The Indian Analyst
 

South Indian Inscriptions

 

 

Volume - III

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Part - I

Inscription at Ukkal

Melpadi

Karuvur

Manimangalam

Tiruvallam

Part - II

Kulottunga-Chola I

Vikrama Chola

Virarajendra I

Kulottunga-Chola III

Part - III

Aditya I

Parantaka I

Gandaraditya

Parantaka II

Uttama-Chola

Parthivendravarman

Aditya II Karikala

Part - IV

copper-plate Tirukkalar

Tiruchchengodu

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

The Tiruvalangadu copper-plates of the sixth year of Rajendra-Chola I

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......The Tamil portion of the grant consists of 524 lines engraved on twenty-one copper-plates.  The first 145 lines are actually taken up by the order issued under the authority of the king by his ministers and other officers.  The next 281 lines contain a detailed description of the boundary line.  The last 98 lines state the conditions and privileges with which the village was granted as a devadana to the temple and supply the names of the artisans who engraved the grant.  The order was addressed to the headmen of the districts, the headmen of the brahmadeya villages and the residents (urar) of the devadana, pallichchanda, kanimurruttu, vettipperu and ara-chchalabhogam villages in Menmalai-Palaiyanaur-nadu, a subdivision of Jayangondasolamandalam.  This classification seems apparently to distinguish therevenue villages of the State from those granted to brahmanas, temples, Jaina shrines, Jaina teachers, and service —  imams and charitable feeding houses.  The king being seated in his private room on the upper storey of his palace at Mudigondasolapuram ordered that Palaiyanur in menmalai Palaiyanur-nadu which originally was a brahmadeya of the assembly of Singalantaka-chaturvedimangalam in Naduvinmalai Perumur-nadu should from the 6th year and the 88th day of his reign, cease to be a brahmadeya and be included under vellan-vagai villages.  Healso ordered that in consequence the tax 598 kalanju and one kunri of gold which it was paying with Singalantaka-chaturvedimangalam must now bereduced but that unlike other vellan-vagai villages, it must be made to pay as of old[1] the permanent tax (in kind) of 3238 kalam 7 kuruni and 5 nali of paddy together with 193 kalanju, 1 manjadi and 1 ma of gold, including palli and be given over as a devadana to the temple of Mahadeva at Tiruvalangadu.

Two executive (karumemarayum) officers of the king and two arbitrating (naduvillirukkum) officers passed the order that the royal writ may be entered in the account books just as it had been signed and issued by the four secretaries (Olai-nayakam) on the strength of a letter received from the officer who wrote the orders of the king, evidently under his direct dictation.  This order was further supported by the approval and signature of three chief executive officers.  Accordingly on the 90th day of the same year, two officers of the department of taxes (puravuvarithinaikalam), and the officers called varipothagam, mugavetti, varri pothaga-kanku, variellidu, pattolai and Kizhmugavetti being present, the necessary entries were made in the registers.

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Two other officers and a third, perhaps a non-official, were also appointed to superintend the ceremony of going round the granted village and its hamlets accompanied by a female elephant (pidisuzhndhu padagai nadakirathu or in Sanskrit  karinibhramana).  In lines 128-145, we are told that the residents of the district who had also received a royal order to co-operate with the above said officers in walking round the hamlets accompanied by the female elephant, in planting boundary stones and milk-bush and in drawing up the gift deed, met together, went in advance to receive the royal order (Thirumugham) placed it on their heads and making due obeisance to it, walked round the hamlets of Palaiyanur.  A short eulogy of the king in Tamil is here inserted in lines 131 to 142.  The king is stated to have conquered with his great war-like army Idaitturai-nadu, Vanavasi of extensive forests, Koillippakkadi and Mannaikkadakkam, to have captured the crowns of the king and queen of Ilam (Ceylon), the beautiful crown and other jewels which the Pandya king had deposited with the king of Ilam (Ceylon), the whole island of Ilamandalam, the crown and the garland of the Kerala king and many ‘ancient islands’ in  the sea.  Idaitturai-nadu which was for a long time identified with the country comprising the small taluk of Yedatore in Mysore, has now been satisfactorily proved by Dr. Fleet to be the Raichur doab.[2]  Kollippakkai has been identified by Mr. Lewis Rice with Kulpak in the Nizam’s Dominions.[3] It is not unlikely also that Mannaikkadakkam grouped with the two above names, may have to be identified with Manyakheta (Malkhed) in the Nizam’s Dominiions though hitherto it has been taken to be Manne in the Mysore State.  Rajendra-Chola’s seizure of the crowns of the Pandya, Ceylon and Kerala kings must have earned for hi the title Mudigonda Chola which title he appears to have commemorated by founding the town called Mudigondacholapuram.[4]

