What price a meal in 912 CE?

This inscription in the Nageswaraswamy temple in Kumbakonam records the purchase of 6 ma land (roughly 1.98 acres) by a Tribhuvanasundari. She is mentioned as a ‘pendatti” or palace woman at Thanjavur. She paid 85 pieces of “superfine” gold for this land. The produce from this land was to feed a “Sivayogi” for as long as the sun and moon endured. He was to be fed five vegetables, one pidi of ghee, plantains and curd sweetened with sugar.

One pidi refers to one handful. What is not mentioned is – is this handful for a week/month/year?

The inscription is dated to 912 CE, the 5th year of the reign of Parakesarivarman, or Paranthaka Chola the First. He is the second in the line of the Imperial Cholas, whose reign extended from 848 CE to 1279 CE Paranthaka ruled from 907-955 CE. He assumed the title of Maduraiyum Eelamum Konda Parakesarivarman – the king Parakesarivarman who conquered Madurai and Sri Lanka.

He is also the King who plated the gopuram of the Chidambaram temple with gold.

The following is the translation of the inscription:

“No. 204.— ON THE NORTH WALL OF THE CENTRAL SHRINE IN THE NAGESVARASVAMIN TEMPLE AT KUMBAKONAM

This is dated in the 5th year of Parakesarivarman who took the head of the Pandya king and records a gift of gold by a female-servant of the palace, who, was living in the quarter of tanjavur called Palaiya-velam, for feeding a sivayogin in the temple of Tirukkil-kottam in Tirukkudamukkil. The names Tirukkudamukkil and Tirukkil-kottam occur in the Devaram and refer respectively to Kumbakonam and the Nagesvara temple. Sivayogin is a technical term and is explained in a recent commentary on the Kriyakramadyotika as the name of a Saiva worshipper who “at the approach of death bathes his body in ashes, utters certain Saiva mantras and worships the linga on his chest.”

(Line 1.) Hail ! Prosperity ! In the 5th year (of the reign) of king Parakesarivarman who took the head of the Pandya (king), Perayan Tribhuvanasundari, a palace-woman (pendatti) (living) in the (quarter called) Palaiya-velam at Tanjavur in Tanjavur-kurram, deposited 85 (pieces) of superfine gold for feeding (a sivayogin) with one plate of sumptuous meal in the temple of the great lord of Tirukkil-kottam at Tirukkudamukkil, a devadana (village) in Vadagarai Pambur-nadu.

(L. 8.) For this (gold), we, the big men of the mulaparudai (assembly), sold to this lady the land in melkaviri which we had acquired as abhishekadakshina and had (already) sold to this god.

(L. 13.) This six ma of cultivable land whose eastern boundary was to the west of the land granted for a lamp by Kadan Achchan, to the north of the land of this same god, to the east of the land of this same god and to the south of the demarcation ridge in the tank, — this six ma of cultivable land thus (marked out) shall be utilized for feeding, till the moon and the sun (endure), one Sivayogin with five vegetables, one pidi of ghee, plantain fruits, and curds sweetened with sugar.”

References:

  1. https://www.whatisindia.com/inscriptions/south_indian_inscriptions/volume_3/no_203_204_aditya_ii_karikala.html
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parantaka_I
  • 26th Dec, 2020
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