Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple / திருவரங்கம் அரங்கநாத சுவாமி கோயில், Srirangam, Tiruchirappalli District, Tamil Nadu. – A HERITAGE VISIT.

05^th November 2017.

This heritage visit to Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Sri Pundarikaksha Perumal Temple, Thiruvellarai, and Sri Jambukeswarar Temple at Thiruvanaikaval was arranged by the Chozham Varalaru Thedal Kuzhu on 05^th November 2017. Since I planned to attend our Kula Deivam Sri Veeramathi Amman Temple’s Kumbabishekam near Erode on 03^rd November 2017, I decided to attend this heritage walk.  Visited this temple more than 50 years ago. This Heritage visit allowed me to visit this temple and have the darshan of Sri Ranganathaswamy once again. I extend my sincere thanks to Dr Udhaya Shankar, Andavar Kani, Abirami, R. K. Lakshmi, and Mr Raman Sthapathy, who explained the salient features of this temple, and Mr Selvaraj Nayakavadiyar arranged this heritage walk.

On the moolavar sanctum, there is a gold-plated 4-kalasa vimana with reliefs of Paravasuthevar, Achuthar, Ananthar, and Venugopalar. The present golden plate covering for the moolavar vimana was done in the 17^th century by Thanjavur Achuthappa Nayakar

Para Vasudeva ( Sukha nasi )- installed as per Pancharathra Parameswara Samhitha

शुकनासामुखे देवः पूजनीयः परः पुमान्।

भगवान् जगदाधारो जगदीशः सनातनः ।।

वासुदेवः परं ब्रह्मा जगत्कारणमच्युतः।

PC: Sankara Narayan G

This temple is one of the 108 Divya Desam Vishnu temples, and 12 Alwars have sung hymns in Nalayira Divya Prabandham on Sri RanganathaSwamy. The place Srirangam was called Thiruvarangam and is on the banks of the river Cauvery in Chozha Nadu  (Tiruchirappalli).

Moolavar : Sri Aranganathar and Urchavar is Sri Namperumal.

Thayar    : Sri Ranganayaki.  

Some of the important features of this temple are...

Unlike other temples, this place, Srirangam, is inside the temple complex. Srirangam is on an island surrounded by the Kollidam and Kaveri rivers. The temple faces south with 7 praharas (corridors), 23 gopuras, and 54 Sannidhis spread over 156 acres.

The 7^th prakara is called Adayavalainthan, and the same was constructed by one of the Pandya Kings during the 12^th to 14^th century. The emblem of the Pandya is inscribed on the passage of the Rajagopuram. Sannadhis in this prakara are Vamana Vishnu, Andal Nachiyar, Thulukka Nachiyar, and Aranganathar.

The 6^th prakara is called Kaliyuga Raman thiruveedhi, which has 4 gopuras. It is believed that these gopuras were constructed by the Pandiyas and the Hoysalas. The Temple chariots are kept in this praharam.

The 5^th prahara, called Uttara veedhi, has the residences. Beyond this, devotees are advised not to wear chapels as they are considered holy places.

It is believed that the 4^th corridor was constructed by Thirumangai Alwar during the 7^th century. This prakara is called Akalangal Thiru Veedhi, otherwise known as Ranga Vasal or Nanmugan Gopuram.  Non-Hindus are permitted till Venugopala Krishna's sannidhi. The Venugopala Krishna Sannidhi sanctum walls have beautiful statues, females, and intrinsically carved reliefs. This was believed to have been constructed during the Hoysala period.  There is a provision to climb up the temple top to watch the beauty of the temple complex with gopuras and vimanas. (We have got permission to climb on the rooftop of this temple ). There is a museum that displays the gifted articles, ivory statues, coins, and brass & bronze statues. The Shesha Rayar Mandapam, with exquisitely carved 8 pillars, has statues and reliefs of epic & Puranas, and a Thousand Pillar (953 pillars) Mandapam is also in this praharam.

  

The Venugopala Krishna  Sannidhi sanctum walls have beautiful statues. This was believed to have been constructed during the Hoysala period.

 

Nayak Kings who reconstructed the mandapams

The 3^rd prahara gopuram is called Karthigai. This prakara has the Garuda thoon, mandapam, and Garudalwar sannadhi. The Garuda mandapam was built with 212 beautifully carved pillars. The mandapam was built during the Nayak period, whose statues are on the pillars.  On the west side, there are 5  grain storage bins. This prakara also has the sannadhis of Vasudeva Vishnu, Muthalawars, and Dhanvantari. Paramapatha Vasal is on the north prakara wall, which will be opened on Vaikunta Ekadasi day. On the east side, Chandra pushkarani was built like Chandran. Around this pushkarani sannadhis for Krishna, Thondaradipodi alwar, Anantha sayana. Urchava vahanas are also kept in this praharam on the east side near Surya pushkarani.

Storage bins to store grains are not used

Sengamala Valli Thayar sannidhi Rajagopuram

The 2^nd prahara was covered with gold plates by Jadavarma Sundara Pandiyan. This prakara is called Kulasekaran thiruveethi, and we have to pass through Ariyapadaal Gopuram. The gopuram was damaged during the Muslim invasion and reconstructed during the 15^th century. The golden-plated Dwajasthambam and balipeedam are in the second praharam. Nayaka king's statues are on the pillars, who had done thirupani to this prakara.  On the south side are sannadhi for Saraswathy, Hayagreevara, and Vishnu Dhasamurthy. Durai mandapam is also in the second prakara with two vimanas.

The 1^st prahara was constructed by the Chozha King Rajamahendra Chozha (1017 CE to 1137 CE), the son of Rajendra Chozha-II, and called Rajamahendran thiruveedhi. The main sanctum is constructed in this praharam. Dwarapalakas, sanga nidhi, and Padmanidhi are at the entrance of the sanctum. On the south and west side, mirror to see Urchavars purapadu. On the west platform, there is a box containing statues of Vijayaranga Chokkanatha Nayak (1706 to 1732 CE), his wife, his son, and his daughter-in-law, all made of ivory.  On the southwest corner, Swamy’s jewellery is kept. On the northwest corner are the yaga sala, Thondaiman mandapam, and Kili (parrot) mandapam, with a parrot cage to remind us that this temple was identified by the parrot.  The sanctum was constructed in an oval shape. Moolavar is in a reclining posture on Adhiseshan. The moolavar is about 6.4 meters (21 feet) long and made of stucco.  Moolavar is applied with punuku and oil.  Ranganathar’s feet are kept on a lotus. Urchavar Azhagiya Manavalar is in front of moolavar. In addition to this, there is a gold utsava murti, which will be taken out for thiruveethi ula during important occasions. It was learned that Moolavar was taken to Tirupati during the Muslim invasion. On the moolavar sanctum, there is a gold-plated 4-kalasa vimana with reliefs of Paravasuthevar, Achuthar, Ananthar, and Venugopalar.

The entrance arch to the main sanctum

HISTORY, INSCRIPTIONS, AND LEGENDS

As per the legend, the temple was constructed by Chozha King Killivalavan, whose ancestor is Dharmavarma Chozhan. But there is no proof for this; instead, we get the Chozha inscriptions starting from the 10^th century only. But as per the Tamil literature, the temple existed even before the 10^th century. There are about 400 inscriptions available in this temple, and the oldest is from the 10^th century (907 CE) during Parantaka Chozha-I’s 17th-year rule. The inscriptions speak about the construction of a new sannadhi and the donations made for regular poojas and functions. Jadavarma Sundara Pandiyan I’s (1251–1268 CE) inscription speaks about the construction and covering with a gold plate of Thiruvaranganathar Sannadhi, Vishwaksena Sannadhi, Maha Vishnu sannadhi, Vishnu Narasimhar Sannidhi,  Three vimanas, and madapalli.

The temple has a mixture of Chozhas, Pandyas, Vijayanagara, and Hoysalas period architecture. The temple was subjected to extensive damage during the Muslim invasion, especially during the 13^th century, under Malik Kafur, and was rebuilt to the present state by the Vijayanagara Kings during the 15^th and 16^th centuries. The present golden plate covering for the moolavar vimana was done in the 17^th century by Thanjavur Achuthappa Nayakar. 

This inscription (No. 62 of 1892) is engraved on the east wall of the third prákára of the Ranganatha temple on the island of Srirangam near Trichinopoly. It mentions Srirangam as Tiruvarangam (1.16) and the temple as Tiruvarangadévar (1.10).

