Epigraphia Indica Vol 18

Author(s): H Krishna Shastri, Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 26

No. 2.]
BAHUR PLATES OF NRIPATUNGA VARMAN.
Vägtr
Kirimanpatti
Ipippapai chcheri
Nerunjikaṛumbu
M. Vinson has consulted a local map and tells us that, besides Vagar (Bahir), two of these village-names survive to the present day: Kirimanpatti is now represented by Kirimambakkam, 6 kilometres north-east of Bahir, and Vilangaṭṭangaḍuvanir is perhaps connected with Kaḍuvanur, 5 kilometres west of Bahir. I hope my Brahmin friends in Madras will find an opportunity for making enquiries on the spot, and will succeed in identifying a few more of the village-names which are registered in the detailed description of the boundaries of the grant.
a forest
In verse 30 we are told that the Sanskrit prasasti, which forms the first portion of the inscription, was composed by Nagaya, a servant of the Vagar college. At the end of the whole document, its writer informs us of his name and parentage in a Sanskrit verse (32) and in Tamil prose, (1. 78 f.). He was a goldsmith (suvarnakrit or, in Tamil, taṭṭan), named Nripatunga (11. 77, 79),evidently after his sovereign,-a hereditary servant of the Pallava family, the son of Madevi-perundaṭṭan, and the grandson of Uditodaya-perund ṭṭan of KilPaisaram near Kachchipēdu (Conjeeveram). The name, or rather the title, of his father means 'the great goldsmith (by appointment) to the chief queen.' Similarly, the name of his grandfather would mean the great goldsmith (by appointment) to (king) Uditodaya,' and Uditodaya (1. 78) or Uditodita (1. 76) may have been a surname of one of the immediate predecessors of king Nripatungavarman. Uditōdita is actually known to have been one of the numerous birudas of Rajasimha, an earlier Pallava king of Kanchi. From this king it may be supposed to have descended to one of the predecessors of Nripatungavarman.
TEXT.
First Plate; First Side.
1 Svasti šri[h] Disatu va[h] śriyam-ambuja-lõchanas-tridasa-maali-nighri
2 shta-pad-ambujah [] sakala-loka-bhayamkara-rakshasa-prasama-netur-a
3 je (jo) Madha (dhu)-sndanah || [1] Śrt-bhartas-sayana parasys nětre yat=
teja[b]
sthiti-laya-su
1 See his article, p. 235 f.
-From a set of photographs supplied by M. Julien Vinson. Read perhaps -bhūlutájak.
S. 1. I., Vol. I, p. 15, 6th niche.