________________
340 K. A. NILAKAŅȚA ŚĀSIRI
V. RĀMASUBRAMANIAM, `AUNDY
[Translation.--- Dedication (dhammam) to kaniy nanta, (the) monk
(asirıyika), (living) younder (uvan), this monastery (palli-2y) (was) caused to be given (hy) katalan valuti-iy, (an) officer (pana-an) (literally servant)
(under) netuñcalian,').] Mr. Mahadevan suggests the 1st century B.C. as the earliest limit ascribable to the above epigraph. He interprets the words ‘katalan valuti' as a personal name, and 'panavan', coming immediately after it, as 'an officer'. He is literally correct. But there are other connotations also to these three words. On page 124 of the 'Hand-book' (kai-edu), published under the auspices of the exhibition committee of “The Second World Tamil Conference”, (1968), Madras, Sri Sāw Ganesan M.L.C. interprets these three words as interchangeable generic titles of all the Pandya Kings of old. We endorse the view and take the Pandya king, Neļuñcelian himself, as the donor of the grant and not his officer' or vassal.
B
'Mānkulam 2'.-Kani-y nant = āsiriyk = u-an dhamam
Ita nețuncalian sālakan
Iļaficatikan tantai-y cațikan cei-zya pali-y? [Translation.- Dedication (to) kaniya nanta, (the) monk (living)
yonder; this monastery (was) made (by) caţikan, (the) father (of) Iļañcaţikan (and) brother-in-law
(sālakan) (of) netuñcaliyan.'] Of the three Nequñceliyans of Pāņdya history, the 'Arya-p-paļai Kadanta Neļuñceliyan' was the one who had died of remorse before Kannaki.
I distinctly recollect that, in about A.D. 1905 or 1906, when I was a boy of eight or nine, I had an occasion to enter an almost collapsing wooden cottage, surviving in the midst of a mango garden, situated to the south of the Nagarāja temple of Nāgercoil where the devastliāna office now stands. There were
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