Indian Antiquary Vol 08

SR No.: 032500
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 404
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 196

172
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JUNE, 1879.
iv. Kaliyugadoshảvasannadharmoddharaṇanit- mangalam, the jackal's den'; but this name yasannaddhasya;
also has now disappeared. v. râjarghiganasarvasandobavijigishordhar- This circumstance, combined with the fact mavijigishor;
that the present grant was issued at Conjeveram vi. bhagavatpådânuddhyâtasya ;
(K & nchipurat), affords direct evidence vii. Bappa Bhattarakamahârâjapádabhaktas- that in the reign of Nandi Varma, and ya;
therefore in the fourth or fifth century A.D., As vii. paramabhagavatasya ;
we are at present advised, this portion of the ix. Bhårad våjasagotrasya ;
basin of the Palar, and we naturally conclude I. svavikramákrântânyanripaźrinilayan ám ! the whole of it, was included in the dominions yathavadAhritâshvamedhånåm Palla vånam of the kings of the Palla vas. The recovery Dharmayuvamahârâjasya ; Sri Vishņu-gopa of this fact is an important acquisition in our Varmaşo.
searches for the history of this grand old kingThe second difficulty is more formidable : dom of the South. for, whereas Nandi Varma, the donor of It confirms, and I think stamps with certhe present grant, is described as the reigning tainty, the argument of my paper in Ind. Ant. monarch, (Pallavanám Dharma-mahárája), the vol. VII. p. 1, maintaining the identity of Fa donor of Mr. Fleet's No. XII. is only the Hian's kingdom of the Dakshiņa,' with the heir apparent of his king (Pallavánám Dharma- dominions of the Pallavas of Conjeveram, and ynoamahdrájs); and, as he is still so described I may add here, to the grounds set forth in that in his son's grant, Mr. Fleet's No. XV., it paper, that Fa Hian's distance of 200 yojanas would appear that he never came to the throne, is the precise distance of Conjeveram from the having probably died during the life-time of Ganges as set down in a verse of the Kanchithe reigning king. On the whole, perhaps the pura Mahatmya. (See Captain Carr's Seven discussion of this difficulty had better be laid Pagodas, p. 220.) aside until the pedigree and alternative names The Tamil endorsement upon the grant is of these princes are better ascertained.
dated in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of With regard to the probable age of this in- Koppara Kesari Varma. With this scription, I need only say here, that Mr. Fleet endorsement may now be coupled the inscriphas assigned his No. XII. to the fifth century tion near the Varahasyami temple at the Seven A.D., (Indian Antiquary vol. V. p. 50), upon Pagodas, first made known by Mr. F. W. Ellis palæographical grounds : and the present grant in 1816 in his paper on Miragi Right (p. 291 of must follow it. Dr. Burnell also, upon the 1862 Edition), and given in full in 1844 by Sir same grounds, has assigned the earlier Nandi Walter Elliot in the Madras Journal of Literature Varm å inscription to the fourth century A.D. and Science, vol. XIII. (i.) p. 36. The opening (8. Ind. Palæog. p. 15).
words of Sir Walter's revised translation run I have not succeeded in finding the precise thus :-"In the ninth andu of Kopparaposition of the village of K âạchivậyil, kesari-varma, also called Udaiyar Sri *the gate of Conjeveram,' or Kanchid vâra, Rajendra Devar" ... Mr. Ellis (p. 292) as its equivalent Sanskrit name is given in identified this prince with Rajendra Chola, another new grant in my possession: but its the patron of the Tamil poet Kamban, and neighbourhood is fixed by a more recent in- placed him, in accordance with a verse of that scription, in which it is named amongst the poet's Ramayanam in SS. 808 or A.D. 886. Sir boundaries of the village of U day a chan- Walter Elliot (p. 89) similarly identifies Koppara dramangalam, mentioned in the endorse-Kesari with Rajendra Chola; bat (p. 40) ment upon the present grant. From the de- he places his accession in S$. 986, or A.D. scription there given, it is clear that Kanchi- | 1064. vayil lay, either wholly or in principal part, The re-adjustment of the dates of the Chola on the right bank of the Pålår in the upper, kings, which are at present in an exceedingly
r upper-middle, part of its course, somewhere confused condition, cannot here be entered into : above Vellore. In later times, as is seen from but, in connexion with the history of the Chola the endorsement, it was called Ikanmarai conquest of the Top damandalam, (the basin