December 1873.] TAMIL INSCRIPTIONS IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 361 The Kojamba era here mentioned is evi¬ dently the Kollam era, which is adopted through¬ out the Malabar coast now. It oommenced in the year 824 a.d. Hence the bell must have been hung up in 1468-69. King AdityavarmA was therefore a contemporary of Edward IV. of England, and the bell was hung np when the fortunes of York and Lancaster were oscil¬ lating, and when Warwick was at the height of his career. It was also 30 years before Vasco de Gama set foot on Indian soil. Kojamba is the Sanskrit, and Kollam the Malayalam name for Quilon. The diocese of the Roman Catholic Bishop who was stationed in this part of the Malabar coast when the power of Portugal was in the ascendant was known as ‘ Columba The word Bhavati (iflfa), which gives the year 644 of the Kolamba era, follows the system of alphabetical numeration, which, by converting large numbers into familiar wordsj so greatly facilitates their being stored in me¬ mory by Hindu mathematicians and astro¬ nomers. The first letter of a word thus formed stands in the units’ place, the next in that of tens, the next of hundreds, and so on. IT = 4, H = 4, and fa* = 6, making 644. The configuration of the kingdom of Travan- core of those days, it is hardly necessary to point out, was widely different from what it is now. While the greater portion of what now constitutes North Travancore was no integral part of the kingdom, a large portion of the present district of Tinnevelli was included in it. The kingdom was called Trippappfir Svarfipam. The boundaries of it are given in an inscription on stone in the Kuchin- dram pagoda. The inscription dates in the reign ofAdityavarraa, the same Raja as put up the Tirukurangudi bell. The boun¬ daries are: “east Pannivaykal—an old water¬ course near Varkala—south Vaipar, in the Tinnevelli District—north and west the sea.” We must make allowance for tho geography of those days, in judging of the correctness of the cardinal points here described. However, there is little room to doubt that Tirukurangudi, now situated in the Nanguneri Taluka of the Tin¬ nevelli District, was then a part of Travancore. The whole tract of country, again gathering from the stone inscription, was divided into 18 parts or * nads.’ Of these, the king of Travan¬ core made Jayatunganad, or Jayasihhanad, the seat of his court and government. I have not been able to identify the situation of this division. In all probability it was on the eastern side of the Ghats. The heir-apparent occupied Chiravaya and held it in possession. C h iravaya may be identified with the pre¬ sent village of Chirayinktl, about 18 miles to the north of Trivandram. The word Chiravaya is composed of the two Malayajam words Chira (lake) and vdya (mouth), the village being situated where the Bhavanipuram river makes its debouchure into a lagoon. Rfija Adityavarma was only heir-appa¬ rent and chief of Chiravaya when he put up the bell. This is evident from the phrase
: The word Mandala, in
Sanskrit, is applied only to a feudatory or de¬ pendent state, and not to suzerainty. Aditya¬ varma became ruler of Travancore only three years after the date of the bell. His elder bro¬ ther Martandavarma was on the throne at the time. The word 4 Jayasiiihanvayah’ in the stanza inscribed on the bell is suggestive. A Euro¬ pean friend, who has devoted much time and attention to the study of Indian antiquities, once told me that the Jayasinha dynasty could be traced to the rulers of the V i j a y a n a- g a r a empire in the Dekhan, and through them to the solar and lunar races. The following two verses are inscribed on stone in two different parts of the Siva Pagoda ofSuchindram, about 10 miles N.N. W. of Cape Comorin (Kumari) :— 1.
The first of the above two is inscribed in an outer shrine called Chitrasabha, dedicated to the Chidambaresvara form of Siva; and the second on the front Mandapam of the chief shrine. They may be thus translated :— 1. “In the year 1312 (tt=2, «FTT=1 c5t=3, 3T=1) of the Sakabda era, the minister of Indra