The date is the 18th year of the reign of Kulôttunga I. The historical introduction does not add any fresh details to those narrated at the beginning of the inscriptions of the 14th and 15th centuries. The inscription records that a certain Kalingarâyar granted to the temple 61 kasu with the condition that the interest should be applied to defraying the cost of offerings on two festival days.

As discovered by Mr Venkayya, the subjoined inscription fixes the time before which two of the twelve Vaishnava Alvârs, who were the authors of the Nalayiraprabandham, must have lived. For (1) it refers to the recital of the text beginning with Tettarundiral (1. 18), which is the 2nd chapter of the sacred hymns of Kulasekhara; and (2) the names of three of the temple officials who are mentioned in the inscription prove that the Vaishnava saint Sathagûpa or Nammalvar was already at that time well known and highly venerated. As noticed before, his work, the Tirurâymoli, is presupposed already in an inscription of Rajaraja 1.10. These epigraphical evidences are fatal to the theory of Dr Caldwell, who placed the Alvârs in the 12th or 13th century.

No. 88.  This inscription (No. 66 of 1892) is engraved on the left of the entrance to the north wall of the fourth prakara of the Ranganatha temple on the island of Srirangam near Trichinopoly. It is dated in the 19th year of Kulottunga-Chôla III. on a day which corresponds to Tuesday, the 12th November A.D. 1196, and records an order of the king, the contents of which are lost.

The consolidated details of the South Indian Inscriptions Volume 24, which is exclusively dedicated to this temple, are given below. Only a part is given below, and the rest is given at the end of this article. For individual inscriptions, please refer to the respective Volumes. 

THE SUMMARY OF INSCRIPTIONS OF SOUTH INDIAN INSCRIPTIONS, VOLUME 24. 

The Kōyil, Periya kōyil, or the Great temple of Ranganātha, is situated on the island of Srirangam between the river Kāvēri and its main branch Kollidam in the Tiruchirapalli District of the Tamil Nadu State. Among the Vaishnava centres of pilgrimage, it vies equally with the famous Tirupati of Venkatachala or Venkatēśa, better known in the North as Bālājī, and has been eulogised by almost all the Vaishnava saints or Alvars, among whom some lived at this place and made it the scene of their devotional activities. Prominent among them were Kulaśēkhara, the Chera king, who renounced his kingdom only to devote his life to the service of this god and settled down at Srirangam with his daughter Cherakulavalli, and Tirumangaimannan or Alinadan, the chief who betook to banditry for the sole purpose of embellishing with the looted money, the lord of Srirangam. He is said to have looted the golden image of Buddha at the vihara at Nagapattinam and, with that gold, renovated certain parts of the temples. The names of minor Älvärs such as Tondaradippodi, Tiruppāņālvär, who was born at Uraiyūr near Srirangam, are also connected with this temple. Rāmānujāchārya, the great apostle of the Visishtadvaita Srivaishņavism, spent as many as 60 years of his long life as the administrative head of this temple and effected many reforms in its internal management.

Kürattālvar, Parāśara Bhatta, Vēdānta Dēśika, and a number of other scholars also lived here. Manavala Mahamuni or Alagiyamanavala, the Acharya of the Tenkalai Vaishnava sect, is said to have lived for a long time here, giving religious discourses. The saint is reputed to have stayed at the Pallavarayan matham in South Uttira Street, where an image of him is being worshipped even now. The place is also associated with the famous Tamil poet Kambar, whose Ramayana, according to tradition, received its imprimatur here at the hands of the literary coteries of his time.

Architecturally, the Ranganatha temple may be classed as the Uttamöttama type as it has its full complement of seven präkāras running round the garbha-griha and has, in addition, separate subsidiary shrines for all the minor pari-vāraděvatas as prescribed in the agamas. The disposition of these shrines in the plan, however, shows variations from the places prescribed for them in accordance with the Vaikhanasa authorities. This is perhaps due to later renovations and alterations made knowingly or unknowingly in successive generations. In fact, the temple has undergone so many alterations at the hands of pious kings of several dynasties and donors of different generations that it is difficult to distinguish between its nucleus and its later accretions. The introduction of images of the Vaishnava-Alvärs in shrines which previously contained images of gods appears also to have been a later innovation made during the time of Ramanuja and Vedanta-Dēšika. A shrine of Dhanvantiri, the god of medicine, which is located on the north side of the fourth prākāra, is a unique feature not met with in any other temple in South India. A stucco figure of God Narasimha called Eduttakai-alagiyär, depicted as tearing the entrails of the demon king Hiranyakasipu, figures on the north gõpura of the fourth prākāra and provided with a mandapa constructed in front of it, presents a rare instance of an ornamental image of a gopura acquiring sanctity in the course of time.

Sculpturally, the temple does not present any outstanding features. The image of the main deity in the garbhagriha is a huge reclining stucco figure with undefined features, and the gold-plated representation of god Para-Väsudēva portrayed on the front side of the Vimana over the circular garbha-griha is considered very sacred. The numerous mandapas, prākāra walls and gõpuras that rose up at different periods do not exhibit any remarkable workmanship, except, in the case of the small temple of Krishna to the west of the main mandapa at the entrance leading into the fifth prākāra with its outer walls embellished with ornamental niches containing beautiful sculptures which are typically fashioned after the Hoysala style, and the Sesha-girirāyanmandapa on the east side of the fifth prākāra which contains a few well-made composite pillars of the type commonly met with in constructions of the Vijayanagara period namely, the rearing yāļi and horses ridden over by hunting cavaliers piercing tigers with spears. The unfinished gõpura at the south entrance in the outermost prākāra, which forms the portals as it were to this temple city, has evoked the admiration of Fergusson by its massive proportions, and if it had only been completed, it would have risen up to a height of nearly 300 feet and would have been a remarkable feat of engineering unparalleled in temple architecture.

Iconographically, the temple offers a wide scope for study as it possesses an almost complete gallery of all the images required for worship according to the Vaishnavāgamas, some of them attributable to the 12th and 13th centuries. Unique among these, which deserve special mention, are a group of ten images called the Daśamūrtis, which are taken in procession round the temple on all important occasions, and Annamürti, the presiding deity of the temple kitchen. The latter, now somewhat mutilated and kept near the ghee-troughs in the Ujñal-mandapam, is represented by a two-armed image holding a bolu of (curd-rice) in one hand and a kalasa (containing payasa) in the other. In the prabhā-mandapa behind the head are carved the emblems of the shankha and chakra. The Padmasamhita (ch. XXVIII) describes the Annamürti image thus:-

Pürnēndu-bimba-madhyasthe sitapadmē vivasvarē |
āsīnam dhaval-ākāraṁ nīlakuñjitamūrdhajam ||

dukūla-kshauma-vasanam bālyayõgi vibhūshaņam!!
Kala-dhautamayaṁ pătraṁ pāyasānnēna püritam ||

bibhrāņam dakshiņë hastē dadhyōdanamathëtarë |
dhyāyēd-akshatriyaṁ dhīmān japēt tadgata-mänasaḥ!!

A long frieze running along the basement of the Kilimandapa from its northern and right up to the side steps leading on to it contains several panels depicting figures in high relief in different dance poses. The panels are inter-cepted at regular intervals by projecting niches containing stone figures in the round. Most of these are now missing, and the only sculpture now existing seems to depict Vishnu with four arms, in a standing posture. The dance poses of these panels are worth detailed study.

The temple is also rich in its paintings. They are confined to the ceilings of the mandapas or prākāras. Those on the ceiling of the innermost prakaras of the main temple are unfortunately blurred with soot, while those on the right ceiling of the prakāras around the shrine of the goddess are peeling off in flakes, although the extant panels are well preserved. They contain scenes in panels with labels in Telugu describing various Puranic themes. They may be attributed to the Nayaka period.

The rest of the details continued at the end of this article...

 

Ref:

Only the essence of the South Indian Incriptions Volume 24 is given in this article. Please refer to the following for the full inscriptions and details.

South Indian Inscriptions Volume 3, Part II, 

South Indian Inscriptions Volume 4,

South Indian Inscriptions Volume 24, exclusively dedicated to Srirangam Sri Ranganathaswamy temple. 

South Indian Inscriptions Volume 27,

Select Inscriptions Page 154, 

Thanjavur District Inscriptions Sl No 118, 

South Indian Shrines Page 447, 

Thenninthiya Koil Sasanangal Volume II

TEMPLE TIMINGS:

The temple will be kept open from  06.00 hrs to 21.00 hrs; during pooja time, darshan will not be allowed.

CONTACT DETAILS:

Temple website: www.srirangam.tnhrce.org  and e-mail address is srirangam@tnhrce.in

HOW TO REACH:

Town buses are available from Tiruchirappalli Railway Station, Central Bus Stand, and Chatram Bus Stand.

