South Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS COLLECTED DURING THE YEAR 1906-07

INTRODUCTION 

OTHER DYNASTIES 

33. A Sanskrit inscription in early Grantha characters (Nos. 129) secured during the year from the temple known as Muvar-koyil at Kodumbalur in the Pudukkotti state, is of great interest as giving an account of the achievements and genealogy of the Kodumbalur chiefs who were intimately connected with the early Chola kings. The lost of the chiefs mentioned in the epigraph was Bhuti Vikramafesari, of whom it is stated that the he made red the Kaveri waters with the blood of the Pallava army, conquered Vira-Pandya and destroyed Vanchivel. He was living at Kodumbalur with his two wives Karrali and Varaguna, by the former of whom he had two sons Parantaka-varama and Adiyavarman.  Bhuti Vikrama built three shrines in the name of himself and his two consorts for the god Mahesvara at Kodumbalur, and presented a matha to Mallikarjuna of Madurai, a teacher of the Kalamukha sect of the saivas, and also eleven villages for feeding daily 50 ascetics of that sect in that matha. since this Vikramakesari is known from other stone records to be identical with Tennavan [langove], a feudatory of the chola king Aditya I it is to be surmised that the destruction of the Pallava army clamed by him was in connection with his liege lord’s overthrow of Aparajita and Annexation of the latter’s territory sometimes about A.D. 890. vira-Pandya whom Vikramakesari claims also to have vanquished, cannot refer to his namesake who was killed by Aditya II Karikala, because that event took place more than 70 years later. As surmised by Mr. K.V.S. Aiyar (Quarterly Journal of the Mythic society, Vol. XLIII, Nos.3  and 4), he should have been a contemporary of the Pandya Parantaka  Vijayanagara and Probably of a collateral Pnadya line. A detailed study of the Kodumbalur chiefs has been attempted in the volume of Parakesarivarman Inscriptions (S.I.I., Vol. XIX, introduction). 

34. No. 65 form Tirumalai near Polur belongs to the Rastrakuta king Krishna III “ Kannaradeva who took Kachchi and Tanjai”. It records a gift by a servant of Gangamadevi, wife of Kannaradeva Prithivigangaraiyar. She should be the same as Kamakkanar Gangamadevi, the daughter of chief Vanakovaraiyar Orriyuradiyar of the Solapuram inscription. Prithiviganga was governor of Kalladupppurmaryad (Ep. Ind., Vol., VII, p. 195). 

35. An early Vatteluttu inscription found engraved on a boulder at Periyakotti (Madurai district ) is dated in the 2+1+1^st year of a king whose name can be read as Kokkanda[n] Kuttan (No.471). It is much damaged and seems to record a gift of land to the local temple by one Brahmasriranjan. A much later record of about A.D. 1668 from Gudalur in the same district (No.420) makes mention of one Kulasekhara-Perumal as donor of land to a Private Individual and to six shrines. 

36. A few chiefs who flourished during the Kakatiya rules of Warangal or were feudatory to them are also represented in the year’s collection. No.592 from Nandalur dated in the cyclic year Sadharana, is an incomplete record which mentions, evidently as donor, one Saranga-Nayaka who style himself the Satpradhana of Gandapendara Gangaya-sahini. This Gangaya-sahini is known to have been Originally a cavalier in the service of Kakatiya Ganpati who ruled from A.D. 1190 to 1260 (Nos.231and 283 of 1905 and  An. Rept. for 1906. Part II, para 44). Consequently the Cyclic year Sadharana would correspond to A.D. 1250. To the same family is said to have belonged  Gandapendara Jannigadeva (No.208 of 1905). His inscription from Nandalur (No.610) records some gift by way of  magamai made for worship in the temple by one Nagarasa called the Pradhani of the chief. The date given for him Viz., saka 1186 (A.D.1264) would take him to the reign of Ganapati’s daughter and successor Rudramba (acc. A.D. 1260) thought he does not acknowledge her over lordship in the inscription. 

Next in time are three records from Gundluru in the Cuddapah district (Nos.618, 621 and 623) which belong to Ambadeva  Maharaja who is known to have been the most powerful chief of the family, and whose conquest are described in his inscriptions from Tripurantakam in the Kurnool district (An. Rept. Part II, para 44). They are dated in saka 1213.1211 and 1219. Another chief who flourished during the disturbed reign of queen Rudramba was one  Somideva for whose merit a gift of magamai was made to the temple in saka 1206 (No.622). 

37. About a dozen inscriptions from Nandalur in the Cuddapah district belong to the family of chiefs known as the Telugu Chodas or the Cholas of Pottapi who have been noticed already under the chola kings. No.583 with which probably No. 584 is also connected and No. 579 are both dated in the reign of Vikrama-chola and give the saka year equivalent to A.D. 1120 and 1125 respectively. The former refers to  Mahamandalesvara Bettarasa (the name could also be read as Peddarasa in Tamil) as ruling over Pottapi-nadu , when Era Siddharasa seems to have founded an agrahara and settled 20 Bramhana families therein, for securing strength of arms to the reigning king and this was confirmed by the latter’s son Vimaladitya. In the latter inscription (Nos. 579) dated 5 years later, the same chief Vimaladitya who called Vikramasola-chaturvedimangalam for securing strength of arms to the king, and divided in into 70 shares among learned Brahmanas. 

38. No. 585 which does not refer itself to any king and of which the saka date is also lost, mentions a Sidharasan as ruling the Pottapa-nadu, while another Sidharasa figures in a record of Kulottunga–chola II dated in his 8^th regnal year corresponding to A.D. 1142 (No.572). The place of these chiefs in the genealogy of the Telugu Chodas given on page 16 of the An. Rept. for 1900 is not clear. So also that of Somesvara, son of Vimaladitya mentioned in No.611 as having Constructed the gopura of the Vishnu temple at Nandalur. 

It is not possible that either the  Sidharasar mentioned above, or the Era Sidharasar the father of Vimaladitya, could be identical with Era Siddha the father of Nalla siddha who figures in No 578 dated in the 26^th year of Kulottunga-Chola III (A.D. 1204), as it would then create a gap of more than 50 years between the father and son and a still wider interval in date between the brothers Vimaladitya and Nalla siddharasa. This Nalla Sidha figures in two other inscriptions, one with no date (No.570) and the other (No.601) dated in the 24^th year of Kulottunga III corresponding to A.D. 1202, which records a gift of lamp to the temple by his wife Nukamadevi. No. 582 dated in the 31^st year of the same king (A.D. 1209) register a gift of money for some lamps made by Madhurantaka Pottipi Chola Tirukkalattideva (Tikka I) for evidently the chief mentioned above.