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192
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JULY, 1896.
and not 1423. But even taking the latter date as the correct time for the original Ettappa Nøyaka, since we are told that only "in process of time" his successors established themselves at Ettaiyapnram, we cannot imagine how the "chief of Ettaiyaparam" could have invaded Valliyar, not far from Cape Comorin, in the lifetime of Mr. Shangoonny Menon's ChêraUdayamártândavarman, who according to the author died in 619 M. E. or A. D. 1444.
But this last date raises a difficulty yet more formidable. We learn from an inscription at Navayakkalam, in the Chirayinkil tâluk, dated 7 a. m., Monday, Pushya star, panchami, the 22nd Edavam, Kollam year 614, that the king of Vênid on that date was SriVira-Rama-Mártandavarman, and it is therefore impossible that Mr. Shungoonny Menon's Chera-Udayamartanda varman, whether he was or was not identical with our Sri-Vira-KeralaMartandavarman of 578, could have reigned up to 619, that is, full five years after the crown had passed to another individual. But curiously enough Mr. Shungoonny Menon mentions some sixty pages earlier and quite in another connection, an "inscription on the inner stonewall of the Chéramabadevi pagoda, dated Malayalam or Kollam year 614 (1439 A. D.), commemorating a grant by the Travancore king Chora-Udayamartandavarman to the pagoda at that place while the grantee was residing in the Cheramahâdêvi palace." It is possible, of course, to reconcile the two inscriptions by supposing that Mr. Shungoonny Menon's is dated a month or so earlier than onrs, in which case the year 614 would be the date both of the death of Chera-Udayamártândavarman and of the accession of Sri-Vira-Rama-Mártandavarman. But in scientific researches nothing can be more dangerous than taking matters on trust. We have therefore to examine the Chêramahâdêyi inscription afresh. The Nâvâyakkalam inscription, also, is too important to be hurriedly disposed of. Until, then, these two inscriptions are fully discussed, we may provisionally suppose that Sri-Vira-Kerala-MártandaVarman was otherwise known also as Chera-Udayamartandavarman, and that he continued to rule till the end of the sixth Malabar century - the period here taken up for investigation.
Conclusions. Before concluding I shall briefly recount the results arrived at in this paper. Unlike the fourth and fifth centuries dealt with in my previous paper, the sixth has not been left a pure blank in the history of Travancore, to be filled up by epigraphy. Besides Mr. Shungoonny Menon's History, which I have more than once alluded to, there is a more authoritative publication, the Government Almanac, in which will be found a list of 35 sovereigns of Travancore, of whom the first four fall within our period. We have therefore to present the results of our inquiry in two aspects a positive and a negative, consisting respectively of what we are able to affirm and what we are able to deny. The facts we affirm are :(1) that in Saka 1296, corresponding to the Kollam year 550, the king of Vêņad was AdityaTarman surnamed Sarvanganatha ; (2) that on the 27th Mêsham, 578 M. E., or Saka 1325, the same country was governed by Sri-Vira-Kerala-Mårtanda varma-Tiruvadi of Kilappêrûr; and (3) that on the 22nd Rishabha, 614 M. E., the king of the country was Sri. Vira-RamaMártándavarman. These few facts, no doubt, have many gaps ; but so far as they go, they are indubitable - or to be strictly accurate - very nearly 80. Being such, they enable us to deny, with proportionate confidence, certain statements commonly believed to be true on the strength of the authorities above named, Mr. Shungoonny Menon's list of Travancore kings for the same period would stand thus:-- (1) Adityavarman, who died in 510 M. E.; (2) Sri-Vira-RamaMartåndavarman, who reigned from 510 to 550; (3) Ravivarman, who ruled from 550 to 557; (4) Keralavarma-Kulaśêkhara-Perumal, who died 3 months after his coronation in 557; and (5) Chêra-Udayamártándavarma-Kalasekhara-Perumal, who ruled from 557 to 619..
The list in the Travancore Almanac omits Adityavarman, and begins with his successor in the above table. From the way in which it is printed with no reference to Mr. Shungoonny Menon's History, one would be led to think that it had some independent foundation, but closer examination tends to shew that its independence consists entirely in its orthography. Year after year for
