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OCTOBER, 1895.)
EARLY SOVEREIGNS OF TRAVANOORE.
283
But of course all this is more or less pure speculation, and must remain as ench only, until it can find support in inscriptions or other indubitable facte. Unfortunately, though Arriagal has within a small area more than four fair temples, tostifying to its once affluent circumstances, there is in none of them any inscription referring to early historical facts. The temple that would appear to be now most closely associated with the palace, is the one called Pattankaya or 'new grove,' dedicated to Bhagavati. It is Bhagavati again that is worshipped in the old local palace, under the name of Palli-arai Bhagavati, or the bed chamber Bhagavati.' It is rather difficult to determine whether the Bhagavati of the bed chamber' is really a goddess, or only a deified ancestor, say, the last of the independent queens of Arringal. To the west of the palace, and in close contiguity with the principal Vaishnava temple of the station, stands & small neat shrine, dedicated to Pero-Udaiyâr, 70 apparently the same deity as is worshipped in the Rajarajêávara temple at Tanjore, but sadly unlike that model in having no inscriptions whatever. About two miles to the east of Arringel, and not far to the west of the populons Brahmaza village, called Avanamchêri, 71 lies & petty hamlet with the laistorical name of Virakeralam, now corrapted into Virapam. An old neglected temple in this village owns the earliest inscriptions I can find in this locality. There are two of them in this temple, but both of them are extremely disappointing fragments. The first is inscribed on the north-eastern corner of the shrine itself, while the second is engraved on the altar outside the square enclosure now in rains. How incomplete they are will be seen from the renderings below:
No. 8A Vattejuttu 83. Tamil
Viranam Inscription of () Vira-Kóralavermná II., No. 1. “Hail! Prosperity! In the Kollam year 368, with Jupiter in Virgo, and the sun two days old in Taurus, Kilp"
o 8B Vatteluttu NO. 88. Tamij.
“ Viraṇam Inscription of (P) Vira-Koralavarman II., No. 2.
Virane “Srt-Davadarama Keralavarma-Tiruvaời graciously consecrated [this shrie)."
It is of course impossible to say now whether these two broken inscriptions form parta of the same record, or even whether they relate to the same subject. But should we venture to connect them together, which of course is by no means safe, though not an unprecedented procedure in epigraphy, we should have evidence of some sort for the date of another sovereign presumably of Vêạid. I say presumably only, because it is quite possible that Kéraļa varman, who founded this temple, belonged to an independent principality, say, to Arriogal itself. The word Kilppêrûr, with the first syllable of which the first fragment breaks off, is intended to refer no doubt to Kilppörar-illam or honse, by which the ruling family is designated in later inscriptions; but since earlier documents in my possession do not mention any such housename, it is by itself no guarantee that the reference is to the Vêņâde dynasty, at least before its fusion with the Arriigal or some other more northern royal house, as observed above. Only after these possible sources of error are duly provided for, can we conclude, even suppos. ing the two fragments to relate to the same subject matter, that there reigned over vanad one Kerala varma-Tiruvadi about the beginning of Idavam 868 M. E., or about the latter hell of May 1193. Still, as the balance of evidence is in favour of such a presumption, we will
7. Paru. Udaiyar does not mean, as both people and pandits now generally suppose, tho 'god of copious clothing.' but the "great lord or master." Ulaiyar was further the family name of RAjarkja and other Cholm of his dynasty.
71 It is curious how falae learning interferes with etymology. Fastidious scholara now pronounce this name Avanavancheri, and suppone it to signify every one's own village,' and not the village with a market' mit may be so naturally and so easily taken to mean,
T2 The word is not DévadAm, but clearly Devad ram, though I cannot make out what it means.
