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280
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1895.
of tantalizing phraseology, with a view to suggest and yet to hide the thoughts to be expressed; it therefore behoves us to look into the lines a little closer.
Though the word Dhanus (bow) is evidently intended to suggest that Aditya Rama was, not only the inheritor of the state umbrella of Kôda Mârtânda, but also the carrier of his bow, or perhaps his standard bearing that device of the Chêra sovereigns,50 yet, being in its locative case, it cannot but mean 'the month of Dhanus,' i. e., the month in which the sun is in the sign. of Sagittarius. Similarly, the expression "when life was at its height" has its obvious astronomical interpretation. Jiva means Jupiter, and astrology assumes that that favourite planet reaches its 'height,' when it is in the sign of Cancer.60 The use of the word Golamba again, or, as it is now more usually spelt, Kalamba, indicates that somewhere close by lies buried the year of the inscription in the Kolamba or Kollam era, the discovery of which, however, in old verses like the one before us, is often as difficult as a feat of astrological divination itself. A reference to Dr. Burnell's South-Indian Palæography, pages 77 to 80, would shew the extent of the resources at the disposal of the Sanskrit versifier to find convenient sepulchres for the date he might occasionally condescend to embalm in his measured lines. But in the case before us there can be no doubt that the symbolism followed is what is called the Katapayadi system of giving conventional numerical values to the letters of the alphabet; and the word whose component letters are here to be so valued, can be none else than Mártánda, the words immediately preceding the term Kolamba. No other term in the neighbourhood is capable of expressing a possible past date in that era. I scruple not, therefore, to conclude that the date of this document is Dhanus 365 M. E., or about the end of December 1189, when, astrologically speaking, Jupiter was in the zenith of his power in that part of the heavens which is graced by the figure of the crab.
But for the present inquiry, it is more to the point to know who was then in power here below in Travancore. "The prosperous and honoured soul of the earth" at that period, we are told, was one Aditya Râma. But with all my appreciation for the poet's feelings of loyalty, and commiseration for the common weakness to exaggerate the glory of the powers that are, I cannot but still complain that he did not somehow manage to put in Vênâd' instead of the whole earth. For as the lines now stand, it is not impossible for a sceptic to question whether Aditya Râma did really belong to that Vênâd dynasty whose history we are here. engaged in tracing. I do not, however, for my part, feel that there can be much scope for any legitimate doubt on the point, particularly with the information placed at our disposal by the inscriptions Nos. IX. and X. in the sequel. But the poet makes amends for this defect by the mention of an important ancestor of Aditya Râma. Aditya Râma is said to have been "the bearer of the umbrella of Kôda Mârtânda, the lord of Kôlamba," which cannot but mean that he inherited from the latter his umbrella, or crown as we would now say, since one described as the honoured soul of the earth' could not have been the personal servant of another individual.
Who then was this Kôda Martanda, "the Isa or god of Kôlamba ?" Kolamba is usually taken as the Sanskrit name for the Malabar era, otherwise called the Kollam year. It is sometimes assumed to have been the ancient name of the seemingly modern
59 In old classical times, the bow was the emblem of the Cheras, as the fish was of the Pandyas, and the tiger of the Cholas.
This is certainly the interpretation according to current astrology, but it scarcely seems to me to be correct. Jupiter was in the sign of Cancer in 348 according to our inscription No. 6, and, his period of revolution being roughly taken as 12 years, it is impossible that he should be again in the same sign in 365. It is possible that astrology has changed, or that the expression at its height' has no special astrological meaning in this connection. On the other hand, since inscription No. 8AI (post, page 283) assigns Jupiter to Virgo in 368, he must have been somewhere about Cancer in 865. But inscriptions Nos. 9 and 10 again locate Jupiter in Cancer in 371 and 384, and all the subsequent notices agree with them. All the references to astronomical acts in these early records requir verification. I give them in these pages as I find them
For instance, vide page 163, Part III., Travancore Government Almanac for 1894.
