Epigraphia Indica Vol 09

SR No.: 032563
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: E Hultzsch, Sten Konow
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1907
Total Pages: 498
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 28 MB

Page 114

No. 10.) AMBASAMUDRAM INSCRIPTION OF VARAGUNA-PANDYA.
85
period prior to the conquest and occupation of the Pandya country by the Cholas at the end of the 10th century A.D.
The subjoined inscription is engraved on a slab built into the floor of the first circuit in the Erichcha-Udaiyar temple, which is comparatively dark. The record was found and copied with the help of a lamp. At my request the Collector of Tinnevelly has removed the slab to the Government Central Museum at Madras. The plate issued with this paper is based on fresh impressions prepared by my Assistant Mr. K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyar, B.A., after the removal of the stone to Madras. The alphatet of the document is Vatteluttu and the language Tamil prose intermixed with a few Sanskrit words in the Grantha alphabet. The preservation is good, though a few syllables are mutilated at the end of lines 3 to 13 and 81. The slab was ruled before the writing, which is crowded into three sides of it, was engraved. The number of Sanskrit words written in Grantha is comparatively few, vis. svasti (1. 1), fri (ul. 1 and 3), anugraha (1.1), bhafára (11. 1, 3 and 10), maharaja (1. 5), mahardja (11. 12 and 81) and rajyavasha (1. 12).
The following peculiarities of the alphabet deserve to be noted. The horizontal stroke of ka is very often small and indistinct. But the letter has not yet assumed the slanting form found in the Tirunelli' and Cochin plates of Bhaskara-Ravivarman. The variant of the letter ya noticed by Prof. Haltzsch in the Kottayam plates of Sthåņu-Ravi and in certain Ohola inscriptions does not occur here. Two slightly different forms of t are used, of which one (the first t of feluttu in 11. 5 and 14) resembles, to a certain extent, the form in an ancient Vatteluttu record from Tirunidarkupru in the South Arcot district. The vowel ai occurs thrice in the inscription (1. 9. 22 and 75). As in other Tamil inscriptions, hardly any distinction is made between the short i and the long i when they occur in combination with consonants. Double kk is occasion. ally written as a group, e.g. in maharajarkku and ndngávadukku in line 12; poludaikku in line 15; kummdyattuklou in line 16; Jakku and okkaruvalai in line 18. The s-symbol is added in some cases over the top of the consonant to which it belongs, instead of by the side as in later Vatteluttu epigraphs ; see e.g. vi of verrirundu (1. 6), li of poli (1. 9), di of kudi (1. 11), ms of vamidu (1. 14), and ļi of ná náļi (1. 16). The syllable pô is written as in the Madras Museum plates of Jaţilavarman without the addition of the d-symbol (on the right) found in the Chola Vattelatta inscriptions published by Prof. Hultzsch. The Tiranelli plates distinguish by a similar addition the long pô from the short po, and only a single instance of the former occurs in the Cochin Jews' grant. Thus the distinction between po and på appears to be a later innovation, and evidently belongs to a period subsequent to the Jaţilavarman plates and to the subjoined inscription. If this conclusion be correct, the Cochin and the Tirunelli plates of Bhaskara-Ravivarman must be later than Varagupa-Pandya. And as Prof. Hultzsch has remarked that the alphabet employed in both of them agrees with that of the Chola inscriptions from South Travancore published by him, 10 Bhaskara-Ravivarman may have to be assigned to the 10th or 11th century A.D.
The language of the subjoined record calls for a few remarks. The vulgar form maharaja occurs twice instead of the Sansksit maharaja (ll. 12 and 81), while maharaja in line 5 is
1 The stone has evidently been slightly damaged in transit. Accordingls, portions of the lant letters in II. 4 to , which are missing on the Plate, are found on my original impression prepared at Ambasamudram la 1908 before the stone was removed to Madras.
• Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. Plate facing p. 290. . Above, Vol. III. Plate facing p. 72.
• Above, Vol. V. p. 43. No. 289 of the Government Epigraphist's collection for 1904 and Annual Report for 1908-4 paragraph 30. • Ind. Ant. Vol. XXII. Plates facing p. 70, 11. 82 and 48. "Above, Vol. V. Plate facing p. 46, E., line 1; and H., 11. 5, 8 and 9. . Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. Plate facing p. 290 ; compare poy in 11. 18, 19 and 84 with pom in 1. 91.
Above, Vol. IIT. Plate facing p. 73; compare play in line 27 with pom of the preceding note. Above, Vol. V. p. 42.