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No. 37]
CAPE COMORIN INSCRIPTION OF KULOTTUNGA-CHOLA I
The inscription edited below is engraved on a pillar on the north of the mani-mandapa in front of the utsava shrine of the Kanyabhagavati temple. It belongs to the fourteenth year of the reign of Kulottunga-Chōladeva I (A.D. 1084). The record is in sixteen lines and occupies a space of 24 inches square. Some of the letters in lines 11, 12, 14, 15 and 16 are indistinct. The language and script of the inscription are Tamil and bear a close resemblance to those of the Tirukkalukkungam record of Kulottunga I'.
There are four inscriptions of Kulottunga I already published in the Travancore Archaeological Series. Two of them are from the Siva temple at Cholapuram and one from Väriyur in South Travancore. The present one is the fifth of his records discovered in Travancore and the first noticed at Cape Comorin. It refers to certain arrangements for the feeding of Brahmins in the temple of Kanya-Paṭariyar at Kumari situated in Purattaya-naḍu, a sub-division of Uttamachōla-valanādu in Rājāraja-Ppāṇḍināḍu.
Of the geographical places mentioned in the record Rajaraja-Ppāṇḍināḍu is the tract of land which included Kanyakumari or modern Cape Comorin. Uttamachōla-vaļanāḍu is a division of the Rajaraja-Ppäṇḍinādu. Purattaya-nāḍu means a nadu which is outside the country. The country east of Kōṭṭār was known in the olden days as Purattaya-nāḍu or the country outside Venad It was a sub-division of Uttamachōla-valanaḍu mentioned above. Rayakkudi, Perunkudi and Sengalûr are villages contiguous to Kanyakumari.
TEXT
1 Svasti Sri[*]Kulottunga-[Cholade]- 9 nnirandum Perunkuḍi-chchālā
2 varku yāṇḍu [padionālāvadu]
10 bōgattil kalam irupattira[n]dum 11 Segalar-āņa Šika....mangalat
3 Irajaraja-Ppandi-nāṣṭu] Ut
4 tama-Chōla-valanāṭṭu Puratta
275
12 tu=kkalam panniraṇḍum ......
5 ya-naṭṭu-Kkumari-Kkannilya-paṭā]ri- 13 Chchättanĕri-kkalam irandum &
6 yar köyillil Brāhmaṇarai amidu
14................i-chcha
7 cheyya-kkarpitta kalam nam' Raya
8 kkuḍi-chchālābōgattir-kalam pa
15 labōgattil [aimpa]du' Brāhmaṇā
16 ramirda variyil-iṭṭukkuḍuttöm [||*]
18. I. I., Vol. III, p. 165 ff.
T. A. S., Vol. I, pp. 242-248.
ABSTRACT OF CONTENTS
In the 14th (regnal) year of Kulottunga-Chōladēva (I), We have given for the feeding of Brahmins in the Kanniya-Paṭariyar temple at Kumari belonging to Purattaya-nāḍu, a subdivision of Uttamachōla-valanaḍu in Rajaraja-Ppäṇḍinadu: 12 kalams from our Rayakkuḍi sālābhogam (i.e., endowment of land for the maintenance of a rest house, etc.), 2 kalams from Perunkuḍi sālābhogam, 12 kalams from Sengalur alias Sikā......mangalam and two kalams from ....Chattanĕri.
3 Travancore State Manual (1906), Vol. I, p. 180.
[Reading is Narrirayakkuḍi; and this village is apparently the same as Narrirakkudi mentioned in the Kanyakumari inscription Virarajendra (7. A. S., Vol. III, p. 149, text-line 440).-N. L. R.]
[Reading is Sikaranamangalattu.-N. L. R.]
[Reading is ga kalam närpattu effum.-V. V.] [Reading is nimanta.-V. V.]
