Studies in Cola History and Administration c14.35

c14.35

Of the birth and early life of this chieftain and the steps by which he rose in the military service of the Cālukya-cōḷa emperor Kulōttuṅga I, we have little information. He came of the influential class of landholders called Veḷḷāḷas (Veḷāṅkuḍi mudalāṇ) †, and as he is called Maṇavilār-ēṟu ‡ and Maṇavil-vāḷ-kūttan §, and more generally, Toṇḍaiyar-kōn, ¶ we may assume that he was a native of Maṇavil in Toṇḍaināḍ, or at any rate that he spent a considerable part of his life in that place, either because it was the place of his birth or on account of his having held an important position there. But he is also called Arumbākkiḷān of Maṇavil in No. (4) above, and Arumbākkiḷān Poṟkōyil Toṇḍaimān residing in Maṇavil in No. (5), and Poṟkōyil Toṇḍaimān, a native of Arumbākkam in Jayaṅgoṇḍa-śōlamaṇḍalam in No. (2). These inscriptions make it clear that Arumbākkam was the name of the place of his birth, and that he was connected with Maṇavil by residence and by the possession of certain seigniorial rights implied in his being called ruler or chief of the residents of Maṇavil. It seems quite possible that before the twenty-eighth year of Kulōttuṅga, Naralōkavīra had sufficiently distinguished himself in the king's wars for him to have obtained as his reward an assignment on the revenues from Maṇavil.