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ARAVESMO 30 KEPIGRAPHIA INDICATHOSKI NAVIT [VOL. XVI.
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thearly Pallarslings. The language of the record is Tamil. The words pandiraḍi (l. 4 and 10), ari (l. 11), paraiññu (l. 19 f.), vaichchu (l. 20), vaippichchu (t. 21), Kuññî° (7.21 and 20), Amannala (1.22), eto (may be cited as instances of Malayalam words and therefore the language of the document might be called Malayalam; but against this contention it may be stated that these words are pure Tamil, with here and there a slight change in the pronunciation, an alteration which is also common to the Tamil 1 language and is, therefore, no special feature of Malayalam It is from about the period of this record that we begin to meet with the slight changes in the Tamil language which go to ancient dialect pass for alect, pass for the suppose Tec supposed separate language, viz. Malayalam. For example, the retention of the which become me obsolete in the spoken Tamil the abolition of the gender suffixes at a comparatively recent period and a few similar pecuhárities produce an "infpression of afference between the two languages, Tażn] Tamil and Malayalam. It layalam, however, easy to establish the identity of the two languages in so far as the vocabulary and the grammar are concerned; a rough and ready proof of their identity is offered by the fact that a man from the Tamil country is able to make himself understood by the Malayali and vice versa, which is however not possible between the Tamil and the Telugu and the Malayali and the Telugu One peculiarity of the present document worth noticing is that it omits in many cases the final m in the conjunctive particle um; e.g. in uru (1. 7), Kaya (1. 23 f.), Ayyanu (23), etc. The final m in such words, as muṭṭikkum (1. 20) is also omitted.
$340
The most important feature of this inseription of king Bhaskara Ravivarman is the mention of a complete set of astronomical details necessary for the determination of the age of the king. The grant reperded in the document was made in the sixth sixth year opposite to the thirty-fifth, which was opposite the second year, that, is, the forty-third year of the reign of the king. In this year, at the time when the was made, Jupiter stood in the Tula-rasi, the sun in the Mina-rasi, the date of t the solar being the eighth expired, the day a Wednesday and the nakshatra Uttara-Phalguni. Regarding this date the Hon. Dewan Bahadur L. D. Swamikannu Pillai writes as follows:
Buod
"I took the period from A.D. 949 to 1329 (380 years) and found only one year in which the 9th Mina was a Wednesday, when Jupiter was, in Tula and the moon in Uttara-Phalguni (ettu-senra is, I believe, 9th and not the 8th)
The year in question, is A.D. 1020-21, when 9th Mina was Wednesday. 1st Marok 1021 A.D., on which day Jupiter was in Tula (longitude about 186°-Tula), and the moon was in nakshatra Uttara Phalguni, v whose énding moment was 57 ghatikas after-meanwolad boss but the mods and cantongi vas most basic t
sunrise.
"In A.D: 1115-16, the next most likely year, the 8th Mina was Monday, 29th February AD. 1116, and the 9th Mina was Tuesday at March A.D. 1116 I do not find any other year in the period of four centuries examined (A:D 950 to 1850) when the 8th or 9th: Mina was Wednesday and when Jupiter stood in the Tula-rast and the moon in the nakshatra UttaraPhalguni. we be no doute erotto! bas chew nemz - A (LA VIDES FIDEN sed on Wednesday,
For the present we may rest satisfied that your Tirunelli grant was dated on 1st March A.D. 1021, and that Bhaskara, Raviva Ravivarman who made a grant to the Jew, Rabbi Joseph (Cochin Plates, Ind. Ant Vol. XX) began to reign somewhere about A.D.
P
to 150uderat
984.
estem pa wao nada er 20y.coll
[The letters in the Tirunelli Plate are abnormally box-headed.. Excepting in the case of na, I do not see any resemblance between these and the Pallava Nagari charnciers of Salavankuppam near Mahabalipuram ( Jad, Vol. X, Plate opp. p. 14).-K.]
