________________
334
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XVIII
The inscriptions of the Chola kings Rājarāja I and Rajendra-Chāļa I, on the walls of the Bțihadīśvara temple at Tanjore, make mention of several Veļaikkāfa regiments. The origin of the word vēļaikkära has not yet been conclusively proved. Different scholars have given different interpretations of the word. Dr. Hultzech has rendered vēlaikkara-padaigal as 'the troop of servants'.1 The late Rai Bahadur Venkayya was of opinion that it was a corruption of the word vēļaikkāra, and comments as follows :-"At any rate, the origin of the term is obscure, and must be left to future research. It is possible they were no mercenaries in the Chola country at the beginning of the 11th century. If a conjecture may be offered, I would say they were perhaps volunteers who enlisted themselves when the occasion (vēlai) for their services arose. In later times when their services were not required in the Tamil Country, they probably migrated to Ceylon, during the period of interregnum, when there were frequent Chõļa invasions against the island. Eventually they probably developed into mercenaries." Mr. Krishna Sastri, in his remarks upon this inscription, says of the Vēļaikkāças, "Whatever the Vēļaikkāras may have been in their religious creed, it is clear from what is stated in the inscription that they included all working classes, and were apparently of Indian origin who immigrated into Ceylon with the merchants whom they served." The late Mr. Gopinatha Rao's opinion as to who the Vēlaikkāras were was quite different from any of the views set forth above. He says that they were not mercenaries, but " persons who had pledged themselves to do certain duties, failing which, they would voluntarily tindergo certain penalties, which, in most cases, was death." He has quoted two passages from Tamil literature, one from the commentary of Periyavāchchapillai on Nammalvar's Tirumoli which explains the word pu-vēlaikkāra as "those who, when they see the king being without flower(-garlands) at the time when he ought to wear them, had vowed to stab themselves and die." The other extract is from the commentary of the Sivavachanabhushanam, where the Vēlaikkaras are said to be the servants of the king who chastise those who prove traitorous to him."
In this inscription they are termed the Vēļaikkāsas of the three hands' (mūnru-kai). In No. 602 of 1912, another inscription from Ceylon, münru-kas-tiru-vēļaikkāran appears as the sur. name of a certain Adhikarana Sāraṇan, and in No. 610 of the same year, also from Ceylon, mūnru. kai is referred to as the name by which a particular community was known. In an inscription of the time of Kulottunga-Chõļadēva, in the Bhaktavatgalēsvara temple at Shērmādēvi, mūnru-kaimahāsēnai are represented as protecting certain charitable endowments made to that temple. A Tamil inscription at Dangūr, in Mysore, too, refers to the Vēļaikkāzas of the right hand. It seems from our inscription as if the three divisions or hands' to which the Vēļaikkaras were divided, consisted of the Mahātantra, the Vaļañjiyar, and the Nagarattār. Out of these terms, Mahātantra is not found elsewhere, and its sense is not clear. Probably it was used here with a Buddhist significance. The terms Valañjiyar and Nagarattār are of frequent use in the South Indian inscriptions of this period. They are there represented to have been a wealthy and influential body of inerchants. In Mr. Rice's Mysore Inscriptions there are three records from Balligami, which refer to the corporation of merchants known as the Valañjiyar. In one of them the membere are styled "protectors of the vira-banañja rights." In the second they are called
1 South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. II, p. 97.
Ibid., Vol. II, Introduction, p. 10. * Epigraphical Report of Madras for 1913, p. 102.
• The above is from an article by the late Mr. Gopinatha Rao, a reprint of which was found among some of his papers whick are in the library of the Government Epigraphist for India. I have not been able to And out the journal to which the article was contributed.
• Ep. Rep. for 1913, p. 101. • No. 189 of the Madras Epigraphical Report for 1896. Vysore Archeological Report for 1990, p. 31.
• Mysore Inscriptions, p. 73.
