Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam – Inscriptions
Sri
Ranganathaswamy Temple is a veritable treasure trove for epigraphists. Over 640
inscriptions have been copied and published from the temple. The Archaeological
Survey of India has devoted an entire volume (XXIV) in its South Indian
Inscriptions series to record the inscriptions copied from the temple. The Big
Temple in Thanjavur is the only other temple in Tamil Nadu to have such an
exclusive volume devoted to the inscriptions found in a particular temple.
The
inscriptions throw up interesting and valuable light on the history, culture
and economy during a period of over a thousand years. “The temple abounds in
inscriptions dating between the early Chola and late Nayak periods. There is
scope for a comprehensive study on the inscriptions found in the temple.
The most
important feature of the temple with which this volume is concerned is its
numerous inscriptions mostly engraved on its prakara 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 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 quin 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 paleography,
to the period of the early Chola Kings Rajakesarivarman (Aditya I) and
Parakesarivarman (Parantaka I). It is noteworthy that we do not find
here any records of the powerful Pallavas who preceded them although some of
them like Simhavishnu are said to have been devout worshippers of Vishnu, and
Gunabhara, identified with Mahendravarman who has left to posterity in the
rock-cut cave of the Rock Fort at Tiruchy the masterly panel of Vishnu depicted
in the form of Ananthasayin.
The
records on a loose slab kept near the temple Museum, are engraved on the jambs
of a well-dressed stone doorway of the temple granary (Kottaram or
nel-kalanjiyam) in the fourth prakara of the temple. Their
position, so far removed from the present central shrine, seems to suggest that
the original position of the central shrine must have been somewhere near them
or that they were removed and inserted in their present position during
subsequent alternations. Of the two records of Rajakesarivarman
(Aditya I), one (No.2) dated in the 26th year of his reign registers
an endowment of some fold by puttadigal, son of Karanai Vilupperaraiyar
Arivaladigal towards the feeding of four Brahmanas. By their 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 Parakesarivarman (Parantaka I), although few, range from his 2nd to the
41st year of reign, his earliest date i.e. 2nd year of reign
calls him by the application Parakesarivarman without the qualifying epithet
Madirai-konda. Another refers to the platform raised for the flag staff
(thirukodi) by Narayanan alias Tennavan Brahmadhirajan, the Srikaryam of the
temple. It may be recalled that the Anbil plates of Sundara Chola
Parantaka II, in giving an account of the king’s minister
Aniruddha-Brahmadhirajan, 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 Brahmadhirajan is
identical with Narayanan, the father of Aniruddha Brahmadhirajan.
The only
inscription of Uttama-Chola on the pillar in the Chandana mandapa in the second
prakara, and dated in the 15th year of his reign, records provision for
burning a lamp with ghee and Bhimaseni-karpuram, a kind of camphor, by Sridhara
Kumaran, 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
camphor for the lamp. This practice of burning lamps with ghee or oil
mixed with camphor is still in vogue at Thiruvannamalai District. Even at
Srirangam prior to 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 unfits
for human consumption.
The
records of Rajaraja, 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 Ottaikkal mandapam at the north-east corner of the Unjal
mandapam. Some of them have flaked off on account of the weathering of
the stone and some are covered over by later constructions. It mentions
the king’s commander (Senapati) Kuravan who may be identical with the officer
Senapati Kuravan Ulagalandan alias Rajaraja-Maharajan 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 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 Rajaraja IIan govelar as his subordinate, a circumstance that enables us
to assign the record to Rajadhiraja (I) on eight pillars of the verandah at the
entrance into the Chakkarathalvar shrine, we have the only inscription of
Adhirajendra unfortunately too fragmentary, the stones containing portions of
the record now built into the wall of the passage at the Nali
kettanvasal revealing just some portions of his prasasti, commencing
with Tingaler-malarndu etc., and with its date
lost.
To Kulottunga
I, belongs the bulk of inscriptions and the majority of them are confirmed to
the walls of the third prakara. 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 to by intending donors
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 authorized and in turn gave them away either tax-free
or on the basis of deferred assessment over them for a specified period,
stipulating periodic supplies of grain, flowers, etc., to the temple by the
intending purchasers or donors.