Bus, Train, and flight facilities are available from various parts of Chennai and the state capitals of India.

The nearest Railway Station is Tiruchirappalli.

LOCATION OF THE TEMPLE: CLICK HERE

View of Garuda thoon with 2^nd prahara Rajagopuram

The Venugopala Krishnan  Sannidhi

The Venugopala Krishnan  Sannadhi

Vishwaksena sannadhi

Nayaka Kings who reconstructed these mandapams 

Reliefs on one of the 8 pillars of Shesha Rayar Mandapam (A war scene) 

Reliefs on one of the 8 pillars of Shesha Rayar Mandapam

Reliefs on one of the 8 pillars of Shesha Rayar Mandapam, see the sitting posture.

Pulikuthi relief on the left 

Reliefs on one of the 8 pillars of Shesha Rayar Mandapam - Asuras and Devas churning the milk ocean

Reliefs on one of the 8 pillars of Shesha Rayar Mandapam

THE ESSENCE OF INSCRIPTIONS OF SOUTH INDIAN INSCRIPTIONS, VOLUME 24, Continued.... 

The most important feature of the temple with which this volume is concerned is its numerous inscriptions, mostly engraved on its prākāra walls, pillars and pilasters, some on copper-plates in the possession of the temple and yet some more on the temple jewels and utensils of gold. They represent royal donors of almost all the dynasties of South India from the early Cholas down to the Marathas of Tanjore and the Nayakas of Madurai, and later still, during the East India Company days, the prominent philanthropist Pachchaiyappa Mudaliyar and even an European Officer, who undertook to have the silver palanquin of the deity repaired in the year Saka 1735 (A.D. 1813).

The earliest of the lithic records takes us back, on grounds of their palaeography, to the period of the early Chôla Kings Rajakesarivarman (Aditya!) and Parakēsarivarman (Parāntaka I). It is noted that we do not find here any records of the powerful Pallavas who preceded them, although some of them, like Simhavishņu, are said to have been devout worshippers of Vishņu, and Gunabhara, identified with Mahendravarman, who has left to posterity in the rock-cut cave of the Fort-Rock at Tiruchy the masterly panel of Vishnu depicted in the form of Anantasayin. These records (Nos. 1-7), barring one (No. 9), are on a loose slab kept near the temple Museum, are engraved on the jambs of a well-dressed stone doorway of the temple granary (kollärom or elkolanjiyrw) in the fourth prakāram of the temple. Their position, so far removed from the recent central shrine, seems to suggest that the original position of the central studne must have been somewhere near them or, as here removed and inserted in their present position, during subsequent alterations. Of the two records of Rajaksarivarman (Aditya I), one (No. 2) dated in the 20th year of his reign, registers an endowment of some gold by Puttaligal, son of Käräņai Viluppararaivar Arivāļadigal, towards the feeding of four Brahmanas. By tale names, the donor and his father appear to be of the Buddhist or Jain persuasion, and it is noteworthy that they figure as donors in this temple. The inscriptions of Parakēsarivarman (Parantaka I), although few, range from his 2nd to the 41st year of reign. No. 3 of his earliest date, i.e., 2nd year of reign, calls him by the appellation Parakēsarivarman without the qualifying epithet Madirai konda. No. 5 refers to the platform raised for the flag staff (tirukkodi) by Narayanan alias Tennavan Brahmādhirājan, the Śrīkāryam of the temple. It may be recalled that the Anbil plates of Sundara Choļa Parāntaka II, in giving an account of the king's minister Aniruddha-Brahmādhirāja, mention the minister's father as Narayana and his mother and grandfather Aniruddha as donors of lamps to the god of Srirangam. It is not unlikely that this Tennavan Brahmādhirajan is identical with Nārāyanan, the father of Aniruddha Brahmādhirajan.

The only inscription (No. 12) of Uttama-Chola on the pillar in the Chandana mandapa in the second prākāra, and dated in the 15th year of his reign, records provision for burning a lamp with ghee and Bhīmasēni-karpūram, a kind of camphor, by Sridharan Kumāran, a Malayalan of Iravimangalam. The top of the pillar itself is scooped out and shaped into the form of a cup to hold the mixture of ghee and camphor for the lamp. This practice of burning lamps with ghee or oil mixed with camphor is still in vogue at Tiruvannamalai in the North Arcot District. Even at Srirangam, before the advent of electric lights, all the lamps in the temple were said to be lit either with ghee or oil freely mixed with camphor, ostensibly, it is said, to make the ghee or oil for feeding the lamps unfit for human consumption.

The records of Rajarāja, and his son and successor Rajendra are few and fragmentary, and almost all of them are confined to the tiers of the basement of what is now known as the Ottaikkäl mandapam at the north-east corner of the Unjalmandapam. Some of them have flaked off on account of the weathering of the stone, and some are covered over by later constructions. No. 13 mentions the king's commander (Senapati) Kuravan, who may be identical with the officer Sēnăpati Kuravan Ulagalandan, alias Rājarāja-mahārājan, mentioned in the Tanjore inscription of the king, and who probably derived his surname Ulagalandan on account of the important part he must have played in carrying out the revenue survey during the king's reign, which furnished the basis for the revenue policy for many years thereafter. A short but complete record of this king is furnished by an inscription (No. 19) on a detached pillar now lying in the courtyard in front of the ancient paddy storage rooms. It is dated in his 32nd regnal year and mentions Sundara Chola alias Rājarāja Ilangovelar as his subordinate, a circumstance that enables us to assign the record to Rajarāja I. Passing over the only two inscriptions (Nos. 21 and 22) of Rājëndra, both fragmentary and giving long lists of names probably donees and two of Rājādhirāja (1) (Nos. 23 and 24) on eight pillars of the verandah at the entrance into the Chakrattälvär shrine, we have the only inscription (No. 25) of Adhirajendra unfortunately too fragmentary, the stones containing portions of the record now built into the wall of the passage at the Nali kettanvāsal revealing just some portions of his prašasti, commencing with Tingalar-maburndu etc., and with its date lost.

To Kulottunga I belong the bulk of inscriptions (Nos. 26 to 108), and the majority of them are confined to the walls of the third prakāra. They range in date from the 10th to the 48th year of his reign. An outstanding feature that most of these inscriptions reveal is the recourse taken by intending donors for reclaiming vast tracts of land which belonged to the temple and which had lain under sand for a long time on account of floods. Some inscriptions specify this period as a hundred years. The donors purchased plots of this land from the Temple authorities and, in turn, gave them away either tax-free or based on deferred assessment over them for a specified period, stipulating periodic supplies of grain, flowers, etc., to the temple by the intending purchasers or donees (Nos. 27 and 55). To mention only a few among such donors, Kāļingarāyar alias Ponnambalakküttar of Manaiyil (No. 31) may be identified with the famous general Naralõkavīra who held a large fief in Manaiyil and whose services in the southern campaigns of the king are sung not only in the Vikramaśōlan ulā but also praised in a number of laudatory inscriptions from Chidambaram, Tiruvadi and other places, but who must be different from Kalingarāyar alias Araiyan Garudavahanan who endowed some money to the temple for the recitation of Tettaruntiral, a set of hymns composed by Kulaśēkhara (No. 63), or from Kalingarāyar alias Kiliyür-udaiyān Nadaripugalan who figures as donor of land (No. 83); Sēnāpatigal Taliyil Madurăntakan alias Rājëndrachōla-Kidārattaraiyar and his wife Rajakēsarivalli (No. 55); and Sēnāpatigal Ilangōvēlar alias Sēndamangalam-udaiyan Jayan-gondaśōlan (No. 32), of whom the latter endowed for a garden to be named Kidārańgondaviļāgam, surname Räjëndrachōla Kidarattaraiyar' the of the donor in the former and the name of the garden Kidārańgondavilagam in the latter affording lithic proof of Kulottunga's association with Kidaram or Kadāram: Väņādhiraja, the minister of Jayadhara ie. Kulottunga, who seems to have raised a prākāra wall to the temple (No. 26) and whose name Arumoli Rājādhirajan occurs along with his dynastic title Vänädhiraja in another inscription recording his endowment for a flower garden (No. 27); Neriyan Müvëndavēļār alias Adittan Vedavana-mulaiyan Choļa - Kerala Nallūrudaiyan (No. 28); Rajendrachoļa Adiyaman alias Araiyan Sendan of Ponparri (No. 33) and Senapati Virarājēndra Adigaiman (No. 54), among the Adigaiman chiefs of Kongu Sēnāpati Rājanārāyana Munaiyadaraiyar alias Kottūrudaiyan Araiyan Rajendrachōlan and Sēnāpati Vira-Chola Muraiyadaraivar alias Ayarkolundu Chakrapāņi of Koțțür who endowed for the recitation of Tiruppallieluchchi and Tiruvāymoli in the temple (No. 60) Chōlasihamani Müvēndavēļär, the Srikaryam of the temple (No. 67) Vira Vichchädira Müvēndavēļār, who also held the same office (No. 65) and his namesake who bore the alias name Sirāļan Tiruchchirrambalamudaiyan, and Bhuvanina-rāyana Müvēndavēlār of Nedunjēri (No.88), all of whom bore the distinctive surname Mürendavēļār; Kannagan Karumānikkan alias Valava Vichchadira Pallavarayan (No. 85): Adittan Tiruvarańgadēvan alias Virudarājabhayankara Vijayapālan (No. 77); Pallikondän Küttanar alias Viliñattaraivar of Sirrämür (No. 86) who may be distinguished from Uyyavandan alias Viliñattaraiyan of Viliñam alias Rājēndraśōlappattinam occurring in an inscription of the 25th year of the king from Tirunelveli (A.R.Ep., 1927 No. 46) and who might have belonged to the Münrukai-mahāsēnai which boasts among its other achieve-ments, to have destroyed Vilinjam on the sea; Nishadarājar who figures as the Srikaryam of the temple (No. 83) and whose identity with his namesake bearing the surname Tirukkodungunramudaiyan Keralan in another record of the 25th year of the king's reign from Sivapuri: is probable; and lastly  Rājarājan Madurāntakan elias Vatsarājan (No. 58) who endowed land for a matha named after him for feeding some Srivaishnavas at the instance of Nisuadară..an.

