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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXVIII
in two stone records of Parantaka I dated in his 12th regnal year,' i.e. A. D. 919, the engagement must have been fought prior to this date, say about A. D. 918.From the way in which the incidents of the battle are described in the Chola records, it would appear that it was a fierce and undecisive fight. Victory is claimed for the Chola king in the Udayēndiram record of Prithivipati II, issued a few years later in the reign of Parantaka I in A. D. 921-2, which evidently narrates the events of the same battle though it omits to mention the places. On the other hand, the Bigger Sinnamanür plates issued by the Pandya king in his 2+14th regnal year, embody an elaborate eulogy of his victories over his enemies including that over the king of Tañjai, i.e. the Chola.. It seems likely that the Pāņdya king was just giving his version of the same conflict with Parāntaka I, which culminated in the Veļļūr battle. If such be the case, the 2+14th year of the Pandya king's reign might be equated with a date around A. D. 918. The Ceylonese chronicle, Mahāvaṁsa, relates that in the reign of Dappula IV (A. D. 923-934), 'the Pandu king, through fear of the Chola (king), left his country, took ship and came to Mahātittha' and then having made an unsuccessful attempt to rouse the Ceylonese to fight his cause, the Pāņu king left his diadem and other valuables behind and betook himself to the Keralas'.S No mention of the Pandu king's fate is made in the subsequent portion of the chronicle, though a reference therein to an attempt made by the Chõļa king to get possession of the Pandya king's diadem is found among the events of the reign of king Udaya IV (A. D. 945-953).* We may, therefore, conclude that the Pāņdya king never returned to rule over his country again. His flight to Ceylon must have taken place soon after his 2+22nd regnal year, the highest date found in his records. The presence of the Chola king Parantaka I in A. D. 921-3 at Kudumiyamalai' once forming part of the Pandya king's territory, must have hastened the flight of the Pandya. The event may be placed approximately about A. D. 926-7, i.e., his 2+22nd regnal year since, as we saw, his 2+14th year lay somewhere about A. D. 918-9. In the light of all this, we may fix the period of the rule of Sadaiyamaran Rajasimha as lying between c. 903 and 926-7 A. D.
In the subjoined inscription (A) of his, mention is made of Perumāņadigal Sivalluvadēvar (Srivallabha), who is stated to have made the original grant of the village of Sāļaigrāmam to god Varaguna-Isvara. Among the Pandya kings who preceded Sadaiyamāran Rajasimha there was only one king of the name of Srivallabha, i.e., Srimāra, the grandfather of Sadaiyamāgan Rajasimha. It is evidently this king Srimāra who is referred to here and if so, the god Varaguņa-Isvara must have been named after a Varaguņa, a predecessor of Srimāra Srivallabha, who was in all probability Varaguna I (c. A. D. 800). Successive kings of the Pandya dynasty seem to have bestowed their patronage on the temple and worshipped the deity from the time of Varaguna I (c. A. D. 800) to that of Sõlan-ralai-konda Vira-Pāņdya of the subjoined ins. B, the period of whose rule we may now proceed to discuss.
Earlier in this article it has been stated that Solan-ralai-konda Vira-Pandya of inscription B could not have been far removed from Sadaiya Magar in point of time since the palaeography of their records is so much alike. The latter's rule, as we saw, may be placed approximately between . A. D. 903 and 927. Vira-Pandya should, therefore, be relegated to the same period, though not exactly to the same dates, since it is not likely that both the kings ruled simultaneously.
No. 231 of 1926 and 693 of 1904 of the Mad. Ep. Coll.: 8.1. 1., Vol. IIL No. 99, pp. 231-33. Prof. Nilakanta Sastri puts the date about A. D. 915 (Colas, Vol. I, p. 146.) 18.1.1., Vol. II, p. 383, text 11.24 ff; vv. 10-11, • Ibid., Vol. III, pp. 456, 461; text 11.123 ff.
Mahavarhsa (Culavamsa), ch. 53, vv. 5 ff.; Colas, Vol. I, p. 147. • Ibid., ch. 53, vv. 40 ff; Colas, Vol. I, p. 148.
* No.351 of 1904 of the Mad. Ep. Coll. Inscriptions in Pudukottah State (Translated into English), pt. I (1941), Nos. 79 to 80A.
o. A. D. 900 to 920 or a little lator is the date given to this king in Pandyan Kingdom, pp. 41 and 82.
