The Ennayiram inscription of Rajendra, gives an account of Restoration of Ganges in Uttarapatha (i.e) the Northwestern countries of Bharathavarsha, as stated in Rjasekahara's Kavya mimamsa, uttarapatha regions are West to Piruthudaka ( present Pehoa in haryana, India... ) seems to be the regions of the countries at where the western Branches of Ganga Flows,
a part of the Inscription posted by Our SPS sir, as follows “ UDAYAR Shree Rajendra Chozha thevar UTTHARA PAADHATHIL Boopathiyaarai JEYITHARULI YUTHOTHSAVA Vibavathaal Gangai Parikiragam panniyarulina GANGAI KONDA CHOZHANENNUM thirunamathal ITHTHIRUMUTRATHIL vaithu Arulina UTHAMAAKKIRAM Gangai konda Chozhanil ” I try to trace the whole Inscription, but unable to trace it. But I could find a description of the Author of SII volume 3, in the introduction section about the inscription as follows,
A stone record of the king found at Ennayiram in the South Arcot district contains interesting information regarding the conquest of the northern region by the king himself, of his stately return march with all the splendour of the conqueror, of his wedding the Ganga and hence assuming the title Gangaikonda-Chola and building a hall called after the title at Ennayiram and feeding a number of people in it. The wording of the inscription seems to indicate that Rajendra-Chola I was himself engaged in the expedition against the kings of Northern India (Uttarapatha) and if may not be unreasonable to suppose that he did not entrust the management of it merely to his generals as the wording of the Tiruvalangadu plates at first sight would imply[23]. Though the date of the record is effaced, the conquests enumerated in it show that it cannot be earlier than A.D. 1023. It interesting to note that charities which it registers for the maintenance of a hostel and a college for religious instruction of every description, were made to secure success to the arms of the king, showing clearly that the king was at the time engaged in the war. It must have been during this northern invasion that Rajendra-Chola had the lords of the Kuluta and the Utkala countries slain by his generals as reported in the Kanyakumari inscription[24]. The encounter with the Kuluta king is also referred to in an inscription of the king found at Mahendragiri where he is said to haveset up a pillar of victory. The Kanyakumar inscription adds Kalinga to the list of the king’s conquests.
In this description the author said, Rjc still at war, at the time of Inscription. as its stated in Meikeerthi upto Kadaram expedition, other wars are not recorded. it appears that the war at which he was engaged may be Bengal or Kadaram.
the author also says that the countries appears in his meikeerthi shows that it cannot be earlier than 1023 A.D., the list of countries may give the Right account at which he engaged...
In this description the author says Uttarapatha as Northern India... as this volme of SII composed in the year 1928 as notified in preface, before Partition of present India...
Previous Northern India is described in Acient geography of India by Alexander Cunningham as Follows,
Northern India comprised the Punjab proper, including Kashmir and the adjoining hill states, with the whole of eastern Afghanistan beyond the Indus, and the present Cis-Satlej States to the west of the Saraswati river. ( But The actual uttarapatha seems to be more larger than this description as stated in puranic accounts and some Inscriptions. ashoka's Rock edict gives some tribes in Uttarapatha as Yavanas { lived around the regions of Amu Darya ( i.e ) the Oxus River}, Kambojas { the region of Present IRAN i.e Western Kamboja desa } and Kandharas { from lived in the region described by alexander cunningham }. some adjoining lands with these regions are also in the Uttarapatha division). Tiruvalangadu plates also says the Ganges from Bengal also ...
The notification the errection of Chola Gangam after Kadaram expedition seems to be the Eastern streams water also Brought to compose the Chola Gangam.
The Ennayiram Inscription says a Two Early tamil wards 1. Parikiraham 2. Uthamakiram. this two words are explained by one of Our member mr.sukumar as follows,
The Tamil usage of "Kirayam" in legal documents means to give/transfer. If any property is transfered for a consideration it is called as virkirayam". The person executing the document is called as "virkirayadharar".The opposite for this word virkirayam is "parikrayam" .we can safely assume that the word parikrayam means to bring or to take. Hence to my knowledge the word "Parikraham seydu" to bring ganges to chola kingdom. Similarly the word "uththamakramam" should be deciphered in the following way.
Kiramam means ritual or prescribed activities. In our usage any kiramam relating to departed souls is uththama kiramam. Even now in our obsequies initimation the word uthamakiriyai is used in this sense. Hence can we assume RJC has done some of this ritual in the court yard of Gangai Konda Choleeswaram.
All these assumptions are a logical thought and our friends in the group may help you to arrive at the correct conclusions.
the Inscription means that Rjc restored Ganges from Uttarapatha and do the Rituals for the Departed souls of his forefathers by Ganges water....
I assume that The countries given in the Ennayiram Inscription may stop at Masuni Desam... ( i.e ) the country of Impures... who dont need the Ganges to do the Rituals for his Forefathers...
Masuni Desam explained by the Scholars as Naga country seems to be Differ when compare with Ganges and the direct meaning of the word MASUNI...
I will explain this assumption in my next mails with regions of mathura mandalam, Namanaikkonam, panjappalli...
Hi Sakti, Fortunately, I am originally from Mathura. The antiquity of the place can be traced from Ramayan as the city was said to be founded by Shatrughna. Historically the city is of great importance as Kanishka, the great Kushana ruler, ruled from Mathura only. However the importance of this city was lost after decline of Kushana, though we have got few inscriptions of Chandragupta, the Gupta ruler, at Mathura.
I have few objections, first Mathura is situated on Yamuna, why Rjc would go to Mathura when his objective was to conquer cities located on the banks of Ganga? Ganga and Yamuna runs almost parallel till the both meets at Allahabad.
Mahabana, as the name suggests should be a great forest however this is not the case. The antiquity of the name is also not very old. In my personal opinion, Mathura could not have been surrounded by great forests in the medieval or post-Gupta period. This region is very rich agriculturally because of Ganga and Yamuna, and I assume that the land was in use as well for agricultural purpose since ancient times. If you compare the forest area of this region with Odhisa, Chhattisgarh or Jharkhand, it very negligible. I would feel that a theory on etymological grounds alone will not be survive for long.
Can you specify which places are referred before and after this Madhura-mandalam? Also we need to check if the places are mentioned in order of conquests, a famous case is with the Samudragupta's Allahabad prasasti where the order of the places is of great controversy.