North Indian Inscriptions

UNAMANJERI PLATES OF ACHYUTARAYA.

Achyutêndra in the ordinary conventional manner. Verses 33-37 give a string of birudas of his which are not new to us,¹ and record (as the Hampe inscription does of Kṛishṇarâya) that he was waited upon by the kings of Añga, Vaṅga, and Kaliṅga. And this part of the inscription ends with another verse in praise of Achyutêndra, which is merely an imitation of verse 24 of this same inscription.

......According to verses 39-53 (in lines 91-115) the Mahârâya Achyutêndra, being on the bank of the river Tuṅgabhadrâ, on the 12th lunar day of the bright half of Kârttika─ the day when the god Vishṇu rises from his sleep─ of the year 1462 of the era of Śâlivâha, which was the (Jovian) year Śârvarî, in the presence of the god Viṭṭhalêśvara,² and surrounded by many holy men, granted the village of Uhinai, which (apparently in consequence of this grant) was also called Achyutêndraṁahâyapura, to a number of Brâhmaṇas learned in the Vêdas and famous for their knowledge of the Śâstras ; the king having been requested to do so by his trusted minister³ the chief of the Nâyakas Virûpâksha, who was born in the family of Ananta and is described as the moon of te sea of the [Â]diyappêndra Nâyakas.⁴ The village of Uhinai, thus granted by Achyutêndra (in terms which are common to the copper-plate grants of the Vijayanagara kings), was situated in the Śeṅkaḷanîrpaṭṭu sîmâ of the Kumuḷi nâḍu of the Raṇḍâyira-mahâvêli paṭṭu of the Âmûru kôṭa of the Paḍavîḍu mahârâjya of the Jayaṅkoṇḍa-Chôḷa maṇḍala ; and lay to the east of the village of Ayyañchêri, to the south of the village of Kuḷappâka, to the west of the village of Nallampâka and Vêṅkampâka, and to the north of the village of Aruṅkâl.

......The date, given in the preceding paragraph, does not admit, of verification ; but the fact that it fell in the Jovian year Śârvarî shows the year to have been Śaka-Saṁvat 1462 expired, and for this year the 12th of the bright half of Kârttika would correspond to the 12th October, A.D. 1540.

......As regards the localities, Uhinai, according to Dr. Hultzsch, must be the former name of the very Ûnamâñjêri where the plates were found ; for by the Chingleput Taluk Map this village lies to the east of Ayyañjêri, to the south of Kolappâkkam, to the north-west of Nallampâkkam, and to the north of Ariṅgâl, four of the very places which, under slightly different names, are mentioned in this inscription in the same (or almost exactly the same) positions with reference to Uhinai. Śeṅkaḷanîrpaṭṭu, the name of the sîmâ of which Uhinai belonged, appears, also according to Dr. Hultzsch, to be an older form of Śeṅgalpaṭṭu⁵ (Chingleput) ; and Kumuḷi, from which the nâḍu was called, is the modern Kumili,⁶ in the Chingleput tâlukâ, south of Ariṅgâl. Raṇḍâyira-mahâvêli, vêli name of the paṭṭu, Dr. Hultzsch informs me, would mean ‘the two thousand great vêlis,’ vêli being a measure of land. The Âmûru kôṭa Dr. Hultzsch⁷ considers to have been named after Âmûr or Âmbûr, a town in the Vêlûr tâlukâ of the North Arcot district ; and the Paḍavîḍu mahârâjya, according to the same scholar,⁸ was called after a town now named Paḍavêḍu in the Pôlûr tâlukâ of the same district. The Jayaṅkoṇḍa-Chôḷa maṇḍala is frequently mentioned in Vol. I of Dr. Hultzsch’s South- Indian Inscriptions.
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......¹ Compare Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 365, verses 25-28.
......² This beautifully sculptured temple (No. 4 on the Madras survey Map of Hampe) is still in tolerably good preservation. It contains inscriptions of Kṛishṇarâya and Sadâśiva ; see Dr. Hultzsch’s Progress Report for December 1888 and January 1889.
......³ The term in the original (l. 108) is svâmi-kârya-dhurîṇa, ‘able to bear the burden of the business of his master.’
......⁴ On the officials, so named, compare Dr. Hultzsch in Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII. p. 127.
......⁵ Śeṅkaḷanîrpaṭṭu, according to Dr. Hultzsch, is an incorrect spelling of Śeṅgalunîr-paṭṭu, ‘the town of the red lotus, ‘ while Śeṅgal-paṭṭu apparently means ‘the town of bricks.’
......⁶ Kumili-nâḍu (in Âmûr-kôṭṭam in Jayaṅkoṇḍa-Chôla-maṇḍalam) occurs also in a Tirukkalukkunram inscription of Kulôttuṅga I. ; Ind. Ant. Vol. XXI. p. 284.
......⁷ See South-Indian Inscription, Vol. I. p. 126.
......⁸ ib. p. 83, and ante, p. 36, note 6.