Epigraphia Indica Vol 06

SR No.: 032560
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: E Hultzsch
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1998
Total Pages: 482
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 24 MB

Page 394

No. 34.)
TWO INSCRIPTIONS OF VIDUGADALAGIYA-PERUMAL.
331
No. 34.-TWO INSCRIPTIONS OF VIDUGADALAGIYA-PERUMAL.
BY E. HULTZSCH, PH.D. A.-INSCRIPTION AT TIRUMALAI NEAR POLUR. The first volume of my South Indian Inscriptions contains some records, the full bearing of which could not be made out at the time of their publication through want of experience and in the absence of copies of cognate inscriptions. Several of them have been already republished in this journal. I now re-edit another, which was imperfectly read and rendered before, from a fresh inked estampage.
The subjoined inscription is engraved on the outer wall of the doorway which leads to the painted cave at Tirumalai near Poļur in the North Aroot district. It is somewhat worn and not very easy to read. The alphabet is Tamil and Grantha. The inscription consists of three portions :- a sentence in Tamil prose, a Sanskrit verse in the Sárdula metre, and a Tamil verse. Each of these three passages records in different words the same fact, vis. the restoration of the images of a Yaksha and a Yakshi, which were set up on the Tirumalai hill. In this connection the names of three kings are mentioned :-(1) Eliņi (11. 1 and 7) or Yavanika: (1.4); (2) Rajaraja (1. 6) or Vagan' (1.9); and (3) Vidugådalagiya-Perumal (1.10) or Vyamuktasravaņojjvala . (1.6). Eliņi is stated to have belonged to the family of the kings of Chêra (1.1) or Kèraļa (1. 3), 1.e. Malabar, or of Vañji (1. 7), the traditional capital of the Chêra kingdom, which is perhaps identical with the modern village of Chéramân-Perumal-Kôyilûr near Tiruvañjikuļam in the Cochin State. Both Eliņi and Rajaraja receive the title Adigaiman (1.1), Adhikansipa (1. 5 f.) or Adigan? (1.9), i.e. the lord of Adigai,' the modern Tiruvadi near Cuddalore. The third king is called the lord of Takata (1. 6) or Tagadai (1. 10). As noted by Mr. Venkayya, this place is mentioned in the Tamil poem Puranandru as Tagadür, and Mr. v. Kanakasabhai Pillai has identified it with Dharmapuri, the head-quarters of a tâluka in the Salem district. This statement is corroborated by two Chola inscriptions (Nos. 307 and 308 of 1901) in the Mallikarjuna temple at Dharmapuri, according to which Tagadûr, the modern Dharmapuri, was the chief town of Tagad úr-nadu, a subdivision of the Ganga country (Ganga-nadu), a district of Nigarili-S6la-mandalam,10 Vidugådalagiya-Perumal was the son of Vagan (1. 9) or Rajaraja (1. 6), who seems to have been a remote descendant (11. 5 and 9) of Elini. Both he and his ancestor Elini must have been adherents of the Jaina religion, because
1 Above, Vol. IV. Nos. 9, 22 and 52, and Vol. V. No. 13, A. • South-Ind. Inser. Vol. I. No. 75.
Yacanikd is the Sanskrit equivalent of the Tamil elini,'& curtain.'
• According to the dictionaries, the Tamil Vagap and the Sanskrit Baks are names of Kubers, who is also called Rajaraja.
The Tamil words vidu, kdds and alagiya correspond to the Sanskrit much, fravana and wijuala. The word looks like a nickname. Perhaps the king had protruding ears.
. See South-Ind. Inor. Vol. III. p. 31, and my Annual Report for 1900-01, paragraph 4.
1 For references to Adigan, Adigalmky and Elipi in Tamil literature see Ind. Ant. Vol. XXII. pp. 66 and 143. Adiyams, who was a feudatory of the Chola king and was defeated by Gangarijs, general of the Hoysals king Vishnuvardhans (Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I. Part II. Index), may have been one of the chiefs of Adigai.
The Kalisigattu-Parani (x. verse 68 f.) mentions the great city of Adigai, which Mr. V. Kanakasabhai Pillni has identified with Tiruvadi in the Cuddalore tåluka of the South Aroot district; Ind. Ant. Vol. XIX. p. 839 f. In the time of the Vijayanagara kingdom this town was the head-quarters of the province (ndiya) of Tiruvadi; ibid. Vol. XIII. p. 153. This province is distinct from Tiruvadi-rajya (with the lingual d), which was situated in the Tinnevelly district; above, Vol. III. p. 840, and Mr. Venkayya's Annual Report for 1899-1900, p. 28.
• See the two pages of the Ind. Ant. quoted in note 7 above.
10 There is another village named Tagad Oru in the Nsajsnagada taluks of the Mysore district, which was included in Hiriya-nadu; Mr. Rice's Ep. Carn. Vol. III., Nj. 117 and 118.
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