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No. 9)
SRIRANGAM INSCRIPTION OF SADASIVARAYA ; SAKA 1467
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the east end and thus saw that there was no room for Kshudra elements to interfere and mounted & yantra so that nobody could live within the temple.'
This account has omitted to mention the important act of compensation arranged by the Jiyar and other technical measures adopted by him. Otherwise it corroborates some of the details given in our record.
About the date of this Jiyar our inscription does not give any indication except that he was & contemporary of a Chöļa king. However, the following facts may be stated here. We know of one Sriranga-Nārāyana Jiyar, who flourished in the 13th century A.C. and was connected with the administration of the Sriranganātha temple for a long time. This Jiyar was first known as Kūra-Nārāyana Jiyar in the early years of his career when he composed the Sudarsanašatakam. He was also known as Kura-Närāyana Kavi. His original name was Nārāyaṇa. He is stated to have received his initiation from Kūrattālvārk at Tirumāliruñjõlai-malai. Hence he was called Kūra-Nārāyaṇa Jiyar. The Köyiloļugu places the date of this Sudarsanašatakam in about the same period as that of Nañjiyar.' The facts stated about this. Nārāyaṇa Jiyar in the Köyilolugu and those mentioned in our inscription concerning Nalantiga! Nārāyana Jiyar would render it quite possible that the two persons are identical. The date of the events recorded about Nalantiga! Nārāyaṇa Jiyar must lie during the period of Kandādai Tõlappar, called Sēnāpati Dhurandharar, who was a contemporary of Nambillai, the successor of Nanjiyar. Hence Kūra-Nārāyana Jiyar alias Nalantigal-Nārāyana Jiyar must have lived as a contemporary of both Nanjiyar and Nambillai who were great acharyas in the line of Rāmānuja, and even lived further on. His long association with the administration of the temple had made him very popular and his admirers and friends ventured to establish a new pontifical seat named after him in rivalry with the established line of Rāmānuja and succeeded in making him the first Sriranga-Nārāyana Jiyar with special honours. Though the dates of these religious heads have not been settled accurately, it can be safely asserted that Nalantigal-Nārāyana Jiyar of our record lived from the middle of the 12th century up to the middle of the 13th. This inscription does not unfortunately give us any clue about the identity of the Chola king who is stated to have settled the dispute.
The technical expressions in which the ideas about the methods to prevent erosion are couched deserve special mention. The words kili-yāru and maladan-ayu and the cognate verbs from which these nouns are derived are very uptly expressive of the operations involved. The word kilittu embodies the sense of force conveyed by the action. The expression malaďu seyvittu is both literary and technical. The use of the word maladu is quite in keeping with the literary tradition of personifying rivers as women. At the same time the ineffectiveness of that section of the river and barrenness of that part of the land are precisely indicated. The names kili-yaru and maladanārus remind us of the small rivulets and channels in the vast distributary system of the Kåvēri and also of their names like koraiyāru (kuraiyāru), pettāru (perrāru) and valapparu(valarpparu). Perhaps Kilpalāru is the name of one such kind of water course. Palāru in this name may be a corrupted form of pillaiyaru, just a variant of perrāru. The divisions named after this aru came to be known as Kilpaläru and Melpalāru according to their directions from this āru.
1 Above, Vol. XXIV, p. 289.
* Köyilofugu, p. 108. Karattāļvār was a junior contemporary of the great Rāmānuja, and lived till about 1157 A.C.
• Ibid., p. 108 et. seq. • Ibid., p. 111.
There is one malattāpu in the island of Srirangam. This flows out from the Kávērt and runs to the left of and parallel to the main river; Srirangam Town Topographical Map, Reg. No. 25 (1946).
* SII, Vol. IV., No. 424. In line 5 of this inscription, both Kilpalaru and Mipalāru, i.o., Malpaláru are mentioned as belonging to Pachchir-kärram in Rajaraja-ralanadu, while Devadanam of our record belongs to Kilpaláru of Uraiyûr-kūsram.
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