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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA Eya[ra]kallu-Kula-naṭṭuḷu and Vendaraṁbuḷu-Vēṇavōjanru being the witnesses. He who destroys this (gift) becomes guilty of the five great sins. Erama, the Brāhmaṇa (i) of Kachēru wrote this, (This is) engraved by the Koṭṭali, Kuṇaṇḍāḷuvānru. K. Chamaluru Inscription of Prithvivallabha Vijayadi[tya] Chola: 22nd year The inscription is engraved on four sides of a stone lying in a field on the borders of the village of Chāmalūru, Jammalamdugu taluk. The stone is broken and fragmentary and the inscription damaged in places, although at the time when the Assistants of Col. Mackenzie inspected it and took an eye-copy. It was in a better state of preservation. The lost portions are here restored with the aid of the eye-copy left by them.1 Portions of the record appear to have been damaged even before it was noticed by them as there are some blanks in their copy also. The record is written in the Telugu language. A slight mixture of Telugu and Sanskrit prose in the sentence describing the done presents a peculiarity. The inscription is engraved in bold characters. The letters j, l and b are in a transitional stage from the earlier square type to the later cursive type. The subscript l which, in earlier inscriptions, is in the form of a miniature of the consonant, is here found in an attenuated form.
Several words of linguistic and orthographical interest are found in the record. The word ēbhādi in l. 5 of the third side corresponding to the modern form ēbhadi meaning ‘ fifty ’ is noteworthy. Penbāru in ll.7-8 (same side) meaning the chief (or big) (pen or pena) Brāhmaṇa is a word of rare occurrence. It is made up of two words penu and pāra which, when compounded take the form penbāra,2 p being changed into b. Chavachcharaṁbuḷ in ll.4-5 (first side) is a corrupt form of the Sanskrit Saṁvatsara. The donee’s name, Aggisārmmāru (ll.8-9 of the third side) is a shortened form of Agni-Śarmmagāru with the g elided. Similar instances occurring in ins. D (Indukuru inscription of Chōla-Mahārāja) and ins. I (Nallacheruvupalle inscription) have been noted above ; aggi, the Telugu form of Sanskrit agni, is in use at the present day. The words tāṁbal in l. 9 and amma in l. 10 meaning younger brother (or sister) and mother respectively may be noted as instances of the early use of these words in the Telugu language. The record seems to register a grant by the queen-mother (Chōla-Mahārājula-amma)of Chōla-Mahārāja when Bāṇarāja was ruling (at) Pāṁbuliggi in the 22nd year of reign of king Prithvīvallabha Vijayādi[tya]-Chōḷa. The queen’s relationship to a Pallavādhirāja is mentioned though its exact nature is not clear owing to the archaic working of the record. The passage describing this relationship ‘ Pallavādhirājula Kūchapōriyāri tāṁbul Chōlamahārhājula amma ’ may be understood either as Chōlamahārāja’s mother (who was) the younger sister (tāṁbul) of Kūchapōriyāru (the queen?) of Pallavādhirāja or the mother of Chōlamahārāja who was the younger brother (tāṁbul) of Kūchapōriyāru (the queen?) of Pallavādhirāja. In either case the relationship through marriage between the Pallava king and the Telugu Chōla king is indicated and is noteworthy. The inscription is dated in the 22nd year of the reign of king Vijayādi[tya]-Chōḷa who might have been so named by his father after his Chālukya overlord, Vijayāditya, who is known to have ruled from A.D. 696 to 733. If so, the period of rule of the king of our record has to be put a generation later, say about A.D. 750 and he would have ruled sometime after Uttamāditya and Satyāditya. The palaeography of the inscription though a little archaic for the period may be taken to support this date. Thus the record is important in that it adds one more name to the dynastic list of the Chōlas of Rēnāḍu. Several points of historical interest arise out of this and from other facts mentioned in the record. In the first place, the supreme title of Prithvīvallabha _________________________
[1] Mack. Mss. 15-3-60 Ms., pp. 74-75 ; vide photo plate subjoined. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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