The Colas c18.63

c18.63

one of the principalities which centred round Mt. D'Eli, the Mūṣaka hill or Eli-malai (rat-hill), and ruled over by the Mūṣaka kings whose annals form the subject-matter of the *Kāvya* called *Mūṣakavamśam*.¹⁴⁹ According to the legend recorded in this work, a certain Kṣatriya prince, born and brought up in secret after Paraśurāma's great war on the Kṣatriyas, was produced before Paraśurāma, when, 'in the course of a sacrifice performed by him in Mount Eli, he was on the look out for a Kṣatriya for performing a rite which was an essential part of the sacrifice and had to be performed only by a Kṣatriya. This prince was afterwards made king of the Mūṣaka country by Paraśurāma who crowned him after an *abhiṣēka* with pots (*ghaṭa*, *kuḍam*) of water; hence the name of the family, Rāma-ghaṭa, or Irāmakuḍam in Tamil. A Vaṭṭeḷuttu record¹⁵⁰ of the eleventh century in the neighbourhood of Eli-malai is dated in the fifty-ninth regnal year of a Mūṣaka king, Kaṇḍan Kārivarman alias Rāma kuḍa Mūvar Tiruvaḍi; the inscription also mentions Rājēndra-śōḷa-samaiya-sēnāpati. Most probably this Mūvar Tiruvaḍi was the ruler against whom Rājādhirāja's expedition was directed.