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Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t3: B. Coḷa-Grantha and Middle Grantha

Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t3

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B. Coḷa-Grantha and Middle Grantha

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The development of the early stages of the Grantha character is very difficult to trace, for the reason that the N. Indian civilization, when it got as far down in the peninsula as the Tamiḷ country, found there a people already in possession of the art of writing, and apparently a cultivated language[^1). Thus Sanskrit did not regulate the Tamiḷ phonetic system, nor did it become more to the people than a foreign learned language; it thus remained almost exclusively in the knowledge of the Brahmans, and the Grantha alphabet is nothing more than the character the Tamiḷ Brahmans used and still use, for writing their sacred books in a dead language. As there are no old MSS. written in this character, the records we possess of its early stages are most imperfect, and consist chiefly of Sanskrit words which casually occur in Tamiḷ inscriptions. I am aware of the existence of only a few Sanskrit inscriptions in the Grantha character more than three centuries old, and these are not dated, except one of 1383.

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The only interest this character possesses is the proof it affords of the derivation of the modern Grantha alphabet from the Cera, and thus from the Southern Açoka character. The first traces, I have found of it, are a few words in the grant B. to the Persian Christians, and which are, therefore, to be referred to the early part of the ninth century A. D. The letters are somewhat carelessly formed, but are almost identical with the Cera of the same period (cfr. Pl. xxvi.). To the fall of the Cera kingdom in

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[^1): This is proved by the entire absence of *old* inscriptions in the Tamiḷ country in the Grantha or Grantha-Tamiḷ characters, all such are in the Vaṭṭeḷuttu. See § 3 (below).

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the ninth century must be attributed the sudden appearance of brahmanical culture in the Tamil country and Malabar¹).

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¹ The succession of the Coḷa kings is as follows:

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The letters in the upper part of Pl. xiii. are taken from two sources: 1. the inscription round the shrine of the great temple at Tanjore (which belongs to the end of the eleventh century A. D.²); and 2. an undated inscription near Muruᵞamaṅyalam (in the Chingleput district) which is evidently of about the same date.

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The only point to which it is necessary to call attention is the advance made in about two centuries in the separation of the secondary forms of **ā**, **ē**, **ai** and **ō**, as shown by these inscriptions. In 825 A. D. only the ෙ (**e**) was clearly separated from its consonant; about 1100 A. D. **ā** is also generally separated (cfr. Pl. xii., **kā**, **tā**, **nā**, **pā**, **mā**, **yā**, **rā**, **hā**); the form in which it is attached being rare (cfr. **cā**, **çā**). The modern Grantha alphabet dates from about 1300.

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Owing to the long occupation of Ceylon by the Coḷa kings, the Grantha character probably affected the modern Singhalese alphabet³).

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Kerikāla-Coḷa (? about 950 A. D.)
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Rājarāja-Coḷa *alias* Narendra¹⁾ (40 or 41 years) 1023 to 1064.
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Vīra-Coḷa (D.) *alias* Kulottuṅga-Coḷa (i.) *alias* Rājarājendra (Rājarāja) Kŏppākesarivarmā²⁾ (49 years) 1064 to 1113. His abhisheka took place in 1079.
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Vikrama-Coḷa (15 years) 1113 to 1128.
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Kulottuṅga-Coḷa II. 1128 to ? ³⁾ Ruled over the whole Tamil country (Caldwell² p. 135) for, at least, 30 years.
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Vikramadeva, reigning in 1235⁴⁾.

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² Letters taken from this are marked * . This immense inscription was photographed by Capt. Tripe in 1859 and published by the Madras Government. There is little Sanskrit in it except an introductory verse (Svasti çrīḥ | etadviçvarūpaçreṇimaulimālopalābhītam | çāsanam Rājarājasya Rājakesarivarmaṇaḥ ||) which belongs to a part of the inscription dated in the 26th year of the king's reign (=1090 A. D.), and a few words in the Tamil text.

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³ The Singhalese put the invasion of Ceylon by the Coḷas in 1023, and state that it was in 1071 the revolt began. (Tennent's "Ceylon" i., pp. 402-3.) This can hardly be correct, though it is according to Turnour.
1) F. (see above, p. *n.*) calls him Rājarājanarendra; E. Rājarāja-Coḷa; D. Narendra. This king must have restored Tanjore which according to Al-Bīrūnī was in ruins at the beginning of the 11th century (Reinaud, "Fragments", pp. 92, 121; "Mémoire", p. 284). This fact confirms the earlier Cālukya boasts of conquest, and was certainly owing to them.
2) That Kŏppākesari v. is the same as Rājarājendra is proved by the inscriptions at Tanjore and at the Varāhasvāmī temple at Seven Pagodas. (See *Madras Journal*, xiii., pt. 2; p. 36.) He seems to have been a great patron of Brahmans and of Çaivism, but he must also have been liberal to Buddhists, for Buddhamitra (the author of a Tamil grammar) called his work Vīraśoḷīyam after him.
3) He was reigning in 1134 A. D. the date of E. In his time there must have been a great many Buddhists in Tanjore, as Parākrama Bāhu (king of Ceylon 1155-1186) fetched his priest from there according to the Mahavamso:
4) Inscription near Seven Pagodas. (*Madras Journal*, xiii., pt. 1; pp. 50-1.) Kaliṅga was lost in 1228 A. D.

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In the following century (1310) the Coḷa and Pāṇḍya kingdoms were conquered by Muhammedans (Elliot, iii. pp. 51, 90, 203, etc.) and then by Vijayanagara; the inscriptions of the latter dynasty claim this, and grants in the S. Arcot district prove that it was the case so early as 1380, but even before the Muhammedan invasion the Coḷa kingdom had much declined, and the Madura kingdom was the chief one in the South, though it, with part of Coḷa, had been (as Mr. Rhys Davids proved) conquered by Ceylon (about 1173 A. D. Turnour, Mahavamso p. lxvi. *Bengal As. Soc. J.* No. 2 of 1872).

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Athā ’pi Coladeçīyam nānābhāsāvisāradam |
Takkāgamadharam ekam mahātheram susaññatam ||
Rājā rājaguruṭṭhāne ṭhapitvā tassa santike | etc. (Ceylon J. 1867, p. 26).

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