________________
No. 17.]
The present inscription resembles in many respects the Ambasamudram record of Varaguna-Mahārāja. Both grants were made with the express object of defraying all the expenses that have to be incurred from day to day and year to year in connection with the religious services in a temple and go into minute details about these. There is a striking similarity in the phraseology of the two. Both state that the principal should remain undiminished and that only the interest should be utilised for meeting the expenses. The annual rate of interest in both cases is identical, viz. two kalam of paddy for one kāśu. From the Ambasamudram inscription, just as in the Tiruchchendur epigraph, it can be gathered that a kalam of interest paddy consisted of 90 nāli and a kuruni was equivalent to 6 nali. But the prices of articles varied considerably during the interval between the two grants, some of which have been noted below for easy reference. It is noteworthy that whereas the prices of certain commodities obtaining at the time of the Ambasamudram inscription had fallen by a third at the time of the Tiruchchendur record, in certain others (e.g. vegetables) there was a sharp rise of 350 per cent. And since it cannot be said that these fluctuations were due to difference of locality (the two localities not being far removed from each other) the inference is inevitable that the difference is to be attributed to the difference in time between the two records which cannot be less than 40 years.
Tiruchchendur).
Prices of articles (A=Ambasamudram. T
1. 1 nali of paddy for 2 plantain fruits
1,000 plantains for 10 kalam
2.
3.
4.
TIRUCHCHENDUR INSCRIPTION OF VARAGUNA-MAHARAJA (II).
5.
6.
30 nali of paddy for 1 nali of ghee Ditto
20
3 nali of paddy for 1 nāļi of curd
2
Ditto
1 palam of sugar was obtained for 1 nāļi and 1 uri of paddy 7 tulām and 65 palam for 10 kalam
10 palam of vegetables cost 1 nāli of paddy 20 tulām of vegetables cost 10 kalam of paddy
6 nali of paddy for 1 ulakku.of kayam 1 kasu (10 kalam) fetched 60 nali of kayam
A
T
1 Above, Vol. IX, p. 90.
Sewell's List of Antiquities, Vol. I, p. 313.
Schoff's edition, pp. 46 and 237-8.
A
T
A
T
A
T
A
T
107
A
T
We may now note a few facts concerning the geographical terms that occur in the inscription. At the outset it may be said that all the villages and divisions mentioned are situated in the Tinnevelly District. Tiruchchendur is 18 miles east-south-east of Srivaikuntham on the sea. Korkai and Maramangalam are in the Srivaikunṭam taluk and Nallur and Kaṭṭaraimangalam are in the Tiruchchendur taluk. Of these, Korkai was an important place in the Pandya kingdom noted for its pearl fishery. Both the author of the Periplus and Ptolemy mention it, the former under the name of Kolchi or Korkoy. Mr. R. Sewell states that Maramangalam is the
Majumdar: McCrindle's Ancient India of Ptolemy, pp. 57-8, 78.
Ibid, p. 312. No. 474 of the Madras Epigraphical collection for 1916 agrees with this inscription in stating that Korkai was in Kuda-nādu. From an inscription at Akkäsälai (No. 165 of the Madras Epigraphical collection for 1903) we learn that it formed part of Korkai and had in it Akkäsälai-Iévaramudaiyar. It is further stated that Korkai was surnamed Madhurantakanallur and that it was in Kuda-nadu, a sub-division of Utta masōla-valanaḍu which was a district of Rajaraja-Pandināḍu.
