Epigraphia Indica Vol 27

SR No.: 032581
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1947
Total Pages: 490
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 27 MB

Page 132

No. 18 ]
EIGHT INSCRIPTIONS OF KADAVARAYA CHIETS
poticed already. Manavālapperumā! figures in a number of inscriptions of the Chola king Kulõttunga III ranging in date from A. D. 1191' to about 1213. In these inscriptions he is found to bear the titles and epithets Elisaimoyan, Tawilaikandaperumā!, Achalakulóttaman, Atkondanāyan and Alagiyapallavan. A record of the 28th year of the reign of Kulottunga III gives this Kādava chief the surname Rāja rāja Kādavarayan. It may be noted that there is no room for confounding this Rājarāja Kādararāyan with the earlier one of the same surname who was a brother of Arašanārāyanan Kachchiyarāyan. for with the former are associated many of the clearly distinguishing epithets of Manavālapperumal noticed above. Manavālapperuma! seems to be the first chief of the family to assert his independence and to issue records in his own name. So far, only a single inscription, dated in the 5th year of the chief's reignt has been found. It gives him the title Sakalabhuvanachakravartin. Since he held a subordinate position under the Chola king kulottunga Jul till about A. D. 1213. it is fairly certain that he should bave thrown off the Chola yoke only after that date. Apoint of interest is that Manavālapperumā! is said in a tecord of Kulottunga lll to have belonged to Kūdal in Kīl- Āmūrvādu in Tirumunaippadi-nadu, whereas the earlier members are said to have hailed from a Kidal in Peruganūr-nadu. This difference deserves to be remembered.
There is not much doult as regards the identity of Mahārajasirha with KÕpperunjinya. In fact, the first is only a Sanskrit rendering of the second. Inscriptions of Mahārājasinila are found at Tripurāntakam and Dräkshārāma.? While the Tripurāntakam inscription is not dated, the Drākshärama record bears the date Saka 1184 (A.D. 1262), and both the Tripurantakam and the Drākshārāma inscriptions contain identical and characteristic titles or bir das which . make it impossible to differentiate one Mahārājasiri ha from another. The bighest regnal year discovered so far for KÕpperuninga is 36 which takes his reign up to A. 1). 1279. And the earliest mention of him as a chief is made in a record of the 11th year of Rajaraja 1!(A. D. 1230)," wherein one of his military officers figures as donor of a gift. From the Tiruvodipuram inscription 10 of Rajaraja III, dated in the 16th year of reign, it is learnt that just before A. D. 1232 the Chola king had been captured and kept in prison by KÕpperunjinga. Thus the earliest clear reference to Kõppetunjinga and bis activities are only found in inscriptions dated between the year 1230 and 1232, though his name has been incidentally brought in in an inscription of A. D. 1213 of the time of Kulõttunga III while mentioning his mother who figures in that record. This early reference to Kopperunjinga can only indicate that he lived to a considerable age like Nandivarman Pallavamalla of the Pallava dynasty and Anantavarman Chödaganga of the Eastern Ganga line.
The pretty long reign of Koperunjinga from A. 1), 1212-3 to 1279 and his figuring in the Tirurëndipuram inscription of A. D. 1232 as well as in another of Rajaraja Ill two years earlier may lead one to enquire if there was only one king of the name or more than one. This question had been taken up by the late Rai Bahadur V. Venkayya, whose finding was that the Mahārāja
1 Inscription No. VIII, below. * A. D. 1207, S. 1. 1., Vol. VIII, No. 317; A. D. 1211, No. 63 of 1919. 33. 1. 1., Vol. VII, No. 146 (No. 133 of 1900). . Above, Vol. XXIV, p. 22. 8. I.I., Vol. VII, Xo. 146. Nos. 187, 198, 202 of 1905. No. 419 of 1893. .Nos. 4.56, 487 of 1902; 370 of 1908 and 104 of 1931-5. . S. . I., Vol. VII, No. 149. 10 Above, Vol. VII, pp. 161ff. 11 No. 487 of 1921. 13 A. R. on Ep. for 1906, pp. 63-4.