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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA TELUGU CHOLA RECORDS FROM ANANTAPUR AND CUDDAPAH is perhaps not quite necessary as it should have been enough for the day to have opened with dvitīyā. It is noteworthy that the present inscription belonging to the early 7th century A. D. mentions the week-day and the hōra. The mention of the week-day is rather a rare occurrence till about the 9th century A. D.[1] The early Pallava Prākṛit and Sanskrit charters make no mention of the week-day anywhere. It begins to be mentioned in Western Chālukya grants from about the time of Pulakēśin II,[2] i.e., just about the same time to which the present inscription belongs. On the hōra we have the views of Burgess and Svamikannu Pillai that its mention in India, either in literature or epigraphy, prior to the 5th century A. D. is improbable.[3] The present instance is the earliest so far available in South Indian Epigraphy. The inscription was issued by Puṇyakumāra while he was ruling Rēnāṇḍu from his capital Chirpali ; the title Erikalla Mutturāju indicates the position held by him while ruling Rēnāṇḍu. This together with the nominative suffix nru attached to his name, to which attention has already been drawn, may be taken to indicate that he had not become supreme ruler on the throne. This may have been in the period before he issued the Mālēpāḍu grant[4] and the Rāmēśvaram pillar inscription (ins. G below) wherein he is found to assume supreme titles in place of the subordinate title of Mutturāju held by him earlier. That he wielded considerable power and dignity even as a Mutturāju is indicated by the string of birudas with which he is described in the present grant. He assumed most of the titles in imitation of the Pallavas. Marunrapiḍugu, ‘ a thunderbolt to the enemies ’, is analogous to one of the birudas of Pallava Mahēndravarman I, viz., Pagāppiḍugu found in several of his inscriptions.[5] It is almost synonymous with Mārpiḍugu a probable title held by Puṇyakumāra (see ins. G below). Madamuditunru seems to have been modelled on Mattavilāsa, one of the birudas of the same Pallava king. Some of the titles of Puṇyakumāra borne by him in the present record were improved upon and later added to by him as noticeable in his Rāmēśvaram pillar inscription (ins. G below) and the Mālēpāḍu plates.
F. TEXT
1 Svasti Śrī [1*] Erikalla-Mutu- TRANSLATION Hail ! prosperity ! While Puṇyakumāra, the Erikalla-Mutturāju, who was held in ______________________________
[1] MASI, No. 18, p. 37 ; J.R.A.S. 1912, pp. 1039 ff. ; K. G. Sesha Iyer, Ceras, pp. 108-9. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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