Tiruveḷḷaṟai well (1/2)

Metadata

Current Version:  draft, 2024-04-22Z

Editor:   Emmanuel Francis.

DHARMA Identifier: INSPallava00098

Summary: Foundation of a well.

Hand Description:

The puḷḷi is consistently used, although not for most of duplicated consonants and sometimes unduly. The daṇḍa consists in a vertical stroke with a shorter horizontal stroke attached in its middle on the right side.

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Edition

¹svasti śrī

bhāradvāja-gotrattiṉ· vaḻi-t tōṉ·ṟiya pallava-tilata-kulorbhavaṉ· tan=ti-varmmaṟku yāṇ·ṭu nāṉ·k-āvat’ eṭuttu-k· koṇṭu Ai(·)nt-āvatu muṟṟuvittāṉ· Ālam·p(ā)kka-vicaiyanal·lūḻāṉ·
² tam·pi kam·paṉ· Araiyaṉ· tiruveḷ(·)ḷaṟai-t(·) teṉṉūr·-p· peruṅ·-kiṇaṟu

Itaṉ p¿i?⟨e⟩yar· mār·-p·-piṭuku p{·}eruṅ·-kiṇar’ eṉ·patu |

Itu ra¡tṣi!⟨kṣi⟩p·pār· Ivv-ūr mū-v-¿āI?⟨āyi⟩ratt’ eḻu-nūṟṟuvarum· |

Apparatus

¹ tilata • tilata is a tadbhava of Skt. tilaka.

Translation by Subrahmanya Aiyar 1911-1912

¹Hail! Prosperity!

^1-2In the fourth year [of the reign] of Dantivarman who was born in the Pallavatilaka family which had sprung from the Bhāradvāja-gōtra, Kampaṉ Araiyaṉ, the younger brother of Vicaiyanallūḻāṉ of Ālampākkam, commenced [to build] the big well at Teṉṉūr^↓1 in Tiruveḷḷaṟai and completed [it] in the fifth [year of the same reign].

²Mārppiṭuku-peruṅkiṇaṟu is the name of this [well].

²The three-thousand and seven hundred^↓2 of this village shall protect this [charity].

Translation into French by Emmanuel Francis

¹ Prospérité ! Fortune !

^1-2 Kampaṉ Araiyaṉ, le frère cadet de Vicaiyanallūḻāṉ d’Ālampākkam, a commencé le grand puits de Teṉṉūr à Tiruveḷḷaṟai [en] la quatrième année de Dantivarman, qui est issu de la famille des Pallavatilaka apparue dans la lignée du gotra de Bharadvāja, et l’a achevé en [sa] cinquième année.

² Son nom est grand puits de Mārppiṭuku.

² Les trois mille sept cents de ce village protègent ceci^↓3.

Commentary

See DHARMA_INSPallava00525.

¹ pallava-tilata-kulorbhavaṉ. pallava-kula-tilatorbhavaṉ, “who appeared as the ornament of the Pallava lineage” would be more straightforward. Alternatively, as suggested by Christophe Vielle, pallava-tilata-kulorbhavaṉ can be translated as “who appeared in the lineage whose ornament is the sprout”, with a play, attested elsewehere in the Pallava corpus, on the dynastic name Pallava (“sprout” in Skt.). As the the phrase pallava-tilaka, “ornament of the Pallava (lineage)", is also attested in the Pallava corpus as an epithet of Pallava kings, it seems that the present writer either deliberately used it in a new way or misused it. On this epithet, see Subrahmanya Aiyar 1911–1912: page 157

² mārppiṭuku. See Subrahmanya Aiyar 1911–1912: page 156

Bibliography

Edited in Subrahmanya Aiyar 1911–1912 (EI 11, no. 15); text and summary in Mahalingam 1988 (IP no. 98); re-edited here for DHARMA (ERC n° 809994) by Emmanuel Francis (2021), based on autopsy, photographs, and the facsimile published in Subrahmanya Aiyar 1911–1912.

Primary

Secondary

Notes

↑1. The southern part of Tiruveḷḷaṟai was probably called Teṉṉūr in ancient times.
↑2. The signatory of one of the inscriptions of Rājarāja (A.D. 985-1013) found at Māmallapuram in the Chingleput District is a certain Tiruvaṭikaḷ Maṇikaṇṭhaṉ, a native of Tiruveḷ⟨ḷ⟩arai. He calls himself as one of the 3700 of that village (South-Ind. Inscrs. Vol. I, p. 65). This seems to indicate that at an early period there was a body of 3700 at Tiruveḷḷaṟai to whom later members traced their descent. Reference to another such body of men is found in the expression Tiḷḷai-mūvāyiravar.
↑3. C’est-à-dire le puits en tant que donation.