________________
No. 22.]
KIL-MUTTUGUR INSCRIPTIONS.
177
No. 22.- THREE TAMIL INSCRIPTIONS AT KIL-MUTTUGUR.
By E. HULTZSCA, PA.D. Kil-Muttugûr is a village in the Gudiyâtám tåluka of the North Arcot district, about 2. miles north of the Virinchipuram Railway Station. On a visit to this place in 1887, I found in a field four stone slabs with rude sculptures and Tamil inscriptions, which were noticed in South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I. p. 137. When I visited the same village again in 1896, one of the four slabs had disappeared. Probably the owner of the field had utilised it for building purposes. Of the remaining three slabs, photographs and inked estampages were prepared. Two of the slabs (A. and B. below) are fixed in the ground and standing; the third (C.) is lying down. As will be seen below, all three refer to occurrences which took place at different dates in Mukkudûr (A.) or Mukkuttur (B. and C.),- the modern KilMuttugur. A. records a gift of land to a Brahmaņa, B. the death of a warrior in battle, and C. the killing of a tiger.
A-INSCRIPTION OF NARASIMHAVARMAN. This inscription consists of nine cramped and straggling lines at the top of a rough stone slab. Below it is a bas-relief on a countersunk surface. The two centre figures, which face the proper right, are an elephant and, behind it, a bird, probably a goose (hamsa). The two figures are flanked by two lamps, and the bird is surmounted by a symbol which is not uncommon on Buddhist coins.
The alphabet is Tamil, with the exception of the Grantha word fri, with which the inscription opens. The characters are decidedly archaic. The letter n has the same form as in the Kasakuļi plates. The letter resembles the corresponding letter of the same plates in eight cases; but in two instances, where e or ai are prefixed to it, it has a more modern form in which the centre loop is completely developed. In a few respects the alphabet of the present inscription reminds of the Vatteluttu characters. Thus the letter & approaches more nearly to the Vatteluttu than to the Tamil &. The initial a reminds of the same letter in the Cochin plates. The letters , dull and v, and the secondary forms of i and i closely resemble the corresponding letters of the plates of Jatilavarman.7
The inscription is dated in the 18th year of the reign of the king, the victorious Narasimhavarman." The same name occurs among the Pallava kings of Kancbi. But the two centre figures of the bas-relief below the inscription make it impossible to attribute this record to the Pallava dynasty, whose crest was a bull and whose banner bore a club. The elephant appears at the top of three stone inscriptions of the Western Ganga dynasty, which have been published by Mr. Kittel, and the goose (hansa) is said to have been the device on the banner of the mythical Ganga king Konkaņi,10 As both an elephant and a goose are engraved below the inscription, it may be assumed with some probability that Narasimhavarman belonged to the Westen Gangas.
1 A photograph of this slab is reproduced on the lower half of the Plate facing page 178; and a facsimile of the inscription is given on the Plate facing page 182.
See, eg., Sir A. Cunningham's Coins of Ancient India, Plate ii. No. 20, and Sir W. Elliot's Coine of Southern India, Plate ii. No. 41.
• South Indian Inscription, Vol. II. No. 78. • In padinaffoadu, 12, and manai-um, L. 5.
Above, Vol. III, No. 11. . In yddu, 1.2, and koduttom, I..7.
Ind. Ant. Vol. XXII. p. 69 ff. • An inscription of the 3rd year of the same king was engraved on another stone olab, which is now miming; South-India. Inscriptions, Vol. I. No. 184.
. Ind. Ant. Vol. VI. p. 101. # Boo South Indian Insoription, Vol. II. p. 887, note 6.
