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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA CHEVURU PLATES OF EASTERN CHALUKYA AMMA I (Sanskrit) ___________________ CHEVURU PLATES OF EASTERN CHALUKYA AMMA I (1 Plate) B. CH. CHHABRA, OOTACAMUND This set of copper-plates was discovered by me in the possession of a peasant, named Polavarapu Ankayya, son of Venkata Reddi, of the Chēvūru village in the Kaikalūr tālūk of the Kistna District in the Madras Presidency. It was by a sheer chance that I received information about the existence of the plates from a resident of the neighbouring village of Singarāyapālem, while I was touring in that part during November 1938. I forthwith went to Chēvūru and succeeded in securing the plates on loan through the kind mediation of Mr. T. V. Satyanarayana, Revenue Inspector, Vaḍāli firkā, Vaḍāli, Kaikalūr tālūk, and Mr. Gaddamadugu Chandraraju, the Karaṇam of Chēvūru. I was shown the actual spot, a heap of debris of a ruined mud-house, from where the plates were turned up by the spade of the peasant engaged in removing the pāṭi earth for manure, as he himself narrated the incident tome. The event had taken place some ten years prior to my visit, and all that time the find had remained unnoticed in the custody of its rustic discoverer who, luckily for the historian, was superstitious enough to leave it alone.
The plates are three in number, each measuring about 8⅛″ broad by 4⅛″ high. I found the set perfectly intact : the plates strung on a copper ring, about 4½″ in diameter and about ⅜″ in thickness, its ends being secured underneath a circular seal, roughly 2¾″ in diameter. The second plate is engraved on both the sides, while the first and the third bear inscription only on one side. The edges of the plates on the inscribed sides are raised into rims in order to protect the writing which is consequently well preserved from start to finish. The average size of letters is ¼″. The engraving is neat and deep, which is a common feature of the majority of the Chālukya copper-plate inscriptions. The weight of the three plates is 133 tolas, while the ring and the seal together weigh 61 tolas. The seal is slightly damaged at the bottom. It bears, in relief, on a countersunk surface, a one-line legend across the centre, which reads Śrī-Tribhuvanāṅkuśa[ḥ], with the figures of a running boar above, facing the proper right, and an expanded _________________________________
[1] Metre : Anushṭubh. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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