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No. 2-TIPPASAMUDRAM INSCRIPTION OF KAMPA-VIKRAMAVARMAN, YEAR 17
(1 Plate) J. SUNDARAM, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 9.1.1958)
The inscription1 edited below is engraved on a stone set up on the bund of the lake at Tippasamudram in the Vellore Taluk of the North Arcot District. The language of the record is Tamil and the characters used are Tamil and Grantha. The use of the archaic form of " in Vilupperaraiyan in line 13 is interesting.
This inscription is dated in the 17th regnal year of Kō-višai(ja)ya-Kampavikramavarman. Its object is to commemorate the digging of a channel called Vilupperaraiyan from the river to the lake at Valivalakkamangalam by Prithiyangaraiyar (Prithivigangaraiyar), the chief of the (nāḍu i-nnād-uḍaiya), and his wife Ilaḍapperundēviyar for the merit of Ayyakkutți-adigal who may have been their daughter.
The chief interest of this inscription lies in the mention herein of a Prithiyangaraiyar in the 17th regnal year of Kampavarman, apparently as a Pangala-nadu chief, since he is described as the chief of this naḍu', i.e. Pangala-naḍu in which the findspot of the record is situated. The identity of Prithiyangaraiyar can be established with reasonable certainty. An inscription from Sōlavaram, dated in the 8th regnal year of Kampavarman, mentions one Räjädittan Mahadevan who is stated to have built a tomb (atiytagaram or palli-ppadai) and a Siva temple at the place where his father Prithivigangaraiyar was buried. The name of this person implies that the son was called Mahādēva and his father Räjädittan. Probably Prithivigangaraiyar was Rajadittan's surname. The chief in our inscription also calls himself Prithiyangaraiyar and the interval between the Sōlavaram inscription and the present record is very short. These facts appear to suggest that Mahādēva, who should have succeeded his father in the chiefship in the ordinary course, also assumed the title Prithiyangaraiyar. This assumption is supported by the occurrence of the same or a similar title along with the names of the later chiefs of this family."
If the identification of the chief of the present record with Mahādēva and the supposition that the members of this family assumed the title Prithiyangaraiyar are correct, then we can say that some of the Prithivigangaraiyars occurring in inscriptions of about this period and region may have belonged to this family of chiefs who ruled over Pangala-nāḍu.5
The above identification again helps us to fix the period to which this Prithiyangaraiyar and bis overlord Kampavarman belonged. An inscription dated in the 26th regnal year of Rajakesarivarman, who on account of the high regnal year and the palaeography of the record has been identified with Chōla Aditya I, refers to one Mahadeva as the father of Gangama[r*]ttāṇḍar alias Sembiyan Prithivigangaraiyar. Again we hear of other sons of possibly the same Mahādēva in
1 A. R. Ep., 1939-40, No. 174.
* Above, Vol. VII, p. 193.
The son's name was taken to be Rājāditya while Mahadeva in Räjädittan Mahadevan was interpreted to mean 'the great king '(op. cit.). But we have many other instances of a son prefixing his father's name to his own, e.g., Nandi Kamplevara (ibil., p. 196), Ariñjiya-Pirantakadevar (A.R. Ep., 1920, No. 572), etc. The Sanskrit portion of the first of these inscriptions seems to support this view.
See A. R. Ep., 1939-40, No. 139; 1930-31, No. 177; SII, Vol. XIII, No. 319. It is not certain if Selvavanarayan, son of Amanigangaraiyar, figuring in an inscription dated in the 2nd year of Nandippottaraiyar (Nandivarman III) was an earlier member of the family (SII, Vol. XII, No. 45).
Above. Vol. IV, pp. 180 ff.; of. Vol. XXIII, pp. 145-46. SII, Vol. XIII, No. 319.
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