The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s11.426

c8.s11.426

Râjasimhêśvara and Râjasimha-Pallavêśvara, shewing its original name, derived from Râjasimha himself, by whom, moreover, the record says it was built. It is evidently the Râjasimhêśvara temple which, with others, Narasimhapôtavarman caused to be built, as mentioned in the Yakkalêri grant: This identifies Râjasimha with Narasimhapôtavarman, and thus gives another form of the name of Narasimhavarman II. And the fact that some Tamil inscriptions...at the same place, of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries A.D., speak of the god of this temple as Râjasimhavarmêśvara,¹ suggests that the full appellation of the founder was Râjasimhavarman, and, so, that Râjasimha, or Râjasimhavarman, was another name, and not a mere biruda, of Narasimhavarman II. Another record of Narasimhavarman II. is No. 31 in Dr. Hultzsch's book,² an inscription in a cave-temple at Panamalai in the South Arcot District, which speaks of him by his name of Râjasimha and his birudas of Raṇajaya and Śrîbhara; it is otherwise of interest through indicating that the cave was founded by him, and thus through shewing a point to the south to which the rule of his family extended. Another of his records is the Conjeeveram inscription No. 25, round the inside of the enclosure of the Râjasimhêśvara shrine;³ in addition to giving his name of Râjasimha, it enumerates a great number of his birudas: and among the latter, we may note the following,—"he who has the bull-crest;⁴ the great jewel of Kâñchî; and the sun of the Pallavas;" and,—as emphasising the fact disclosed by his record on the Râjasimhêśvara shrine, viz. that he was of the Śaiva religion,—"he whose refuge is Îśana; the devotee of Dêvadêva; the devotee of Śaṃkara; and the devotee of Îśvara."⁵ And finally, to him plainly belongs also the Conjeeveram inscription No. 29, again at the Kailâsanâtha temple,⁶ which records that Raṅgapatâkâ, the wife of Kâlakâla-Narasimhavishṇu "whose bow had become manifest at the destruction of cities," built a shrine there, and which thus supplies Narasimhavishṇu as a variant of his name, just as the Bâdâmi rock-inscription has supplied it as a variant of the name of his ancestor Narasimhavarman I.