South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

DOMMARA-NANDYALA PLATES OF PUNYAKUMARA ;
10TH YEAR

dated. As in the case of the Mālēpāḍu plates, the date of this inscription can only be approximately fixed, mainly on palaeographical considerations.

In his learned article on the Mālēpāḍu plates^[1] my father, the late Rao Bahadur H. Krishna Sastri has assigned that charter, on palaeographical and other considerations, to about the end of the 8th century A.D. While discussing the palaeography of the plates under review it has been shown that the forms of the letters in this record compare well with the forms of those of the Kendūr and the Vakkalēri plates of Kīrttivarman II. The open form of b to which attention has already been drawn calls for some remarks. The short vertical stroke inside the closed form of the letter found in records as early as Śaka 500 onwards^[2] is perhaps a precursor of the loop with which the open form of this letter begins. This stroke which persists in the Kendūr plates referred to above is already seen to assume the rudimentary loop noticeable in the Vakkalēri plates,^[3] But is must be borne in mind that all these forms are only transitional stages from the closed form found for this letter in earlier records leading to its open form as it occurs in the inscription under review. It is true that this letter retains its closed form in a dated copper-plates grant of Rāshṭrakūṭa king Gōvinda III (A.D. 804) which has been the basis for Dr. Fleet’s theory that the later cursive form of this letter which can be traced back to the time of Amōgavarsha I cannot however be carried back to an earlier date than A.D. 804.^[4]

If this were really so, the present record will have to be assigned to a date posterior to A.D. 804, a date somewhat later than that assigned for the Mālēpāḍu plates. Now, except for this single letter b, all other test letters and especially kh, l and j still retain their earlier forms in this as well as in the Mālēpāḍu plates ; and it may be observed that in their execution both these records show a more archaic type of writing than that found in the Rāshṭrakūṭa record cited above.^[5] Their palaeography may be favourably compared with that of the Kendūr and Vakkalēri plates of Kīrttivarman II and they may be, therefore, assigned roughly to the same date viz., the middle of the 8th century A.D. It will be seen in the sequel and from the synchronistic table appended hereto that this date fits in very well with the contents of the record. As for the cursive form of b that we have in the record under review, we have indeed a case here answering that cited by Dr. Bühler of ‘ the occurrence of numerous cursive forms together with very archaic ones, both in the Aśōka edicts and also in later inscriptions’^[6]. The charter being dated in the 10th regnal year of Puṇyakumāra, the initial year of the king might be fixed at c. 740 A.D. Assigning arbitrarily a reign of 15 years for his brother Guṇamudita who preceded him and a reign of 25 years, as usual, to Mahēndravarman and again a period of 15 years to each one of the three brothers Siṁavishṇu, Sundarananda and Dhanañjayavarman─for it is said of them that they enjoyed the fortunes of the kingdom (i.e., ruled) in succession─and 25 years to Nandivarman, we get for the initial year of this king the year c. 630. The Pallava and the Chāḷukya contemporaries who were reigning at this period were Narasiṁhavarman I and Pulakēśin II. The names of Nandivarman’s successors Siṁhavishṇu, Mahēndravarman and Guṇamudita at once bring to our mind the names of Narasiṁhavishṇu, Mahēndravarman and Paramēśvaravarman I (Guṇabhājana) of the Pallava family.

_______________________________________________

^[1] Above, Vol. XI, pp. 337 ff.
^[2] Ind. Ant., Vol. X, plate opp. p. 58.
^[3] Above, Vol. V, p. 202, ll. 15, 16, 17, 18, 52, 55, etc., on plates opp. p. 202.
^[4] Above, Vol. II, p. 163.
^[5] Compare plates on p. 126, Ind. Ant., Vol. XI.
^[6] Ibid., Vol. XXXIII App. 30, Sect. 14.