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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. VII.
(V. 26.) When the thousand-eyed (Indra) in (his) court constantly hears of his (ie. Tammusiddhi's) brilliant fame, pleagant to the ear, from the sweet-voiced mouth of the Kinaras, I am sure, he will cover again the wife of the sage Gautamal out of desire for the development of ears equal in number to his eyes.
(V. 27.) Victorious is his sword, which is decked with shining pearls that have dropped from the cleft large frontal globes of the numerous princely elephants of (his) enemies, (and) which resembles the primeval spirit (Vishnu), because it is dark-blue (and) covered with dust as (Vishnu is sprinkled) with the water of the milk-ocean, (and) because it has established (his) royal power (as Vishnu is united with Lakshmi).
B.-ARULALA-PERUMAL INSCRIPTION OF SAKA-SAMVAT 1127. This inscription, which I edit from inked estampages supplied to me by Dr. Hultzsch, is engraved at the base of the north wall of the stone platform called the mountain' (malas) in tho AruAla-Perumal temple at Conjeeveram.
It is written in Granthe characters which vary in height from }" to 1t". Up to line 15, medial ai is expressed in the usual manner by putting the two spirals side by side ; see tasmai (1.1), sainya (1.1), garair (1. 7), sambhavair (1.8), kirttyai (1.9), svairam (1. 10), yair (1.12). But in the second half of the inscription the two signs are put one above the other; see asy-Airasidhdhi- (1. 16), yair (1. 17), têjómayair (1. 17), nijair=unayanais (1.17), -domai Hastifailedvaraya (1. 20), akhilair (1. 20), jafálair=mmakufair (1. 21). The language is Banskrit, and, with the exception of a short passage in 11. 19 and 20, the whole text is in verse. The spelling of the words patma (11. 1, 3, 4), Valmikivat bhant- (1.9), abhdt bhuj-dpadanena (1. 9), utbhavati (1. 10), ushatbudha (1. 15), sphayat-bhümné (1. 20), prádat gråmam (1. 20). bhavatbhir (1. 20) is in agreement with the practice followed in similar Grantha inscriptions. The group ddl is written dhdh in - Airasidhdhi and rôdhdhum in line 16.
This is another record of king Tammusiddhi. It enriches our knowledge by incidentally mentioning the surname of Tammusiddhi's father, Erasiddhi, and the time and place of Tammusiddhi's inauguration. This information is found in 1. 19 f. where it is recorded that in the Saka year 1127 (=A.D. 1205-6) king Tammusiddhi, the son of GandagôpAls and Śridevi, the younger brother of the great king Manmasiddhi, having performed his anointment in the town of Nellûr, presented the village of Muttiyampakka, the head-quarters of Pantarashtra, to the god, the lord of Hastisaila. Nellor is the modern Nellore, the chief town of the district of that namo. Muttiyampakka and the district of Pantarashtra I am unable to identify. The temple of the lord of Hastifaila, ... the elephant mountain,' is the Ara!ála-Perumal temples where the inscription is engraved.
Except these data, the inscription contains nothing of historical value which is not known to us from the previously published records of Tammusiddhi, the four verses (4, 8, 9, 12) which here appear for the first time being merely enlogies of the king's mythical ancestors : Brahman, Sagars, Bhagiratha and Kuba. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that Tilungavidys and Nallasiddhi are omitted in the genealogy, and that the name Betta is here constantly spelt Vetta (vv. 17, 19, 24).
1 Le. Ahaly, whom Indra tried to seduce. When Gautama became aware of his intention, he cursed the god, in consequence of which Indra's body was covered with a thousand eyes.
The idea which forms the theme of this verse is rather far-fetched. Iudrs, being enger to listen to Tommuniddhi's praise. wants to have thousand ears. He therefore looks again for Gautama's wife, hoping that by a new curse of the age he will get as many ears as he has got eyes.
No. 85 of the Government Epigraphist's collection for the year 1898. . With respect to this word I refer to my remarks above. p. 148.
[Compare above, Vol. III. p. 71, and Vol. IV. p. 145.-E. H.)
