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No. 40.)
PERUNEYIL RECORD OF KULASEKHARA-KOYILADHIKARI.
341
2. Makarattil Viyalan ninra Kulasēkhara-pPerumal-irachchiyam vānna randām=āņdaikk
edirām=āņdu. Of these, the latter is dated in the year opposite the 2nd year of the reign of Kulaśēkhara. pPerumā! when Jupiter stood in Makara, and the first epigraph, which is dated on the 9th day of Chingam in the Kollam year 278 (=August 1102 A.D.) when Jupiter stood in Kanya, purports to have been issued in the reign of Irāmar-Tiruvadi Köyiladhikäriga!-āyina Kulasekhara-Chakra vartigal in the second year opposite to the year padi...., the second part of which admits of the possible reading nörä. Jupiter, which was in Makara in the 2nd+1st year (expired) of the reign of Kulasēkha ra-pPerumāļ according to the Tiruvālār record, would have journeyed on to Karkata ka six years later. This was actually the planet's position in the 2nd+8th year of Kulasēkhara-Köyiladhikarigal as recorded in the Peruneyil inscription. Consequently, the two kings Kulasēkhara-pPerumal and Kulaśēkhara-Köyiladhikāriga! mentioned in these two epigraphs appear to be identical. Again, it is clear that two years later, i.e., in the 2nd+11th year, Jupiter would be occupying the Kanya-rasi. In the regnal year of king KulasēkharaChakravartigal which has been read as 2nd+11th in the Quilon record Jupiter was actually in Kappi (Kanyā). This proves beyond doubt that the three kings referred to in the epigraphs from Tiruvālūr, Quilon and Peruneyil are identical, and it follows also that king Kulasēkhara may have ascended the Chēra throne between the months Dhanus and Karkataka of the Kollam year 265, i.e., between January and July 1090 A.D.
The title Köyiladhikāri assumed by the king deserves some notice. Köyil either means & temple' or ' a palace' and adhikāri is a controller. It is possible that the management of the palace was left in the hands of an important officer, sometimes the young crown-prince himself, who was consequently called the Köyiladhikari, and so Dr. Gundert has translated this term as the Palace-Major; but as the kings of Kerala were known to have specially interested them. selves in temple affairs, it appears more probable that even during the life-time of a reigning sovereign, the supervision of the temple demesne was vested in the crown-prince so as to give him the proper preliminary training in administrative work, and that he was given the title of Kõyiladhikari.: Vijayarāga dēva who figures as such in the Kottayam plates of the Chēra king Sthāņu-Ravi probably held a similar position and his presence was considered essential for the transaction recorded in that copper-plate charter. He could not have been a mere official unconnected with the royal household, for, we find him given the title. Chēramānār'in a TiruYorriyūr epigraph of 936 A.D., and he had himself married & Kerala princess Kilānadigal daughter of Kulasēkharadēva."
In the Quilon record under reference, the king is introduced by the expression Irāmar-Tiruvadi Köyiladikāriga! =āyina Kulasēkhara-chChakkaravattiga!' which can be understood in one of two ways. The ordinary interpretation will be to consider that KulasēkharaChakravarti was the Köyiladhikāri of another senior king Rāmar-Tiruvaļi; but as the title • Chakravartin'affixed to his name denotes that he was the reigning king, the simultaneous use
1 Trav. Archl. Series, Vol. II, p. 83. Malabar Quarterly Review, Vol. VIII, p. 117.
Ibid. Vol. VIII, p. 116. Nambüdiri Brahmans who held sway over temples possessing immense wealth and landed property invoked the assistance of Samanta-kshatriyas and these managed the Dēvasvams under the title of Kõyiladhikärigal (Temple-Managers) - Land Tenure of Travancore. Although this Kuyiladhikaram was also wielded by private managers (Trao. Archl. Series, II, p. 44) in the case of small individual temples. the general control together with the specific title must have been in the possession of a member of the royal family, the crown-prince, in all probability.
• Trav. Archl. Series, Vol. III, p. 77 et seq. and 8. 1. I. Vol. III, p. 236. Trar. Archl. Series, Vol. IV, p. 144-Kulasekharadevar magaför-Vilaiyardgadērar diviyar Kijanadiga
