UNAMANJERI PLATES OF ACHYUTARAYA.
The orthography calls for few remarks. The palatal sibilant is five times employed for the
dental (e.g. in babhâśê, l. 19), and once (in tithiśv=, l. 63) for the lingual ; and the dental sibilant
twice for the palatal (in aṁburâsî, l. 47, and visva, l, 117), and once (in nisphalaṁ, l. 193)
for the lingual. The sign of visarga is nine times wrongly omitted, mostly before the word śrî.
And b is three times used instead of bh, in tapôbir and buja, l. 7, and mahîbujâṁ, l. 12. Besides
we need only notice here that the word Paṅktiratha ( = Daśaratha) is spelt Paṅtiratha, in l. 24,
and tâmra tâṁmra, in lines 188 and 190.— Of Sanskṛit words which either are not given by the
dictionaries, or have as yet been met with only in lexicographical works, our text only offers
kâpâlikâ, ‘a cloud (of dust),’ l. 48, Pûshaja, ‘the son of the Sun,’ i.e. Karṇa, and aṁhati, ‘a
gift,’ the two last in the biruda Pûshaja-darpa-hṛid-aṁhati-śauṁḍa, ‘fond of bestowing gifts which
take away the pride of Karṇa,’ in line 81. Like other inscriptions of the same dynasty,1 this one
also contains the Kanarese birudas Bhâshege-tappuva-râyara-gaṁḍaḥ, ‘the disgracer of those
kings who break their word,’ in l. 80,and Mûru-râyara-gaṁḍaḥ, ‘the disgracer of the three kings
(of the South),’ in l. 82 ; and it similarly employs the biruda Hiṁdurâya-suratrâṇaḥ, ‘the Sultân
among Hindû kings,’ in l. 84, and has several times the Kanarese words râya and mahârâya for
râjan and mahârâja. In l.184, we also have râyasa, ‘a secretary,’ and in l.194 (only by a
mistake of the writer) varusha ; and several terms and names which are not Sanskṛit occur in
the description of the village in lines 97-99, and in the list of the donees which commences in line
120.
......The inscription is one of the king Achyutêndra, or Achyutarâya, or Achyutêndra-mahârâya of Vijayanagara. It clearly divides itself into two parts. The first part, up to l. 91.
gives in thirty-eight verses a eulogistic account of Achyutêndra and some of his predecessors,
and the second part, from l. 91, records the grand of a village, made by the king in Śaka-Saṁvat
1462.
......Of the thirty-eight verses with which the inscription opens, twenty-two (viz. the verses 1, 3-13,
and 15-24) occur (as verses 1-6, 9-23, and 29) in the Hampe inscription of Achyutêndra’s
immediate predecessor Kṛishṇarâya edited and translated by Dr. Hultzsch in the Epigraphia
Indica, Vol. I. p. 361 ff. And, omitting mythical beings, the genealogy furnished by these
verses, as given by Dr. Hultzsch, ib. p. 362, is this :—

Beyond what appears from this tabular statement, the verses referred to contain hardly any
historical information whatever.2
......Verse 143 of the present inscription records that the king Nṛisiṁha (Narasa) from a third
wife, Ôbâmbikâ-dêvî, had one more son, named Achyutêndra ; and verse 25 states that this
prince, the younger brother of Kṛishnarâya, on the death of that king, succeeded him.4 The
seven verses (26-32) which follow-some of them imitations of preceding verses-eulogize
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......1 See e.g., Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 363.
......2 See Dr. Hultzsch’s remarks, ib. p. 362.
......3 Verse 2, which is not in the Hampe inscription, invokes the protection of the god Hari (Vishṇu). It is
found also in other Vijayanagara inscriptions.
......4 The latest date for Kṛishṇarâya, known to me from published inscriptions, corresponds to Friday, 23rd
April, A.D. 1529, and the earliest date for Achyutarâya to Monday, 15th August, A.D. 1530 ; see Ep. Ind. Vol. I.
p. 399, and Ind. Ant. Vol. I. p. 329.
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