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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. IV.
quarter of Kånchipuram, by the Maharaja Ravivarman, alias Samgråmadhira or Kulasekharadeva Tribhuvanachakravartin Kôņēriņmaikondan, of whom the following account is given in the verses with which the inscription opens :
Ravivarman was & son of the king Jayasimha, who belonged to the family of Yada and the lunar race and ruled in the Kerala country, and his wife Umadevi, and was born in the Saka year 1188 = A.D. 1266-67. After defeating his adversaries, he married a Pandya princess and, when 33 years of age i.e. about A.D. 1299-1300), took possession of Kerals (which he ruled as he did his town of Kolamba). He defeated a certain Vira-Påndya, made the Pandyas and Cholas subject to the Keralas, and, at the age of 46 (i.e. about A.D. 1312-13), was crowned on the banks of the Vegavati. He then apparently again made war against Vira-Pandya, defeated him and drove him into the Konkaņa and from there into the forests, and conquered the northern country. It was in the fourth year of his reiga (i.e. about A.D. 1315-16) that he was at Kanchi.
The verses which contain this information, are followed by a long string of birudas of Ravivarman, three of which describe him as the regent of the excellent city of Kôļamba,'
the Kúpaka universal monarch,' and 'the result of the religious merit of the Kerala country' As Kapa-desa or Kúpa-rajya, the country of the Kûpakas, so far as I can make out, was one of the divisions of Kerala, these epithets, together with what has been stated above, would indicate that Ravivarman originally ruled only over part of Kerala, with Kolamba (or Kollam) for his capital, and that from there he extended his dominion over the whole of Kerala and over the adjoining countries.
The Vegavati on the banks of which Ravivarman is stated to have been crowned is, as Dr. Hultzsch informs me, a small river which flows into the Pålára near Kåñchỉpuram.
TEXT.6 1 Svasti sri-Jayasimha ity-abhihitas=Sômånvay-öttarsakð ráj-Asid-ihs Kéralesha
vishayê nåthô Yadu-kshmâbhșitâm 6 játô=småd-Ravivarmma-bhûpatire Umêdêvyâm kumaras=sivad=dêhavyäpya-sakabda-bhaji samayê dêh=iva vîrð
rasaḥ 6 [1] 2 6Kshayan=nitvà sô=yam kali-balam=iv=ârâti-nivahanjayasrivat kritve nija
sahacharim Pandya-tapayam 6L trayastrimsad-varsho yasa iva yayan Kèraļs
In line 6 he is called Maharajadhirdja Paramdhtara.
[In the Indian Antiquary, Vol. II. p. 860 f., H. H. Rama Varma of Travancore bas published an inscription. dated in the Klamba (Kollam) year 644, of Adityaverman, who calls himself an ornament of the race (anvaya) of Jaymimba. An inscription at Kollam (Quilon), dated in the Kolamba (Kollam) year 671 (No. 268 of the Government Epigraphist's collection for 1896), opens with the following Sanskrit verse - Svastymastu Jayasininhasya Vira-Kóralavarmanas [lo] ta[+]4 tadaniajániíizcha rdjysaya nagarasya cha ().-B. H.)
* Mr. P. Sundaram Pillai, Some Early Sovereign of Trata-core, PP. 84-85, would regard Kapa-dlia or Képa-rdjya as the country around Ārringal which is sbout 22 miles to the north of Trivandrum ; and states that
an inscription of Rajaraja Chola, dated in the 30th year of his reign, claims for him a decisive victory over the king of the Kapakas,' and that the Kalingaftu-Parani enumerates the Kapakas amongst the subjeet races that paid tribute to Kalóttanga Chļa. (On Kdpa-rdjya see also Ind. Ant. Vol. VII. p. 275, and Mr. Sewell's Lists of antiguities, Vol. II. p. 196.) If Mr. Bundaram is right, the town K ambs of our text is almost certainly the modern Quilon in the Quilon district of the Travancore State.
The prince Viru-Pandys, mentioned in the text as an opponent of Ravivarman, I am unable to identify with any certainty, but I would point out that Mr. Sundaram, loc. cit. p. 69 fl., bas published an inscription of prince MArtAndavarman alias Vira-Pandyadors of Venad, the fourth year of whose reiga, like the fourth year of Ravivarman's own reign, fell in A.D. 1316-16.
[See South-Ind. Iser. Vol. II. pp. 345 and 362.] . From an inked estampage, supplied by Dr. Haltzsch. 1 Metre : Sardalarikridita.
Metre: Sikharigt.
