A meikeerthi () is the first section of

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

inscriptions of grant issued by ancient Tamil kings of

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

. Meikeerthis of various stone and metal inscriptions serve as important archaeological sources for determining Tamil History.

Description

''Meikeerthi'' is a Tamil word meaning "true fame". During the rule of

Rajaraja Chola I Rajaraja I (Middle Tamil: ''Rājarāja Cōḻaṉ''; Classical Sanskrit: ''Rājarāja Śōḷa''; 3 November 947 – January/February 1014), also known as Rajaraja the Great, was a Chola Empire, Chola emperor who reigned from 985 to 1014. He ...

it became common practice to begin inscriptions of grant with a standard praise for the king's achievements and conquests. This practice was adopted by Raja Raja's descendants and the later

Pandya The Pandya dynasty (), also referred to as the Pandyas of Madurai, was an ancient Tamil dynasty of South India, and among the four great kingdoms of Tamilakam, the other three being the Pallavas, the Cholas and the Cheras. Existing sinc ...

kings. The length of a meikeerthi may vary from a few lines to a few paragraphs. Only the start of a particular king's meikeerthi remains constant in all his inscriptions and the content varies depending upon the year of his reign the inscription was issued (as he might have made new conquests or new grants since the previous inscription was made). Meikeerthis do not mention a calendar year. Instead they always mention the year of the king's reign in which the inscription was made.

Historical sources

The inscriptions function as historical sources for differentiating the kings of the same name belonging to a particular dynasty. Almost without exception, the ''meikeerthi'' of a particular king begins with a unique phrase and this helps to differentiate kings with similar names or titles. For example, amongst the later

n kings there were at least three who were named ''Jatavarman Kulasekaran'' (). By using the ''meikeerthi'' found in their inscriptions, they are identified as follows They also mention the names of the king's consorts, his conquests, vanquished enemies, vassals and seats of power. As early Tamil records are not dated in any well known calendar, the regnal year mentioned in meikeerthis are important in dating Tamil history. The year of the reign when taken along with contemporary historical records such as the Mahavamsa and accounts of foreign travelers like Abdulla Wassaf, Amir Khusrow and

Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn ...

helps to determine the chronology of the

Chola The Chola Empire, which is often referred to as the Imperial Cholas, was a medieval thalassocratic empire based in southern India that was ruled by the Chola dynasty, and comprised overseas dominions, protectorates and spheres of influence ...

and

dynasties. Sometimes the king is not identified by name but by an accomplishment (conquest, battle or grant). For example, the Chola prince Aditya Karikalan's meikeerthi refers to him only as "The king who took Vira Pandiyan's head" () without naming him.Kalvettayvu by M Lavanya, Varalaaru.com
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Noted examples

Notes

References

* * {{cite book, title=South India and her Muhammadan Invaders, url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924024066742, last=Aiyangar, first=Sakkottai Krishnaswami, author-link=S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, publisher=Oxford University Press, year=1921, ref=Aiyangar Tamil history