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SIX INSCRIPTIONS AT TIRUNAMANALLUR.
No. 19.]
An inscription of the Chôla king Parântaka I. (A. below) states that the stone temple of Tirattonḍisvara was built by his son Râjâdityadêva. Hence it is also called Rajadityêsvara in some of its inscriptions.
Besides the shrine of Tiruttondisvara or Rajâdityêsvara, the same temple included the shrine of Agastyêsvara, which is mentioned in several inscriptions of the temple. Another inscription (No. 365 of 1902) records a gift to the temple of Kalinarisvara. This temple has been recently demolished by the villagers, and the only portion of it that survives is a sculptured stone which bears the figure of a kneeling elephant, above the elephant a hauda with a stout male person reclining in it, and the single word éri-Kalinárai in Pallava-Grantha characters (No. 376 of 1902). It may perhaps be concluded from this, that the demolished temple of Isvara (Siva) was built by a Pallava king named Kalinarai, and that the man riding on the elephant is meant to represent this king.
According to the subjoined Tamil inscriptions, the ancient name of Tiranamanallar was Tirunavalûr. The Saiva saint Sundaramurti, who was born at Tirunâvalûr and was the protégé of a chief of that place,' derived from it the surname Navalaran, which he applies to himself in some of his hymns. Tirunâvalûr belonged to the district of Munaippadi (C. below) or Tirumunaippadi (A. and B. below). In the time of Rajendra-Chola I. it bore the surname Rajadittadevapuram, which is due to the fact that its temple had been founded by Râjâditya, and was included in Mêlûr-nadu, a subdivision of Tirumunaippadi, a district of Jayangonda. Chôla-mandalam (F. below).
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The subjoined inscriptions contain the names of a few other villages in the neighbourhood of Tirunamanallûr. Of these, Sevalai in Venpainallûr-nâdu (C. below) survives in the two villages Periyasevalai and Sinnasevalai (.e. 'great and small Sevalai') close to Tiruvennainallur. Ekadhira-chaturvedimangalam (D. below) cannot be identified, as it is not the name, but the surname of some village. Arumbakkam (E. below) is situated 2 miles south of Tirukoilur.
A-INSCRIPTION OF PARANTAKA I.
This inscription (No. 335 of 1902) is dated in the 28th year of "Parakêsarivarman who took Madirai (Madhura)," i.e. of the Chôla king Parântaka f. who ruled from about A.D. 900 to about 940.7 It records the gift of two lamps by a servant of Kokkilanadi, the queen of Parantaka I. and the mother of his son Rajadityadeva. The latter is the Rajâditya who, according to the large Leyden grants and the Âtakûr inscription of A.D. 949-50, was killed in battle by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna III.
TEXT.
1 Svasti []r[1] [1] [Madi]r[ai] ko[p]da kô-Pparakėsa
2 ripa[n]ma[r]kk-i [yan]du irubatteṭṭavadu [T]irumu
3 paippadi-Ttirunavalûr Tiruttondi(ndi)svara[n]
4 tiru-kkar-rali se[y]vitta Rajadittadevar ta[y]âr na[m]-birâṭṭiyâr
5 Kô[k]kila [pa]digal pari[b]â(va)rattal Sittirakômalam va(vai) tta n[o]nda-vilak
1 See page 136 below.
Other inscriptions have the shorter form Rajâdittapuram.
Nos. 267 and 265 on the Madras Survey Map of the Tirukoilur taluks.
No. 273 on the same map.
No. 97 on the same map.
South-Ind. Inser. Vol. II. p. 379 f.
1 See ibid. p. 881. If Professor Kielhorn's calculation of the date of the Karam inscription (p. 1 above) should be corroborated by the discovery of a similarly dated record of the same reign, it would follow that Parân aka I. reigned from about A.D. 906 to about 946.
Arch. Survey of S. India, Vol. IV. p. 206 1.
Above, Vol. VI. p. 51.
