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EPIGRA PHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XIX
of Peruvalanallur is given in the Gadval Plates of Vikramaditya I. These plates record a grant by him in A.D. 674, while he was encamped at Uragapura on the southern bank of the Kaveri in the Chōla kingdom. Uragapura has been identified by Venkayya with Uraiyur and the correctness of this has been confirmed by Prof. Dubreuil who has identified Peruvalanallar with a village of the same name, about ten miles north-west of Trichinopoly. The latter scholar further points out how the Pallava Paramesvara was probably helped by the contemporary Pandya Kochchadayan and the Ceylonese king Manavamma. He further surmises that Kochchadayan married the daughter of the Pallava prince Rajasimha (later on Narasimhavarman II) and hence had a son named Rajasimha, so named naturally after his maternal grandfather. However this might have been, Rajasimha must have succeeded Paramesvara varman I sometime after A.D. 675. He evidently did not distinguish his reign by any war. All his inscriptions, while describing his martial valour in vague and general terms, agree in calling him an ardent devotee of Siva, a saviour of Dharma and Truth. He seems to have furthered the arts and blessings of peace, if we are to attach any importance to his epithets इतिहासप्रियः काव्यप्रबोधः, वोषानारद:, धातोधतुम्बुरुः, वाद्यविद्याधरः eto. It was he that built the central shrine in the Kailasanatha temple at Käñchipuram, the Shore temple at Mahabalipuram, the Panamalai temple, and, as Prof. Dubreuil observes, the Airavatesvara temple at Kanchipuram. To these must be added some other structures from which the pillars containing Rajasimha's birudas were transferred to the later Kandasvami and Vyaghrapuri vara shrines at Tiruppōrurs and Vayalar respectively.
It only remains to be mentioned that the date of the present epigraph is not incapable of being ascertained. It has been already mentioned that Parameśvaravarman I won a victory at Peru. valanallur over Vikramaditya I in A.D. 674. Supposing that Paramesvara lived for a few years after it, we may suppose that he ceased to rule, about A.D. 680. The struggle between him and Vikramaditya I was inherited and continued by their successors, the Pallava Narasimhavarman II, Mahendravarman III, Parameśvaravarman II and Nandivarman Pallavamalla on the one hand, and the Chalukyan kings Vinayaditya Satyaśraya (A.D. 680-96), his son Vijayaditya (A.D. 696-733) and his son and successor Vikramaditya II (A.D. 733-746) on the other. Of these the last Pallava king was defeated by the last mentioned Chalukya king about A.D. 740. Now, as Narasimhavarman II lived two generations before Nandivarman, we may reasonably suppose that he lived in the years which immediately preceded and followed A.D. 700. And this is in keeping with the date we have assigned for the termination of the reign of Paramesvaravarman I. These facts enable us to fix the Panamalai epigraph at about
1 Vide Madr. Ep. Rep., 1910, p. 10, para. 10. The record is dated in Vaisakha, full moon, S. 596 (the 20th year of his reign), i.e., Tuesday, April 25, A.D. 674, according to Dr. Floot, or the next day. See also Ep. Ind., Vol. X, pp. 100 ff.
Soo Ep. Ind., Vol. X, No. 22, pp. 101-2.
See his Pallaras, 1917, p. 43.
The 5th king in the Volvikudi grant, the father of Termar n Rajasimha I (Arikesari Parankusa), and the victor at Marudur and Mangalapuram over Maharatha. Prof. Dubreuil believes that Maharatha was the Chalukya Vikramaditya I. Manavamma was king of Ceylon from about 660 to 695, according to Dubreuil, but 691 to 726 according to the Mahiramba.
Sue Cg. 194 in the Topographical List. The chief epithets found are Aviratadanaḥ, Isana sarapah. Jus uasagarah, Gupavinitah, Dharapitilakah, Atirapachandah, Arikarikësarī, Prithvimāraḥ, Atyantakamaḥ and Abhavankarah.
Soo Cz. 1231. Besides giving a full genealogy of the Pallavas, the record gives the titles of Narendrasil, Atyantakama, Ranajaya, Srinidhi and Kshattriyasimha to Rajasimha. This inscription has been edited by Rao Bahadur H. Krisluna Sastri, above Vol. XVIII, pp. 145 ff.
