Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t2.9

c5.s2.t2.9

² If this Skandavarmā or his grandson be the prince of that name who is mentioned in a Cera grant of 513 A. D. (?) as is likely, it may yet be possible to establish a synchronism. The references in the earlier Cālukya grants are all vague. capital was Conjeveram (Tamiḻ inscriptions and Bilhaṇa's Vikramān̄kadevacarita). The later Cālukyas never then attacked Tanjore, the real capital of the Coḷas, but only Conjeveram and (according to Bilhaṇa) Gān̄gakuṇḍa which is clearly Gañyaikkōṇḍānšōlapuram to the north of the Coleroon, and which was a great Coḷa town. 'Daçanapura' (=Tooth-town) as Mr. Fleet pointed out, must be a translated name, and it appears to me that the original must be Palakkaḍa. For pallu=tooth; kaḍa=place. Is this, then, one of the places where there was a tooth-relic of Buddha? There was such a place in Kaliṅga according to the Pali "*Dāṭhāvamso.*" [^1): Mr. Fergusson long ago stated this. ("*History of Indian and Eastern Architecture,*" pp. 175, 327 ffg.) [^2): Mr. Kittel has kindly informed me that according to the Č. Basava Purāṇa (ch. iv. 3-6) the first liṅga was found in Kerikāla Coḷa's time or c. 950 A. D. None of the great Çiva temples of S. India can be traced back beyond the 11th century A. D. (See Caldwell, "**Dravidian Grammar**", p. 86). This statement is fully supported by the inscriptions, and it is now certain that the liṅga worship is an importation from the North into S. India in, comparatively, recent times. See also Kittel's "**Liṅgakultus**", p. 16. ffg. [^3): An often engraved temple of this description is the one at Seven Pagodas on the sea-shore which is washed by the waves at high tide; another is on the northern bank of the Pālāṛu also near the sea and a few miles south of Seven Pagodas. These are the best examples that I know, but there are many others (often more or less altered) in the same neighbourhood. In the first, the Vishṇu cell is behind that in which the liṅga is found; in the others I know, the two cells are side by side. There is a correct plan of the first temple in No. 6 of the large map in Major Carr's book, and an incorrect one in pl. xxiii. [^4): Çan̄karācārya must be put at about 650-700 A. D. See my "**Sāmavidhānabrāhmaṇa**" vol. I. pref. p. ii. *n.* He preached at Conjeveram, it is said, but the tradition has little to recommend it.