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68
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1893.
TRANSLATION. Prosperity! While the sixth year of the reign of Ko-Maran-Jadaiyan was corrent, sattan Ganapati, who was his (i. e. the king's) great feudatory (mahá-samanta), who resided in the village of) Karavantapura, (who belonged to the Vaidya (race), (and) who was the chief of Pandi-Amirdamangalam, repaired the sacred temple, the sacred tank (ári-tadága) and (all) that is charitable (in connection with this (tank). Besides, Nakkangorri, who was his lawful wife, built a temple of the goddess Durga and a temple of Jyêshthâ.87
As is seen from the above translation, this inscription is dated during the sixth year of the reign of Ko-Marai-Jadaiyan, and mentions & certain Sattan Ganapati, who was the chief of Pandi-Amirdamangalam, and was living in the village of Karavantapura, which is very probably identical with the Karavandapuram mentioned in the subjoined inscription. The characters in which the above short inscription is engraved, are the same as those of the present one. It is therefore not impossible that both of them belong to the reign of the same king.
In the long historical introdnction of the subjoined inscription, there is no clue as to the date of the grant. As palæography is a very unsafe guide in determining even the approximate dates of South Indian inscriptions, we must wait for further researches to enable us to ascurtain the date of the Pandya king Neduñjadaiyan. This inscription records the grant of the village of Volangudi in Ten-Kalavali-nadu, 68 whose name was subsequently changed into
Srivara-mangalam. The donee was Sujjata-Bhatta, the son of Sihu-Misra, who lived in the village of SabdAli which had been granted to the Brahmanas of the country of Magadha. SujjataBhatta may be a vulgar form of the name Sujata-Bhatta. The name Sihu-Mibra shews that the donoe's father must have been an immigrant from Northern India. Siha is the Prakrit form of the Sanskrit sinha, and Misra is a title borne by some of the Brahmaņas of Northern India. It is extremely interesting to learn that there was a colony of Magadha Brahmanas settled in the Pandya country. The circumstances under which, and the time when this settlement took place, are not known. The ajñapti of the grant was Dhírataran Mûrti-Eyipan, the great feudatory of the king and the chief of Viramangalam, who was born in the village of Vangalandai. Special reference is made to the excellence which his family had attained in music.
Some of the graphical peculiarities of the Tamil portion of the subjoined inscription require to be noted here. As in all other Tamil and Vatteluttu inscriptions, the longe and the longo are not marked, though I have, for practical reasons, made these marks in the transcript. The distinction between long and short i is not strictly observed. The i in karudi (line 54) and vali (line 80) seem to be distinctly long. In line 48, the i of virr appears to be short. In line 52 ni in nin and ni in nila are exactly alike. In the Sanskrit portion (line 8) sriyam may also be read áriyam. Mérku is written meklu in line 65. The most important, however, of these peculiarities is, that the rules of Tamil saindhi are not observed in many cases. Of these the following may be noted : -
Lipe 20 åņai orungudan instead of anai-y oruigadan. add-oli
fadáv-oli. 24. ma-irum
mâv-irum. , 24f. A-ira
Ayira.
# Jy shtha or, in Tamil, Sattai or Modéri, the elder sister,' is the goddess of misfortane, who is believed to be the eldor sister of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth ; see South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. II. p. 60, note 7.
The Tiruppuranam copper-plate grant, which has been referred to more than once, mentions a village called Vélangadi (Plate ri a, line 18) and a river called Kajavali nadsp-aru (Plate xia, lines 8 and 10). Perhaps the village of Vélangudi granted by the present inscription belonged to a district which was situated to the south of the above-mentioned river, and which was, consequently, called Tep-Kalavali-nada. Compare the name Vadakarai. R.Ajendraithe vulanada, which occurs repeatedly in the Tanjore insuriptions (South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. II. No. 4 Duyanaple 18, and passim), and in which Vadakari, the northern bank,' is wed with reference to the river Kavert.
