________________
174
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXXII therefore, seems to indicate & variety of land. The Mapradia were thus granted two varieties of land. Ponpadunilam is one variety and the other variety is qualified by the term kombu. While the former refers to the most fertile class of land usually situated near the residential site or central belt of fields in a village, the latter may refer to land situated in the outlying parts of the village." This meaning seems to be quite in accord with the context.
The term poppadu-nilom means golden land', i.e. the most fertile land. It may be mentioned here that in every village, the lands are classified into several categories according to their fertility. By specifying the land as ponpadu-mlam it is presumable that the place referred to in this inscription should also have other categories of less fertile lands and that the practice of classifying the land is an ancient one. Buoh expressions as atuapayan, meykkattu and melieluttag are equally interesting. Of these, the term meykkatu, as indicated above, is in vogue even today. The adjectives preceding the names of individual Manrādis such as panjirriyan seem to stand for the names of various classes among them. Of these adjectives mallan continues to be in vogue to this day.
The locality called Panriyūr was probably situated in the ancient Pandyan kingdom, though it is not possible to identify it.
TEXT
First Side 1 1 peru[va"]du [l*] ārāļļu-[k*]kāpam samūha‘ttil pannirandu ūžtta-payan kür-i2 ţţu ko!!um mudalum ūţta-kkuraivum ārāţtu-p[panaiyam=āga koļvadu [l*) A3 fțil-paļliyār panikk-uriyār ärādu-näļ rottar kala nel peruvadu [l*] Pa4 pri ūrāruñ=kālärun pāțţam äļavum taliy-āļavum perár [l*] kombin nel 6 uljūr mey-kkāţtiņāl kūjai vilaiy=äga kaļattilē kūr-ittu koļvadu [l*) i-chchëri6 [kku] Maprādigal Pañjirriyan Vattam Poduvaņum Püsal Kāvan-chellanu . 7 m [chērl]ppan Nilar-kāvaņum Mallan Kávama[rai]'yan Kūrran Kõdai Araiyanu8 m Mallan sättam Vattaņum [l*) Sättam Vattanukku kombil kālē-māgāpiyum ma9 x[rai] Manrādigaļukku pon-padu-nilattu orottarkku käl chey'yum kombil ro10 tta[rkku] mā[gāņi]yum uludu Dēvarrodum pādi itt-unpadu [l*) nilakkāņam kār-chey
1 [This explanation is not convincing. The meanings given by the author for the word kombu in the two contexts are contradictory. In the first instance aleo it may mean paddy grown in the kombu variety of land'. The Tamil Lexicon explains the word as the farthest end of a lank bund'.-Ed.)
From the original plate. . Its head has been effaced due to corrosion of the plate; so it looks like pa. • The word samüha is in Grantha.
This expression which has its variant oröllar in line 9, is in vogue id the Ramanathapuram, Madurai and Tirunelveli Districts as well as in Kerala.
• This is a mistake for ti. * There is a dot over this letter.
In the Ramanathapuram District, a chey is a measure of land, also called md, comprising sixteen mundirle which is approximately equal to of a veli or 24 acres. [Ma was one-twentieth of a otli in those days. -Ed.]
. Read Devarodu. The letter m is incised below the letter pd.
