North Indian Inscriptions

KUNIYUR PLATES OF VENKATA II.

......As other grants of the third Vijayanagara dynasty, the present grant is written in the Nandinâgarî alphabet. The writer has been very careless and quick, so much so, that the letters ya, va, da and ta assume various forms and that, in conjunct consonants, the several parts are often not easily distinguishable. Several erasures and insertions are made, the most important of which are pointed out in the foot-notes. The writing on the whole of the first side of the sixth plate and on the latter part of the seventh is very small, evidently owing to want of space. A graphical peculiarity which I have noticed in this and in the Viḷâpâka grant of Veṅkaṭa I.,¹ an impression of which Dr. Hultzsch has kindly given me, is that the group rya is expressed by combining the full form of r with the secondary form of ya ; but in four cases (in lines 9 and 15, and twice in line 255), the r is, as usual, written over the line. Other consonants following r are written in the usual style, with the exception of rma in line 170, where the secondary form of m is affixed to the full form of r. The vowel ṛi is never used at the beginning of words, but is then expressed by ri, ru, and even r² (lines 176, 182, 184 and 241). Jña is written as gjña in two cases (lines 11 and 143). The prefixing of y and v to certain vowels, the interchange of the dental and palatal sibilants, the insertion of superfluous anusvâras, visargas and punctuation-marks, the assimilation of consonant-groups, and similar vulgarisms are not uncommon in this and other grants of the third Vijayanagara dynasty. Comparatively speaking, the present inscription is on the whole correct.

......The language is Sanskṛit verse in various metres. The poetry is of the poorest possible kind and deserves that name only because it conforms to laws of metrics. Line 249, which is in Telugu prose, is engraved on the upper margin of plate vii. and was evidently inserted after the engraving of the whole grant had been finished.

......The composer of this inscription and of the Viḷâpâka, Koṇḍyâta,³ and Kaḷḷakurśi⁴ grants of Veṅkaṭa I., Veṅkaṭa II., and Raṅga VI. is stated to have been one and the same person, viz. Râma, the son of Kâmakôṭi and grandson of Sabhâpati ; while the engravers of these four grants were Kâmayâchârya (the son of Gaṇapaya and younger brother of Vîraṇa), Achyutârya (the son of Gaṇapârya and grandson of Vîraṇâchârya), and Sômanâthârya (the son of Kâmaya and grandson of Gaṇapayârya). It thus appears that Achyutârya, Vîraṇa and Kâmayâchârya were brothers. The engraver of the Dêvanahaḷḷi grant of Raṅga II.⁵ was Gaṇapârya, the son of Vîraṇa. Evidently the descendants of Vîraṇâchârya were the hereditary engravers of the grants of the kings of the thirds Vijayanagara dynasty. Their relations are shown in the following table.

Virauacharya.

Ganaparya. (Devanahalli grant of Sala 1506.)

Achyutarya. (Kuniyur and Kondyata grants                                     Virana                 kamaya. (Vilapaka grant of saka 1523.) Virana
of Saka 1556 and 1558)                                                                                      Somanatharya. (Kallakursi grant of saka 1566.)

......¹ See Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII. p. 125, note 4.
......² In line 205 the same symbol is used for the final r.
......³ Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII. p. 125 ff.
......⁴ ibid. p. 153 ff.
......⁵ Mysore Inscriptions. p. 252 ff.