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186
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JULY, 1896.
in all. The allusion might be also to the twenty-one insignia or marks of royalty which are counted as essential before one is crowned king. These are according to Tamil lexicons the following :-crown, umbrella, hair-fans, elephant-hook, drums, the discus weapon, elephants, banners, fortress, festoons, pots full of water, conches, seas, the sword-fish, garlands, turtles, a pair of carp-fish, lions, lamps, bulls, and a throne. Why this particular king came to be noted for the complete possession of all these marks of ancient Hindu royalty it is now impossible to say. Perhaps the occurrence of a fortress in the latter list might suggest that after the bitter experience of the previous century, the Vêņåd kings found it desirable to protect their kingdom by fortifying some of their rising towns. Mr. Shungoonny Menon (p. 93) writes: "'Sri-ViraRama-Mürtândavarman, who was then in his 28th year, was installed on the masnad in 510 M. E. This king reconstructed the palace near the pagoda at Trivandrum and built a fort round it." If we could be sure of this architectural activity, our conjecture would receive some sort of confirmation; but it is impossible to be positive about the facts stated. There would appear to have been in this early centary no regular palace in Trivandrum, the site now occupied by the palace being known, even in the extant old land records, as Pulluviļågam.
Bat whatever may have been the circumstances that led to the king's assuming the title of Sarvânganatha, there can be no question as to the date of this inscription. Cholapriya signifies, in the Katapayâdi system, the number 1296, and the word 'abda' usually refers to the SakAbda, or the Saka year. Sarvånganatha then constructed the beautiful mandapa in front of the temple of Krishna, as well as the rectangular enclosure called Goala, in the Saks year 1296, corresponding to the Kollam year 550 or A. D. 1874. It is rather remarkable that this first mention of the 'Saka year in the Travancore instriptions should be by a word which signifies also dear to the Cholas'- it being known that with the Pandyas and the Chêras the Kollam year was the more favoured one. If Mr. Shungoonny Menon be correct, then in his account of this early period, Sarvanganatha might be taken as a surname either of Sri-ViraRama-MÁrtándavarman, who according to this writer ruled over Travancore from 510 to 550, or of his successor Ravivarman, who died in 557.
XVI. But another inscription belonging to the same shrine leads us to a different conclusion. It consists of five Sanskpit ślók as engraved on the basement wall of the very mandapa, the construction of which is here recorded as having taken place in Saka 1296. The álókas might be rendered thus :16 Old Malayalam
. Second Trivandrum Inscription of Adityavarman.
No. 54.
Sanskfit
“Hail ! Prosperity ! Adityavarman, the brave among the brave, is he who has erected the Gósalá, Kțishna's shrine, and the mandapa, for the use respectively of cattle, the god Krishna, and the gods of the earth (viz. Brahmans). Lo ! there stand visible to all, the Goala, the mandapa, and the temple of Kțishņa: O dear friend! what else shall I say ? May all behold with admiration these three works executed by king Adityavarman, and worship Krishna with devotion. The pictures (i.e. the wood carvings) that adorn the ornamental mandapa in front of Krishna are such as attract and delight the eyes of all spectators. Stand, therefore, around this delightful mandapa, and gaze on those pictures so gratifying to the eyes!"
These ecstatic lines no doubt represent the feelings with which the author, along with the simpler folks of his times, beheld the elegant carvings on the mandapa, as they stood fresh from the chisels of the carpenter. We wish, however, he had been somewhat more calm in his enjoyment; for then he could have embodied in these five blokas, so laboriously incised into the stones, far more useful facts of history than his own esthetic impressions and rhapsodic exhortations. For instance, he could have for one thing told us the date of these works, about which we should be left utterly in the dark but for the inscription we have just explained.