To
mention only a few among such donors Kalingarayar alias Ponnambalakkuttar
of Manaiyil may be identified with the famous general Naralokavira who held a
large fief in Manaiyil and whose services in the southern campaigns of the king
are sung not only in the Vikrama Solan-ula but also praised in a number of
laudatory inscriptions from Chidambaram, Thiruvadi and other places, but who
must be different from Kalingarayar alias Araiyan Garudavahanam who
endowed some money to the temple for the recitation of Tettaruntiral, a
set of hymns composed by Kulasekhara, or from
Kalingarayar alias Kiliyur-Udaiyan Nadaripungalan who figures as
donor of land; Senapatigal Taliyil
Madurantakan alias Rajendrachola-Kidarattaraiyar and his wife
Rajakesarivalli; and Senapatigal IIangovelar alias Sendamangalam-udaiyan
Jayangondasolan, of whom the latter endowed for a garden to be named
Kidarangondavilagam, the surname ‘Rajendrachola Kidarattaraiyar’ of the donor
in the dormer and the name of the garden Kidarangondavilagam in the latter
affording lithic proof of Kulottunga’s association with Kidaram or Kadaram;
Vanadhiraja, the minister of Jayadhara i.e. Kulottunga, who seems to have
raised a prakara wall to the temple and whose name Arulmoli Rajadhirajan
occurs along with his dynastic title Vanadhiraja in another inscription
recording his endowment for a flower garden; Neriyan
Muvendavelar alias Adittan Vedavana-mudaiyan
Chola-Kerala-Nallurudaiyan; Rajendrachola Adiyaman alias Araiyan
Sendan of Ponparri and Senapati Virarajendra Adigaiman, among the
Adigaiman chiefs of Kongu; Senapati Rajanarayana
Munaiyadaraiyar alias Kotturudaiyan Araiyan Rajendracholan
and Senapati Vira-Chola Munaiyadaraiyar alias Ayarkolundu
Chakrapani of Kottur who endowed for the recitation of Tiruppalli eluchchi
and Tiruvaymoli in the temple Cholasikhamani Muvendavelar,
the Srikaryam of the temple Vira Vichachadira Muvendavelar, who also
held the same office and his namesake who bore the alias name Siralan
Tiruchchirrambalam udaiyan, and Bhuvaninarayana Muvendavelar of Nedunjeri, all
of whom bore the distinctive surname Muvendavelar ; Kannagan
Karumanikkan alias Valava Vichchadira Pallavararayan; Adittan
Tiruvarangadevan alias Virudaraja bhayankara Vijayapalan; Pallikondan
Kuttanar alias Vilinattaraiyar of Sirramur who may be distinguished from
Uyyavandan alias Vilinattaraiyan of Villinam alias Rajendrasolappattinam
occurring in an inscription of the 25th year of the king from Tirunelveli
and who might have belonged to the Munrukai-mahasenai which boasts among its
other achievements, to have destroyed Vilinjam on the sea, Nishadarajar who
figures as the Srikaryam of the temple and whose identity with his
namesake bearing the surname Tirukkoodungunramudaiyan Keralan in another record
of the 25th year of the king’s reign from Sivapuri: is probable; and
lastly Rajarajan Madurantakan alias Vatsarajan who endowed land for
a matha named after him for feeding some Srivaishnavas at the instance of
Nishadarajan.
Notable
among the ladies who figures as donors to the temple are Nambirattiyar
Lokamahadeviyar who endowed lands for a flower garden who, may be identified as
the queen of Rajamahendra is said to have provide a serpent couch set with
precious stones to god Ranganatha, and who, according to the Koyilolugu, effected
many structural alterations in the temple. Though lithic references to
the former are lacking, in inscription of the 25th regnal year of the king
inscribed on the north wall of the third prakara specifically states that
the record was ordered to be engraved on the wall of the Rajamahendran-triuchchurru,
which to this day, retains the same name. Inscriptions dated in the
15th regnal year of the king, introduces the donor Neriyan, Mahadevi who
is described as a daughter of Pandiyanar, and another inscription dated in the
same year mentions Tennavan Mahadevi (Pandya Princess) as a queen of Rajendaradeva
(Kulottunga I). If the two are identical, the epigraphs furnish us with a
hitherto unknown fact that a Pandya figured among the queens of Kulottunga
I. Tennavan Mahadevi bears the alias Rajarajan Aru.
Moliyar in the Inscription, 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 Madevi 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 Kulottunga’s reign. Gunavalli alias Pendath
Kadavurudaiyal obviously a lady of high rank and Siriyandal-sani, daughter of
Atreyan Damodaran Narayanan and wife of Tayanambipiran figure as donors of land
the former for a flower garden and the latter for the Srivaishnavas of the
temple in the inscriptions respectively.
