscription almost identical with lines 16 to 173 of the large Leyden grant[4] and must belong to the same king.  The Leyden grant states that Rajaraja conquered Satyasraya (line 65).  This name was borne as a surname by no less than six of the earlier Western Chalukya kings and was also the name of one of the later Western Chalukyas.  From certain unpublished inscriptions of the Tanjore Temple it can be safely inferred, that Rajaraja-deva was the predecessor of Rajendra-Chola-deva, the enemy of the Western Chalukya king Jayasimha III., who ruled from about Saka 944 to about 964.[5] Hence the Satyasraya mentioned in the Leyden grant might be identified with the Western Chalukya king Jayasimha III., who ruled from about Saka 944 to about 930 ; [6] and the Chola king Rajaraja, who issued the large Leyden grant and the inscriptions Nos.40, 41 and 66 of the present volume, with that Rajaraja of the Suryavamsa, whose daughter Kundava was married to the Eastern Chaukya king Vimalditya,[7] who reigned from 937 (?) 944. As Rajaraja-deva boasts in his inscriptions of having conquered Vengai-nadu, the country of the Eastern Chalukyas, this marriage was probably a forced one and the result of his conquest of Vimaladitya[8] identification of the Rajaraja-deva of the Leyden grant and of Nos. 40, 41 and 66 with the father of Kundava is confirmed by the Kongu Chronicle, where some of his charities are placedin Saka 926[9].  The Kongu Chronicle, further suggests the probability of identifying Kandalur, where Rajaraja-deva built a hall (sala), with Chidambaram, as it records that “he enlarged the temples at Chidambaram and erected all kinds of towers, walls, mandapas, flights of steps, etc., and other matters.”

From this and the next-following inscription we learn that Mamallapuram belonged to Amur-nadu,[10] a division of Amur-kttam, and that the name of the Shore Temple was Jalasayana. The purport of the inscription is a new division of the land of thetown of Mamallapuram, which had been agreed upon by the citizens.

TRANSLATION

Hail! Prosperity ! In the twenty-fifth year of (the reign of ) the illustrious Ko-Raja-raja-Rajakesrivarman, alias the illustrious Rajaraja-deva, who,-while both the goddess of fortune and the great goddess of the earth, who had become his exclusive property, gave him pleasure, -was pleased to build a jewel (-like) hall (at) Kandalur and conquered by his army, which was victorious in great battles, Vengai-nadu, Ganga-padi, Nulamba-padi, Tadigai-padi, Kudamalai-nadu, Kollam, Kalingam, Iramandalam, which is famed in the eight quarters, and Iratta-padi, (the revenue from from which amounts to) seven and a half Laksha ; who,-while his beauty was increasing, and while he was resplendent (to such an extent) that he was always worthy to be worshipped,-deprived the Seriyas of their splendour, -We, the middle-aged citizens of this towns, unanimously made the following contract, while assembled in the tirunandavana to the south of (the temple of) Jalasayana-deva at Mamallapuram, the chief town of the fifty (villages called after) Pudukkudaiyan Ekadhira,[11] which from part of Amur-kottam.

(Line 21.) The wet land, white (?) land, garden land, dry land and all other taxable (?) land of our town shall be divided into four lots of one hundred manais.  One lot of (the land), which has been divided into four lots according to this contract[12] shall be a lot of twenty-five manais. The manais (of) the land (included in) the contract of division into lots may be sold, mortgaged, or used for meritorious gifts ; (but) the manais (of) the land shall be given away as defined by the contact of  the division into lots.  The previous definition shall be wholly cancelled.  The fruit-trees, which stand in the various parts of the lands divided into lots, shall be enjoyed by the owner of the respective lot.  Those (trees) which stand on the cause ways between the rice-fields, shall belong to (the whole of) the hundred manais. Among those who are without land and are over the age of sixteen, -from those who work for hire one-eighth of a pon and for (each) turn as ploughmen (?)  three-eighths of a pon shall be taken at the end of the year.  From those who do not submit to this contract, further twenty-five kurajus of gold shall be taken besides as a fine.  We, the middle-aged citizens of the town, have unanimously established this contact.

(Line 58). I, Tiruvelarai Muvayirattu-erunurruvan, the Karanam of this town, who worships the holy feet (of the god), wrote this contract according to the orders of the middle-aged citizens.  This is my signature.

NO.41. ON THE NORTH BASE OF THE SHORE TEMPLE

The historical part of this inscription identical with that of the preceding one ; its date is the twenty-sixth year of Ko-Rajaraja-Rajakesarivarman, alias Raja-Raja-raja-deva.