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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXIV.
Garudavāhana. The correctness of this statement is not now capable of architectural verification, as the present shrine is the result of a somewhat jumbled reassembling made in A. D. 1493 of stones and pillars from older structures.
The shrine of Dhanvantari-Emberumāņ or the Divine Physician' is quite an appropriate adjunct to a hospital, as he is the patron-deity of the art of healing. Dhanvantari, the father of Indian Medicine, was produced at the churning of the Ocean' and came out with a vessel of nectar in his hands. But according to the Bhāgavatapurāna, Dhanvantari was also one of the twenty-two avatārasof god Vishnu; and appropriately enough he is represented in this shrine as a four-handed image wielding the discus and the conch in the back pair of hands, while one of the frontal pair of hands is in the abhaya pose, and the other carries his special attribute the amrita-kalasa. Shrines to Dhanvantari have not been met with elsewhere in any of the numerous temples of Vishnu in South India, and, as such, this shrine and its deity acquire & special iconographic importance.
(1Similarly also the image of Eduttalai-alagiya-Nāyaṇār or the god beauteous with the uplifted hand' referred to here is of iconographic interest, as it furnishes a rare instance in which an image ensoonced in the gopura of a temple gets the status of separate worship. This stucco image of Narasimha represented with one of his arms raised aloft in the act of striking down Hiranyakaśipu, forms the central figure facing north in the first tier of the northern gópura of the fourth präkära; and a lofty mandapa erected on a high platform in front of it serves the purpose of & shrine for the image. In Vaishnava hagiologies, Alinādan or Tirumangai-Alvar is stated to have built this gopura for the god'; but the ascription of the image and the gopura in their present form to such an early date cannot be substantiated by structural or inscriptional evidence. In literary tradition, this deity is said to have nodded his head in appreciation of Kamba's Rāmāyana, when that poet expounded it to a literary coterie in the mandapa in front of this selfsame gopura; and some verses of that work* eulogising the Narasimha incarnation are believed to have been composed in specific reference to this deity. Be that as it may, this god and the gopura are described in the Srirangarājastara of Parabara-Bhatta (c. A. D. 1150), the son of Srivatsankamisra (Kūrattālvār) and the successor of Rāmānuja on the pontifical seat at Srirangam. The name Eduttakai-alagiya-Nāyaṇār is mentioned in some inscriptions of the temple-of ViraRāmanātha (c. A.D. 1257), of Jaţävarman Sundara-Pandya I (c. A.D. 1269) and of Märavarman Kulasēkhara (c. A. D. 1272).
(9) Irandakalam-edutta-Perumal Kudal Chakravāļanambi alias UttamanambiPillai, who was evidently the sole Trustee of the temple at the time of this record, belonged to the Uttamanambi family, several of whose members are said to have wielded great influence with the contemporary kings of the Vijayanagara dynasty, perhaps as trustees of their munificent benefactions to the Srirangam temple. The Koyilolugu mentions some of them, such as, Valiyadimai. nilaiyitta-Uttamanambi, his brother Uttamanambi-Chakrarāyar (Saka 1337), TirumalaināthaUttamanambi (Saka 1366) and Kpishộarāya-Uttamanambi (Saka 1409).
Loc. cit., p. 43. * T. A. Gopinatha Rao's Elements of Hindu Iconography, Vol. I, p. 123.
• Köyilolugu, p. 10. The orthodox date for Tirumangai-Alvår is B. C. 2714, but he could have lived only about A. D. 800.
• Kamba-Ramayanam, Hiranyan-vadai-ppadalam. . Vyåpi rūpam=apigoshpadayitvā bhaktavatsalatay-orjjhita-vélam
Tad-vishantapa-Nrikosari-rūpam gõpur-Opari vijrimbhitam=ido ! (v. 46) Nivasad=upari-bhāge gopura Ranga-dhamnah Kvachana nriparipati väsitam kväpi simham | (v. 47). • Nos. 99, 80 and 23 of 1936-37 of the Madras Epigraphical collection.
Loc. cit., pp. 121, 123, 124 and 128.
