The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c19.39
The Pāṇḍyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c19.39
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A few facts, gleaned from a mass of similar data, may now be set down to confirm these statements about the temple and its part in the life of mediæval South India. An inscription of about A.D. 1260 from Maḍambākkam (Chingleput) dated in the tenth year of Jaṭāvarman Sundara Pāṇḍya (No. 322 of 1911) states that ‘the assembly of the village seeing that it was not possible to maintain the lamps, offerings and festivals in the temple from the income available for that purpose, assigned the north division (*vaḍakūru*) “with its wet lands, garden lands, houses and house-sites” to the temple, but retained therein 3,000 *kuḷi* of land with houses and house-sites for their own use. They decided also to pay the dues on them such as *pon-vari* and *nāṭṭu-vari* from their own pockets and agreed that “if ever, owing to unfortunate circumstances, we are induced to sell this land, we shall do so, for the price at which it then sells, to the sacred treasury of the temple”.’¹ An inscription from Kāmarasavalli (Trichinopoly) of the tenth year of Jaṭāvarman Vīra Pāṇḍya (No. 88 of 1914) gives an idea of the manner in which funds were raised by the inhabitants of the *vaḷanāḍu* for effecting certain repairs to the temple. They agreed to pay to the temple a small cess on all merchandise sold by them, e.g. one-fourth *paṇam* on each bundle of cloths for women, on each *poḍi* of pepper, on each *paḍi* of areca-nuts, one *kāśu* on each *poḍi* of paddy, etc.² A record from Aḷagāpuri (Ramnad) (No.
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109 of 1924) dated in the fifteenth year of Māravarman Kulaśēkhara-dēva contains a gift, by the assembly of Aḷagāpuri, of all the taxes due to it by the residents of the streets round the temple for the provision of lamps in the temple. Another record from Mannārkōil in the nineteenth year of Kulaśēkharadēva (No. 408 of 1916) mentions the acquisition by the king’s order (*niyōga*) of private houses for a second *prākāra* to the temple being built according to the Śāstra. A curious record from Tirumalai (Ramnad) in the fifth year of the reign of Jaṭāvarman Kulaśēkhara (No. 33 of 1924) mentions ‘the meeting of the big assembly of the Māhēśvaras of the eighteen districts (மண்டலம்) in the hall called Tirugnānasambandan-tiruveḍuttukkaṭṭi in the temple of Śūradēva-īśvaramuḍaiya-Nāyaṇār at Aḷagaimānagar to show their appreciation of the services rendered by a dēvaraḍiyāḷ to several temples of the locality, such as, setting up of certain images wanting in the temples and the construction of prākāras, by conferring on her family the hereditary honour of sounding the conch and the drum at the time of entry into the temple.’¹ The villagers of Vāyalūr (Chingleput) came to an agreement in the eighth year of Jaṭāvarman Sundara Pāndya (A.D. 1258), by which they released all the lands which belonged to four temples which were probably all situated in Vāyalūr, and relinquished their previous hold on them, whether that was by mortgage or by purchase.
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In addition to this, they undertook never again to hold these lands, either as purchasers or as mortgagees, on pain of ‘treason against Śiva’ and ‘treason against king’.² A record from Tirupputtūr (Ramnad) of a Tribhuvanacakravartin Kulaśēkharadēva (No. 101 of 1908) who might have ruled earlier than A.D. 1200 and was perhaps the Kulaśēkhara of the civil war, states that the assembly (மூலபரிஷை.) of Tirupputtūr wished to go to Madura to meet king Kulaśēkhara and accordingly made certain temple lands rent-free on receipt of a specified sum for the expenses of the journey.³ An inscription from Śērmādēvi (No. 695 of 1916) mentions a grant of land to a library (*Sarasvati Bhāndāra*) in a temple in the locality, and records containing endowments for the recitation and study of the Vedas and Purāṇas in temples are frequently met with. A record (No. 557 of 1916) from Pattamadai (near Śērmādēvi, Tinnevelly district) is of more than ordinary interest as it registers a grant to a dancing girl for enacting a drama, not specified, on certain festival days.¹