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No. 10.]
AMBASAMUDRAM INSCRIPTION OF VARAGUNA-PANDYA.
record at Tillasthanam in the Tanjore district, which is dated during the reign of Marañjaḍaiyan and records a gift for the merit of Varaguna-Mahârâja. Accordingly, it may be concluded that Varagana alias Marañjaḍaiyan led the expedition against Iḍavai in the Chôla country. Iḍavai is evidently identical with the village of the same name in Manni-nadu, a subdivision of Rajendrasimha-valanâḍu situated on the northern bank of the river Kaveri. The village of Vêmbarrûr situated in the same subdivision might be identical with Vêmbil, whose fortifications Varaguna destroyed. The destruction of Vêmbil probably followed soon after the expedition against Iḍavai. In the same locality is Tiruppirambiyam," where a battle was fought between the Pandya king Varagana and the Western Ganga Prithivipati I. The expedition against Idavai in the Chôla country and the attack of Vêmbil were apparently acts of aggression? on the part of the Pandya king, which eventually led to the battle of Sripurambiya (in Tamil Tiruppirambiyam). The part which Prithivipati I. played in this battle was hitherto inexplic. able. In editing the Trichinopoly cave inscription of Varaguna-Pandya, I remarked :-"How it was that the Gangas of Gangavaḍi in the Mysore State managed to get so far south as Kumbhakôpam in the Tanjore district, and why the Pandya king Varaguna had to fight against them, are points on which no information is at present forthcoming." The verse in the Udayêndiram plates which describes the battle runs as follows, with Prof. Hultzsch's corrections:
यः श्री५०० बियमहाहवमूर्ध्नि धीर पायेवरं वरगुणं सहसा विजित्य [1] कत्वा युक्तमपराजितशब्दमामप्राचव्ययेन सुहृदस्त्रिदिवचगाम [1]
With the approval of Prof. Hultzsch, whose translation of the verse is slightly different, I render it as follows:-" Having defeated by force the Pândya king Varaguna at the head of the great battle of Sripurambiya, and having made (his) friend's title Aparajita (ie. the unconquered) significant, this hero entered heaven by sacrificing his own life." Thus we get a king whose name or surname was Aparajita, and who with his ally Prithivipati I. fought against the Pandya king Varaguna. The existence of a king named Aparajita might be concluded already from one of the Ukkal inscriptions, where the other name of that village is Aparajitachaturvedimangalam.10 From the Ambûr inscriptions of the Ganga-Pallava king Nripatunga it may be supposed that Prithivîpati I. was his feudatory." Accordingly, Aparajita, the friend of the latter, was probably also a Ganga-Pallava. Indisputable evidence of the existence of a Ganga-Pallava king of that name is furnished by an inscription of VijayaAparajitavikramavarman, discovered by my Assistant Mr. K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyar at Tiruttani in the North Arcot district.18 Aparajitavikramavarman was apparently the successor of Nripatunga, and we may at present suppose that during the reign of the latter (or after his
87
1 No. 51 of the Government Epigraphist's collection for 1895.
2 South-Ind. Inser. Vol. II. pp. 325 and 336.
Ibid. p. 53.
⚫ Ibid, p. 325, paragraph 88, and p. 336, paragraph 77.
Tiruppirambiyam near Kumbhakônam is the modern Tamil name of Śripurambiya mentioned in the Udayêndiram plates of Prithivipati II.; see also the following note.
Ibid. p. 387. Vaimbalguli, where another battle was fought by Prithivipati I. according to the Udayêndiram plates, may have to be looked for in the same locality. It is not impossible that the place is identical with Vêmbil, whose fortifications Varaguna destroyed. But the name of Prithivipati's enemy in the battle of Vaimbalguli is not mentioned. Consequently this identification remains doubtful.
That the Pandyas were strong and powerful about this time, is proved by their invasion of Ceylon recorded in Chapter L. of the Singhalese Chronicle Mahdvamsa; see Mr. L. C. Wijesinha's Translation. The inva sion seems to have been unprovoked and falls into the period A.D. 846-866.
Director-General's Annual for 1903-04, p. 273.
South-Ind. Inser. Vol. II. p. 384, verse 18.
11 Above, Vol. IV. p. 182.
10 Ibid. Vol. III. p. 2.
19 Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1905-06, Part II. paragraph 8.