Notable among the ladies who figure as donors to the temple are Nambi-rättiyar Lõkamahādēviyār (No. 36), who endowed lands for a flower garden, who, according to the Vikrama-śōlan-ula, after her own name and who may be identified as the queen of Rajamahendra, is said to have provided a serpent couch set with precious stones to god Ranganatha, and who, according to the Köyilolugu, effected many structural alterations in the temple. Though lithic references to the former gave lacking, in inscription (No. 27) of the 25th reignal year of the king inscribed on the north wall of the third präkara specifically states that the record was ordered to be engraved on the wall of the Rajamahendran-tiruchchurru, which to this day, retains the same name, No. 61 dated in the 15th regnal year of the king, introduces the donor Nõriyan Mahā-dēvi who is dese ibed as a daughter of Pandiyanar, and No. 62, dated in the sane year mentions Tennavan Ma dēvi Pandya princess) as a queen of Rajendra dēva (Kulöttunga 1). If the two are identical, the epigraphs furnish us with a hitherto unknown fact that a Pandya princess figured among the queens of Kulöttunga I. Tennavan Mahadevi bears the alias name Rājarājan Arumoliyar in No. 73, dated in the 25th regnal year of the king, which records a further endowment of one veli of land adjacent to the plot already endowed by her a decade earlier.

Another Chola queen, a Valavan Mädēvi whose identity is not otherwise indicated on account of the fragmentary nature of the record, also figures as a donor of some land in the 29th year of Kulöttunga's reign (No. 76). Guna Valli, alias Pendätti Kadavõrudaiyāļ, obviously a lady of high rank and Siriyan-dal-sani, daughter of Atreyan Damodaran Nārāyaņan and wife of Täyanambi-piran, figure as donors of land, the former for a flower garden and the latter for the Srivaishnavas of the temple in Nos. 72 and 104, respectively. 

Before passing on to the reign of Vikramachõļa, the next king represented by the inscriptions in the temple, a few details of outstanding interest in the records of Kulöttunga I may be mentioned here. We may note the role of the temple treasury as a bank for advancing funds, taking deterrent steps for collecting arrears from its constituents or even effecting their arrest for default or non-payment (No. 46). No. 32 records the repayment with interest of a long-standing loan raised by the subha of Chandralekhai-Chaturvedi. Mangalam (the modern Sendalai) from the treasury of god Anantanārāyana Svamin at Srirangam. Though the details of the transaction are unfortunately lost due to the damaged state of the record, this much can be gathered that the loan was raised in the 10th regnal year of Madiraikonda Parakēsarivarman, ie Parāntaka I (c.917 A.D.) and discharged in the 10th year of the reign of Kulöttunga I (e. 1080 A.D.) an interval that stretched over a period of more than a century and a half. The succour extended by the temple treasury for rehabilitating a village that had suffered destruction in a conflict is recorded in No. 53, which refers to a clash between the Right and Left hand classes in the 2nd year of the king's reign, resulting in the burning down of the village Rajamahendra-chaturvēdimangalam, destruction of its sacred places and looting of its temple treasury and the images by robbers. The treasury advanced funds to the Sabha, which undertook the work of rehabilitating the village and renovating and reconsecrating its temples. A marginal note engraved on the top left corner of this record is of considerable significance. It states that this kalvețțu (inscription) belonged to Rajamahendra chaturvēdimańgalam, which, according to the main inscription, was situated in Nittavinōda valanādu. This latter division comprised parts of the present Nannilam and Papanasam taluks of the Thanjavur district, and as such, the village under question, which must be looked for in this area, was situated, at least forty or fifty miles away from Śrīrańgam. The reason for engraving this record 80 far away from Rajamahendra chaturvēdimangalam is inexplicable, particularly because it was done in the 11th year of the king's reign when, unlike in the second year of his reign when the political feud between him and his cousin Adhirājēndra was at its height, Kulõttunga had come to sway over the entire Chõļa territory and as such could have chosen a place nearer to the village for recording the transaction. The clash between the Right-hand and the Left-hand classes alluded to in the inscription was probably an offshoot of this feud. An inscription of Adhirājēndra at Chittamalli in the Mannargudi taluk (A.R.Ep., 1945-46, No. 5), which bears a date closely falling in the period of these clashes referred to in the Srirangam epigaph, seems to confirm this surmise.

Mention must be made here of a Kannada inscription (No. 75) which quotes the 29th regnal year of Kulõttunga but begins with the typical Western Chalukya prašasti Samastabhubvanāśraya. Prithvi Vallabha, etc., and records certain endowments made by a group of Kõns apparently headed by a person whose name is lost but who is mentioned as the Kannada sandhirigrahi and the Dandanāyaka of king Tribhuvanamalla, i.e. Vikramaditya (VI). The presence at Srirangam of Sandhivigrahi of the Chalukya king, whose rivalry with the Chōla king is well known, is enigmatic. Was it, after all, in the capacity of a pilgrim that the Chalukya dignitary and his followers visited this holy place?.

The alliances that were effected by the Chola monarchs Rājēndradēva and his brother Virarājēndra by giving their daughters in marriage to the Eastern Chalukya Rājēndra II, who subsequently ascended the Choļa throne as Kulõttunga-Chola I and the Western Chaļukya Vikramaditya VI, respectively, apparently had the desired result of allaying, at least for the time being, the enmity between the two rival houses. For it seems as though the visit of Vikramaditya's Sandhivigrahi to Srirangam and the apparent deference he had shown to the ruling monarch of the region, i.e. Kulõttunga, in quoting the latter's regnal year rather than that of his own sovereign Vikramaditya, shows the friendly relationship that prevailed between these two kings at the period.

No. 84, dated in the 39th regnal year of the king, which refers to the sale of some temple land to Ariyan Vasudēva Bhattan alias Rājarāja Brahmārāyan of Anishtānam in Kāśmīradēśam, seems to give a clue to the origin of the name Aryabhattāl-vāśal by which one of the main entrances into the temple is now known. Tradition ascribes this to certain Arya-Brahmaņa from the Gauda-dēśa in the north who came to Srirangam with treasure as offerings to the god, and that prior to its acceptance by the deity, it was left at the entrance and guarded by these Brahmaņas in consequence of which it came to be known as the Aryabhattālvāśal. The Kõyilolugu, referring to this legend, dates it in Kali 360, an impossibly early period. The inscription under reference being the earliest to refer to the Arya-Brahmaņas or Aryabhattal, their connection with this temple may reasonably be dated from about this period, viz., 12th century A.D. This appears to have been the period when there was an influx of people from the remote north as pilgrims to important centres of worship in the South, as may be gathered from some epigraphs of Lälgudi, Tiruvorriyūr and Käļahasti, which mention a resident of Kāśmirapuram as a donor in these places (A.R.Ep., 1928-29, part II, para 36).

