DECEMBER 1873.]
TAMIL INSCRIPTIONS IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
361
lating, and when Warwick was at the height of
core made Jayatunganād, or Jayasińhanāq, the seat of his court and government. I have not been able to identify the situation of this division. In all probability it was on the eastern side of the Ghâts. The heir-apparent occupied Chira v a ya and held it in possession. Chirav a y a may be identified with the pre sent village of Chirayinkil, about 18 miles to the north of Trivandram. The word Chiravāya is
his career.
composed of the two Malayalam words Chira
The Ko I am ba era here mentioned is evi
dently the Kollam era, which is adopted through out the Malabar coast now.
the year 824 A.D.
It oommenced in
Hence the bell must have
been hung up in 1468-69. King Adityavarma was therefore a contemporary of Edward IV. of England, and the bell was hung up when the fortunes of York and Lancaster were oscil
It was also 30 years before Vasco
de Gama set foot on Indian soil.
Kolamba is
the Sanskrit, and Kollam the Malayalam name for Quilon. The diocese of the Roman Catholic
Bishop who was stationed in this part of the Malabar coast when the power of Portugal was in the ascendant was known as ‘Columba',
The word Bhavatī (HH), which gives the
(lake) and citya (mouth), the village being situated where the Bhavanipuram river makes its debouchure into a lagoon. Rāja A dit y a v arm ā was only heir-appa rent and chief of Chira vå y a when he put up the bell. This is evident from the phrase siſ.TITHGTHT2ntºr: The word Mandala, in
year 644 of the Kolamba era, follows the
Sanskrit, is applied only to a feudatory or de
system of alphabetical numeration, which, by converting large numbers into familiar words, so greatly facilitates their being stored in me mory by Hindu mathematicians and astro
pendent state, and not to suzerainty. Aditya varmā became ruler of Travancore only three years after the date of the bell. His elder bro ther Márt à n d a v arm ā was on the throne at
nomers.
the time.
The first letter of a word thus formed
stands in the units' place, the next in that of tens, the next of hundreds, and so on. H = 4, H = 4, and fa = 6, making 644. The configuration of the kingdom of Travan core of those days, it is hardly necessary to point out, was widely different from what it is now. While the greater portion of what now constitutes North Travancore was no integral part of the kingdom, a large portion of the present district of Tinnevelli was included in it. The kingdom was called Tripp a pp (ir S v ar (, pam. The boundaries of it are given
The word ‘Jayasińhānvayah' in the stanza inscribed on the bell is suggestive. A Euro pean friend, who has devoted much time and attention to the study of Indian antiquities, once told me that the Jayasińha dynasty could be traced to the rulers of the Vijay an a gara empire in the Dekhan, and through them
in an inscription on stone in the Such in
1. rāſāāHä HTTHGH ſign; HEPTI Tº q^{-ſăviţăſână IIHR = #if:
dram pagoda. The inscription dates in the reign of Å dit y a v arm ā, the same Rājā as put up the Tirukurangudi bell. The boun daries are: “east Panniväykāl—an old water course near Varkala—south Vaipār, in the Tinnevelli District—north and west the sea.”
We must make allowance for the geography of those days, in judging of the correctness of the cardinal points here described. However, there is little room to doubt that Tirukuraigudi, now situated in the Nànguneri Tāluka of the Tin nevelli District, was then a part of Travancore. The whole tract of country, again gathering from the stone inscription, was divided into 18 parts or ‘nāds.” Of these, the king of Travan
to the solar and lunar races.
The following two verses are inscribed on
stone in two different parts of the Siva Pagoda of Such in dram, about 10 miles N.N.W. of
Cape Comorin (Kumāri):-
++ iºniſatiºtă is fi +4+ Hä, äIf:3. THFFH Hiſ śrººf-7 ||
- H=Hiſ Hājī HāHFrää, TTH |
- 3 ± 3.ſºſºſi ºf Hå fåIf-3.
- TFTTHTTFH Tūrā azāāſº: I
The first of the above two is inscribed in an
outer shrine called Chitrasabhā, dedicated to
the Chidambarešvara form of Śiva and the second on the front Mandapam of the chief shrine. They may be thus translated :-
1. “In the year 1312 (T-2, #1-1 #=3,
- =1) of the Šakabda era, the minister of Indra