North Indian Inscriptions

SPURIOUS SUDI PLATES.

capital was Skandapura, which Lassen has placed at Gajjalhaṭṭi on the old ghaut road from Mysore to Tarichinoppoly.¹

......His son was Vishṇugôpa, whose title appears as Mahârâjâdhirâja in the Harihar grant ; in the Mallohaḷḷi grant No. 3, as Râja, which is a genuine title, but not one of paramount sovereignty ; and as Mahâdhirâja in all the others. The Harihar grant either omits two generations altogether, and makes him the son of Koṅgaṇivarman ; or else it calls Harivarman Koṅgaṇivarman, and transfers to him the feat of servering the stone pillar, which elsewhere is always attributed to Koṅgaṇivarman.

......His son was Mâdhava II., who in the Humcha inscription is called Aṅgâla-Mâdhava.² Assuming that he is the king referred to in the Harihar grant, his title appears there as Râja ; in all the subsequent records, it is Mahâdhiirâja. He is said to have married a sister of the Kadamba Mahâdhiirâja Kṛishṇavarman ; and we now know three Kadamba kings of that name, referable to approximately the sixth century A.D. : but none of the Kadamba records mention such an alliance : and a note which Mr. Rice has given,³ to the effect that there is a grant of Dêvavarman, son of the Kadamba Mahârâja Kṛishṇavarman, which would place the latter about A.D. 438-39, is altogether misleading ; in the record in question,⁴ there is no statement of any date, and not even anything that helps to fix its specific period ; and the date of A.D. 438-39 for Kṛishṇavarman was arrived at by myself,⁵— from the spurious Gaṅga records, and before I recognised their true nature. The Harihar grant gives this Mâdhava the hereditary title of “supreme lord of Koḷâla, the best of towns,” and describes him as “having acquired the excellent favour of the goddess Padmâvatî ;” and it also mentions him, or another person, as Râjamalla. On these points Mr. Rice himself has remarked :⁶— “No other inscription mentions “him” [i.e. Râjamalla], “and it is doubtful whether this name was used so early. The form “ Koḷâla, too, is more modern ; and the reference to Padmâvatî seems to connect him with the “later kings.” It is really remarkable that Mr. Rice should recognise so much, and yet fail to arrive at the proper ultimate conclusions.

......His son was Avinîta-Koṅgaṇi, whose title appears in the Mallohaḷḷi grant No. 3 both as Râja and as Mahârâja, and in the subsequent records as Mahâdhirâja. He is said to have married a daughter of the Punnâṭarâja Skandavarman : and corroboration of this statement is supposed to be furnished by the fact that the Kômaraliṅgam grant of Ravidatta mentions a Skandavarman, whose son was named Punnâṭarâja.⁷ But the Kômaraliṅgam record contains no mention of any intermarriage with the Gaṅgas ; and it is itself a spurious record, of certainly no earlier date than the commencement of the ninth century A.D.⁸

......His son was Durvinîta-Koṅgaṇi. The Hosûr and Nâgamaṅgala grants give him no title ; in the Bangalore grant, he is styled Mahârâja ; and, in the Mallohḷḷi grant No. 6 and the British Museum grant, either Râja or Vṛiddharâja, the latter of which titles is unknown except for these spurious records. The Mallohaḷḷi grant No. 6 styles him “lord of the whole of Pânâḍa or Pânnâḍa, and Punnâḍa.” He is said to have been victorious in battle at Andari, Âlattûr, Poruḷare, and Pelnagara, Perṇagara, or Pennagara ;⁹ and to have composed a commentary on
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......¹ ibid.; and Coorg Inscriptions, Introd. p. 1.
......² In Reeve and Sanderson’s Kanarese Dictionary, aṅgâlu (of which aṅgâlu is the genitive singular) is given as meaning ‘the sole of the foot.’
......³ Coorg Inscriptions, Introd. p. 2, note 5.
......⁴ Ind. Ant. Vol. VII. p. 33.
......⁵ Ind. Ant. Vol. VI. p. 23.
......⁶ Coorg Inscriptions, Introd. p. 2, note 3.
......⁷ Ind. Ant. Vol. XVIII. p. 368.
......⁸ See page 163 above, note 2.
......⁹ Pennagara is said by Mr.Rice (Coorg Inscriptions, Introd. p. 3, note 2) to be in the Salem District, at the foot of the Eastern Ghauts. And it is, I suppose, the ‘Penagara’ which is shewn, in approximately lat. 12º 5’, long. 77º 50’, in the map given in the Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I,— Âlattûr appears in the later Mallohaḷḷi grant, No. 6, as Âlantûr. Mr. Rice has suggested (Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 135) that it may be a village about ten miles south of the city of Mysore. But there is also an Âlattûr in the Coimbatore district ; and an ‘Alatore’ in the Malabar district.