Vikrama Chola's records, numbering fourteen altogether, range in date from the 3rd to the 16th year of his reign. The majority of them are confined to the walls of the 3rd prakāra, which is popularly known as Vikrama-cholan-tiruchchurru, even to this day. The Köyilolugu ascribes the 5th prākāra of the temple, besides some other structures and a temple of Rama, to this king. This prākāra no doubt forms the 5th counted from the outer. most of the seven prākāras of the temple, but whether this was at all, a work attributable to Vikrama-Chōļa is not borne out by any epigraphical evidence, barring the fact that almost all the records of the king are, as pointed above, confined to the walls of this (3rd) prākāra. In No. 120 of the inner wall, right of the Aryabhattālvāśal, the Srivaishnavakkanmis of the temple, together with the temple accountant, made a gift of land for a flower garden to be named Avirōdišilan. Whether it was after an epithet of Vikrama-Chola himself that the garden was so named is, however, not known. Among the donors figuring in this period may be mentioned Udaiyān Vēlān Karunākaran alias Tondai-manar, the famous general of the king who is praised in the Vikramachōlan ulā as the conqueror of Kalingam and Puravańgudaiyan Araivan Ādittadēvan alias Enādi Araiyan of Puliyangudi (No. 113), who endowed land for a flower garden at the instance of Valavanārāyaņa Müvēndavēļār, the śrīkāryam of the temple. The garden was to be named Nidiyābharanan-nandavanam, probably after an epithet of the king. No. 122, which is dated in the 16th year, the very last of Vikrama-Chola and which is engraved on the north wall of the fourth prākāra, records provision for the feeding of Apūrvi-Srivaishnava Brahmanas in the temple on amāvāsyas and ten Malayāņa (Malayāļa) Śrīvaishnava Brahmaņas on the festival days in the Panguni month, for which purpose Sirilangōn-Tirunādudaiyan had endowed lands. It is noteworthy that the inscription invokes the protection of the Abhimānabhūshanar of the three mandalas instead of the Srivaishnavas of the 18 vishayas generally quoted. Abhimānabhūshana chaturvēdimangalam, as the name of a village, and Abhimanabhshana-vēlān, as the name of a residential quarter, are mentioned in inscriptions of Rajarāja at Tanjore.

The only two records of Kulõttunga II (Nos. 123 and 124) are dated in the 7th and 11th regnal years, respectively, of the king. The earlier of them recording details of the leasing out of temple lands for rearing coconut and areca purports to be an order issued forth by the deity itself, ostensibly to bind the lessees from discharging their obligations to the temple regularly. Similar instances of records in the form of memoranda issued in the name of the presiding deity of the place are often met with in this temple itself, as also in others.

A record (No. 125) of Rajaraja II, dated in the 11th year of his reign (A.D. 1156), registers a gift of a golden lampstand set with a ruby and an endowment of money towards the supply of camphor and oil for maintaining it by Ködaj Ravivarman of Venadu in Malai-nādu.

It is noteworthy that this record too, like that (No. 75) of the Western Chalukya Vikramaditya VI, quotes the regnal year not of the donor but of the reigning king of the region, viz., 'Kulöttunga II. As in the other record cited, here too the gift was made to the deity by Kandan Iravi, ulliruppu officer of the Vēnādu king, on behalf of his overlord. Instances of kings making endowments and grants to temples situated outside their own dominions through their officers or feudatories, or getting some religious rites performed in such places by proxies in tirthas or places of pilgrimage are not wanting. An inscription of the Eastern Ganga king and another of his queen at Känchi or Kanchipuram, one of the Gähadavāla king at Süryanārköyil, and several of the Hoysala, Vijayanagara, and many other rulers at Väranäsi, recording grants made to the local deities or referring to the religious rites performed there by their proxies, are instances of the point.

An interesting detail that may be gathered in the record under review is that it specifies the rate of exchange between the achchu, the coinage of the Travancore territory and the kasu, the Chôla coinage, as 1:9.

Among the five inscriptions of Rājādhirāja II (Nos. 127-31), the first two are dated in the 9th regnal year of the king. Of them, the former (No. 127), who was a merchant of Kurattippattaņam in Kaivāra-nādu, a division of Poysala-nādu, and who had presented a large forehead jewel to the god. The cash endowment of 70 kāśu paid into the temple treasury was invested at the rate of 1/16 kāšu per kāśu per month, yielding an interest of 4-3/8 kāšu every month, and this amount was used to meet the cost of a daily supply of one ulakku of ghee for a lamp in the temple. The yield on the endowed amount at the above rate works out to 75 per cent, which by any standard is unusually high.

Inscription No. 128 mentions the chief Virrirundan Seman alias Tirukkuraivalartta Akaļańka-Nādālvär of Tiruttavatturaj as the donor of a thousand kasu for some special festivals in the temple. A record of this same king from Tiruppachchür (A.R.Ep., 1929-30, No. 124) couples his 9th regnal year with Saka 1095, yielding A.D. 1163 as the initial year for his reign. In some inscriptions of this king from Salem district (A.R.Ep., 1929-30, Nos. 496, 499 and 500), this same chief, Virrirundăn Seman, figures as leading an expedition against Kollimalai, probably on behalf of his overlord. Nos. 129-31, all engraved on the fourth prākāra wall opposite the shrine of Udaiyavar, record oaths of fealty taken by certain men to serve up to death their master Virrirundān Seman as servants (vēlaikkaras). The expedition of this chief and the oaths of fealty that bound his servants to him appear to be intimately connected with Räjädhiraja's leading part in the succession dispute that broke out among the Pandya, of whom one rival party sought the help of the Chola monarch, while the other appealed to the Singhalese ruler Parākramabāhu for help.

There are nineteen inscriptions (Nos. 132-150) assignable to the reign of Kulöttunga III. No. 133 among them, though not dated in his reign, records that the various works of construction, including Magadēśan alias Adaiyava-laindān-tiramaligai and the worship in the temple described as the tutelary property (kuladhanam) of the king, were under the protection of Tayilum Nallan alias Kuiōttungaśōla-Vāņakõvaraiyar. Though the deity of the temple is not referred to, there is nothing to prevent us from identifying the temple with that of the Ranganathasvami temple. Based on the negative evidences that both the king and the officer had a leaning towards Saivism and that they are not known to have been such ardent Vaishnava devotees as to call the Srirangam temple as their kuladhanam it has been surmised that the slabs bearing this inscription probably belonged to some portion of the prakara wall of the neighbouring Jambukēśvara temple and that they were inscribed later in their present position 1. Now that we know that the temple enjoyed the patronage of Choļa Parāntaka I, who is stated to have built the vimāna of the Ranganathaswami temple, as stated in his Velacheri copper plate record, it is quite proper to state that both the Saivite Periyakövil at Chidambaram and the Vaishnavite Periyakōyil at Srirangam were considered by the Cholas as a whole as their kuladhanam. As for Adaiyavalaindān Tirumāligaí (chchurru), it is quite a well-known name of a prākāra in the temple.

Inscriptions (Nos. 151-65) of Rajaraja III reflect clearly the presence of the Hoysala generals and members of the Hoysala royal family who made liberal gifts of money and land. It is well-known that the Hoysalas played a prominent role in maintaining the balance of power between the declining Cholas under Rājarāja III and Räjëndra III and the rising Pandyas under Märavarman Sundarapāndya I. One (No. 152) of these inscriptions, dated in the 9th year (1224 A.D.) in the reign of Rājarāja III, records a gift of land by purchase by Araiyan Viradamudittān, alias kularāyar, from the Pandya country. The same person designated as Pallava-raiyan figures as a high official attesting to transactions recorded in the inscriptions of Maravarman Sundarapāndya I and those of Maravarman Sundarapāndya II.

This volume contains some interesting information about the administration of the temple. Though a connected account of the history of administration is not possible, an attempt is made here to analyse the information from the few inscriptions on the subject.

There is no inscription of the Choļa family which treats this subject directly. But most of the Chola inscriptions give the names of the Srikāryam officers and also the names of Alvar-kanmigal, i.e., the Srivaishnavas who had a share in the administration of the temple. A glance at the list below will show that persons who appear to be high dignitaries were successively functioning as śrīkāryam officers during the Chloas times, while not as much is known about this aspect so far as the period of the Pandya rule is concerned.

