Jambai Malai, Jambai, Villupuram
This is a small hillock in the north east of the Jambai
village, Tirukoyilur Taluk. Between the split areas of this hillock there are
signs of megalithic period settlement. This beautiful hillock contains a cavern
called Dasimadam where Tamil Brahmi inscriptions dated 1 B.C is found. The epigraph is
in Tamil (except for the title in Prakrit) and reads "Satiyaputo Atiyan
Nedumaan Anjji itta Paali". The meaning of the epigraph may be
rendered as "The abode (Pali) given by (itta) Atiyan Nedumaan Anji (name),
the Satyaputra (title)". Though the record is a short one in a single
line, it throws valuable light on various aspects of South Indian history. The
inscription clears the doubt about the identity of the Satyaputras, a dynasty
of rulers, mentioned in Asoka's inscriptions in the 3rd century. Opposite
to this cavern, another cave with four Jain stone beds has been found which
confirms that Jambai was a Jain centre.
West of this hillock in a small stone boulder, a
10th-century C.E. Tamil inscription of
Kannaradeva or Krishna III, a Rashtrakuta king, found along with a relief work of
Jyestha Devi. South of this inscription a lake for irrigation was constructed.
The inscriptions point out Jambai as Valaiyur. The inscription of
Parantaka Chola I also observe about the presence of Valaiyur Nattu-p-perumpalli.
Some other inscription of Rajaraja Chola III also refers about
the Kandaraditta-p-perumpalli, dedicated to Neminathar, the 22nd
Tirthankara of the Jains.
Inscriptions
The inscription is found on a rock inside a cavern, on
the hillock of Jambai, a village in Villupuram district, Tamil Nadu. This village
is located 15 km away from Thirukkoilur town and can be reached by a Motorable
road. The epigraph is in Tamil (except for the title in Prakrit) and reads:
“Satiyaputo Atiyan Natuman Anci itta Pali”
The meaning of the epigraph may be rendered as 'the
abode (Pali) given by (itta) Atiyan Neduman Anci (name), the Satyaputra
(title)'.
The inscription clears the doubt about the identity of
the Satyaputras, a dynasty of rulers, mentioned in Asoka's inscriptions in the
3rd century B.C. This great Mauryan Emperor, in his rock edicts, mentions a
number of contemporary rulers among who figures 'Satiyaputra'. In his Girnar
rock edict II, Asoka details the arrangements made by him within his empire and
also beyond its borders.
'Everywhere in the conquered dominions of king
Priyadarsin, the beloved of the gods, and the dominions on the borders as those
of the Chola, the Pandya, the Satiyaputra, the Keralaputra, Tamraparni, the
Yavana King named Antiyoka and the other neighbouring kings of this Antiyoka,
(Ye Ca anta ata Choda, Pandiya, Satiyaputo, Kelalaputo, Tambapanni, Antiyogo
nama Yonalaja) two kinds of medical treatment were established by king
Priyadarsin, the beloved of the gods viz. Medical treatment for human beings
and medical treatment for cattle'.
The Satiyaputras are placed; it may be seen, among the
Cheras, the Pandyas and the Keralaputras. While the countries of the Cholas,
the Pandyas and the Keralaputras are well known, the identity of the
Satyaputras was the subject of controversy among scholars. Some identified the
Satyaputras with the Satavahanas, while others identified them with the
Satputas of Maharashtra. Still other scholars located their country in northern
Kerala. But judging from the way Asoka mentions them the Cholas, the Pandyas
and also the Keralaputras, and the fact that they were outside the domain of
Asoka's rule, it was suggested by some scholars that they should be identified
with one or other of the known rulers of the Tamil land.
In early Tamil literature, a clan of people named Kossar,
known for their honesty and trustworthiness (Satya), are referred to and they
were considered the Satyaputras of the Asokan edict. But the Adhiyamans were
also equated with the Satyaputras by K.G. Sesha Aiyer, Burrow and the great
historian, K.A. Nilakanta Sastri. In the Jambai epigraph, the title Satiyaputo
is given to the Atiyaman chief, thus setting at rest once and for all the
controversy about the identity of the Satyaputra rulers of the Asokan edicts
with the Atiyaman chiefs, rulers of a part of the Tamil country.
