Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Jambai Malai, Jambai, Villupuram

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.