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No. 38.]
TIRUKKALUKKUNRAM INSCRIPTIONS.
277
In C. line 1, fri offri-Kannara; de at the beginning of 1. 2; 1. 3, fri-Mülastdo (for Malasthdo); sa at the end of 1. 5; 1. 6, otr-dditya (for dr-dditya), pa of pay, Mahétvara, and rakshai; 1. 7, ge of Gergai; 1. 9, sabhai.
In D. 1. 2, de of deva; fri-Mülastd (for Malasthao) at the end of 1. 4; bhd of bhdmi at the beginning of 1.9; 1. 10, agni ; 1. 11, sabhai; 1. 12, dravya and bantr-adio (for chandr-ddio); 1. 13, tta of Ottarum and dharmma (for adharma); 1. 14, rakshi and odha[rmma] (for Oddharma); ge end gai of Gengas at the beginning of 1. 15; the second pa of pápa in l. 16.
A-INSCRIPTION OF BAJAKESARIVARMAN. This inscription is dated in the 27th year of the reign of Rajakosarivarman, and records the renewal of a grant which had been made by a king called Skandasishys and confirmed by another king, Våtåpi konda Narasingappottaraiyar. Skandagishya is probably synonymous with Skandsvarmen, a name which occurs repeatedly in the genealogy of an early branch of the Pallavas, whose grants are dated from Palakkada, Dasanapura and Kanchipura. Though we have no materials for identifying this king, yet it is certain that he was one of the predecessors of the other Pallava king who is mentioned in the inscription. This is Narabimgappottaraiyar, which is a Tamil form of the Sanskrit name of the Pallava king Narasimhavarman. The epithet Våt&pi konda, 'who took Våtâpi,' which is given to the king, enables us to identify him with certainty with the Pallava king Narasimhavarman I. who is described both in the Kûram plates of Paramèśvaravarman 1. and in the Udayêndiram plates of Nandivarman Pallavamallab as the destroyer of Våtâpi and as the enemy of Pulikógin (II.) alias Vallabharâja. The Singhalese chronicle Mahavamsa also refers to this war between Narasimha and Vallabha, 'in which Månavamma, one of the claimants to the kingdom of Ceylon, who was then residing in India, rendered substantial service to the Pallava king The Periyapuranam, & Tamil work which parrates the lives of the sixty-three devotees of Siva, and some of the statements made in which have been confirmed by recent epigraphical discoveries, refers to the destruction of Vâtâpi in the account of the life of one of the devotees, vie. Siruttoņda-Nayanar. It is reported that this devotee, who was originally a military man, "reduced to dust the old city of Våtåpi" for his master, whose name is not given, but who must undoubtedly have been the Pallava king Narasimhavarman I. who destroyed Vatapi according to the Pallava inscriptions.
According to the Periyapuránam, Sirattonda-Nayaņår was visited at his own village by the great Saiva devotee Tiruñinasambandar, and the latter mentions Sirattonds by name in one of his hymns.10 Thus Tiruñânasambandar was a contemporary of a general of the Pallava king Narasimhavarman I., whose enemy was the Western Chalukya king Palikesin II. The
1 Dr. Fleet's Kanarese Dynasties, p. 16.
Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 398. [Póta in Sanskrit and potts in Tamil mean the sprout (of a plant)' and are thus synonymous with pallas, *2 sprout,' from which the Amaravatt pillar inscription (South-Indias Inscriptions, VOL. I. No.32, verse 8), derives the name of Pallava, the supposed ancestor of the Pallava dynasty.-E. H.]
• South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I. p. 152.
Salem Manual, Vol. II. p. 359. • L. C. Wijesinha's Translation, pp. 41 to 43.
7 See South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. II. Nos. 29, 40 and 48. In No. 40, there is a distinct reference to the traditional account of the life of Meypporu Ayaşår, one of the sixty-three devotees, as preserved in the Periyapuranam; and the various images that in Nos. 29 and 43 are said to have been set up, sbow clearly that the account of the lives of Chandesvers and Siraļadēvar, respectively, as preserved in the Periyapurdan, must have been generally known during the time of Rjur&jadêva.
• Paddos-tom-sagaras-tugaf-aga; sokkisar's Periyapurdgam, Madras edition of 1870, Part II. p. 316, were 6. . ibid. p. 318, verse 23 and 4
* ibid. p. 98.
