South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

TURIMELLA INSCRIPTION OF CHALUKYA VIKRAMADITYA I ; YEAR 2

the dominion on one of the branches of the Telugu-Chōḍa chiefs who held sway over it about the beginning of the 15th century A.C.^[1] Members of this branch attached the name Ēruva to their own names as a distinctive surname of their family to indicate perhaps their political sway over that territory, or, at times, to distinguish themselves from members bearing similar names but belonging to a different family. That their sway over this division could be traced to a considerably earlier period, almost co-eval with the record under review, is proved by an inscription in characters of the 8th century A. C. on a saptamātṛikā panel at Turimeḷḷa itself which mentions the name ēruva-Mahādēvī.^[2] It is not unlikely that this ēruva-Mahādēvī was the wife of Ālakumara and the unnamed mother of the chief who called himself Ujēnīpiśācha and whom we have identified with Śiṅga, the son of Āḷekomara of the Aihoḷe record. A few later records copied in this region furnish some more details regarding this ancient division. A fragmentary inscription of the time of the Kākatīya king Gaṇapatidēva dated in Śaka 1164 refers to this tract as a Thrice-Seventy division with Krochcherulu as its capital.^[3] Later still, in Śaka 1324 during the reign of the Vijayanagara king Harihara II, it is mentioned as ēruva-nāḍu and as a division in Udayagiri-rājya.^[4] A copper-plate grant of a later date belonging to king Achyutarāya mentions the same nāḍu as situated in Kochcherlakōṭa-sīma.^[5] It will be evident from the statements in these inscriptions that this division which originally covered a small area round about Turimeḷḷa at the time of the record under review, later spread far wider, covering a considerable area of the western portion of the Nellore District from Kochcherlakōṭa in the Darsi Division right down to the river Pennār.

The gift as well as its recipient deserve a few remarks. The unit of land usually expressed by the word nivartana that was generally current at the period of our record^[6] seems to have been omitted here. Another instance where this term is similarly left out occurs in the Dommara-Nandyāla plates of Puṇyakumāra.^[7] The recipient of the gift, Gōvṛishāṇa-Bhaṭṭāraka is possibly identical with the god Surabhēśvara, for surabhi is a synonym for gō, ‘ cow ’.

TEXT

1 Ōṁ^[8][|*] Svasti[|*] śrīmat |^[9] Satyāśraya-Śrī-Pṛii^[10]thivī-
2 vallabha-Mahārājādhirāja-Vikramāditya-Paramē-
3 śvara-Bhaṭaruḷākun śrīmad=unnata-pravarddhamāna-vijaya-
4 rājya- saṁvatsaraṁbuḷ ā-chandra-tāra-purassaram(ṁ)
5 dvitīya-varsham=pravarta^[11]mānaṁ kānu [ | ] Goggi-Bhaṭaraḷa dakshiṇa-

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^[1] C. P. No. 8 of 1911-12, above, Vol. XXVI, pp. 14 ff.
^[2] An. Rep. on Indian Epigraphy for 1949-50, No. 46.
^[3] Ibid., No. 40. The relevant portion of the inscription reads Krochcherulu nelavīḍugān-Ēruva-mūṁḍu-ḍebbadulum.
^[4] Ibid., No. 58 ; the exact wording in the inscription is Udayagiri-rājyamandula Ēruva-nāṇṭilō.
^[5] Nellore District Inscriptions, Vol. I, C. P. No. 10, p. 87 ; text-line 86─ēruva-nāḍe-vikhyāta-Kocherllakōṭasīmani.
^[6] Above, Vol. X, p. 102, the Gadvāl plates of plates of Vikramāditya I ; ibid., Vol. XI, p. 339, the Mālēpāḍu plates of Puṇyakumāra, etc.
^[7] Above, Vol. XXVII, p. 275.
^[8] Represented by a symbol.
^[9] Daṇḍa unnecessary.
^[10] The i sign over the consonant is redundant. Read Pṛithivī.
^[11] The syllable rta was omitted first, but was later introduced below the line between va and ma.