Current Version: draft, 2024-04-22Z
Editor: Emmanuel Francis.
DHARMA Identifier: INSPallava00513
Summary: Hero-stone erected in honour of Kāṭaṭi Kaṟakkaṉ, who fell during a fight.
Hand Description:
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Corresponding Artefact:
Layout:
1kō-vicaiya-Īccuvara-paruma[ṟk¡i!⟨u⟩-]
2yāṇṭu patiṉ ē¡ḻḻ!⟨ḻ⟩-āvat’
a¡ṉ!⟨ṅ⟩ka[ṭ-]
3kāṭ(ṭiṟai)kaḷ ceyi(k)ka-(v) aracar-
4māṟṟ-uṭai ceṉṟa tāṉ aṟupaṭṭāṉ
5k(ā)ṭaṭi kaṟakka(ṉ)
1 °vicaiya-Īccu° ◇ °vijaya-rājacu° ARIE 1899-1900 • This reading in ARIE 1899-1900 is tentative though, as indicated by a question mark. — 1 °paruma[ṟk¡i!⟨u⟩] yāṇṭu ◇ °paruma⟨ṟk’ i⟩yāṇṭu EH • It is not clear however whether EH’s reading [ṟk=i*] is meant for characters omitted and supplied. • We do not follow EH in considering that we have here iyāṇṭu, that is yāṇṭu with epenthesis. Although this is possible, it seems unlikely considering other attestations
of the dative variant -ki for -ku. See, e.g., INSPallava00252, of the same Īccuvaravarman, where, in lines 1-3, we find kō-vicaiya-Ī(c)cuvaraparumaṟki paṉṉiraṇṭ-āvatu.
2 a¡ṉ!⟨ṅ⟩ka[ṭ] ◇ aṉka⟨ṭ⟩ EH • It is not clear however whether EH’s reading [ṭ*] is meant for a character omitted and supplied.
3 ceyi(k)ka-(v) ◇ ceyi(k)ka-v EH
In the seventeenth year [of the reign] of king Vijaya-Īśvaravarman, when Kāṭṭiṟai was victorious, Kāṭaṭi Kaṟakkaṉ himself, who went among the enemies of the king, was cut down.
1-2 Seventeenth year of the victorious king Īśvaravarman.
2-5 When, there (aṅkaṇ), the honourable Kāṭṭiṟai vanquished, Kāṭaṭi Kaṟakkaṉ, who went (against) the change of property, was himself cut down.
there (aṅkaṇ) = Kaṉaiyūr, see tfaPalllava253.
Hultzsch: fn6: māṟṟu seems to be used in the sense of māṟṟār, ‘enemies.’
Hultzsch: “Unlike other vīrakkals, the stone bears no sculptures of any kind." Untrue. See slab in Chennai Government Museum (acc. no. 2160/78). Hultzsch worked with estampages of the inscriptions only.
Hultzsch: Īśvaravarman = Gaṅga-Pallava
Hultzsch: kāṭṭiṟai, “king of the forester” = synonym of kāṭavaṉ, “forester” = synonym of kāṭaṭi (kāṭu, “forest” + aṭi, “His majesty”). + “It thus appears that a descendant of the PalIava dynasty was tributary to the Gaṅga-Pallava king Vijaya-Īśvaravarman."
See tfaPallava253, same slab (left of the present inscription).
Edited in Hultzsch 1902–1903 with facsimile and English translation (EI 7, no. 4.2b), based on an inked estampage; text and summary in Mahalingam 1988 (IP no. 253b); re-edited here for DHARMA (ERC n° 809994) by Emmanuel Francis (2020), based on autopsy and photographs (2019).