The Jambai record is somewhat later than the Asokan
period, which indicates that the line of Atiya chiefs held sway over a part of
the Kongu country from the 3rd century B.C. to the 1st century A.D. and were
powerful enough to be listed by Asoka on par with the Cholas, the Cheras and
the Pandyas of the Tamil land. On grounds of paleography and other contemporary
records, the Jambai record has to be placed in the first century A.D.
In the early Tamil Sangam literature a number of rulers
of Tamil land are mentioned and several historical episodes are recorded.
Among the rulers of the Sangam age, Atiyaman Neduman
Anci is celebrated in the Tamil classics by eminent poets like Paranar and
Avvaiyar. Avvaiyar, the greatest Tamil poetess, was a very close friend of Atiyaman
Neduman Anci, and has left several poems on him. He had his capital at Takatur,
the modern Dharmapuri, in northern Tamilnadu. Anci was the leader of the
Malavars against whom no enemy could prevail. His ardour for battle and heroism
in war forms the themes of many poems.
Avvaiyar describes at some length Atiyan's arms and
power, swords, spears, elephants and infantry and advised his foes to submit
and pay tributes to him if they hope to escape disaster. Once Avvaiyar went on
an embassy to Tondaiman on behalf of Atiyan; when Tondaiman showed her around
his arsenal, the poetess confessed with subtle sarcasm, that the arsenal of her
chief was full of rusty, broken and blood-stained weapons. She implied that
while Atiyaman made victorious use of his weapons on battle fields, Tondaiman
merely exhibited them for show!
Atiyan belonged to a family whose ancestors were great
performers of Vedic sacrifices and devout worshippers of gods. An ancestor of
Atiyan is said to have introduced sugarcane cultivation from the celestial
regions to earth. Atiyan himself was a noted patron of poets whose palace gates
usually remained open for wandering minstrels. Once he got a rare myrobalan
fruit which made the individual who ate in an immortal. Instead of eating it
himself, he presented the fruit to the poetess and the grateful bard celebrates
this noble gesture of Atiyan in a poem, expressing the wish that her patron,
Atiyaman Anci, should live forever, like Lord Siva who swallowed the deadly
poison himself and gave the deathless ambrosia to this world. This great act of
Atiyaman is praised in several Tamil verses of both the early and mediaeval
periods, so much so that the very name Atiyan came to mean liberality.
Among his conquests, two victories come in for special
praise. Atiyan single handedly met the confederacy of seven rulers and won a
signal victory. Avvai states that there was no poet who was capable of giving a
verbal description of this battle and the valour of Atiyan. The second victory
relates to the capture of Thirukkoilur by Atiyan, a conquest praised by no less
a poet than Paranar of the Sangam age. The poetess herself mentions that this
conquest was sung by Paranar.
In the end, Atiyan himself was besieged in his own fort
at Tagadur by the Chera king Perum Cheral Irumporai, who ultimately captured it.
This Perum Cheral Irumporai, the victor of Tagadur, is probably identical with
Adan Cheral Irumporai, the first king mentioned in the Pukalur record. The
Jambai record is contemporaneous with the Pukalur inscription. A long Tamil
poem, Tagadur Yattirai, surviving only in parts, celebrates the conquest of Tagadur
by Perum Cheral Irumporai. Atiyan fell in a battle pierced by a spear of his
opponent.
Avvai gives an eyewitness account of the fall of Atiyan.
His body was consigned to flames and Avvai, visibly moved by the scene, has a
poem on the cremation. Later a memorial stone (dolemnoid cist erected in honour
of warriors who met with heroic death), was erected to this great ruler. Ever
since, the name Atiyan was always associated with the poetess Avvaiyar who is
much venerated in Tamil Nadu.
The discovery of the inscription of Atiyaman Neduman
Anci recording his own gift has proved his historicity and its location near Thirukkoilur,
attests to his conquest of that town about 80 km from his capital, Tagadur. The
gift was made by Atiyan obviously when this territory was under his control.
The early Sangam poetry describes Atiyan as a great Saivite but the fact that
he has gifted an abode to a Jaina ascetic shows the religious tolerance of the
age.