Before
passing on to the reign of Vikramachola, the next king represented by the
inscriptions in the temple, a few details for outstanding interest in the
records of Kulottunga 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 affecting their arrest for
default or non-payment & also records the repayment with interest of a
long-standing loan raised by the sabha of
Chandralekhai-Chaturvedi-mangalam (the modern Sendalai from the treasury of god
Ananthanarayana swami 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
Parakesarivarman i.e. Parantaka I (c. 917 A.D.) and discharged in the
10th year of the reign of Kuloththunga I (c. 1080 A.D.) an interval that
stretched over a period of more than a century and a half.
The
succor extended by the temple treasury for rehabilitating a village that had
suffered destruction in a conflict is recorded in an inscription 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-chaturvedimangalam,
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 re-consecrating its temple. A marginal note engraved on
the top left coroner of this record is considerable significance. It
states that this kalvettu (inscriptions) belonged to
Rajamahendra-chaturvedimangalam which according to the main inscription, was
situated in Nittavinodavalanadu. This latter division comprised parts of
the present Nannilam and Papanasam taluks of the Thanjavur district and as such
the village under or fifty miles away from Srirangam.
The
reason for engraving this record so far away from
Rajamahendra-chaturvedimangalam 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 had come to sway over the entire Chola
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 off shoot of this
feud. An inscription of Adhirajendra at Chittamalli in the Mannargudi
taluk which bears a date closely falling in the period of these clashes
referred to in the Srirangam epigraph seems to confirm this surmise.
Mention
must be made here of a Kannada inscription which quotes the 29th regnal
year of Kulottunga but begins with the typical Western Chalukya prasasti
Samastabhubvanasraya. Prithvi-Vallabha etc., and records certain
endowments made by a group of Kons apparently headed by a person whose name is
lost but who is mentioned as the Kannada sandhivigrahi and the
Dandanayaka of king Tribhuvanamalla i.e. Vikramaditya (VI). The presence
at Srirangam of Sandhivigrahi of the Chalukya king, whose rivalry with the
Chola king is well known, is enigmatic. It shows the tolerance of chola
king allowing enemies 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 Rajendaradeva and his
brother Virarajendra by giving their daughters in marriage to the Eastern
Chalukya Rajendra II who subsequently ascended the Chola throne as
Kulottunga-Chola I and the Western Chalukya 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 reign i.e. Kulottunga, 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.
Inscription
dated in the 39th regnal year of the king which refers to the sale of some
temple land to Ariyan Vasudeva Bhattan alias Rajaraja Brahmarayan
of Anishtanam in Kasmiradesam seems to give a clue to the
origin of the name Aryabhattal-vasal by which one of the main entrances into
the temple is now known. Tradition ascribes this to certain Arya-Brahmana
from the Gauda-desa in the north who came to Srirangam with treasure as
offering to the god and that prior to its acceptance by the deity; it was left
at the entrance and guarded by these Brahmanas in consequence of which it came
to be known as the Aryabhattal-vasal. The Koyilolugu, 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-Brahmanas 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 centers of worship in the South as may be gathered from some
epigraphs of Lalgudi, Tiruvorriyur and Kalahasti which mention a resident of
Kasmirapuram as a donor in these places.
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 prakara which is popularly known as Vikrama-Cholan-tiruchchurru,
even to this day. The Koyilolugu ascribes the 5th prakara of
the temple besides some other structures and a temple of Rama to this
king. This prakara no doubt forms the 5th counted
from the outer-most of the seven prakarams of the temple but whether
this was at all, a work attributable to Vikrama-Chola is not borne out by any Epigraphical
evidence barring the fact that almost all the records of the king are, as
pointed above confirmed to the walls of this (3rd) prakara. In an
inscription on the inner wall, right of the Aryabhattalvasal,
the Srivaishnavakkanmis of the temple together with the temple
accountant made a gift of land for a flower garden to be named
Avirodisilan. 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 Udaiyan Velan Karunakaran
alias Tondaimanar, the famous general of the king who is praised in the Vikramachola-ula
as the conqueror of Kalingam and Puravangudaiyan Araiyan
Adittadevan alias Enadi Araiyan of Puliyangudi who endowed land
for a flower garden at the instance of Valavanarayana Muvendavelar, the Srikaryam of
the temple. The garden was to be named Nidiyabharanan-nanadavanam,
probably after an epithet of the king. An inscription which is dated in
the 16th year, the very last of Vikrama-Chola and which is engraved on the
north wall of the fourth prakara, records provision for the feeding of
Apurvi-Srivaishnava Brahmanas on the festival days in the Panguni month,
for which purpose Sirilangon-Tirunadudaiyan had endowed lands. It is noteworthy
that the inscription invokes the protection of
the Abhimanabhushanar of the three mandals instead of the
Srivaishnavas of the 18 vihayas generally quoted.
