________________
No. 27.)
THREE INSCRIPTIONS FROM TRAVANCORE.
203
after making offerings of eatables, dedicated to the lotus-eyed (god) of the unique temple of the station of cowherds at SyAnandûra & drum made of silver, resembling (mount) Mandara, shining with the lastre of the whole collection of the foam of the sea.
B.- Trivandrum inscription of Sarvånganatha ; [saka-]Samvat 1298. This inscription also is on the north wall of the Krishnasvâmin shrine in the Padmanabhasvåmin temple at Trivandrum, immediately below the Tamil inscription quoted in the account of the preceding inscription A. It consists of seven lines of well-preserved writing in Grantha characters, covering a space of 1'4" broad by 71' high, and contains a single Sanskrit verse, preceded by the words svasti frih. Its object is, to record the construction, at the town of Syanandura, of certain buildings for the worship of the cowherds') god Krishna, by a prince (nripa) Sarvanganatha, in the [Saka) year 1296, when Jupiter was in the sign Simha. If this last statement refers to Jupiter's mean place, the oxaot date must have fallen between the 10th October A.D. 1374 and the 26th March A.D. 1375; for the solar Śaka year 1296 expired lasted from the 27th March A.D. 1374 to the 26th March A.D. 1375, and Jupiter's mean position was in the sign Simha from the 10th October A.D. 1374 to the 6th October A.D. 1375. But, should the words of the text refer to Jupiter's true place, the date might be several months earlier than the 10th October A.D. 1374, because Jupiter's true position on that dny was in the 14th degree of the sign Simha. The town Syanandura has been mentioned already in the inscription A.
TEXT. 1 Svasti sri[b] [118] Simha-sthê cha Brihaspa2 tau
samakarðd=abdê c he Cholapriyê 3 gồóalai=cha
sudipika-grihamrahỏ 4 Krishn-Alayam=mandapam bhaktyà ch=aiva ya. 5 Bôrttham- apy atitarân- dharmartthama apy- darat 6 Syânandura-parê
sukirtti-sahitas-Sarvvân. 7 genu thô npipah ||
TRANSLATION.
Hail! Fortune! When Jupiter stood in the sign) Simha, in the year (denoled by the chronogram) Chôļapriya (i.e. 1296), the prince Sarvanganátha, possessed of good report, from faith and to secure fame in abundance and for the sake of religion, reverentially built at the town of Syanandura a cow-house, a house of beautiful lamps, (and) Ah ! an abode of Krishna, an open hall.
C.-Varkkalai inscription of Mårtânda; the Kollam year 655. This inscription is on the base of the mandapa in front of the Janardanasvâmin shrine at Varkkalai, & place of pilgrimage about 24 miles north of Trivandrum. It contains a Sanskrit verse, written in Grantha characters in two lines which cover & space of 7'2" long by 4" high, preceded, on the same level, by the words svasti &rik, also written in Grantha characters, in s single line about 11' long and 2' high. To judge from the impressions, the verse may have been followed by two or three more words, probably containing a blessing; but, if any such words
1 No. 270 of tbe Government Epigrapbist's collection for 1895. Proin an impression supplied by Dr. Hultzsch,
Metre: śardůlavikridita. No. 267 of the Government Epigraphist's collection for the year 1895. • See Mr. Sunduram Pillai's Some Early Sovereign of Travancore, p. 53 (Ind. Ant. Vol. XXIV. p. 393).
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