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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XVI.
From the various dates noticed above it is now quite certain that the reign of Bhaskara Ravivarman began, as already stated, some time after October A.D. 984.
The inscription records that Kunjikkutta-verman alias Adigal Vira-Kurumburaiyar Tiruvadi, who was governing the Mütta-kūru of the Kurumburai nādu, granted a piece of Isnd known as Kilkattiy-p Polachchérikkal (i.e. the chérikkal, or mountainous tract, Polachchériykkäl of Kilkkäļu), for a rice-offering at the pandiradi time of the day and for
perpetual lamp to be burnt before the god of the temple at Tirunelli. This charity was placed under the management of the members of the family of the donor, the yogins (who were perhaps residing in or near the temple) and the Srivaishnavas; the community or assembly known as the seven hundred' of the Mätta-kupu, the villagers and the Veļļālas who are the major land-lords of the village--all these, without entertaining among themselves any difference of opinion on the matter of this charity, were obliged to arrange for the supply of the rice for the offering and for the burning of the perpetual lamp. Kuñjikkutta-varman also gave to the temple a silver pot, a silver parāgai, and a silver sword, and a pearl neck-lace to the god of the temple at Tirunelli.
There are a few words occurring in the document which are still current in the Malayalam language and which require a few words of explanation. The word pandiradi is a technical term commonly employed for the service which is conducted at a time when the san stands at such a height in the sky as to cast the shadow of a man which measures twelve feet reckoned by his own fort. Assuming the height of a man to be about seven feet measured by his own foot, the time when the sbadow measures twelve feet would be about eight o'clock in the morning. Matta-kūru occurring in II. 5 and 26 may mean either the portion of the conntry ruled over by the elder branch of the family to which Kuñjikkutta-varman belonged or the larger of the two sections into which the Kasumbusai nadu was divided and one of which was governed by the members of the family to which the donor belonged, while the other was goverted by some other person. Again eļunirruvar', occurring in l. 7, is employed here evidently to denote & community consisting of seven hundred members; this term may be compared with advantage with the muvāyiravar of Tiruchchengagjör, occurring in the Nālāyira-prabandham, the nārpatt-enndyiravars of Kanyakumari, the mupnürurar of Napralai nāduoccnrring in some of the inscriptions of Tiruvanvandur, etc. It will become patent from the references given above that the phrase matta-kürril eļunurruvar cannot mean the seven hundred members of the elder branch of the family governing the Kugambarai nādu, but that it refers to a community of men living in the Mätta-kära of the said nadu Idavagai is another word employed in a particular sense in Malayalam and means the property belonging to an important personage or a very rich landlord; for example, we hear of the Parastu idavaga, the estate belonging to the Paññárra Raja, or Chief, in Travancore. Nammálvár, the great Vaishnava saint, also uses this term in the same sense. Nirattu-paļli is
1 This is what Mahaviracharya dnes in the chapter on Chhaya-vyavabirs of his Gawita-sara-sangradas
पुरुषोन्नतिसप्तशिस्तत्पुरुषासुदेध्यं स्यात् । यवं चंपकपः स भाग्यवानाडिभा पहा ! * Amarada-bir mürayiraraz-vodiyargal tam-padi.
Tiruvaymoli, 8, 4-?. Müviyira-nip-masiyalar nálum muraiyal vanangu.
Periyatirumoli, 3, 2, 8. • See Travancore Archeological Series, Vol. 1, Tp. 168,180. • Tranancore Archeological Series, Vol. II, pp. 23-4.
Kumaņai-ppayanda kaļai idavagat-kogdad-opber-eļil.agiyenantapuram.
Tiruvayoli, 10, 3-8.
