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94
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXIV.
It therefore follows that the three Garuḍavahanas who figure in the above discussion, were different one from the other :
(i) A Garuḍavahana-Pandita, traditionally believed to have been a disciple of Ramanuja, who started an arogyaśālā under instructions from his guru, for which we have only the authority of the Divyasüricharitam and the Kōyilolugu;
(ii) a second Garuḍavahana-Bhaṭṭa, a contemporary of Vira-Ramanatha in A. D. 1257, who received endowments of land for the hospital from the Hoysala general SingannaDandanayaka, and who was probably the author of a prabandham called the Rangaghoshanai1; and
(iii) a third Garudavahana-Bhaṭṭa of A. D. 1493, the hagiographer-author of the Divyasuricharitam, who reconstructed the ärögyaśāla which had fallen into decay owing to the Muhammadan invasions, and installed therein an image of DhavantariEmberumän.
The historical and other facts contained in these two records may now be examined.
(a) As stated already, record (B) of the time of Vira-Ramanatha states that Singanna-Dandanayaka, the pradhana of the Hoysala king, partitioned off a portion of the covered corridor (tirunadaimäligai) to the west of the Eduttakai-alagiya-Nayaṇär-gopura in the fourth präkāra of the Ranganatha temple, and converted it into a hall for conducting a salai (a hospital). He then purchased 16 and odd reli of land in Mummuḍisola-chaturvedimangalam in Vila-nadu, a subdivision of Pandikulasani-valanādu, for 1100 varahan-pon and arranged that, from the produce of this fairly extensive block of land, the doctor in charge of the temple-hospital, namely Garuḍavahana-Bhatta, be paid an allowance of 5 kuruni of paddy per day, his assistant and colleague Tōlmalaiyalagiyar 3 kuruni of paddy, and two men-attendants (vaidya-parichārakar) 1 tuni and 1 padakku each, while medicines to the value of 100 käsu per day were prepared. As this record is incomplete, it is not possible to know if this outpatients' dispensary simply ministered to the health-needs of the servants and others of the temple establishment only, or functioned in the more comprehensive sense of a philanthropic institution for the community at large. The famous hospital inscription of Virarājēndra (A. D. 1069) at Tirumukkudal in the Conjeevaram taluk of the Chingleput District gives us a fairly detailed idea as to how such an institution worked at that time, and what medicines were prepared and kept in stock for the needs of the students of the Vedic seminary attached to the temple there. The present epigraph does not furnish any such illuminating details, but is, however, of topical interest in that it refers to the existence of a templehospital which, in addition perhaps to its usual pharmaceutical activities, also prepared and supplied a kashaya as an offering to god Ranganatha every night, as an item of the temple ritual. Though the explanation offered for the inclusion of this stomachic in the god's dietary may at first sight appear far-fetched, it shows with what royal pomp and reverence god Rangaraja was venerated by his devotees and how the daily routine of worship was regulated with such close adherence to meticulous detail.
1 See also note 7 on page 100 below.
Salai ordinarily means only a hall, a feeding hall '; but as provision was made for a doctor and drugs, an atulabalai is meant. It is actually referred to as an ärögyaśälai in record (A).
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Kadaikkülfan is the word used in the inscription. It means one who actually carries out a certain duty', a nirvahaka. In Periyavachchan-Pillai's commentary on Tiruppavai (Margali-niraḍal) occurs this sentence: Krishnan idukku kadaikkullan-agarum (niraiverri-vaippavan-agarum) kadavan.
Above, Vol. XXI, pp. 220 ff.
The offering of a medicinal decoction to god at night is understood to be in vogue in one or two other temples in South India, at Madura, for instance.
