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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. IV.
has left a record in the Vaikantha-Perumal temple at Kanchi. The former may be identical with kô vilaiya-Nandi-Vikramavarman. Two other kings to whose names the two Tamil words ko vilaiyas are prefixed in their inscriptions, may have belonged to the same branch of the Pallavas. These are kô visaiya-Kampa-Vikramavarman or Kampavarmant and kô vibaiyaNarasimhavarman. The Kil-Muttugûr inscription of the latter bears, however, the emblems of the Western Ganga kings, and its alphabet is more archaic than that of the two Âmbûr inscriptions of Nripatunga. If it is kept in mind that the Bahûr plates represent the latter as a descendant not only of Pallava, but also of Konkaņi, the ancestor of the Western Ganga kings, we are driven to the conclusion that the old dynasty of the Pallavas of Kåñchî came to an end with Nandivarman, the opponent of the Western Châlukya king Vikramaditya II.; that Narasimhavarman, a Pallava by name, but Western Ganga by descent, succeeded them; that two of his successors, Dantivarman and Nandivarman, were the contemporaries of the Rashtrakûța kings Gôvinda III. and Amoghavarsha I.; and that Nandivarman's son, Nřipatungavarman or Nřipatunga-Vikramavarman, who ruled over North Arcot, Tanjore and Trichinopoly, discarded the emblems of the Western Gangas and adopted those of the Pallavas.
Finally an identification of Pirudi-Gangaraiyar, who is mentioned as a contemporary of Nřipatungs-Vikramavarman in the two subjoined inscriptions, may be attempted. The Udayêndiram plates of Hastimalla state that the Western Ganga king Prithivipati I. fought with the Råsbţra kąta king Amoghavarsha 1.7 If I am correct in supposing the latter to have been a contemporary of Nřipatunga-Vikramavarman, the Pirudi-Gangaraiyar of the Âmbur inscriptions is perhaps identical with the Western Ganga king Prithivipati I.
Κό
A.-First Stone.
TEXT.8 i Sri
visaiya-[Niru*)2 [pa]tonga-Vikkirama[pa][ru]*. 3 [ma][r*][k]ku
yånd-irubattå[ráva*)4 du Paduvûr-kkôtțattu
[Mje5 l-Adaiy[á]ru-nâţtu
Âmaiyar 6 mêl Nuļamban
padaiy 7 vandu toru=kkolla
Piru8 di-Gangaraiyar
sêvagar
Peruna9 [ga]r-Agara-Kkonda-k kâvidi
Akalankat10 tuvarayar [ma]gan Sagan talarà viļnd[u] pattano [ilo]
TRANSLATION Progperity! In the twenty-sixth year of the reign) of the king, the victorious Nripatunga-Vikramavarman,- when the army of the Nuļamba attacked Åmaiyûr, (a village)
1 South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. II. p. 344, note 3. ? ibid. Vol. I. Nos, 108, 124 and 125.
& Other instances in which the word vijdya is prefixed to the name of a king, are the Pallava princes vijayaSkandavarman and vijaya-Buddhavarman (Ind. Ant. Vol. IX. p. 101) and the Véngi king vijaya-Naudivarman (above, p. 143, note 1).
+ Two inscriptions of this king at Ukkal in the North Aroot district will be published as Nos. 5 and 8 of SouthIndian Insoriptions, Vol. III. * See above, page 177.
• See above, page 180. 1 South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. II. p. 381.
8 From inked estampages, prepared in 1896. The first two lives of this inscription are engraved on erasures. The writer has left a blank space between ri and faiya in the first line, and between to and nga in the second line.
. This word is written below the line.