It will be evident from the list above that good care had been exercised in the matter of controlling the affairs of the temple. It appears that most of the Śrīkāryam officers in the time of Kulõttunga I were persons appointed with royal consent, since the transaction in which they figure involved the approval of the revenue authorities. The inscriptions (Nos. 27,31,32,34 and 37) in question mostly record the arrangements made to reclaim lands silted on account of the flood in the river Kāvēri. The reclamation of these lands required some concession to be given to the cultivating tenants by way of remission of taxes till the lands had been brought under full and regular cultivation. The practice of appointing Śrīkāryam officers continued right up to the end of the reign of Kulõttunga III (No. 147). The Śrīkāryam officer was assisted by a body called Alvārkanmigal, consisting of two groups of six elected members each, called Śrīvaishnava-vāriyam and Śrībhandāra variyam and an officer called Srivaishnavakkaņakku (No. 54).

With the change of the political conditions, this steady state of affairs in the temple appears also to have been affected. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the activities of the Hoysalas on the political front in the role of keeping up the balance of power between the waning Cholas and the rising Pandyas appear to have caused some disturbance in the administration of the temple. Inscription No. 192, dated 1225 A.D., in the reign of Märavarman Sundara Pandya I, refers in detail to the misappropriation of the capital funds in the temple and the remedial measures devised to set right this state of affairs. It is stated that a body comprising Jīyar Nārāyaņadāsar, Alagiyaśōla brahamādhirāyar described as kōyil-kürudaiyar, Srivaishnavar of Periya-tiruppati, servants of the temple, Sri-bhāgavata nambimär, Sabhaiyar of Tiru-varangam, Vinnappam śēyvār, Nambimar, Śrīpātam-tāngum Nambimār, tiru-vāsal-Ariyar and several others made a public enquiry and that it was found out that the ten heads of executives serving formerly in the temple colluded with the contractors (ottar) of the day, expended the cash, paddy, etc., and misappropriated the rights of cultivation and enjoying the lands of the temple. It is further stated that this collusion led almost to the stopping of worship. With the change of time resulting in direct royal control, it is stated, the Sāmatonār (apparently of the king) restored the revenues of the temple and provided for the annual selection of the personnel by a congregation of the Stivaihsnavur of the eighteen mandalas on the occasion of the pushpayāga of the big (annual) festival.

Nos. 202 and 203, dated in the tenth year of the reign of Chadaiyavarman Sundarapandya I, refer to the arrangements made for the proper management of the temple affairs after the profuse grant of lands and gold bestowed on the temple by the king. No. 202 is an order containing instructions to Väņādarāyar, apparently a royal officer that the work-load in the temple, which was borne by only one group (kotta) of officials in the temple should now be extended to members of the other groups and also stipulates further that the Ariyar and … may be engaged from the month of Avani in the work of guarding the gold treasures of the temple. Evidently, the accumulations are due to the benefactions of this king. No. 203, which begins with the well-known prašasti Samasta Jagad ādhāra of the king, contains a memorandum issued by the deity at the request of the king. This order refers to the big endowments of lands and works in gold, such as the gilding of the vimanas, the Sundara-pandyan madil, gõpura, a palanquin and ornaments caused to be made by the king. It states that formerly the endowments were looked after by ten persons representing the Kõvanarar and that as the endowments have now increased due to the benefactions of the king, ten persons selected from all the koltus, including the Kõvannrar, should manage the property.

The ten persons are to be selected as follows: -2 from Kõvanavar, 2 from Bhattagal Srirangamaraiyōr, 1 from Tōdavattutūmaraiyōr of the sabha, 2 from talai-duvar, 1 from vāśal Ariyar and 2 from aratta (aratta mukki-nukkar who are tending the gardens. Kurukulattaraiyan, the headman of Mattūr, was the Srikaryam officer on the occasion. This order is said to have been issued at the instance of Sriranganiravanadisan, Kurukulattaraiyan, the headman of Mattür, who was the Srikaryam officer, the Kõvanavar and the Kudawar. Tirumantira-õlvināyakam Kannudaiyan Pallavan Vilupparajyan of Puduchchēri figures as the signatory of the record. Of these groups, the function of Kõvanavar appears to be a general duty of supervising the worship. Srirangamaraiyōr and Tõdavattu (for Todavatti)-tūmaraiyōr (clean brāhmaņas clad in white) are evidently the names of two classes of Brahmanas, the distinction between the two being not clear. The former were apparently members of the sabha of Srirangam. The latter are mentioned in a stanza of Periyalvar in the Nalayira-divya-prabandham. Talai-iduvar evidently refer to the people engaged in supplying flowers and garlands. Vāsal Ariyar, as the term indicates, seems to refer to a group of northerners who had guard duty at places of entrance into the temple. Arattamukki-anukkar, as the record itself describes, were engaged in tending the flower gardens. Aratta-mukki is one of the titles of Tirumangai-ālvar, and anukkar means close servants or attendants. While these six groups were represented in the body of ten persons constituted according to these inscriptions, it will be interesting to note that there are other groups of servants, such as Sri-bhāgavata-nambimār vinnappam-seyvar, Nambimār and Śrīpādantāngum Nambimār, who, though nonetheless intimately connected with the affairs of the temple, went without representation.

No. 257 in characters of the 13th century is an equally interesting document. It contains the order issued in the name of the deity regarding the constitution of committee of 23 members a The of whom ten are to be selected from out of the kottus of the temple, four from the sanyasins and dēśāntaris, five representing 18 mandalas including Tondaimandalam and four representing the Chēra, Sõla, and Pandya kings and the kshatriyas of the north. ten members from kottus were to be selected as one from each kottu, the ten kottus being enumerated as (1) Kõvanavar (2) Kudavar looking after the temple affairs, (3) bhattagal, (4) Tödavatti-tūmaraiyōr, (5) Rāmānujanai-udaiyār, (6) Pāduvār, (7) talai-iduvār, (8) garland-makers (9) Ariyar guarding the gates and (10) Srīpundarikar holding the lamps and tending the gardens. A comparison of this with No. 203 discussed above shows that the temple affairs were managed at first by a committee of ten selected from the group called Kõvanavar alone, and later the ten were selected from Nos. 1, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10 of the list above. The present record adds to the list Kudavar, Ramanujanai-Udaiyar, Paduvar and garland-makers. Further, the record proceeds to say that some of these selected persons who observe the codes of conduct and are familiar with the hymns of Sathagopan (Nammālvar) and Kaliyan (Tirumangai-alvar) may be appointed as ēkāngis. The rates of payment for all of them are laid down. They are then ordered to select an ascetic from among the residents of Pangayachchelviyūr alias Vellarai, Parāntaka-chaturvēdi-mangalan alias Sāļigrāmam and Nalāyiravar-brahmadēyam in Pandiman-dalam, who is endowed with knowledge and conduct and who is acquainted with Itihasa-Purānas and appoint him as the leader (talaikan) of the committee who should be honoured as the god's sēnāpati (i.e., Vishvaksēna) is honoured. The entire administration of the temple and the god's properties at places where the god has the right to camp is entrusted with the ascetic, who is also required to be accosted by Velaikkāras wielding weapons. The elaborate arrangements made in this record indicate the complexities in the administration of the temple arising out of the accumulating wealth and expanding services. The creation of a pontificate whose name or designation is not given seems to have thrown the traditional seats of power represented by Ramanuja into the background.

The Vijayanagara section contains 254 inscriptions (Nos. 287 to 540), all of them arranged in the order of their date. Those among them that are not dated have been placed next to or near the numbers to which they are related by dint of their contents. It is well known that inscriptions of this period do not cite the regnal year of the ruling king but only the Saka date along with other details. Since the occurrence of the king's name cannot be expected in every inscription of this period, as in the case of the previous sections, the sway of a particular king in this area on the date of record should be determined only on other counts. The king's name given on the top of a few inscriptions does not necessarily imply that the king's rule extended up to the period noted in the next inscription where the king's name is given at the top. This applies more so in the case of the later inscriptions, when the Nayakas at Madurai and Tañjāvür chose to acknowledge and to ignore the royal house as the circumstances warranted. Readers also may come across instances in the early Vijayanagara period where some of the inscriptions, which fall chronologically later, are dated in the reigns of the ruler at Vijayanagara, with a few earlier inscriptions referring only to his viceroy in the south (No 290).

The section of Vijayanagara inscriptions differs very much from the earlier sections, as noted above, in their mode of dating. Nearly in all cases where Sanskrit passages occur in the inscription, the Saka date is given in chronograms composed according to the katapayādi system, such as Bhandupriya-(No, 282) mānaslaghya (No. 298), sēnāslaghya (No. 301. bhūmi candya (No. 407), mēsērandya (No. 413) and similar chronograms in Nos. 423, 457, 460, 488, 334, and 554. Though the practice of quoting dates in the Saka era was not unknown in this part of the Tamil country, only the Vijaya-nagara inscriptions contained the Saka dates as an integral part of their date and the practice of quoting regnal years was entirely given up.

