Contents |
Index
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Introduction
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Contents
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List of Plates
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Additions and Corrections
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Images
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Contents |
Chaudhury, P.D.
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Chhabra, B.ch.
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DE, S. C.
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Desai, P. B.
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Dikshit, M. G.
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Krishnan, K. G.
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Desai, P. B
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Krishna Rao, B. V.
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Lakshminarayan Rao, N., M.A.
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Mirashi, V. V.
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Narasimhaswami, H. K.
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Pandeya, L. P.,
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Sircar, D. C.
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Venkataramayya, M., M.A.,
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Venkataramanayya, N., M.A.
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Index-By A. N. Lahiri
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Other
South-Indian Inscriptions
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Volume
1
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Volume
2
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Volume
3
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Vol.
4 - 8
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Volume 9
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Volume 10
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Volume 11
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Volume 12
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Volume 13
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Volume
14
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Volume 15
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Volume 16
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Volume 17
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Volume 18
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Volume
19
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Volume
20
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Volume 22 Part 1
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Volume
22 Part 2
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Volume
23
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Volume
24 |
Volume
26
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Volume 27 |
Tiruvarur
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Darasuram
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Konerirajapuram
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Tanjavur |
Annual Reports 1935-1944
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Annual Reports 1945- 1947
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Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Volume 2, Part 2
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Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Volume 7, Part 3
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Kalachuri-Chedi Era Part 1
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Kalachuri-Chedi Era Part 2
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Epigraphica Indica
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Epigraphia Indica Volume 3
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Epigraphia Indica Volume 4
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Epigraphia Indica Volume 6
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Epigraphia Indica Volume 7
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Epigraphia Indica Volume 8
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Epigraphia Indica Volume 27
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Epigraphia Indica Volume 29
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Epigraphia Indica Volume 30
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Epigraphia Indica Volume 31
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Epigraphia Indica Volume 32
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Paramaras Volume 7, Part 2
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Śilāhāras Volume 6, Part 2
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Vākāṭakas Volume 5
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Early Gupta Inscriptions
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Archaeological
Links
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Archaeological-Survey
of India
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Pudukkottai
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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
in 1940, I took a photograph of it and a couple of estampages of the inscription at its base,
both of which I publish here with the kind permission of the Government Epigraphist for India.[1]
The lower half is all that is preserved of the image now. Even so, the sculpture is of
considerable iconographic interest. It depicts a nude female figure in the sitting posture, with
the legs doubled up and wide apart and the feet pointing outwards. The image is profusely
ornamented. The broad belt below the navel is highly decorated with what look like rows
of pearls or precious stones. The distended belly with the ornamental belt around it very much
resembles the decorated pūrṇa-ghaṭa, the representation of which is a common feature in the
Buddhist sculptural art of this period at Nāgārjunikoṇḍa, Amarāvati and elsewhere. The
anklets and other jewellery adorning the ankles are again typical of the ornaments portrayed in
contemporary sculpture. On the narrow strip of space below the image is engraved an inscription in a single line in Prākṛit language and Brāhmī characters assignable to the 3rd century
A. C.
The inscription does not give us any clue as to the identity of the image. Nevertheless,
the recording that it was caused to be made by a queen who is described as an a-vidhavā,
‘one who has her husband alive’, and a jīvaputā (Sanskrit jīvaputrā), ‘one who has her child
or children alive’, gives room for the surmise that it must have stood for a cult image and
that its sponsor was a follower of that cult. The cult of worshipping the naked forms of either
the male or female, the one in the form of the liṅga and the other in the form of the
yōni, both representing the generative principle in nature, is a very ancient and wide-spread
one. The excavations at Mohenjo-daro in Sind have brought to light numerous female
terracotta figurines akin to those discovered in Baluchistan and in countries of Western Asia,
around the Aegian coast, Elam, Mesapotamia, Asia-Minor, Syria, Palestine, Cyprus, Crete,
Cyclades, the Balkans and Egypt. These figurines are identified as the representations of the
Great Mother or the Goddess of Nature. India is known to have been the home of the worship
of the Divine Mother, Ādyā-Śakti, Prakṛiti or Pṛithivī, the Earth.[2] Apart from the
terracotta figurines referred to above, an interesting oblong sealing found at Harappa depicts,
on one of its faces, a nude female figure, upside down, with legs apart and with a plant
issuing from her womb.[3] This is considered as depicting the Mother Goddess in her role as the
author of fertility. Another instance of a figure akin to this is afforded by a small repousse
gold plaque bearing the figure of a nude female recovered at Piprahva which is believed to
represent the Earth Goddess.[4] The inscribed sculpture of Nāgārjunikoṇḍa also seems to be
a representation of the Mother Goddess in her aspect as the Goddess of fertility or fecundity.
It is in all probability a votive image dedicated as an offering in response to the fulfilment of
certain wishes or desires.
As for the contents of the inscription, Queen Khaṁḍuvulā who figures for the first time
in this record is described as Mahādēvī and the wife(?) of Mahārāja Siri Ehavala Chaṁtamala.
The latter is probably identical with his namesake who is mentioned as a son of Siri Vira
Purisadata and Mahādēvī Bhaṭidēvā and as the brother of Queen Kodabalisiri, in inscriptions
from Nāgārjunikoṇḍa itself.[5] In an inscription from Reṇṭāla, not far from Nāgārjunikoṇḍa,
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[1] Photograph No. 1996 of the office of the Government Epigraphist for India ; inscription No. 470 of
1940-41 of the Madras Epigraphical Collection.
[2] R. K. Mookerji, Hindu Civilisation, pp19-20.
[3] Sir John Marshall, Mohenjo-daro and Indus Civilisation, Vol. I, p. 52, pl. XII, 12.
[4] JRAS, 1898, p. 579, pl. opp. p. 579, figs. 11 & 15.
[5] Above, Vol. XX, p. 5 and inscriptions G and H. The king’s name occurs variously as Ehuvuja
Chātamūla in inscription G (page 24, plate V, line7) and Ehuvala Chātamūla (in inscription H, line 10, plate V,
reverse).
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