IN NORTH ARGOT DISTRICT, 



41 



known to have been the capital of the Pallava rajahs, who 

 were Kurambas, it is perhaps not unlikely that the dolmens 

 were the work of that people. Again, the Kurambas of 

 Conjeveram became converts to Buddhism, and had many 

 monasteries at their capital, so that we may credit the same 

 race with the various cuttings in rocks which are found in 

 North Arcot and elsewhere. One temple of this kind now 

 exists near Melpady in the Chittur Taluk, admitted locally 

 to have been a Jain shrine, and proved to have been such 

 by sculptures close to it, A sthalapuranam of the neighbour- 

 hood refers to a Korava (probably Kurumba) king as 

 reigning in ancient times near Melpady, which to some 

 extent corroborates the suggestion that the Kurumbas were 

 the authors of our rock cuttings. 



The only other objects of interest at Mamandur are four 

 inscriptions. Three of these are upon stone slabs, now buried 

 side by side in the tank bund. The upper lines being 

 uncovered exhibit writing in Telugu, Grantham, and Deva- 

 nagarl, all clearly of no ancient date, and probably giving 

 the name of the constructor of the tank, and the date. One 

 Damal Venkatapati Naidu is popularly believed to have 

 formed the bund, and called the tank Chennasagaram, a name 

 still attached to it. He is described as the same person who 

 gave its name to Madras (Chennapatnam). If so, he must, of 

 course, have been that Damerla Venkatapati Naidu, Rajah 

 of Kalahasti, who, in 1639, ceded Madras to the Company, 

 stipulating that it should be called after his father Chennappa 

 Naidu, whose name he seems also to have attached to 

 Mamandur tank. 



The last inscription is a very lengthy one, upon a great 

 granite boulder near the base of one of the hills, and close 

 to the water's edge, in the limits of the village of Dusi, which 

 lies north of Mamandur. The rock is more than 20 feet long, 



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