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No. 16.) VELVIKUDI GRANT OF NEDUNJADAIYAN: THIRD YEAR OF REIGN. 295
five poems are known to have been sung by three famous Sangam poets and included in the Tamil anthology called Purandnūru. In one of these he is stated to have captured the extensive forts of his enemies and to have destroyed and ploughed their streets with a team of white-mouthed asses. This way of dealing with the conquered countries seems to be a very old one. Dr. S. Konow points out that there is a reference to it in the Hathigumpha inscription of Kbäravēla. It is mentioned also in some inscriptions of the later Påndya king Māravarmap SundaraPandya I. The Kalabhra occupation of the Madura country and the consequent interregnum are also noted by Mr. Venkayya with 'he remark that the Kalabhra may be the Karnata. After the interregnum came Kaduugon with whom the first academy (Sangam) of Tamil poets is supposed to have come to an end. The list of the kings that followed Kadungon to the donor Neduñjadaiyan is given in a genealogical table on p. 54 of the Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1908, together with further information supplied about them by two other sets of Pandya copper-plates secured from Sippamantr. Mr. Venkayya thinks that Neduñjadaiyan of the Vēļvikudi grant must be different from Neduñjadaiyap of the Madras Museum plates published by him in the Indian Antiquary, not only on the strength of certain palæographical differences already noted above but also on account of the different engravers who in the one case Was Yuddhakësari Päpdiya-Pperumbapaikkaran and in the other, Pandi-Pperumbapaikkarap alias Arikësari. He further identifies Neduñjadaiyan of the Võlvikudi plates with Mārajadai. yan of the Anaimalai cave inscription; for, between these two there is not only palæographical similarity, but also it happens that the ajfiapti of the former is the prime minister mentioned in the latter, both being called Márangári Navēndamangalapperaraiyap, members of the Vaidya (or Vaidyaka) family and natives of Karavandapura with the attributes Maduratara and Kavi. Consequently, the two kings Neduñjadaiyap and Marañjadaiyap, who both bore the same surname Parintaka, must be identical and the date of the Veļvikudi grant must be about A.D. 769-70 which is the date of the Apaimalai inscription.
About the military achievements of Neduñjadaiyap we learn from this inscription that he defeated the Kādava king at Pennågadam on the southerní bank of the Kåvori river and grove the Ayavēl and the Kurumbas in a battle fought at Nattukkurumbu. Again, a statement made about the ajñapti of the grant in lines 126-129, adds that Marangāri rendered valuable service to his master Neduñjadaiyan by defeating a certain Vallabha at Venbai, on the occasion when the eastern kings secured the hand of the Ganga princess in marriage for Kongarkon. Here Kongarkon in order to suit the context, must be taken to be a surname of the Pandya king Neduñjadaiyan himself. This is not improbable, inasmuch as his grandfather. Sadaiyap is also called in the inscription (Text, 1.70), Kongarkomān, and his father Tér-mirap is stated to have contracted relationship with the Ganga king (Text, 1. 84). This latter event perhaps refers to the occasion when Mārangāri achieved the success mentioned above.
In spite of what Mr. Venkayya thinks about the identity of the kings mentioned in the Vēlvikudi plates and the Madras Museum plates there are strong reasons to believe that both refer to the same king. For, the ruling king Parantaka. Neduñjadaiyan and his biruda. Panditavatsala, Virapuroga and Vikramapåraga occur in both. Further, the surname Srivaramangala given to the granted village Vélangudi in the Madras Museum plates makes it clear that the king must have also had the hiruda Srivars' which we find actually given to him in the Vēļvikudi plates. The special mention of Mirti Eyinap in l. 136 of the Velvikudi platus u
According to tradition there were three Sangame or old acadouni Twmi] Porte. The date of the last of these has been widely discussed. The latest pronouncement on the subject to that it must have come into existence some time after the 6th Century A.D.
* Acta Orientalia, Vol. I, Part I, p. 238.
These plates are under publication by me in the Epigraphia Indion. Mr. K. V. Subrahmanya Ayyar also sappone it to be so; oid, hin Sketches of Ancient Dokhan, pp. 108,
