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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. IV.
inscription is engraved. It is in a state of tolerable preservation, except at the beginning of the first six lines, where some letters are lost, including the name of the king at the beginning of linel. The alphabets of the inscription are Grantha and Tamil of the game type as in the Udayêndiram plates of Hastimalla. It opens with a few Tamil words (1. 1). Then follow 10 Sanskfit verses, and a short passage in Tamil (11. 19 to 21). At the end, the name of the writer is given in barbarous Sanskrit prose (1.21 f.).
As we learn from the mutilated Tamil passage at the beginning of line 1, the inscription is dated in the 9th year of the reign of a king whose name is lost, but can be supplied with certainty from the Udayêndiram plates of Hastimalla as Parakesarivarman, & surname of the Chôla king Parantaks I. who ruled from about A.D. 900 to 940.8
The Sanskrit portion opens with an invocation of Vishnu (v. 1). The next verse celebrates Åditya (I.) of the race of the Sun. His son (v. 3) was Parantaka (I.), surnamed Vira. narayana. He granted the revenue from a field called) Vamsaväri in favour of a tank named Cholavaridhi (v. 4). This Parantaka (I.) had conferred the title lord of the Baņas' (Banddhirdja) on Prithivipati (vv. 6 and 7) of the Ganga race (v. 5), who was surnamed Hastimalls and defeated an unnamed enemy in the battle of Vallaļa. At his request, the king entrusted him with the execution of the grant (v. 8). Next follows the usual captatio benevolontiæ (v. 9), in which Hastimalla is called Vira-Chôļa. The last verse (10) states that these verses were composed by the Vaikhênasa Kumara of the Kåsyapa gôtra
The second Tamil portion records that Hastimalla, surnamed Vira-Chôļa, the king of Pasivai and vassal of the Chôļa king, executed the royal grant by assigning the paddy-field named Mungilvari (to the tank).
In the concluding Sanskrit portion, the inscription is styled a eulogy (prasasti).
The Ganga-Baņa king Prithivipati II. surnamed Hastimalla is already known from one of the Udayêndiram grants. Four verses of the subjoined inscription (3, 5, 7 and 9) are almost completely identical with four verses of the Udayêndiram plates of Hastimalla (6, 21, 22 and 25). As those plates are dated in the 15th year of the reign of Parântaka I., it appears that their writer copied those four verses from the Sholinghur inscription, which belongs to the 9th year of the same reign. This is also suggested by the fact that verse 21 of the Udayêndiram plates is rather out of place where it stands, while it is in its original and natural position in the Sholinghur inscription (v. 5). Further, this verse has here the correct reading rajahamsa, while the Udayêndiram plates road rajasimha, instead of which I had conjectured rajahansa before I knew of the existence of the Sholinghur inscription. A point in which the two records differ, is that the Sholinghur inscription does not mention Vijayalaya, the grandfather of Parantaka I., while his father Aditya I. is referred to in both. As in the Udayêndiram plates, the Ganga-Bana king Prithivipati II. appears here as vassal and executive officer (djfiapti, v. 8) of Parantaka I. His surname 'king of the people of Parivai' (Parivaiyar kón, 1. 20) corresponds to the lord of Parivipuri' in the Udayêndiram plates (v. 24). I am
South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. II. No. 76.
As the earliest kuown instance in which Parakesarivarman receives the epithet Madurai konda, i.e. 'the conqueror of Madhurd,' is an inscription of bis 10th year (No. 119 of 1895), it is doubtful if we are justified to supply this epithet too at the beginning of the mutilated line 1. .
* See above, p. 178, note 12. . Compare South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. II. p. 565.
Sibid. No. 76. The following may now be added to my remarks on the situation of the village granted (ibid. p. 889). Among the boundaries of Kadaikkôttur (p. 389) we find in the east a channel which feeds the Vinnamangulattdruri, i.e. the tank of the inhabitants of Vingamangalam. This village still exists and has given its name to a Railway station between Vaniyambadi and Ambar.
• See ibid. p. 384, note 16.