This famous centre of pilgrimage was visited by representatives of all the linguistic groups, and hence we find inscriptions in all ancient South Indian languages, viz., Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and also in Marathi, and Oriyā. We find, in addition, inscriptions being written in a script other than the one in which inscriptions of the language are written. No. 414 is a Tamil inscription written in Grantha characters. Nos. 310 and 311 are Kannada inscriptions engraved in Grantha script.

The Vijayanagara section opens with a Sanskrit inscription (No. 287) in Grantha characters, which has a very significant bearing on the spurt of religious enthusiasm and expansion witnessed at Srirangam during this period. It deals with the restoration of the image of Ranganatha by Goppana, a general of Kampana II, who was ruling as a viceroy from Chenji. Kampaņa's debut into the Tamil country at this period put a stop to the Muslim incursions, and the country was insured against any future onslaughts by the strong Hindu Kingdom of Vijayanagara, and this forms the subject matter of the well-known work Medhurā-vijayam by his queen Gangādēvi. Thus, with the restoration of worship of the main deity at Srirangam, this famous religious centre began to flourish and make rapid progress in its strides. That this progress was evident in all aspects of activities in the temple is borne amply by the inscriptions in this section. While it might have been no less vigorous during the earlier periods, the expansion of the temple is so profusely illustrated by the inscriptions of this period that one is compelled to feel that the pomp and splendour of this period is but a very true reflection of the pomp and splendour of the Vijayanagara masters. Evidently, the Vijayanagara kings and their subordinate officers were more inclined towards Vaishnavism. The gifts or donations, the feeding of Srivaishnavas, the festivals, the building activities, the founding of new religious institutions inside the temple, the endowments for various services, including the patronage of religious literature, afford clear proofs of the interest evinced in the temple by the royal masters and their highly placed subordinates.

This inscription (No. 287) contains a verse which is recorded in traditional accounts such as Guruparampra-prabhāvom and Köyilolugu as composed by Śrī Vēdāntadēśikar, the celebrated poet and Vaishnava āchārya. The defeat of the Muslims by Gõppaņna, followed by the restoration of worship in the Srirańgam temple, was an event of far-reaching significance even so far as this temple is concerned. For it released the suppressed spirit of the people, and the expanded activities, as recorded in the later inscriptions, testify to this.

Devarāya's reign witnessed the full restoration of the previous land-grants and some privileges to the local sthānikas at the instance of Uttama Nambi (No. 310), and the latter was honoured by the king with gifts of a golden parasol, necklace, bracelets, etc., in appreciation of his services for the temple. This paved the way for the growing influence of Uttama Nambi on the affairs of the temple, to such an extent that we do not hear much in the inscriptions about the time-honoured institution of the hereditary āchāryas. This is most probably due to the fact that the material progress of the temple could not be attended to by the religious heads. Uttama Nambi was evidently the name of the family, as two persons, father and son, are both called Uttama Nambi (No. 332). Thus, the new family of Uttama Nambi appears to have sprung up sometime about 1413 A.D. (No. 307), and the title was held hereditarily. The benefaction by the first Uttama Nambi and his elder brother Chakrarāya is recorded in Nos. 307, 308, 310-16, 320 and 330. Sriranganārāyana-Jiyar, the representative of an earlier institution, is mentioned only by chance in Nos. 311 and 328, along with (Nos. 309, 312, etc.), other local temple officials while certain entire inscriptions speak of Uttama Nambi. Kõyilolugu ascribes to this Uttama Nambi the role of an emissary on behalf of the Srirangam temple to Goppaņa.

After this period, the influence of Uttama Nambi appears to have been on the wane, for the last we hear of an Uttama Nambi effectively is from No. 345, dated in 1472 A.D. In about 1489 A.D., the influence of the members of the Kandadai house was already at work and in No. 347 of that date, a Sattāda parama Ekāngi called Kandādai Ayodhyā Rāmānujayyangår is mentioned in connection with the grant of two villages to the temple. The association of this person is elaborately described in Kōyilolugu (p. 69). He is described as one Rāmarāja, an elder brother of Vira-Narasimha ruling from Ghanagiri and as having visited Ayodhyā, as also evidenced by his name. He is stated to have become a disciple of Kandādai Annan and to have received from him the dasya-nāma of Kandādai Rāmānujadasar. The date 1489 A.D. seems to point to the identity of this Vīra Narasimha with Śāļuva Narasimha, whose predecessors also figure as donors in the inscriptions of this temple. Though the identity of this Ayodhya Rāmānujayyangār is not so clear from inscriptions as Kōyilōlugu would have it, it is clear that this royal disciple might have been instrumental in raising the status of his preceptor. We hear more of this preceptor and his descendants and their disciples after this date (Nos. В 358, 369, 370, 374, 378, 379, 415, 422, 447, 466, 485 and 498). A significant result of this development was the creation of a feeding charity at the Rāmānuja-kūtam. The donor's share of the food offerings in the temple nearly always went to this feeding charity, thus ensuring a steady flow of itinerant Srivaishnava pilgrims from distant Kāśmīradēśa (No. 306), from Pratāpagiri (No. 321) and from places nearby.

No. 460, dated in 1546 A.D., in this section narrates the services rendered to the temple by Nalantigal-Narayana Jiyar of earlier times, thus affording evidence regarding the origin of the office of Sriranganarāyana Jiyar that functioned from about the 13th century.¹ Śrīranganārāyaņa Jiyar is mentioned in almost all the inscriptions of the Vijayanagara period (Nos. 311, 328, 484, etc.) as a party to the transactions recorded in them. The inscriptions are correspondingly stated to have been attested to by Sriranganārāyanapriyan, the temple accountant (Nos. 416, 418, 419, etc.), as against the Pallavan Vilupparaiyan of the earlier times.

From the time of Uttama Nambi onwards, the temple was visited frequently by high dignitaries of the Vijayanagara empire and was, in turn, benefited by their munificent donations. No. 340 will prove to be a good instance of this. According to this inscription dated in 1464 A.D., Sāļuva Tirumalairāja assigned the produce from the lands of all the villages named as tiruvidaiy tar in the various divisions (sirmai), to the treasury of the temple. No. 379 records the endowment of a large sum of 10,500 chakram paņam by a member of the merchant community. The inscription states that this money should be invested in lakes and channels, a very useful mode of investment, and that the resultant revenue must be utilised to serve the purpose of the endowment. A lesser amount of 50 pon was also required to be similarly invested according to another inscription (No. 507). Even Könēridēva-mahārāja, the most bigoted chief of the area as described by the Kōyilolugu, had caused the construction of the door-jambs(No. 352) for the entrance into the Sõkkappānai-vāśal-gõpuram in the fifth prakāra and also arranged for the offering of musurōdara (curd-rice) to the god by endowing land in Pichchandarköyil (No. 353).

The money endowments that were deposited in the temple treasury were required to yield a rate of interest as laid down in the Yājñavālkya-smriti (aśīti-bhāgō vriddhi-ssyāt), working out to a rate of 15 per cent per year (Nos. 423 and 447). No. 420 records that Avasaram Mallarasayyan arranged for the broadening of Peruvaļavan-vāykkāl, for the enlargement of the endowment for food offerings as a result of the additional revenue and for the distribution of the offerings in the night feeding charity and to the brahmaņas, śūdras, paradēsis and for two taņņirppandals. Besides grants of money, precious jewels were also donated in large quantities (Nos. 379, 397, 398, 430, 442-43 and 445).

This leads us to the practice of the distribution of food offerings arising out of these endowments. Though this distribution could never have been a new phenomenon, the Vijayanagara inscriptions have devised a new phrase in this respect. They often speak of vittavan-vilukkādu, meaning the 'donor's share'. But in very few cases only this share was enjoyed by the donor himself (Nos. 376, 389, 460 etc.,) and in every other case the share was allotted to a particular preceptor (Nos. 379, 384, 388, 401, 403 etc.,) or his institution such as matha or kitam (Nos. 371, 373, 378 etc.) or in private houses (No. 344) at the behest of the donor. The last mentioned refers to the service of mushti-madhūkaram, evidently a sweet dish in handfuls to Srivaishnavas. Apart from these special feeding charities, the cosmopolitan feeding of all sorts of people, irrespective of caste, nativity, etc., was also known, as already explained above. It may be easily surmised that the rest of the food offerings must have been used to be bestowed on the vast groups of servants in the temple, though the inscriptions do not give elaborate details in this respect.