Abhimanabhushana
chaturvedimangalamas the name of a village and Abhimanabhushana-velan as the
name of a residential quarter are mentioned in inscriptions of Rajaraja at
Tanjore.
The only
two records of Kulottunga II 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
of Rajaraja II dated in the 11th year of his reign (A.D. 1156) registers a
gift of a golden lamp stand set with a ruby and an endowment of money towards
supply of camphor and oil for maintaining it by Kodai Ravivarman of Venadu in
Malai-nadu.
It is
noteworthy that these records too like that of the western Chalukya
Vikramaditya VI quotes the regnal year not of the donor but of the reigning
king of the region viz., ‘Kulottunga II. As in the other record cited,
here too the gift was made to the deity by Kandan Iravi, ulliruppu officer of
the Venadu 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 tirthams or places of pilgrimage are not
wanting. An inscription of the Eastern Ganga king and another of his
queen at Kanchi or Kanchipuram, one of the Gahadavala king at Suryanarkoyil,
and several of the Hoysala, Vijayanagara, and many other rulers at Varanasi,
recording grants made to the local deities or referring to the religious rites
performed there by their proxies are instances to 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 Chola coinage as 1:9.
Among
the five inscriptions of Rajadhiraja II, the first two are dated in the
9th regnal year of the king. Of them, the former inscriptions states
that a merchant of Kurattippattanam in Kaivara-nadu, a division of Poysla-nadu
and who had presented a large fore-head jewel to the god. The cash
endowment of 70 kasu paid into temple treasury was invested at the
rate of 1/16 kasu per kasu per month yielding an interest
of 4-3/8 kasu 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 endowment amount at the above rate works out to 75 per cent which
by any standard is unusually high.
An
inscription mentions the chief Virrirundan
Seman alias Tirukkuraivalartta Akalanka-Nadalvar of Tiruttavatturai
as donor of a thousand kasu for some special festival in the
temple. A record of this same king from Tiruppachchur 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, this
same chief, Virrirundan Seman, figures as leading an expedition against
Kollimalai, probably on behalf of his overlord. Inscriptions belongs to
this king, all engraved on the fourth prakara wall opposite the
shrine of Udaiyavar, record oaths of fealty taken by certain men to serve upto
death their master Virrirundan Seman as servants (velaikkaras). The
expedition of this chief and the oaths of fealty that bound his servants to him
appear to be intimately connected with Rajadhiraja’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 Parakrama Bahu for help.
There
are nineteen inscriptions assignable to the reign of Kulottunga III records
that the various works of construction including Magadesam alias Adaiyavalaindan-tirumaligai
and the worship in the temple described as the tutelary property (kuladhanam)
of the king were under the protection of Tayilum Nallan alias Kulottungasola-Vanakovaraiyar.
Though the deity of the temple is not referred to there is nothing to prevent
us from identifying the temple with that of Ranganathaswamy temple. On
the basis of the negative evidences that both the king and the officer had a
learning 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 neighboring Jambukesavara temple and that they were inscribed later their
present position. Now that we know that the temple enjoyed the patronage
of Chola Parantaka I who is stated to have gilded the vimana of the Ranganathaswamy
temple as stated in his Velachery copper plate record, it is quite proper to
state that both the Saivite Periyakovil at Chidambaram and the Vaishnavite Periyakovil
at Srirangam were considered by the Cholas as a whole as
their kuladhanam. As for Adaiyavalaindan Tiirumaligai chutru, it is
quite a well-known name of a prakara in the temple.
The
inscriptions belonging to the period of Rajaraja Chola III and the Hoysala King
Vira Ramanatha from the temple provide information on the formation of agarams
(agraharams- Brahmin settlements) at Gunasila Mangalam, a village owned by the
temple as tax free ‘thirunamathukkani.’ Inscriptions engraved in 28th
and 31st regnal years of Rajaraja III mention that a couple of
agarams were formed by horse merchants of the village Kulamukku in Kerala.
