Current Version: draft, 2024-04-22Z
Editor: Emmanuel Francis.
DHARMA Identifier: INSPallava00234
Summary: Hero-stone commemorating the death of Totupatti Mātirakaṉ.
Hand Description:
Alternative identifier:
Origin:
Classification: hero memorial
Languages:
Corresponding Artefact:
Layout:
1kampa-p-pe-
2rumāḷ Āṉai-y ā-
3ṭiṉa kontaḷat-
4tu Ivv-ūr aḻin-
5ta nāṭ paṭṭāṉ I-
6v-
7v-ūr
8to-
9tupa-
10tti
11mātira-
12kaṉ
13svasti śrī
1-12 On the day this village was destroyed in the turmoil that the elephant(s) of Kampaperumāḷ↓1 caused, he who fell [was] Totupatti Mātirakaṉ of this village↓2.
13 Prosperity! Fortune!
1-13 VVA suggests that Totupatti Mātirakaṉ was a mahout a and notes that "A figure of this hero advancing with a drawn sword in his right hand is also represented on the stone" . This figure undermines, according to IP, the identification of Totupatti Mātirakaṉ as a mahout, as he is not represented mounted on a elephant. The fact that Totupatti Mātirakaṉ hailed from the attacked village suggests that he opposed the soldiers of Kampavarman. The absence of regnal year, which can be interpreted as a non allegiance mark to Kampavarman, is also noteworthy.
14 The auspicious words svasti śrī are usually found at the beginning of inscriptions. It is possible that this phrase here belongs to another inscription, engraved after the present one on the same slab.
Edited in Venkatasubba Ayyar 1943 (SII 12, no. 112); text and summary in Mahalingam 1988 (IP no. 234); encoded and first translated here for DHARMA (ERC n° 809994) by Emmanuel Francis (2022), based on previous editions.