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No. 19] SEVEN VATTELUTTU INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE KONGU COUNTRY 95 No. 19-SEVEN VATTELUTTU INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE KONGU COUNTRY
(3 Plates)
K. V. SUBRAHMANYA ANYER, COIMBATORE Here are edited seven Vatteluttu inscriptions from the Kongu country. I am indebted to the Government Epigraphist for India, for sending me the impressions of these records. The first of them comes from Koduvāy and the rest from Piramiyam. Both the villages are situated in the Dhårāpuram Taluk of the Coimbatore District. A few words may be said here about Piramiyam where six out of the seven inscriptions edited below were found. It is an insignificant village situated on the bank of the Amaravati river and is 8 miles north-east of Dhārāpuram, the Taluk beadquarters. While the seven sacred temples of the Kongu province, celebrated in the hymns of the canonised Saiva saints Tirujfiānasambandhar, Appar and Sundaramürti-Nayanār, have failed to provide us with their history owing to their original structures having disappeared without leaving any vestiges of their past and having been replaced by new ones of later times, Piramiyam preserves one of the most ancient structural monuments of the province. This monument is dedicated to Siva and is attributable to at least the latter half of the tenth century A.D.
Tradition asserts that the region in which Piramiyam is situated was variously known as Dård. kāvanam, Karnikaravanam and Punnagavanam, that Brahman performed Yajila at this place to propitiate Siva and that the sage Agastya set up a linga in the place and blessed it to remain for all time under the name Valañjulinātha. It is further pointed out that Kongana, the son of a Magadha king, came here, gave himself up to austerities and became a siddha and was called Konganasiddha and that it was also hallowed by being the place where Idaiñani, & shepherd sage, spent most of his life time.
Virasangãta-chaturvēdimangalam is the name given in inscriptions to Piramiyam and it is said to be a brahmadēya in Teşkarai-nādu. The affix chaturvēdimangalam and brahmaděya indicate that it was originally given to Brāhmaṇas studying the four Vēdas and the prefix Virasangāta shows that it was called after a chief, king or general who had the distinction of being known as Virasangūta (i.e., Virasanghata), the slaughterer of warriors or heroes'. There is no direct evidence to show when the village came into existence. In one of the inscriptions edited below there figures a person holding the position of a minister and he is styled Virasangätan Sürriyadēvan Vanavan Uttaramantri alias Nānādēsiyanāţtu-Chetti. In the name Virasangātan Sürriyadávan the first part might indicate the patronymic of the person and, if so, it may be said that the village owed its name to the benefaction of thiş minister, and the village may be said to have been formed at the end of the 20th century A.D. when, as will be shown in the sequel, Virasola-KalimürkkaPerumal, who must have been the immediate predecessor of Kalimūrkka-Vikrama-Choļa-Könättan, flourished. The inscriptions of the place inform us that this Chaturvēdimangalam. like the others of its class, was subject to the assembly of the sabha. The modern name Piramiyam of the village
1 This river is also called Amabānadi, Anporunai or Apporundam or Amaravati. It is said to take ita rino from the Varaha hills.
* Sewell's List, Vol. 1., p. 220. • Tiruchehengodu, Kodumudi, Veijamäkküdalur, Karuvür, Bhavani, Avanädi and Tirumurugappandi.
• The foremost among the monuments so far known in the Kongu country are the two rook-cut templos at Namakkal, both dedicated to Vishnu. These temples of about the latter half of the soventh century A.D., are of exquisite workmanship and were perhaps executed by craftsmen who drew their inspiration from the master sculptors of the neighbouring Pallava territory, who had displayed their powerful imagination, deep learning in Agamio lore and high talent in wielding the chisel.
. ARSIE, 1920, No. 183. . See page 100, below..
