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No. 14.]
PANCHAPANDAVAMALAI INSCRIPTIONS.
137
of the Tamil word por, "gold,' and iyakki, the Tamil form of the Sanskrit yakshi. There is hardly any doubt that, of the group of five figures which are engraved in the cave below the inscription, the sitting female figure represents Ponniyakki. The male figure standing close to her is perhaps intended for Någanandin.. The village of Pugalálaimangalam I am unable to identify.
The inscription is dated in the 50th year of Nandippóttarasar, which is a Tamil form of Nandipôtarâja. This king must have been a Pallava, as his name contains the characteristic epithet pôltu or pôta, and as the name Nandipôtavarman was actually borne by one of the Pallava kings. As the mention of the 50th year would imply an unusually long reign, it might be assumed prima facie that Nandipôtaraja was dead at the time of the inscription, and that public documents continued to be dated from his accession even after his death. On the other hand we have instances of long reigns in the case of the Châlukya-Chôļa Kulottunga I. (49 years), the Western Chalukya Vikramaditya VI. (50 years), and the Råshtrakata Amoghavarsha I. (62 years).
TEXT.: 1 Nandippóttarasa[r]kku ay[m]badåvadu Någa[na]ndi.gura[var) 2 (iru]kka Ponniya[k]kiy[&]
r p adimam kottuvitta[n] 3 Pu[ga]lalaimanga[la]ttu Maruttuvar m agan Náraņa4 [11]
TRANSLATION. In the fiftieth (year) of Nandippóttaragar,- Náranan (Narayana), the son of Maruttuvar of Pugalálaimangalam, caused to be engraved an image of Ponniyakkiyar, along with the preceptor (gurava) Någañandi (Någanandin).
B.- INSCRIPTION OF VIRA-CHOLA. This inscription consists of 11 lines of Tamil prose and is in a fair state of preservation, though & few syllables at the beginning of the last line are so much damaged that they cannot be made out. As the rock is uneven, the mason ruled it before engraving the record, in order to keep the lines of the inscription straight, and then engraved each line between two rules.
The second line of the inscription opens with the date,- the 8th year of the reign of Rajaraja-Kesarivarman. In inscriptions later than the 10th year of the reign, the same form of the name, vis. with the two-fold repetition of the word råja, is always preceded by a reference to the conquest of Kanda!Ar-salai, or of that place and Vengai-nadu etc. In a few inscriptions with the same beginning, the king's name appears under the form Rajaraja-Rajakesarivarman. The full name of the king, viz. Rajarajakesarivarman alias Råjarâjadêva, occurs first in inscriptions of the 19th year. Though the present inscription does not refer to any conquests because it is dated two years before the 10th year, there can be no reasonable doubt that it belongs to the reign of the same king whose inscriptions record the conquest of Kandalor-sklai etc., i.e. of the great Chola king Rajaraja, who ascended the throne in A.D. 984-85.7 As the
See above, Vol. III. p. 877, note 3. ? See South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I. p. 146.
From inked estampages, prepared in 1895. • The word maruttutan means physician. In the present case it seems to be the proper name of a person. 6 Literally : wbile there is present.'
• On this word, which appears to be derived from the honorific plural of guru, see South Indian Inscriptions. Vol. II. p. 251, note 3.
1 See above, page 68.
