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No. 15.) TIRUKKALITTATTAI INSCRIPTION OF SUNDARA-CHOLA.
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No. 15.- TIRUKKALITTATTAI INSCRIPTION OF SUNDARA-CHOLA.
BY K. V. SUBRAHMANYA AIYAR, B.A. ; M.R.A.9. ; Ootacamund. The subjoined inscription is engraved on the north wall of the dilapidated Vēdaparisvara temple at Tirukkalittattai. This village is situated at a distance of two miles from Tiruvi. daimaradár, & station on the S. I. Railway and the head quarters of a Deputy Tabsildar. In ancient times it was included in the large village of Vēmbarrör i.e. the modern Vēppattārl and was called Srikudittittai. Tepkodittittai (i.e, the southern Kuļittittai) of the Dévāram is probably identical with it. It is interesting to note that Tiruvisalûr? another village near Věppattür also formed part of the same town. In the records of Parāntaka 1.3, Aditya II. , and of an unidentified Parakësarivarman found at Tiruvisalir, Vēmbarrür is called Amanidārāyanachaturvēdimangalam. While the inscriptions of Rājarāja I., dated in the 10th and 28th years, retain this other name of the town, one7 belonging to his 29th year gives Solamārtāndachaturvēdimangalam instead. The latter name is used in the records of Parakēsarivarman Rājēndra-Chola also.8 During the reign of Kulottunga III., Vėmbarrar bore the name Ediriliśola-chaturvēdimangalam. The division in which the town was situated is given in the records of Rājarija I. and Rājēndra-Chola I. as Manni-nādu a district of Rājöndrasinga-vaļanādu. 10 In later times the name of the district was changed into Virudarājabhayankara-valanādu".
The inscription is in tolerably good preservation and contains six lines of Tamil proge. The characters in which it is engraved, do not appear to belong to the 10th century A.D. to which it has to be assigned. A comparison of the script of this record with that of some sure inscriptions of the same period shows that there is a marked difference between the two. The subjoined inscription therefore appears to have been incised at a later period from copies kept of it, though there is no direct statement to this effect in the record. That such a practice was in vogue at the time, may be gathered from No. 302 of 1908, which belongs to the same king, but which was certainly engraved some time after his death, as is clear from the use of the epithet Pon[maļigai-trunjina-dēvar] (i.e. the king who died at the golden palace), for him.
The doubling of the final consonant n when it combines with āna and én, e.g. in -vēļānn=āna and Pichchannen, (ll. 2f, and 6), of m in suramm=irakkina (1.1) and of ļ in EP perumaļļukleu (1.2), is against the roles of Tamil grammar. The use of the colloquial forms sēdu, sēgira and ifichchi for seydu, seygira, and ilittu is worthy of mention.
Vöppettür is quite close to Tiruk kalittaţtai.
* The Sivayoganathaavāmin temple at Tiruv isalur is called in its inscriptions Tiruvisalir-udaiya Mahadeva at Věmbarrür and this indicates that Tiruvisalur was part of Vömbarrur in ancient times. During the time of Chola supremacy much importance was attached to Tiruvisalür. It was within the walls of the Siva temple at this place that Rajaraja I., one of the greatest of the Chöļa kings of the 10th century A.D., performed the tulabhāra ceremony in the 29th year of his reign (-A.D. 1014) when one of his queens, Dentisaktivitankiyar alias Lökama hädēviyar, passed through a gold cow, i.. performed the hēmagarbha (No. 42 of the Madras Epigraphical collection for 1907). It may be noted that the inscription, which registers this fact, is engraved below sculpture representing the king and the queen in the worshipping attitude. The Western Ganga king Prithivipati ). fought with the Pandya king Varaguņa at Tiruppurambiyam, not very far from Tiruvisalur where we have a record of Varaguna (No. 17 of the same collection). The authors of the Devaram have contributed stanzas in praise of the gods at Tiruvisalūr and Tirukkaļittatai (Tenkuļittittai).
No. 35 of the Madras Epigraphical collection for 1907. • No. 51 of the same collection.
No. 10 ditto. • Nos. 3 of 1907 and 301 of 1908.
7 No. 42 of 1907. & As Rajendra-Chöļa I. appears to have been the co-regent of Rajaraja I, in the last years of the latter, WO may not be wrong in inferring that Solamärtäņda was a surname of either of these two kinge.
No. 14 of the Madras Epigraphical collection for 1907. 10 Nos. 1 of the same collection and 301 of 1908.
11 No. 47 of the collection for 1907.