The scale of offerings detailed in these inscriptions is simply stupendous. As a natural corollary to this, we find the unique institution of Dhanvantari in the temple. According to Köyilolugu, it appears that originally only the service of a medicinal decoction (kudinir) at night to the deity was arranged for by the great Ramanuja through his disciple Garudavāhana-panditar. But a hospital (arōgyu-śālai) was also erected within the temple to the west of Edutta-kai alagiya näyanär (northern) Gõpura in the fourth Prakara only in 1257 A.D. (No. 267), and an endowment of land as Salaippuram was created by Singanna-dandanayaka, the Hoysala general, on the same date. The endowment was entrusted into the hands of the then Garudavähana bhattar, an office held hereditarily. Subsequently (No. 353) in 1493 A.D., the hospital, which was destroyed in the course of the Muslim invasion, was renovated, and the image of Dhanvantari was also installed, and an endowment for its maintenance was also created by the contemporary Garudavāhana-panditar identified with the author of Divyasuri-charitam.

This volume also includes a few inscriptions which are good examples of literary styles, and some of them also contain quotations from literary works. No. 292 contains a Sanskrit verse in Grantha expounding Virūpäksha's creed about the real functions of the father, the relatives and the wife. This verse is found to be the opening verse in the drama Ņārāyani-vilāsa in which the sūtradhāra introduces King Virūpaksha as the author of the play. No. 295 is an excellent example of Sanskrit prose. Besides, the inscription is important as it refers to Virüpäksha's visit to the famous sage Vidyaranya, described as apara Sankaracharya. The record being unfortunately incomplete, the other details are lost. Nos. 314 and 324 are compositions of Vyasabharati, who appears to have been a popular figure in the area during this period (vide A.R.Ep., 1938-39, pt. II, Paragraph 45). No. 382 reveals the name of a work, Jūānachintamani, which was required to be recited before the god. Its authorship is not given. Bhaktasañjivi (No. 408) is the name of another work stated to have been composed by Tirumalai-amman, who was no doubt identical with Oduva Tirumalāmbă, the famous court-poetess of Achyuta raya, who later became his queen and composed two Sanskrit verses (No. 440) in honour of her husband, the king, on the occasion of the tulābhāramahādāna performed by him. Both these two works, Jñanachintamani and Bhakta-sanjiri, are otherwise unknown to us.

The inscriptions in Tamil naturally form by far the bulk of this volume atíord also some good examples of the maniprarāļa style peculiar to the Vaishuvaite cult in the south, though no literary work in Tamil is referred to. This style has already taken root, as evidenced by No. 272, a Hoysala inscription included in the previous section. No. 460 records the events that occurred before a couple of centuries preceding the date of the record (1546 A.D.), and the style adopted in its narration of those events reminds us very much of the well-known manipracala works now extant in the form of hagiographies and the earlier excellent commentaries of the Diryaprabandham. No. 532 is another example where apt quotations from Divyaprabandham and Divyasaricharitam are interspersed in the text of this inscription.

The expanding temple must have had its problems of administration. According to the Kõyilolugu, it appears that there were more than one occasion when the lapses of administration had to be rectified only by the sacrifice of a few Ekangis or Jiyars by falling from the high tops of the gopuras. Though this practice was no doubt popular in the south, only one inscription (No. 321), dated in 1610 A.D, records the honours conferred on the image of one Periyalvar who fell down from the gopura in protest of the complete stoppage of the offerings to the god. The Kõyilolugu records the occurrence of similar acts in the reign of Kōnēridēvamahārāja. But the inscriptions (Nos. 352 and 363) of the period do not, however, refer to them.

The continuous control of the Tamil country by the Vijayanagara rulers gave it political stability, as already referred to, and guaranteed a steady growth and expansion of the temple at Srirangam in all respects. A considerable number of structures were also put up, resulting in the expansion of the temple proper with its seven prākāras. A brief summary of such constructional activities as evidenced by the foundation inscriptions in this collection is given here. No. 293 records the construction of the vimana, gõpura and mandapa for Chakrin, i.e., Chakrattälvär, the deity symbolic of the disc in one of the hands of God Vishnu, by Virūpāksha, son of Harihara and grandson of Bukka, who commenced to rule as one of the Viceroys in the south from 1383 A.D. The inscription is engraved on the nitals of two pillars in the mandapa in front of the Chakrattalvår shrine in the fifth prakāra. Since an inscription (No. 221) of the Pandya times, engraved on the south wall of this shrine, refers to Tiruväliälvăr, i.e., Chakrattalvär, the constructions recorded in this inscription were evidently improvements made upon a small shrine that already existed. No. 304 refers to the installation of an image of Vitthalanatha by Annappa Chaundappar of Belvoledēśa, a sthānika of the temple, sometime before 1396 A.D. He is also stated to have gilded the vimāna (Köyilāļvar), and to have also repaired the thousand-pillared mandapa. The installation of an image of Garuda by Chakraraya, the brother of Uttamanambi, in 1415 A.D. is recorded in No. 308 (cf. also No. 325). No. 314 records the following construc-tions caused to be made by Chakräräya, the brother of Uttamanambi:-(1) A passage with nine pillars to the south of Perumaltölan-tirumandapam No. 315), (2) the tirukkavanappatti (ornamental roof) in the big mandapa by Uttamaraya, i.e. Uttamanambi, (3) a temple for Singar, i.e., Narasimha after clearing the forest and colonising the area, (4) a mandapa in front of the shrine of Annadi emperuman, in which he consecrated Märuti, i.e., Hanuman and (5) a mandapa at the entrance into the kitchen of the temple, in which he consecrated Lakshmi. Annādi emperuman is evidently identical with Annamürti, the presiding deity of the kitchen. This is now represented in the temple by a two-armed stone image holding a bolus of curd rice in one hand and a kalasa containing payasa in the other. In the prabhü-mandapa behind the head are carved the emblems Sankha and Chakra. This image is placed in the Unjal-mandapa near the Aryabhattäļvāśal, close to the passage leading into the kitchen. There are also two bronze images of this deity in the temple. No. 57, engraved in the proper right of this image and dated in 1588 A.D., records an endowment for conducting worship of this deity. Chakrarāya also installed the Dasävatara images, apparently in a shrine in 1439 A.D. No. 488, dated in 1367 A.D., contains Sanskrit verses in praise of these images, and it records also an endowment for their worship by Kumara Achyuta, son of Chinna Cheuva and Mürtyamba, who is evidently identical with Achyuttappanayaka of Nedun gunram, the viceroy of Vijayanagara in Thañjavür. The consecration of the image of Dhanvantari is another unique feature in this temple (No. 354). Its connection with Garudavahana Bhatta, the hereditary physician of the temple, is described elsewhere.

While endowments providing for the recitation of the Divyaprabandham are not unknown during the early period (cf. the provision for Tellaruntiral, etc., in an inscription from Tiruvallikkēņi in Madras), Vijayanagara inscriptions from Srirangam afford evidence, though of a later period, regarding this aspect. Vēdapārāyana was also given prominence as in Nos. 447 and 496. Endowments about the recitation of Tiruvaymoli are recorded in the same inscriptions, of Tirumõli in 501, of Tiruppārai in 502 and of Jyarpa in 512.

This temple had also been honoured by its connection with Tallappakkam Tirumalaiyańgär Nos. 469 and 470, son of Annamayangår, who is well-known as a great musician. The latter's compositions engraved on copper plates are now preserved in the archives of the Tirutnalai Tirupati Devasthanam.

In 1500 A.D., Kandādai Madhavayyangår, the disciple of Kandādai Rāmānujayyangār, constructed a temple to the north of Nanmugan-gõpuram, installed therein the images of Vitthalēśvara and Madhurakaviālvär and also constructed a kitchen (No. 358). No. 370, dated in Yuva, i.e., 1515 A.D., while recording the grant of land to the above temple, referred to the boundary of the temple of Tiruppān älvär.

The Tirukkuralappan, shrine, i.e., shrine for Vamana, is stated in No. 461 engraved on the west wall of the same, to have been endowed with a garbha griha, ardha-mandapa, mahamandapa, nrityamandapa, gõpura and a four-pillared mandapa by Srirangadēvarājan, the disciple of Tatāchārya in 1546 A.D.

An interesting reference to an endowment providing for the worship of Jaya and Vijaya, the dvārapālakas, is obtained in a fragmentary inscription, which is not dated (No. 348).   

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