________________
No. 12.] SRIRANGAM INSCRIPTION OF GARUDAVAHANA-BHATTA: SAKA 1415.95
(6) The expression Vaidyaril enakkum rakshakarāy i-ddharmmam nedunālpada nadattikkondu tanda nāyakan=āna Garudavāhana-Bhatar used in the record (B) in referring to the physician, has perhaps to be understood in the sense that something in the nature of a private hospital was already being conducted by Garudavāhana for a long time and that the Hoysala general Singanna-Dandanayaka who had personally benefited by this doctor's services made this muni. ficent donation of land to the hospital in token of his gratitude.
(c) A certain Singanna-Dandanāyaka, a general in the army of the Hoysala king ViraSomēśvara is stated to have invaded the Tamil country in about A.D. 1240-41, the 25th year of Rajarāja III, for an inscription at Vēdāranyam in the Tanjore District dated in the 30th year of this Chõļa king (A.D. 1246) refers to the effects of this invasion which necessitated the reconsecra. tion of some images in the temple of Kõdikkulagar at that place; while a general of the same name figures in a Tiruvannamalai records dated in the 5th year of Rājēndra-Chola III (A. D. 1250). We have no means of determining their identity with the Singanna of record (B). In another record from Sembāţtur in the Pudukkotah State dated in the 23rd year of ViraSõmēsvara (A. D. 1256-57), a general described as Mahaperiyapradhana Singanna-Dandanāyaka, son of Mahapradhāna Singaradēva-Dandanāyaka is mentioned ; and he was probably identical with this Singanna. It is possible that this Singanna was trampled underfoot by the mast elephant of Jațāvarman Sundara-Pāndya I, as claimed in a record of his at Srirangam, and that this event may have happened by A. D. 1261, as the Pandya king appears to have made his entry into Srirangam at about this time.
(d) Rāmānuja is mentioned in the Köyilolugu' as having been in charge of the Srirangam temple for over 60 years, and as having regularised the respective duties to be performed by the several groups of temple priests and menials and introduced many salutary reforms in its internal administration. Among the ten sections into which he is stated to have classified the superior service of the temple establishment, the bhattāl-kottu is one ; and the duties devolving on the several Brāhman families which were clubbed together into this administrative classification, consisted mainly of chanting the different Vēdas and of expounding the Mimāṁsā and the Sribhäshyam in the temple. To this bhattāl-kottu Sriranga-Garudavāhana of this record belonged ; and being the hereditary physician of the temple, it is but proper that he should have repaired the ārögyaśālā, installed an image of Dhanvantari in it and arranged for the daily supply of kudinir to god Rarganātha of the main temple.
(e) As regards the Dhanvantari-Emberunnan stated to have been consecrated in A. D. 1493, it is not definite if an already extant shrine was only renovated now. The incomplete record (B) of the time of Rāmanātha does not contain any allusion to it or to the provision of kudinir to god Ranganātha. The Köyilolugu, however, suvs that a shrine of this deity which had been in existence even long before the time of Rāmīnuja (purānasiddha) and had become dilapidated, was repaired during his trusteeship of the Srirangam temple and left in charge of his disciple 1 Nayakaw in the sense of the head of the hospital.
An. Rep. 2. S.I., 1909-10, p. 154 and No. 501 of 1904 of the Madras Epigraphical collection. • s. I. 1. (Texts), Vol. VIII, No. 88. The general is called Mahapradhanan Mandalikariyamarājan Singaus. Dannāyakka.
• No. 215 of 1914 of the Madras Epigraphical collection. • The name Singaradēma appoars to be a mistake for Singadova. •S. I. I., Vol. IV, No. 507. The verse reads :
Ajau Simhanam-unmadasya kariņo datra parartthanstuto
Drishtva Rāma-mahipateh prasamita-kshem-ābhishango bhuvah1 ? Köyilo'ngu, p. 40 cl. seq. * Loc. cit., p. 47. . In another place it is stated that Garudavāhana was included in the Tiruppuliyår class.
