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234
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. IX.
No. 32.-MAMBALLI PLATE OF SRIVALLAVANGODAI; KOLLAM 149.
BY T. A. GOPINATHA RAO, M.A., MADRAS. The copper plate on which the subjoined inscription is engraved, belongs to the Mâmballi bhandarattil of the Mamballi matha and was secured for me for publication by Mr. S. Govinda Pillai, High Court Vakil, Trevandrum. Besides this plate, there are five other odd plates belonging to the same matha, which bear fragments of inscriptions of the Kilappêrûr ! dynasty of the Vêņadu kings. In one of them occurs the name Sri-Vira-Devadaran-Koraļavarman of Kilappêrûr.
The plate measures 103" x 3" and has a hole on the left margin. It does not appear to have possessed a ring or seal. At the left end of the plate, the owner has engraved, in modern Malayalam characters, the word Mamba!!i. Excepting this single word and a few Grantha letters interspersed in the document, the inscription is written in the Vatteluttu alphabet. The words svasti and Sri in line 1; the letter fri occurring in the name Srivallavaögôdai in lines 7, 18 and 19 ; rakshio and rakshdo occurring in the words rakshichchu and rakshibhôgam in 1. 12 are in Grantha characters. The consonant k retains the earlier form, without a loop at the bottom; this form differs from the later ones which are scarcely distinguishable from the symbol for ch. The letter pů (of pungá in l. 3), whilst it has the common form in all other instances, looks like the Grantha letter hra. The language of the inscription is Tamil, tinged here and there with the colloquialisms of the Malabar Coast : e.g. irundaruliyaidattu vaichchu, (=at the place where they were pleased to be seated), in l. 5; paffára-gakkolla for pattiragarkk-uļļa (= belonging to the bhaffůraka) in lines 6 and 12; ari for arisi (= rice) in 1. 9; Murursaiyar for Murungaiyûr in l. 21 ; Sarinaran for Sangaran in l. 22 ; rakshichchu for rakshittu in l. 12. The phrase nanálichcheydu is contracted in the modern Malayalam language into nanalichche.
This is the earliest known record dated in the Kollam era, and belongs to the reign of the Vêņadu king srivallavangôdai. It is dated in the 149th year of the Kollam era,
[Kiluppêrûr is annexed as the house-name of the Vêņad (Travancore) princes in later inscriptions (Ind. Ant. Vol. XXV. p. 190). It is a village abont 8 files to the north-east of Arringal, wbich is the hereditary domain of H. H. the Senior Rani of Travancore (Mr. Nagamriya's Travancore Manual, Vol. III. p. 579). The country round Artingal seems to have been known as Kåpadeśa in ancient times. The late Mr. Sundaram Pillai was of opinion that Vên du and Kúpadeśa were two distinct principalities and that the latter was at some stage of its history annexed by the rulers of the former. The Vêpådu kings are said to have assumed the family name Kilapperør after this annexation.-V. Venkayya.]
? [This name occurs without the title pira in a Vatteluttu inscription from Viranam in the Travancore State. The late Professor Sundaram Pillai bas called the king Keralavarman II. and assigned A.D. 1193 for his date (Ind. Ant. Vol. XXIV. p. 283).-V. V.).
[In the name Srivallavangô lai kódai was perhaps an epithet of the ralers of Vēņadu. The first part of the name, ie. Srivallavan (Brivallabha) may be that of the king to whom Venadu was fendatory, Such a coinbination of names is frequently met with in Tamil inscriptions. If the name Srivallavangô lai be a similar compound, Šrivallavan or Srivallabha might be the name of Pandya king. The Paodya king, who probably reigned about this time, was Vira-Pâodya, with whom the Choļs Aditya II. is said to have fought in his youth. Vira-Pandya himself claims to have taken "the head of the Chôļa (king)", and a number of his inscriptions have been found at Suchindram in South Travancore. But we have at present no reason to suppone that he bore the name Srivalabba, although the designation was common enough sinong the Pandys. On the other hand, tho Singhales: chronicle Mahawana refers to an invasion of Ceylon in the period A.D. 975-991 by Vallabha, the Cl4s king (Mr. Wijesimha's Translation, Chapter LIV, p. 85). It is, however, doubtful if the Chãļas were powerful enough to undertake an expedition against Ceylon at the time of which we are now speaking. And as the chronology of the Singhalese chronicle is not beyond question, we cannot suppose that the ruler of Travancore mentioned in the Màuba!! plate was a Chola feudatory. The history of the Cheras is very little known. Con sejuently it is uncertain to which dynasty the Srivallabha, whose feudatory the Voņada ruler might have been in A.D), 973, belonged.-V. V.)
