Date of Bhavatr āta

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

Dear Indologists,



In his article, 'Codification of Vedic domestic ritual in Kerala: Pārvaṇa-sthālīpāka', in the International Symposium, The Book , Romania, 20-24 September 2010,  Asko Parpola writes, "In any case, the Nampūtiris were in Kerala in the 7th century CE, when the grandfather of the great Jaiminīya commentator Bhavatrāta migrated to Kerala from the village of Vasiṣṭhakuṭi (modern Tiṭṭaguḍi near Vṛddhācalam) in the Cōḻa kingdom (cf. PARPOLA 1984)." (Unfortunately the reference PARPOLA 1984 seems to be missing.)



I am puzzled by this reference. because the name Vasiṣṭhakuṭi makes its appearance for the first time in a ca. 1398 CE  inscription of the Viruppaṇṇa Uṭaiyār (SII 8, No. 286) which mentions "Śri Vasiṣṭhakuṭi āṉa Vidyāraṇyapurattu...". Earlier inscriptions only mention the brahmadeyam Tiṭṭaikuṭi aka  Tirucciṛṛampalaccaturvetimaṅkalam (or its variants). The earlier inscriptions cover several Cōḷa and Pāṇṭiya inscriptions.  It was probably Viruppaṇṇa who renamed Tiṭṭakuṭi as Vidyāraṇyapuram in honor of the Mādhava-Vidyāraṇya.  For a long time I had assumed Vasiṣṭhakuṭi  was a slightly earlier awkward attempt at Sanskritization of Tamil Tiṭṭaikuṭi. After all the earlier inscriptions could have rendered the name Vasiṣṭhakuṭi since these inscriptions used a mixture of both Tamil and Grantha script characters. I cannot think of any reason why the inscriptions would not have used the name Vasiṣṭhakuṭi.


Can somebody with access to Bhavatrāta's work tell me if he refers to Vasiṣṭhakuṭi and Cōḻa kingdom in his work? Given that there was no Cōḻa kingdom in the area at that time, is the ca. 700 date for Bhavatrāta confirmed? 


Thanks in advance.


Regards,
Palaniappan


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