Indian Antiquary Vol 54

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 17

JANUARY, 19261
CHERAMAN-PERUMAL-NAYANAR
11
(ii) The Periyapuranam, which has been acknowledged to be a quasi-historical compilation, denuded of the few supernatural incidents that may not be acceptable in a strictly critical sense, does not however supply in the lives of Chêramån-Perumal or of his N&yanmar contemporaries any clue that could help in the determination of their age with certainty. We only know that, on the abdication of a Chêra king named Sengôrporaiyan who was ruling at Kodungôlar, the next in succession, Perum Akkôdaiyar, the Saiva devotee, ascended the throne. But unfortunately the names Sengôrporaiyan (the just Chêra) and Perumakkodaiyar (the great Chêra) sound more like titles than individual appellations, Poraiyan and Kodai being but synonymous with Chêra. Although it may be hazardous to assert that they do not represent the distinctive names of two Chêra kings, 15 they are however a pair of designations too vague to yield any historical landmark. The Chola and Pandya contemporaries of Chêraman are also referred to by their dynastic titles of valavan and tenpavar, which are absolutely useless for purposes of definite identification. The life-sketches of the Nayanmar contemporaries of this king are also similarly barren of information, except that Sundara is mentioned to have been the protégé of a certain Narasingamunaiyaraiyan, the chief of Miladu, who had his headquarters at Tirukkāyilor in the South Arcot District, and Sundara himself refers to a weak Pallava king of that period, to whom his vassals stopped the payment of tribute. From the Tirunavalûr and Tirukkôyilûr inscriptions a few generations of Mil&du chiefs with names Narasimha and Rama are understood to have ruled in the years A.D. 954, 957, 1059 and 1149, and it is just possible, although it cannot be taken as a definite datum, that a Narasingamunaiyaraiyan may have lived in the beginning of the ninth century A.D. as Sundara's patron, 16 The reference to the Pallava also points to a period when the Pallava power was at a low ebb, and this fits in well with the later years of the reign of Dantivarman (780-830), when Tondai-mandalam had been invaded from the north by Govinda III (804) and from the south by the Pandya Varaguna I (825)17.
(ii) The Tiruvilaiyadar-puranam of Parañjótiyar, which professes to give a chrocological narration of the sixty-four divine sports of god the Chokkanatha of Madura, places in the reign of a Pandya king, named Varaguņa, 18 the following two episodes which constitute the 54th (Viragu-virra-padalam) and the 65th (Tirumukam-kod utta-padalam) divine sports of that book, namely, the discomfiture of Eman&tha the northern lute-player on behalf of the local bard Bhadra, and the latter's deputation to a Chéraman-Perumal of Kodunglar with & poem-inscribed cadjan order for presents. Although the scheme of chronology adopted by this author is a medley of tradition, myth and royal names, as ably proved by Mr. K. S. S. Pillai in his Tamil-varaldru, it may however be examined, all other things apart, whether the location of the lute-player Bhadra in the reign of a Pandya king who had the name of Varaguņa, is consistent with the above suppositions relating to the age of Chêram &-Peruma! and Sundara. We know from reliable sources that Varaguna-Maharaja, the grandson of Jatila-Parantaka (770 A.D.) and himself the grandfather of Varagunavarman, who ascended the throne in A.D. 862, must have been reigning in the beginning of the ninth century, 19 and
15 There have been kings with these names, e.g., Kuttuvan-Kodai, Makk Odai, Irumbogai, Kapaikelirumporai-(Purandguru). 16 Sendamdı, vol. III, p. 320.
17 The Pallatos, page 78 1 மன்றலர் தெரியன் மார்பன் வரகுணன் செங்கோலோச்சி
Qures pod srawr af Qurely searse por-Viraguvirrapadslam, .. மன்னர் தம்பிரானாகிய வாகுணதேவன்
perder as oues are pe AS yOare. Ibid., v. 58. 10 Mad. Epi. Rep., 1908, p. 64.