1846.] from Pennaur to Pondicherry. 211 



undulations, causing the sea to encroach and recede in different parts. 

 Marks on the rocks, as on those of the Baltic and Caspian, would serve 

 to determine the question. 



From the inscriptions hitherto deciphered, nothing decisive has been 

 obtained as to the date of the sculptures. In the 3rd report, by Taylor, 

 on the Mackenzie MSS. section 9, we find it stated that in the Cali 

 Yuga, Singhama Nayadu, a zemindar of the Vellugotivara race, ruled 

 at Mallapur, (Mavellipoor). In that time during a famine many artifi- 

 cers resorted hither, and wrought on the mountain a variety of works 

 during two or three years. Ignorant people term these things the work 

 of Visvacarma ; but, (says the writer) the marks of the chisel remaining 

 disprove that opinion. Besides Singhama Nayadu built a palace on the 

 hill, of which a few fragments now only remain. "In another MS. 

 we find a Singhama Nayadu mentioned as son of Vennama Nayadu, 

 and who became head of his race, and whose brother made successful in- 

 cursion against Canchi and the Pandya kings, and beat the Musul- 

 mans." 



There must be always some doubt until the identification of this 

 Singhama of the Cali Yug and the Singhama who lived at the time of 

 the Mohomedan invasion, a period not more remote than the 7 th cen- 

 tury of the Christian era. 



Mr. Walter Elliott, with the aid of inscriptions he has lately brought 

 to light at Idian Padal, two miles north of Mavellipoor, in old Tamul 

 characters, one of which bears the name of Tribhuvana Vira Deva, a 

 Chola king — and other collateral evidence — infers that its rulers were in 

 a state of independence during the 6th and beginning of the 7th cen- 

 turies.* 



None of these inscriptions bear the special number of the year, but 

 Mr. Elliott mentions one, in the neighbouring hamlet of Parajaskaran 

 Choultry — in the same character as those of Idian Padal, and Varaha 

 Swami — as bearing the name of the reigning sovereign Vikrama Deva, 

 and the date of 1157 of the Salivahana era. The other names of sove- 

 reigns that occur, are Kama Raja and Ati Rana Chanda Pahava. 



These inscriptions referred merely to grants and sales. The time in 

 which Tribhuvana Vira Deva ruled remains to be fixed. But even when 

 this is accomplished, we shall be still in the dark as to the exact date of 



* Madras Journal, No. 30, for June 1844. 



2 F 



