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No. 24.]
UTTARAMALLUR INSCRIPTION OF PARANTAKA I.
with the ichor flowing from his marching elephants and the heaps of skulls of his enemies sang his heroism. He, who, ploughing the battlefield with the hoofs of his steeds, flooding it with the blood of his foes, sowing (therein) the seeds of pearls issuing from the heads of elephants cut to pieces by his sharp sword, caused to grow the creeper of fame of his master Rajendra-Chōḍa, is the crest jewel of the good Sudras, named [Vaṇḍu]varaja.
145
Reducing to ashes the whole of the Kalinga country, subduing the Ganga (king) in battle and destroying the chiefs Devendravarman and others with the multitude of swords of Kōsala (i.e., with the help of the Kōsala army)1 this hero named Pallavaraja set up a fine pillar of victory on the borders of the Oḍra (country) as if raising aloft the fame of his lord Rajendra-Chōḍa. This illustrious chief constructing with black granite a beautiful temple to Vishnu in the agrahāra of Alavēli as if it were the plant of his fame, is now enjoying the universe. This wise person made an excellent image of Vishnu and set it up there and getting some land in this village gave it with devotion for the daily offerings of the god. And for feeding five tapasvins, ten Brahmaņas, and five Vänakarmins in the vicinity of the Brahmēsvara temple, he bought...........at the village of Ŏlarapakam (such an extent of) land that could be sown with thirty khandikas of seed paddy and gave it free of all taxes. (To provide) for offerings to the temple of the god Pamchavați-Hari on the bank of the Godavari whose swelling waters during floods run with unlimited force, and situated in the beautiful country of Vengimandala, he gave ......in......rti-vishaya to last as long as the sun and the moon. And Pallavaraja having made........pavilion....at the city of Draksharama in Guddavādi-vishaya filled with rich and generous persons..... Therefore (this) charity must not be destroyed but must be protected by the wise.
(The usual imprecation.)
Rājēndra-Chōḍācharya is the engraver.
No. 24.-UTTARAMALLUR INSCRIPTION OF PARANTAKA I.
BY K. V. SUBRAHMANYA AIYER, B.A., COIMBATORE.
In editing the South-Indian Inscriptions (Texts), Volume VI, I drew attention to the fact that some of the inscriptions of Uttaramallûr contained therein supply interesting references to the kind of autonomy prevailing in the Tamil country, supplementing, as they do, the information embodied in the two Uttaramallur inscriptions which describe the qualifications of members of village assemblies, the mode of election and the names of committees into which they were formed. One of the inscriptions that relates to the choosing of persons for testing the correctness (i.e., the fineness) of gold in current use in the village, is No. 295 of the said volume. This inscription is registered as No. 12 of the Madras epigraphical collection for 1898; and remarking on it, the late Dr. Hultzsch has noted Seems to contain rules regarding the exchange of gold'. A romanised text and translation of the inscription is given below.
I am indebted to Dr. N. P. Chakravarti for this translation of the phrase Kosala-khanda-vala-nivahaiḥ. He kindly suggested that khandavala might have been used in the vernacular sense of khadga formed on the analogy of Skt. karavala. If väla stands for bala, as v is often substituted for b, and khanda means a division of country, the phrase may be rendered "with the multitude of young men of the Kosala division". In either case, Kōsala appears to have been allied with the Chola. No such alliance is known. The Chōla king Viraräjëndra is said to have cut to pieces a certain Singan of Kōsala (above, Vol. XXI, p. 241). Perhaps Köasia continued since then to be on friendly terms with the Chōla.
See page 149.