Though
there are references to horse merchants in some of the inscriptions copied
earlier from the temple, none of them indicate that they were involved in creating
new agarams. While the earliest of the agarams belong to period of Pandya King Jatavarman
Virapandya (AD 1307), as indicated by the inscriptions copied previously, the
new inscriptions pushes back the date of formation of agarams in relation to
the Srirangam temple by 63 years.
They
also speak of the involvement of the horse merchants from Kulamukku of Kerala
in creating agarams and construction of smaller shrines in and around the
agarams. Interestingly, the newly formed Brahmin settlements were named after
donors or their blood relations, a custom which was not followed during the
later Pandya rule.
The
inscriptions record appeals made by donors to the temple authorities – the
Jeer, Sri Vaishnavas and Nambimars – seeking land for formation of new agarams
for Bhattars, extension of existing agarams with other features such as gardens
and to carry out services to the deities at the settlements.
The
authorities had read out the appeals in front of the God to get His consent and
then a sale document was written by the temple accountant to be given to the
purchaser. Details of the same were inscribed in the temple.
The
inscriptions record the appeals made by Navaya Manavalar and Kunchi Nambi
Manavalar, horse merchants from Kulamukku, during the 31st regnal year
of Rajaraja Chola III to provide land at Gunasila mangalam to form an agaram in
the name of Navayan Govindan and also to construct Govinda Perumal Thirumurram
in the settlement for the merit of their parents.
Vandanambi
Chettiyar, another horse merchant from Kulamukku had made similar appeals
during the 28th regnal year of Rajaraja III. Esibhattan, who formed an agaram
along with a shrine for Lakshmi Narayana had asked for one veli of wetland and
quarter veli of dry land to carry out the services and offerings to the God and
also to form a temple garden during the 8th regnal year of Vira
Ramanatha, the Hoysala King.
The
appeals of Vanda Nambi and Eshibhattan were read out to the God when he was
seated on the Vedaneri Kattinar Simhasana under the pearl canopy named after
Thirumalai Thanthan in the Nalanthigal Narayanar Mandapam during the festivals
conducted in the Tamil months of Avani and Purattasi.
All
three applicants got lands at Gunasila mangalam which lay on the eastern side
of Pachil Kuram a sub-division of Rajaraja Valanadu. Vanda Nambi had paid
10,000 kasu to purchase 5,000 kuzhi of dry land whereas Navaya Manavalar had
purchased 3,400 kuzhi for 17,000 kasu. Though both the purchases were done
during the reign of the same king, the difference in price appears huge and
unexplainable. Eshibhattan had given 16,000 kasu to make his one veli of
wetland tax free and also to get 400 kalam of paddy annually as gift.
The
documents, while mentioning the boundaries of the lands, provide useful
information on irrigation facilities, land measures, tax structure and the
names provided for the lands in the particular village. Those who purchased the
lands from the temple were permitted to reclaim fallow lands, cultivate
whatever they want and entitled to the yield after paying the requisite taxes
and due share to the temple.
The new
settlements had shrines referred to as ‘Thirumurram’ in the inscriptions. The
temple authorities had also laid down certain qualifications for the tenants
occupying the new settlements.
The
tenants should be Srivaishnavas, acquainted with Vedas, wear the sacred mark
(thiru ilacchinai) and devote themselves to the sacred feet of Lord Vishnu.
The
inscriptions also throw light on two festivals celebrated in the temple. They
indicate that a festival celebrated in the month of Avani was conducted for
several days. The third day of the event is referred as ‘thirukodi Thirunal’
and inscription eulogizes the importance of the temple flag. The day of lunar
eclipse in the Tamil month of Purattasi was celebrated in a grand manner.
Arokyasala:
It shall
also be pointed that the Srirangam temple was one among the handful of temples
which have had an Arokyasala that had rendered medical service to the people.
It can be gleaned from inscriptions at the temple that the Arokyasala was
originally established in 1257 AD by a Hoysala general and it was demolished in
the course of the Muslim invasion. It was later renovated in 1493 AD and the
image of Dhanvanthari was also installed.
The
inscriptions record appeals made by donors to the temple authorities – the
Jeer, Sri Vaishnavas and Nambimars – seeking land for formation of new agarams
for Bhattars, extension of existing agarams with other features such as gardens
and to carry out services to the deities at the settlement.
