1844] ' Account of Mamallaipur. 43 



before local powers at Gingee, and at Tanjore. In those pla- 

 ces military commanders became viceroys, and their descen- 

 dants, kings. And I think it probable that a chief of this 

 latter origin from Carnataca proper, (borrowing the idea from 

 TCllore), had the excavations and sculptures made, and the in- 

 scriptions recorded ; especially those in the Hala Canada cha- 

 racter and Sanscrit language : of parts of one (d) of which Dr. 

 Babington has given a copy and translation. If this inference 

 approximate to truth, the works alluded to must have been 

 accomplished in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. 



These cursory remarks may be concluded with 



IV. Miscellaneous observations ; chiefly suggested by Dr. 

 Babington's paper in the 2d vol : of Transactions of the Ro} r ~ 

 al Asiatic Society; the latest essay on the subject of which 

 I have any knowledge. The value of that paper seems prin- 

 cipally to be in the plates, from drawings and inscriptions, ar»d 

 especially in the deciphering and translation of the latter. 

 They prove, (as such inscriptions usually prove) very unsatis- 

 fying: for this reason perhaps, that the objects in the mind of 

 the recorder, and in that of the archisologist, are entirely dif- 

 ferent. Of the six inscriptions at this place, to be found in a 

 volume of the Mackenzie M. S. S., five are of unimportant 

 donations, (including, if I mistake not, the Tamil one men- 

 change of power superceding the supposed, or rather inferred authority of the viceroys 

 from Vijayanagaram. And if Sirihama-nayadu subsequently employed stone-cutters in 

 the sculptures, then we have the period fixed to the seventeenth century. It is not how- 

 ever absolutely necessary to suppose that all the works were begun by the same chief s 

 or finished (in so far as finished) by the same hands. 



(d) In that incomplete inscription on the "small monolithic pagoda," neither date 

 nor proper name of the king or chief appears. Kama raja is a mere epithet, and the other 

 name appears to me strange and quite unusual if applied to the ruler. I throw out the 

 conjecture that Jayardna is a Sanscrit word modified into Tamil. Stambha is pure San- 

 scrit for a post, column, or pillar. Jaya-stambha is of frequent usage for a triumphal co- 

 lumn, or pillar of victory. I would render Jayardna Stambha by " the pillar of the victo- 

 rious one," without however insisting on being right, because the construction is a little 

 forced ; and merely add that possibly Sinhama-nayadu may have had the pillar and the 

 inscription cut to commemorate the victory at Octramaloor: still however prefering the 

 opinion before given. 



