The Indian Analyst
 

South Indian Inscriptions

 

 

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Table of Contents

Text of the Inscriptions 

Part - I

Part - II

Part - III

Part - IV

Part - V

Other Inscription 

Chola Inscription

Telugu Inscriptions from Andra Pradesh

Pallava Inscriptions

Pandya Inscriptions

Telugu Inscriptions of the Vijayanagara Dynasty

Inscriptions Collected During 1903-1904

Other South-Indian Inscriptions 

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Vol. 4 - 8

Volume 9

Volume 10

Volume 11

Volume 12

Volume 13

Volume 14

Volume 15

Volume 16

Volume 17

Volume 18

Volume 19

Volume 20

Volume 22
Part 1

Volume 22
Part 2

Volume 23

Volume 24

Volume 26

Volume 27

Tiruvarur

Darasuram

Konerirajapuram

Tanjavur

Annual Reports 1935-1944

Annual Reports 1945- 1947

Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Volume 2, Part 2

Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Volume 7, Part 3

Kalachuri-Chedi Era Part 1

Kalachuri-Chedi Era Part 2

Epigraphica Indica

Epigraphia Indica Volume 3

Epigraphia
Indica Volume 4

Epigraphia Indica Volume 6

Epigraphia Indica Volume 7

Epigraphia Indica Volume 8

Epigraphia Indica Volume 27

Epigraphia Indica Volume 29

Epigraphia Indica Volume 30

Epigraphia Indica Volume 31

Epigraphia Indica Volume 32

Paramaras Volume 7, Part 2

Śilāhāras Volume 6, Part 2

Vākāṭakas Volume 5

Early Gupta Inscriptions

Archaeological Links

Archaeological-Survey of India

Pudukkottai

South Indian Inscriptions, Volume 2

Tamil Inscriptions

part - i

INSCRIPTIONS  OF THE TANJAVUR TEMPLE

INSCRIPTIONS ON THE WALLS OF THE CENTRAL  SHRINE

No.23 On the south Wall, first tier

This inscription contains an order of king Tirumalaideva, by which a number of villages were exempted from taxes.  This was probably done, because they had been granted to the Tanjavur temple.  The date of the inscription is Saka 1377 (expired), the cyclic year Yuvan, i.e., A.D. 1455.  Consequently, the king to whose reign it belongs, must be distinct from the Karnata king Tirumalaideva, whose four inscriptions near Velur are dated in Saka 1488 (expired).   It is not impossible that Tirumalaideva is identical with Timma, the founder of the second dynasty of Vijayanagara, for whose grandson Narasa, Nrisimha or Narasimha we have the dates Saka 1404 and 1418.  In favour of this identification it can be adduced, that in the subjoined inscription, Tirumalaideva receives the same birudas, which were borne by Narasimhadeva according to an inscription at Virinchipuram, and that some of the fiscal terms, which occur in the text of the royal order, are of Kanarese extraction.

Both the spelling and the execution of this inscription are not very careful.[1]  Lines 2 to 6 are damaged by a crack, which has caused the loss of a few letters.  The language is Tamil, with the exception of line 1, which consists of a Sanskrit sloka.

Translation

1. “Of a gift and protection, protection is more meritorious than a gift; by a gift (one) obtains (only) heaven, by protection the eternal abode.”

2. Let there be prosperity! Fortune! [On the 17th day] of the month of Sittirai  in the Yuvan year, which was current after the Bhava year (and) after the Saka year one thousand three hundred and seventy-seven, the illustrious Mahamandalesvara Medinisvara Ganda Kattari Saluva-saluva Tirumalaideva-maharaja (addressed the following) order (nirubam) to Variyan, the Karanattan[2]  in the village (agaram) of Tanjavur . . . . . . .  Ta[n]jamamanigandangurai, Nagalapuram, Paramaraneri, Velangudi, (which was)  the chief village (of a division) of fifty (villages),[3] Ammaia[ppapu]ram, Tenalur, Karuppur, Maruvur,[4] Rajendra-Sora-nallur, Sungandavi[r]tta-Sora-nallur,[5] alias Tirumalairajapuram, and Samudra . . . . . . puram : -

>

3. “Having remitted to your villages . . . . . . . the prime minister’s quit-rent (pradhani-jodi), the Karanam’s quit-rent (karanikka-joli), the village-watchman’s quit-rent,[6] (the dues on) animals, trees and tanks,[7] and all other dues (? Upadhi) of whatever kind, (we order that these villages) to the extent up to which they were granted, shall remain tax-free (sarvamanya) and undisturbed, as long as the moon and the sun endure.”

4. Mantramurti caused (the above) to be engraved, as ordered by the king.


[1]  Plate xix in Dr.  Burnell’s South-Indian Palaeography, second edition, is based on this inscription.  The table contains three mistakes : — The sign entered as a is not Aa, but a vicarious form of a ; the sign entered as ku is not gu, but ku ;  and the sign entered as lu  is not lu, but loo (Grantha  nnya)

[2]  Karanathan is another form of, or a mistake for,  karanathan which is used instead of karanum, ‘a village-accountant,’ in a Mamallapuram inscription, Vol. I, No. 40, text line 60.

[3] Another division of fifty villages in mentioned in two Mamallapuram inscriptions, Vol. I, No. 40, text line 16, and NO. 41, text line 33.

[4]  According to Mr. Sewell’s Lists (Vol. I, p. 276), Karuppur  and Maruvur are the names of two villages in the Tanjavur talluqa.

[5]  This village is the object of the grant recorded in No. 22.

[6]  Thalaiyarikam seems to be the Tamil equivalent of the Kanarese term, which occurs in a  Vijayanagara inscription of Krishnaraya ; Epigraphia Indica, p. 402, note 40.

[7]  On  mavadai maravadai kulavadai see p. 117, note 6.

>
>