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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
NANDURU PLATES OF VELANTI RAJENDRA-CHODA : he was the son of Narēndramṛigarāja-Vijayāditya II and not of Vishṇuvardhana V. It would seem that the engraver, while copying the grant on copper-plates, got confused and changed the order or sequence of the verses on the plate. He should have written verse 19 after verse 17 ; in other words, the proper order of the verse should be, first, verse 17, then verse 19 and lastly verse 18. If the inscription is read in this order the apparent confusion disappears. Krishna Sastri’s observation,[1] viz., that “ The reign of Vishṇuvardhana IV is altogether omitted and a new Vishṇuvardhana, a son of Vijayāditya (II), is mentioned with a rule of 50 years, followed by Kali-Vishṇuvardhana ”, need no longer be held as complicating the genealogical position. Another discrepancy is in respect of the reign of Dānārṇava who is said to have ruled for 30 years (line 50), instead of 3 years. The reign of Vīra-Vijayāditya or Vijayāditya VIII,[2] younger brother of Rājarāja I is altogether omitted. Yet another erroneous statement is that Kulōttuṅga-Chōḷa I is said to have ruled for twenty-five years (line 58) instead of fifty as known hitherto. Except for these errors the genealogical account is accurate. It is noteworthy that the historical account contains some new information about a few kings. Chālukya-Bhīma I is said to have destroyed his enemies on numerous battlefields, and to have built several temples of Mahādēva (Śiva) at sacred spots (lines 42-43). His son Vijayāditya IV who is well known by his surname Kollabhigaṇḍa from the records of the family, is stated to have obtained a decisive victory in the battle of Virajāpurī, captured the city and went to heaven (line 44), a statement which may be taken to indicate that he died shortly after the battle, a fact not known hitherto. Virajāpurī may be properly identified with Jajpur (which is apparently a variant of Virajāpurī) the chief town of the Jajpur tahsil of the Cuttack District, Orissa. It lies on the Vaitaraṇī, a tributary of the Mahānadī situated about fifty miles due north-west of Cuttack. During the ancient period, it was a great and renowned tīrtha, “ a place of pilgrimage,” according to the Mahābhārata.[3] Virajā or Virajāpurī was for a long time a provincial capital of the Bhauma-Kara kings of Utkala and the Sōmavaṁśī kings of Dakshiṇa-Kōsala who bore the epithet, Trikaliṅgādhipati.[4] Kollabhigaṇḍa’s son was Amma I who is said to have performed many Tulāpurusha-dānas (gifts) year after year during his brief rule of seven years (line 44). Vikrama-Chōḷa, son and successor of Kulōttuṅga-Chōḷa I, is given the correct period of rule, viz., seventeen years (lines 60-61), which is in conformity with the regnal years recorded in some of the inscriptions of the Andhra country and in Tamil inscriptions as well. His son Kulōttuṅga-Chōḷa II is said to have reigned for fifteen years in succession (lines 64-65). Lastly, the relationship between Kulōttuṅga-Chōḷa II and Rājarāja II, which has not been hitherto correctly known, is clearly stated in the present record as that of father and son (lines 65-66). The second part of the inscription contains a brief account of the Velanāṇṭi family. It gives a complete genealogy which in some respects supplements the account given in the Piṭhāpuram inscription of Velanāṇṭi Pṛithvīśvara.[6] The following genealogical table represents the information that is contained in the present inscription.
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[1] ARSIE, 1917, p. 118. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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