The circumambulation of the village by the officers and the district people, accompanied by the female elephant is detailed in the point-to-point description of the boundary line, which commences with 1. 145.  The eastern boundary touched the villages, Perumbur,[5] Kulapadi, Naaipadi, Mangalam and Manaiyil, all of which are stated to have been hamlets of Singalantaka-chaturvedimangalam.[6]  The southern boundary similarly touched the village Mannalaiyamangalam and Tolugur  which were also hamlets Singalantaka-chaturvedimangalam and Kuttukkumundur which was a hamlet of Nittavinoda-chaturvedimangalam.[7]  Incidentally in the description of this boundary line, reference is made to the high road leading from Tirupasur to Merppadi alias Rajasrayapuram which is of much interest, if by men and wheeled traffic.  The western boundary touched the villages of Kirainallur, Sakkaranallur,[8] Karaiappakkam, Midugur[9] — all hamlets of Singalantaka-chaturvedimangalam.  The northern boundary touched the villages of Uppur, Ganganerippattu, Polipakkam[10] and Kayarpakkam which were also hamlets of Singalantaka-chaturvedimangalam.

The inscription closes with a list of privileges (parihara) which, being a royal prerogative, were transferred from the king to the temple of Tiruvalangadu, on the village Palaiyanur being converted into a devadana.  The list consisted of several fees, taxes and tolls such as nadatchi, uratchi, vattinali, pidanali, vannara-parai, kannalakkanam, kusakkanam, idaipattam, tari-irai, taragu (or taragu-pattam), tattar-pattam, manru-padu, mavirai, tiyeri, virpidi, valamanjadi, nallavu, nallerudu, nadukaval, udupokku, ilaikkulam, nirkuli, ulgu and odakkuli.  As I have stated elsewhere it is doubtful if all these terms have to be taken as referring to regular sources of revenue to the State or are to be considered mostly as obligatory services which the king alone could enforce on the people for his personal enjoyment.  The list is not exhaustive.  The Kasakudi plates mention under pariharas a larger number of items.  There also it is stated that the palace resigned them in favour of the donee.[11] The Leyden plates repeat almost all these terms under parharas but mention tarippudavai instead of tari-irai and add the new term attukkirai.  The Velurpalaiyam and the Tandandottam plates published above add the terms puravu-pon, tirumukkanam, tattukkayam, ilamputchi, idaipputchi (perhaps same as idaippattam), kulam (perhaps same as ilaikkulam), paraikkanam[12] pattinaseri, ulaviyakkuli, urettu, angadikkuli[13] kadaiyadaikkay and uppu-korchchaigai.  A set of vyavasthas (i.e., conditions of grant) were also imposed on the donee.  Here again the exact import of these conditions has not been properly understood.  Some have taken it to be only permissive rights just like the privileges mentioned above, granted to the donee ; but it would look apparently to be different when we see that permission to build houses of bricks, to dig wells, to plant coconut trees in rows, or to plant sweet-scented verbina, may not generally have required a license.  Still such are the conditions (vyavastha) mentioned viz., that mansions and large edifices shall be built of burnt bricks ; wells and reservoirs shall be dug ; coconut trees shall be planted in groves ; maruvu, damanagam, iruveli, senbagam, red-lilies, mango, jack, coconut, areca and such other trees shall be put in and planted ; large oil-presses shall be set up and that toddy-drawers shall not climb the coconut and palmyra trees within the boundaries of the granted village.  One or two other vyavastha regarding the irrigation of lands also deserve to be noted.  Usually the distribution of water for irrigation in each village appears to have been fixed by some common understanding.  This allotted quantity of water, the grant states, shall be utilized by digging canals.  Cultivators to whom the canal is not intended shall not cut open branch channels from it, nor bund up the water, nor raise it by small piccotas, nor bale it out by baskets; and those who have the right shall make the most economical use of the water without wasting it.[14] Canals flowing across other villages to irrigate the lands of this village and vice versa shall be permitted to flow over the boundary line and to cast up silt.[15]  Besides, the embankments of tanks shall be allowed to be raised within their limits, so that they may hold the maximum quantity of water.

