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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXVIII
ty in the way of assigning the dates, viz. A. D. 937-8 to 957-8 to Vira-Pandya and A. D. 956-7 to 969-70 to Aditya II as a possible alternative to those fixed by Mr. Ramanatha Ayyar, although these dates would help in narrowing down the interval between Vira-Pandya and his predecessor Sadaiyamaran Rajasimha (c. 903 to 926-7) to about a decade' and would also help to solve the Aditya II-Parthivēndra identification. It should be also admitted that with the revised dates the identity of the Chōla king whose head Vira-Pandya took would remain unsettled since he cannot be identified with Parantaka I as proposed by Mr. Ramanatha Ayyar. We may, nevertheless, suggest that the Chōla victim of Vira-Pandya might have been a less conspicuous prince, perhaps one of the sons of Parantaka I, Uttamasili. Of Uttamasili we hear nothing subsequent to A. D. 933 when he makes an endowment to a temple at Kandiyur, Tanjore District, in the 26th year of the reign of his father, Parantaka I.
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The position occupied by Solan-ralai-konda Vira-Pandya in the Pandya genealogy still remains undetermined. That he might have been the son of Sadaiyamaran Rajasimha himself has been suggested by Mr. Ramanatha Ayyar.3 This may not be unlikely in view of the fact mentioned in the Larger Sinnamanur plates that Rajasimha had 'prosperous sons worshipping at his feet'. Granting that Vira-Pandya was one of them, it still remains inexplicable why he does not call himself as Sadaiyan, being son and successor of Maran Rajasimha. Could it be that these names Saḍaiyan and Maran were alternately used only by the anointed supreme sovereigns of the Pandya throne, and that Vira-Pandya was not perhaps anointed and hence could not lay claim to such a title ? We know that the Pandya diadem and other regalia of supreme rulership necessary for such anointment were left in Ceylon by Rajasimha and were not recovered by the Pandyas even up to the time of Udaya IV (A. D. 945-93). The importance of these regalia for the exercise of supreme authority over the Pandya kingdom seems to have been recognised by the Chōla king Parantaka who wished to achieve consecration a king in the Pan lya kingdom and sent (messengers) concerning the diadem and other things which the Pandu (king) had left behind (in Lanka) as the Mahavamsa succinctly relates.
A word about the term ōlai occurring in inscription B (line 59). In ordinary parlance the word is understood to mean order or document'. In literary usage? we find it equated to vaṇam in the same sense. Avanam is evidently derived from Skt. śravanam causing to be heard'. Similarly, lai would signify an order or document. The Tamil Lexicon gives apana as the Sanskrit root of avaṇam, meaning market. It seems that it would be better to derive the word rom krivanam. Expressions found in inscriptions such as vilai-y-avanam-seydus or vilai
1 It may be noted that Chōla Parantaka I's records in the Pandya country fall partly in this interval, e.g., (1) No. 446 of 1917 of the Mad. Ep. Coll. dated 24th year= A. D. 932; (2) No. 63 of 1905 of the same collection (S. I. I., Vol. III, No. 106) dated year 33-A. D. 940 and (3) No. 448 of 1917 of the same collection dated year [36]= [943] A. D. See Colas, Vol. I, p. 422 and n.
28. I. I., Vol. V, No. 575. This prince was in the Pandya country in the 24th regnal year of his father, i.e. A. D. 931 (No. 446 of 1917 of the Mad. Ep. Coll.)
'Above, Vol. XXV, p. 38.
S. I. I., Vol. III, p. 461, text 1. 139.
Colas, Vol. I, p. 148.
Ibid. Mahavamsa (Culavansa), ch. 53, vv. 40 ff. Here it may be pointed out that it was Rajendra Chola I who gained possession of the regalia from the Ceylonese king with whom they had remained all the time since they were first deposited with him by the Pandya king Rajasimha. It was after this event that Rajendra Chōla I crowned his son as the ruler of the Pandya country.
'Periyapuranam, (Kovai Tamil Sangam ed.), vv. 190, 193, 207.
S. I. I., Vol. III, No. 10, text 11. 2, 10 and 11. The translation of the words given here as executed the sale doed' would perhaps be better rendered as having declared its price'; cf. vilai-pramāṇam-panni occurring in similar context in inscriptions.
