The Colas c33.7

c33.7

The practice of reciting these hymns in temples had come into vogue long before the time of Rājarāja. At Lālguḍi and Allūr in the Trichinopoly district are found inscriptions of the reign of Parāntaka I, providing for Brahmins singing the Tiruppadiyam during the daily service in the temples.⁶ Earlier than Parāntaka’s reign, in the reign of the Pallava Vijaya-Nandi-Vikrama Varman, reciters of the Tiruppadiyam are enumerated in a list of persons employed in the service of a temple at Tiruvallam.⁷ The inference is clear that the hymns had attained the status of divine literature long before Nambi Āṇḍār Nambi collected and edited them in the standard form in which they have reached us. From the reign of Parāntaka I there is a regular series of endowments⁸ recorded in epigraphs of the Cōḷa and Toṇḍai countries for the recitation of these hymns in temples, to the accompaniment of musical instruments. The mention of a Dēvāranāyakam, Superintendent of Dēvāram, in the reign of Rājēndra I, implies that there was a regular state department controlling this work and securing its proper performance; it is not clear if the sphere of its activity was limited to Tanjore or extended to other places. In Nallūr in South Arcot, provision was made in the reign of Kulōttunga III for the singing of *Tiruccāḻal* and *Tiruvembāvai* of Māṇikka-vāśagar and for *śākkai-kūttu* on special occasions in the temple of Nalla-nāyanār; *Tiruvembāvai* was divided into *mudal*-, *iraṇḍām-pāṭṭu*, and *kaḍaikkāppu*, and the right to sing each sold to different *dēvaraḍiyār*. In another temple, Ulaganātha of Ulaganallūr (S. Arcot), the assignment of dance and song to separate dancing girls on separate days of the festival is recorded in another inscription.