South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

The language of the inscription is Sanskrit. The inscription is composed partly in prose and partly in poetry. The poetry is fairly good, though the language contains a few expressions which are opposed to the rules of Pāṇiṇi. Thus for instance : line 4 has pañcha-Pāṇḍav=ākhaṇḍal-ōpamāḥ ;line 9 has pravaktun=naraḥ ; lines 14-15 have vallabhān-nirbbhara-garbbha-bhārām ;and line 27, suḥnētrā. The inscription is written in characters which are regular for the period to which it belongs, i.e., the 12th century A.C. According to Dr. Burnell, such characters belong to what he called the “ transitional period ”. The following orthographical peculiarities may, however, be noticed. Vowels a and long ā, short i and u and long ē occur in the inscription. The long ā is distinguished by a vertical stroke at the right side. Vowels i and u have reached their final forms, and are fully developed. No distinction is yet drawn between e and ē long. Both are written alike. There is no vertical stroke on the head of e to denote the long ē as we find at the present day. There is not much distinction between ḍ and ḍh ; and final forms of m, n, and t are used in the inscription. The vargānunāsika is substituted by the anusvāra which is denoted by a bindu throughout. Sometimes words like vaṁśa and dayitā are written as vaṁśya and dayityā, which is apparently in accordance with the local pronunciation of Sanskrit words in the Krishna and Guntur Districts, where the sibilant ś is always joined with y. The scribe has not followed any principle in doubling the consonants.

The object of the inscription is to record the grant of the village of Inuṁgarru as an agrahāra to a learned Brāhmaṇa, on an auspicious occasion by king Rājarāja-Chōḍa II, who is stated to be ruling over Andhra-maṇḍala as commissioned by Rājarāja, i.e., Rājarāja II of the Chāḷukya-Chōḷa family (Lines 133-4). The name of the donee and the district in which the village was situated have been unfortunately lost on the missing last plate. The village Inuṁgarru granted in the record may be identified with Inugurtipāḍu^[1], a village in the vicinity of Naṇḍūru, the findspot of the present plates, in the Bapatla taluk, Guntur District. At the time of making the grant, Rājēndra-Chōḍa is stated to be staying in his capital, Dhanadapurī, i.e., Chandavōlu in Repalle taluk, Guntur District. The date of the grant is given as Śaka 1091 (indunanda-viyach-chandra-gaṇitē) and as the 23rd year of Rājarāja, i.e., Rājarāja II (lines 133-34). The Śaka year which is an expired year corresponds to 1169-70 A.C.

The inscription divides itself into two parts. The first part (lines 1-67) contains the historical genealogy of the Eastern Chāḷukyas, treating of Kulōttuṅga-Chōḷa I and his successors down to Rājarāja II as Chāḷukyas and not as Chōḷas. The second part (lines 68 ff.) describes the history of the Chiefs of Velanāṇḍu or, members of the Velanāṇṭi family, who enjoyed the position of subordinate kings under the Chōḷa-Chāḷukyas. There are many new statements in the account relating to the Eastern Chāḷukyas, which differ from what we know hitherto. Some of them may be explained as errors committed by the scribe who engraved the inscription on the plates. Thus, for example, Narēndra, i.e., Narēndramṛigarāja-Vijayāditya or Vijayāditya II is called the son of Vijayāditya I, or Vijayāditya-Bhaṭṭāraka (line 38), while in fact he was the son of Vishṇuvardhana IV. In a similar manner a Vishṇuvardhana is stated to be the son of Vijayāditya II, and is given a reign of thirty-six years (lines 39-40). This king must be Vishṇuvardhana IV, the father of Narēndramṛigarāja, and not his son as wrongly described here. Apparently the order in the narration is confused. Again the son of Vishṇuvardhana IV is said to be Kali-Vishṇuvardhana or Vishṇuvardhana V, and is given a reign of half a year (line 41) while it is known from other records of the dynasty that he reigned for one and a half years, or twenty months according to some, and that

_________________________________________________

^[1] Usually when a village is deserted and disappears for a period, the site is denoted by the term pāḍu ; and when a new village springs up on the spot after an interval, it is called with the suffix pāḍu super added to the old name. So it must be with Inugurtipāḍu, (lit. the pāḍu of Inu(ṁ)guru, or Inugurru).