The grant thus set forth was given effect to by the district people (nattom) of Palaiyanur, an officer of the department of taxes and two others, one of whom according to 1. 120 was an executive officer of the king.  The same was also done by the assembly of Singalantaka-chaturvedimangalam, represented by Karanattan of that village ; by the villagers (urom) of Palaiyanur and the assembly of Nittavinoda-chaturvedimangalam.

The grant was entered in the accounts in the 7th year and the 155th day of the king’s reign, there being present on the occasion the officers already mentioned, together with some others.  Four Sanskrit verses with which the inscription ends supply the names of the four sculptors of Kanchipura who belonged to the Hovya or Ovi family, viz., Aravamurta (i.e., Tamil Aravamudu) his two brothers Ranga and Damodara and his son Purushottama.

There are three dates given in the Tamil portion of the inscription.  The first which occurs in line 6 was the eight-eighth day of the sixth year when perhaps the king orally ordered the release of Palaiyanur from being a brahmadeya of Singalantaka-chaturvedimangalam, its inclusion as a vellan-vagai and a devadana, and its permanent settlement.  The second ate, viz., the ninetieth day of the sixth year which occurs in line 62, was actually the day on which the written order was issued under the signature of the several officers of the king and was perhaps also entered in the books of the issuing office. The third date which occurs in line 517 and is one year and 65 days later than the second date was evidently the date on which the grant was executed and the necessary entries made in the account books of the villages concerned.  The long delay in the execution of the king’s order must have been due either to the complicated system of administration or to the details of procedure adopted in separating Palaiyanur from Singalantaka-chaturvedimangalam.


[1]  Perhaps before it had become a brahmadeya of the assembly of Singalantaka-chaturvedimangalam.

[2]  Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XII, p. 296.

[3]  Indian Antiquary, Vol. XLIV, p. 213 f.

[4]  Mudigondasolan was the name of one of the halls in the royal palace at Gangaikondacholapuram ; see above, Vol. II, p. 109.

[5]  This village is mentioned in Nos. 467 and 477 of the Madras Epigraphical Collection for 1905.

[6]  Mentioned in No. 485 of 1905.

[7]  Mentioned No. 486 of 1905.

[8]  Mentioned in No. 473 of 1905.

[9]  Perhaps same as Miduvur which occurs in No. 456 of 1905.

[10]   Mentioned in No. 455 of 1905.

[11]  Above, Vol. II, p. 353, I. 131.

[12]  This has been translated as tax on quarries.  Possibly this term has to be connected with vannara-parai which occurs elsewhere.  In this case it might mean only the fee levied on washer men’s stones.

[13]  See p. 222 above.

[14]  The phrase chennir pothvinnai seiyathathakavum anniradaithu paicha peruvathakavum has to be explained in the sense in which the same phrase occurs in a different form at p. 46 of South-Indian Inscriptions,  Vol. III.  Here vetti corresponds to pothuvinnai of our inscription and ponnirvittu paichi kolvathakavum to annir adaithupaichaperuvathakavum.

[15]  Melnadainirpaya is a phrase which generally occurs in the description of the boundary line of a village when this cuts across a channel, the waste weir of a tank or a stream.  Evidently it means that the boundary line which passes through the water is no prohibition for the water from flowing over the line to irrigate other lands.  The same is to be understood in the case of the casting up of silt.

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