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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA,
(VOL. XVII
gadyanas. A number of taxes leviable in these villages are included in the grant: they are taxes on the nansey, pumsey, pūm-payir, vrisal- and manai-ppēru-kadamai, tari-kkadamai, märadai, maravadai, kulavadai, kalayam, tirigai-ayam, pēr-kadamai (tari-kadamai), aļukku-nir-pāļfam, mahamai, kattigai-avasaram, pațai-kanikkai, Adi-Karttigai-pachchai, and all old and new taxes. Several of these have remained unexplained up till now. It is easy to understand the nature of the first four; they are levied on wet and dry cultivation, on inferior crops, on houses and compounds and on looms; mävadai, mararadai and kulavadai are taxes on animals, trees and tanks : that is, perhaps, when animals are sold in markets; on fruit-bearing trees and for fishing in tanks. Kalāyam literally means tax on stone; it is very likely a tax payable for quarrying stones from hills; what tax is meant by tirigai-āyam is not known. Pēr-kadamai means taxes on persons, a sort of poll-tax evidently. Alukku-nir-paffam is a tax for maintaining the person appointed for making regular supply of water to the fields: this appears to be the same as niranikkam. Magamai is a corrupt form of maganmai, the nature of being a son to another ; this levy is still in force among certain merchants in the Tanjore and Trichinopoly districts. On all sales and purchases the merchants collect a small, but fixed, sum and utilize the money thus collected for some public purpose. Compare similar words, as kāyinmai corrupted into koyma, brānma, etc. 'Kattigai-avasaram appears to be some sort of tax on fire-wood; and patai (padai)-khānikkai is the contribution to be made for the maintenance of the army. Pachchai means a kāņikkai, a naxar, a present on important occasions. In this sense the word is employed in contemporary literature ; for instance, in Sri-rachana-bhashanam, I, 33 and 34. Such kanikkais seem to be given in the months of Adi and Karttigai.
The following places and rivers are mentioned in the inscription :-Tungabhadrā, Vijayanagara, Tiruchchirappalli, Kavēri, Rāja gambhira valanadu, Panda-mangalam, Tirunalur, Beranaibanda-peruma-pallur, Rajaraja ralanādu, Mēlmur of the Mala nädu and Sunepuha-naltir. Of these the Tungabhadra and the Kävéri are the well-known rivers of South India. Tiruchchiråppalli is the modern town of Trichinopoly, the head-quarters of the district of the same name. The part of the conntry immediately to the south of the river Kävéri was known to medieval inscriptions as the Rajagambhir talanädu, and that on the north of the kame as the Rajarăja valanādu. Mala nadu is & sub-division of this territory and has given its name to a section of the Tami] Brahmaņas, i.e. the Bțihach-charaṇa community of Mala nádu. Vijayanagara, the capital of the famous Hindu kings of Southern India, is the modern Hampe on the Tungabhadra. Pånda-mangalam is a village & mile and a half west of Trichinopoly : this and Tirunelor are in the Trichinopoly Talāk; the correct form of the name Soranaibanda-peramå-nallar is Sēragai-vepra-peru mål-nallar. There is a village some distance south of Påndamungalam called Vendaraya-Dallör. This is perhaps the same. Sunepuha-nalár is situated at a distance of seven and a half miles to the north-west of Trichinopoly.
TEXT
[Metres: v. 1-25, Anushubh, and v. 26, Salini.]
First Plate : Second Side. i forefana na: [n") 74(:))FT [n*) (:) 2 tsfri A[][] [] tot HFU
[n*) TH(:) golfo
From ima prensions prepared under my supervision.
* Rend Erfer
