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No. 27.]
TWO CAVE-INSCRIPTIONS AT DALAVANUR.
No. 27.-TWO CAVE-INSCRIPTIONS AT DALAVANUR. BY PROFESSOR E. HULTZSCH, PH.D.; HALLE (SAALE).
These two well-preserved inscriptions are engraved on a pillar in a rock-cut cave at Dalavaṇur in the Tindivanam taluka of the South Arcot district. They were first brought to notice by the late Rai Bahadur V. Venkayya in his Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1904-05, p. 47. I edit them from inked estampages received from Rao Sahib H. Krishna Sastri.
The first inscription (A) consists of a single Sanskrit slōka, each pada of which, as in the Mahendravaḍi cave-inscription,1 occupies a separate line.
The second inscription (B) is divided in two sections, of which the first is written in Tamil verse, and the second in Tamil prose.
The alphabet of A is Grantha of exactly the same type as at Mahendravadi. The Tamil inscription B exhibits less archaic forms and, as suggested by Mr. Venkayya, was probably engraved at a later date than A. The following Grantha letters occur in B:-fri (1. 1), fa (1. 7), sva (1. 8), [b]ra (1. 11), and disan (1. 13 f.).
The inscription A states that the cave which contains it was made on the hill at the order of a king Narendra or Satrumalla and named (after himself) Satrumallēsvaralaya, i.e. the Isvara (Siva) temple of Satrumalla.' Satrumalla is known to have been a surname of the Pallava king Mahendravarman I., who reigned about the beginning of the seventh century. Perhaps Narendra, the Indra among men,' is a mere variant of the name Mahendra, 'the great Indra,' and Narendra Satrumalla has to be identified with Mahendravarman I., whose inscriptions show the same alphabet as A.
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The first section of B states in Tamil the same fact as A, vis. that Narendra founded the Satrumallisvaralaya. It gives the name of the locality as Venbeṭṭu and confirms the surmise that Narendra belonged to the Pallava family by calling him 'the king (who wore) a beautiful garland of tondai,' and Pöttaraiyan, i.e. the Pallava king. The second section of B records the name of the composer of the preceding Tamil stanza.
A-SANSKRIT INSCRIPTION OF NARENDRA SATRUMALLA.
1 Dand-anata-narēndrēņa
2 Narendrēn-aisha karitaḥ [*]
3 Satrumallēna sailē-smin
4 Satramanevaralaya[b] [*]
TRANSLATION.
Narendra Satrumalla, who has humbled kings by (his) army, caused to be made on this hill this (temple named) Satrumallēsvarālaya.
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B.-TAMIL INSCRIPTION MENTIONING THE PALLAVA KING NARENDRA
First Section. [Toodaiy-an-dār
1 Above, Vol. IV, No. 19.
* For Tamil potte Bead. min.
1
2 vendan Narendira
820.
3 Above, Vol. VI, p.: Sanskrit pallava see South-Ind. Insors., Vol. II, p. 341, note 1.
