1838.] 



Report on the Mackenzie Manuscripts, 



3 



A :-.TAMIL. 



I — Conga desa Rajahal. 

 Palm leaf MS.-~No. 217.~Countermark 74. 



There are two copies of this valuable Manuscript, both of which 

 were read and compared together. The one was found to be an im- 

 perfect copy of the other, having besides a considerable chasm in the 

 middle : the superior copy has also a short break in the passage relat- 

 ing to a change of Vishnu Verrd'hana of Talcdd from the Jaina to 

 the Vaishnava faith ; there is also an omission of one or two names. 

 In other respects the better manuscript is complete. The palm-leaves 

 of this copy (and of the inferior one also) had suffered much from 

 being eaten through by insects ; in some places letters, in others, words, 

 were eaten away : these, however, could be made out by a little atten- 

 tion ; and to prevent further illegibility I directed the manuscript to be 

 restored on paper, forming a valuable record. 



Though the title indicates only a narrative of the ancient Conga- 

 desam (being as it would appear the same with the modern Coimbatore 

 country) yet the work contains distinct chapters, or sections, which 

 might be regarded as distinct productions on the Chola, Oyisdla, and 

 Vijayandgara kingdoms, these kings having been successively con- 

 querors of the Conga country. The first record of the country goes 

 up nearly to the commencement of the Christian era, and narrates the 

 rule of some chiefs down to the close of the ninth century, and the con- 

 quest of the country, about that time, by Aditya Varma, a Chola prince. 

 Various matters are narrated in connexion with this dynasty, and some 

 light is thrown on the Pandya-desatn, such as the records of that king- 

 dom would not own. The Conga country then seems to have come 

 under the rule of the Oyisalas, whose capital was above the ghauts, in 

 the Mysore country. These gave way before the Rayers of Bis?iagar, 



Both dynasties, of Oyisalas and Rayers, are given from the com- 

 mencement. The record is brought down to a period subsequent to 

 the transfer of the remains of the Rayer powder to Pennacondai, and 

 concludes with narrating warlike operations in the Mysore country, 

 with the siege and storming of Seringapatam, A. D. 1609-10, nearly 

 two hundred years antecedent to a like event which made it, for a time, 

 so famous. At that time it is said to have come into the possession of 

 the Raja Udiyar of Mysore. 



