Epigraphia Indica Vol 28

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 78

No. 6]
JAVANTINATHAPURAM INSCRIPTION OF VARAGUNA-MAHARAJA
tioning Varaguna alone but likewise dated in years 'opposite to 4.' At Lälgudi, about 4 miles from Javantinathapuram, were found two records, one of which refers itself to the reign of Marañjadaiyan alias Pandya-kulapati Varaguna-Mahārāya and dated in the 4+9th year of his reign. The other which does not specify the ruling king is dated in the regnal year 4+1. The former contains the additional details of date, viz., Dhanus, Tuesday, Sadaiyam. These details show that this record was issued just one day later than the Javantinathapuram inscription under study. Mr. K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyar who has edited these two inscriptions1 worked out the date of the record containing astronomical details, as equivalent to A.D. 824, Nov. 29, Tuesday, after taking into consideration several alternatives. The other record, which mentions as donor the Pallava king Nandivarman III, the victor of Tellāru, he assigned to A.D. 816. He assigns both the inscriptions to Varaguna I. Accepting for the nonce the correctness of the date proposed by Mr. K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyar for the record giving astronomical details, the date of our record would be Monday, Nov. 28, A.D. 824, which is the day on which the details found in it tally. But as will be shown presently, the above dates for the Lalguḍi inscription and for our epigraph are not acceptable on several grounds, one of which is the existence of still another set of corresponding dates for them which compels acceptance in preference to any other alternative. These are A.D. 875, December 5, Monday for our record and December 6, Tuesday for the Lalgudi record B. It is found that by accepting these dates we get A.D. 861-2 as the year of accession of this Pandya king, a date which is precisely the same as the one obtained for Varaguna from the Aivarmalai (Ayyampalayam) inscription which couples his eighth year of reign with Saka 792.3 Scholars are agreed that this Varaguna is identical with Varagunavarman II, the son and successor of Srimāra, of the Pandya genealogy furnished in the Bigger Sinnamanur plates of Sadaiyamaran (Rajasimha). Yet another record of Pandya-Mahārāja Mārañjadaiyan at Tiruvellarai dated in the 4+9th year of reign contains the astronomical details, Vrischika, Monday, Asvati which correspond to A.D. 874, November 22, Monday, yielding A.D. 861-2 as the initial year of the king's reign. It would follow from all this that the king who consistently issued his records in the years 'opposite to 4' though variantly called Marañjadaiyan, Varaguna and Marañjadaiyan alias Varaguna-Mahārāja may be considered as one and the same ruler and identical with Varagunavarman II, the eldest son and successor of Śrīmāra Śrivallabha and whose accession took place in A.D. 861-2. It will not be wrong to arrive at this conclusion since we have a similar instance in respect of another Pandya king, Sadaiyamaran, most of whose records being dated in regnal years 'opposite to 2' enable us to identify him with Sadaiyamaran Rajasimha, the donor of the Bigger Sinnamanur plates which were issued in the 2+14th year of his reign."
Another important consideration which would make the dates proposed by Mr. K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyar for the Lalgudi inscriptions A and B assigning them as he did to Varaguna I unacceptable is that while the Lalgudi record A, the date of which is fixed at A.D. 816 by Mr. Aiyar, mentions as donor Pallava Nandivarman III, the victor of Tellāru, latest researches show that this king ruled approximately between c. 851 and 873 A.D. and not between c. 812 and 844 A.D., as held by Mr. Subrahmanya Aiyar; for, it can now be accepted as more or less correct that Nandivarman II, the
1 Above, Vol. XX, pp. 46 ff.
Mr. M. S. Sarma in a paper entitled Prithvipati, Varaguna and Aparajita in J.O.R., Vol. IX, pp. 227-8, equates the date of the Lälgudi record B with December 5th, Tuesday, A.D. 780. This date is rather too early to be accepted in view of the reasons set out by us above.
No. 705 of 1905 of the Mad. Ep. Coll.
39
8.1.I., Vol. III, p.449; Pandyan Kingdom (1929), p. 45.
No. 84 of 1910 of the Mad. Ep. Coll. ; above, Vol. XI, p. 253. Mr. Sarma, however, gives A.D. 780, November 13, Monday as its equivalent (J.O.R., Vol. IX, p. 228). Mr. K. V. S. Aiyar ascribing the record to Varagupa I gives the corresponding date as A.D. 824, November 7, Monday (above, Vol. XX, p. 50 and n. 3, p. 51).
S.I.I., Vol. III, pp. 441 ff.