The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History c9.s2.t52.3

c9.s2.t52.3

There are a number of inscriptions which mention chiefs who bore this name. The following list ranges from A.D. 1183 to 1306-7. I have not been able to trace their relationships satisfactorily. The Epigraphist to Government, in his Report for 1913 (p. 126), thinks that because the Nilagangaraiyan who is referred to in an inscription of A.D. 1259 (117 of 1912) is called a *pillaiyār* of the powerful Vijaya-gaṇḍa-gōpāla; therefore he was really a son (*pillai*) of that ruler. But I hardly think this is justified. In A.D. 1193 the then Nilagangaraiyan is called a *pillaiyār* of Kulōttuṅga-Chōḷa III. Rājarāja Sambuvaraiyan is also called in 1257 a *pillaiyār* of Vijayagaṇḍa-gōpāla, and it has been argued that therefore Nilagangaraiyan was brother to that Sambuvaraiyan. I cannot consider this proved. In the inscription, for instance, 357 of 1922, the Mahābali-Baṇa chief is called a *pillai* of the Pāṇḍya king Māravarman Kulaśekhara I. This was in A.D. 1275.