Naam koduthanavum, Akkan koduthanavum, Nam pendugal koduthanavum, Koduthar koduthanavum...

Heard this line "Naam koduthanavum Nam Akkan koduthanavum Nam pendugal koduthanavum  matrum kuduthar kuduthanavum" of raja raja chozhan in a recent bala kumaran interview  and kept hearing this quote at many places.I was intrigued by the quote and did some digging on it.The quote is actually from one of the inscription, or rather "THE" famous inscription at the Rajarajeswaram temple in tanjore.I found the whole inscription block which had this line.I wanted to know the full meaning so started deciphering it myself ,without knowing that there are lot of info available on the net.

 There are info on this inscription on the net, but in bits and pieces ,nothing complete. Blogging it so that it would be useful for others who did not know about it already. There might be lot of mistakes. corrections are welcome :).

So what does it say:

 1)XXXXXXX.......  thirumagal polap perunilach selviyun thanakkey urimai poo
2)ndamai manakolak kanthaloorch salai kalamarunth tharuli, vengai nadum, gangapadiyum ,thadigaipadiyum, noolambampadiyum, kuda malai nadum, koll-
3)amum(kollamum) kalingamum, en desai pugazh thara ezha mandalamum ,eratta padi yezharai elachamum thindiral venditha thandal konda thanezhila valaru-zhilyellam
4)valaru-zhilyellam yanndum thozhuthaga vilangum yanndey sezhiyaraith thesukol ko rajakesari vanmaarana(??) shree rajaraja devarukku yanndu e-rupathuaravathu(26th year of his reign)
5)e-rupathuaravathu naal eruvathinal(20th day) udayar shree rajaraja devar thanjavur koilin ullal(inside the tanjore temple) irumadi cholazhanin  kezhaith thiruma-njana
6) thiruma-njana salai(at the royal bathing hall east of of irumadi chozha) dhanaj seidhalavirunthu pandiya kulasini(destroyer of pandiya lineage??) vala nattu thanjavur kuttrathu(division), thanjavur, Naam edupicha thirukkattrali(stone temple)
7) Sree Rajarajeswaramudayurukku(the god of raja rajeswaram) naam koduthanavum(what RRC gave) akkan koduthanavum(what his sister kundavai gave) Nam pendugal koduthanavum(what the wives gave)  matrum kuduthar kuduthanavum(and what others gave)

..............sri vimanathile kallile vettruga ena thiru voy mozhindarula

The first part is the usual meikeerthi (more on meikeerthi here) of RRC "thirumagal.." .The meikeerthi lists RRC's victories at kerala, southern karnataka, andhra, orissa and srilanka
 Kanthaloor salai(Present day vizhinjam / Kerala)  and southern karnataka, andhra pradesh( vengi , gangapadi, thadigaipadi, noolambampadi,  kuda malai nadu(coorg)),  kollam, kalingam and ezham .

Later it notes down the date and place when the king made the "Naam koduthanavum akkan koduthanavum" statement. The line was RRC's(Raja Raja Chozhan) instruction to put everything that everyone donated to the Rajarajeswaram temple in stone.The peru udaiyar temple is filled with clear inscriptions on details of the contributions made by everyone and various other information regarding RRC's time period.

There are some important things to be noted from the statement made.

1)In ponniyin selvan, Kalki describes the high regard that arulmozhi had for his sister kundavai. He wasn't just making it up. It is clearly evident here, as he puts his sister even before his wives.She was probably the second most powerful person at that time.

2)The inscription says it was dictated by the king at the royal bathing hall of the temple at thanjore  on the 26th year  and 20th day of  his reign. roughly around 1011 CE (985+26 ).

3)The Naam koduthanavum line is important because, It reveals what kind of a king  RRC was. Supposedly the later inscriptions that follow this one, list contributions made by every one including foot soldiers and other commoners. After building a temple, the likes of which india has not seen at that time. The greatest king that tamilakam ever saw share's  the glory with his people. He makes sure even the commoner who contributed for one lamp is noted in par with the king.

4) when I went word by word on the inscription I found that actually Bala kumaran and many others have misquoted the famous line. It is Naam Koduthanavum, akkan koduthanavum rather than "nam akkan koduthanavum". no nam before akkan.


How to decipher:

Deciphering  is a little bit hard at the start but gets easier after a while. Here is a line for example which states RRC's conquest of Ezham.click to maximize.




 Given the fact that the Peruvudaiyar temple was built around 1010 CE. we can use the tamil scripts of  10th century period. But there are few gotcha's. not all letters are in this. there are no gaps between words. words are not rounded off at the end of line. Many words are ended differently than how we are ending it now.

I have actually broken down every single word in the inscription(except for the half of the first line) ,so that it will be easy for others to follow. This is a large image you can download and maximize it for better clarity

 

Again the rough output :). 

1)XXXXXXX.......  thirumagal polap perunilach selviyun thanakkey urimai poo
2)ndamai(poondamai) manakolak kanthaloor salai kalamarunth tharuli vengai nadum(nadung?) gangapadiyum(gangapadiyun) thadigaipadiyum noolambampadiyum (noolambampadiyung?) kuda malai nadum(nadung?) koll-
3)amum(kollamum) kalingamum en desai pugazh thara ezha mandalamum eratta padi yezharai elachamum thindiral venditha thandal konda thanezhila valaru-zhilyellam
4)valaru-zhilyellam yanndum thozhuthaga vilangum yanndey sezhiyaraith thesukol ko rajakesari vanmaarana(??) shree rajaraja devarukku yanndu e-rupathuaravathu
5)e-rupathuaravathu naal eruvathinal udayar shree rajaraja devar thanjavur koilin ullal irumadi cholazhanin kezhaith thiruma-njana
6) thiruma-njana salai dhanaj seidhalavirunthu pandiya kulasini vala nattu(nattuth) thanjavur kuttrathu thanjavur Naam edupicha thirukkattrali
7) Sree Rajarajeswaramudayurukku naam koduthanavum akkan koduthanavum Nam pendugal koduthanavum  matrum kuduthar kuduthanavum

............sri vimanathile kallile vettruga ena thiru voy mozhindarula