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No. 18.]
THE VAYALUR PILLAR INSCRIPTION OF RAJASIMHA II.
147
occur in 11. 1, 2 and 10 and the Dravidian ) in . 3 and 4. The punctuation symbol used in the inscription is a triple vertical joined at the top, the component lines being often of varying lengths. Two other symbols of an ornamental type occur in line 9, evidently also being used as punctuations; but these are not quite distinct. In the matter of ortaography, the use of the anusvara and its change into the class-nasal in compound letters is generally correctly observed, e.g.- Asgirāh in l. 1, Konkanih in line 3 and Skanda in 1. 4. The donbling of consonants after a conjunct occurs throughout. There is one mistake of spelling in spita for fruta (1. 10); and wrong sandhi in jiyat-ma for jiyānama (ibid.) and no sa lhalu for Onassa khalu (if my reading is correct in l. 11). In line 10 the form yubdha for yuddha is apparently & mistake of the scribe.
As stated in the Annual Report on Epigraphy (Madras) for 19091 the record is a very interesting one on account of the long list of Pallava names it supplies. When I drew up the report, I was not able to give the whole list, for want of time and a satisfactory estampage. Also the Völürpalaiyam plates which give, though summarily, a similar list of names in the ancestry of the Pallavas, had not then been published, and consequently, the big list of the Vayalar record did not attract much attention. Thanks to the scholarly work of Professor Dubreuil in the field of South Indian Epigraphical research and especially in the study of the Pallava dynasties, we now possess a full statement of the contents of this valuable inscription and its bearing upon Pallava chronology.
The Puriņic names in the list from Brahmă to Asoka (11, 1 and 2) are found in the Kssakudi plates of Nandivarman Pallavamalla? ; and up to the eponymous Pallava, the predecessor of Asoka, they are found also in the Kuram plates of Paramēśvaravarman I and the Udayêndiram Plates. Among the names of other early kings which the Kasākuļi plates incidentally mention are those of Virasimha and Vishņusimha which do not find a place in the Vayalar list. The Velttrpāļaiyam plates, which are later, give the Parāņic names in the same order up to Agokavarman correctly, but after a gap supply us with the three names Kalabhartri, Ohutapallava and Virakuroha in the order of father and son exactly as we find in l. 3 of our inscription. After these comes the name of Skandasisbya which does not figure in the Vayalor record. It looks, therefore, as if the authors of the Kālākuļi, Udayệndiram, and the Vēlārpālaiyam plates, all of which are admittedly later than the Vayalar record, but not very much later, drew these stray names for airing their knowledge of early Pallava chronology purely from memory and were not always correct. The Vāyalür record after mentioning Asoka gives eight names, viz., Harigupta, Bhutadatta, Süryavarman, Visbņugopa, Dhritaka, Kalinda, Jyämalla and Ripumalls which do not appear in the later grants. After these come the thirty-six names listed by Professor Dubreuil on p. 20 of his “Pallavas" with the small difference that the name Konkapika is actually found on the estampage to be Konkani.
Monsieur Dubreuil tries to attribute to the Vayalur list the credit of supplying a complete genealogical succession from even the time of the eponymons founder Pallava, including practically all the names mentioned in the Prākļit and the Sanskrit copper-plate grants hitherto discovered and in the later stone inscriptions. In doing this he finds many difficulties in his way but attempts to get over them by finding accidental coincidence in the order of the names. In Virak rcha, Skandasishya, Kumāravishnu and Buddhavarman of the Velärpālaiyam plates for instance, he finds coincidence with the set of names Nos. 29 to 32 (11 to 14)? of the Vayalar
1 Part II, paragraph 17, p.76 1.
* South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. II, p. 342. * Ibid., Vol. I, p. 144.
• Ibid., Vol. II, p. 363.
Ibid., p. 501. • Professor Dubreuil rende by mistake the two Dames Jyamalla and Ripamalla - Byåmalla and Ekamalls. and Suryavarman as Āryavarman (see his“ Pallavaa," p. 20). 7 Here and below, M. Dubreuil's numbers are given in brackets.
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