Sanskrit sources of Kerala history
by Suma Parappattoli | 2010 | 88,327 words
This study deals with the history of Kerala based on ancient Sanskrit sources, such as the Keralamahatmyam. The modern state known as Keralam or Kerala is situated on the Malabar Coast of India. The first chapter of this study discusses the historical details from the inscriptions. The second chapter deals with the historical points from the Mahatm...
This book contains Sanskrit text which you should never take for granted as transcription mistakes are always possible. Always confer with the final source and/or manuscript.
The Alvar Koyil Record of Virakerala Martandavarma (Dated Kollam 578)
This is a bilingual inscription[1] in Sanskrit verse and Malayalam prose engraved on a slab in the Visnu temple at Alvar koyil in the Kayamkulam Taluk of the earst while Travancore state.
The inscriptions begins with a Sanskrit verse which runs as follows.
śakrāloke śakābde kriyabhavanagate bhāskare kārmukaste
devedhye yāmyatāre śivaśikharajuṣe śāmbhave śāntacetāḥ
śrīmān mārtāṇḍabhūpo dinamukhaviṣayaṃ kalpayāmāsa nūtanam
pūjāṃ datvā mahāhā?[È] bhūvamamitayaśāḥ keralādhīśamauliḥ ||
This record informs us that in the Saka year 1325, expressed by the chronogram śakrāloka king Marthandavarma instituted Nitypooja (daily worship) in the Siva temple at Sivagiri after constituting for that purpose an endowment of a sufficient extent of landed property. From the historical point of view the inscription is important in the following manner. It furnishes the information that in the Saka year 1325 there was a king named Marthandavarmain Venad. The epithets śāntacetāḥ and keralādhīśamauliḥ applied to him suggest that he was a six saintly king of great repute.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Travancore Arceological Series Vol. VI -Pp -29 -33