Studies in Cola History and Administration c12.7

c12.7

‘A’. lines 1-3: *ivvāṇḍu-mudal . . . pariśāvadu*: Venkayya’s translation of this passage can hardly be accepted as a satisfactory rendering of the original. It will be observed that the phrase ‘*irundu vāriyam-āga*’ in l. 2 is applied by him to the royal officer Tattaṇūr-mūvēnda-vēḷān and rendered into: “Sitting (with us) and convening (?) the committee”; and his translation of the corresponding passage in ‘B’ runs: “Sitting (with us) and convening (?) the committee in accordance with the (royal) command.” It should be observed that there is nothing in the text corresponding to “convening (?)” of the translation. The question is to decide whether ‘*vāriyam-āga*’ must be taken to refer to the royal officer, as Venkayya does, or to read it with what follows as: “*vāriyam-āga āṭṭorukkālum samvatsaravāriyamum......iḍuvadarkku*.” If we follow Venkayya, ‘*vāriyam-āga*’ must describe some function performed by the royal officer, and the text does not help us to explain what this function is, and the device of interpolating a new conception like convening a committee does not seem proper. The word *vāriyam* is generally taken to mean ‘committee’, and that is doubtless its real meaning in phrases like ‘*samvatsara-vāriyam*,’ ‘*tōṭṭa-vāriyam*’ etc., in this and other records. It is doubtful if ‘*vāriyam*’ can be said in any other