North Indian Inscriptions

KUNIYUR PLATES OF VENKATA II.

year.¹ His second son, Raṅga II., is actually called king of Penugoṇḍa (verse 19). The same town was the residence of Veṅkaṭa II., to whose the subjoined inscription belongs (verse 32)

......The description of the reign of Veṇkata II. and the list of his birudas (verses 33-37) are altogether devoid of historical value, because they have been copied over from the inscriptions of his predecessors. Thus, verse 33 of the Kûniyûr grant ( = verse 36 of the Koṇḍyâta grant), which records that Veṅkaṭa II. was anointed by his family preceptor Tâtayârya and that he destroyed the Yavanas (i.e. the Muḥammadans), is already applied to Veṅkaṭa I. in the Viḷâpâka grant.

......The third part of the inscription (verse 49-54) supplies the following genealogy of Tirumala Nâyaka (of Madhurâ), who is well-known on account of the magnificient buildings with which he adorned his capital.

The Nayakas of Madhurs.
Naga of the kasyapa (gotra).
        Visvanatha.
   Krishnapa Nayaka.
           Virapa.
    Visvapa Nayaka.
      Muddukrishna.

Mudduvira.                                                                                                                            Tirumala.

......“This pedigree agrees almost completely with that of the Nâyakas of Madhurâ given by Mr. Sewell,² with the only difference that the present inscription makes Muddukṛishna the son of Viśvapa, while, according to Mr. Sewell, he was the son of Viśvapa’s elder brother.”³ A copper coin of Muddukṛishṇa, the father of Tirumala, and three copper coin of Viśvanâtha, the second in the pedigree, have been published by Dr. Hultzsch.⁴ The two first Nâyakas of Madhurâ were originally generals of the king of Vijayanagara. Having been despatched by their sovereign against the king of Tañjâvûr, they seized Madhurâ and founded an independent dynasty.⁵ The present grant shows that they continued, at least nominally, to acknowledge the kings of the third Vijayanagara dynasty as their sovereigns.

......The second and fourth parts of the inscription (verses 38-48; and verse 55 to the end) contain the grant itself. The date of the grant was the full-moon tithi of Vaiśâkha in Śaka-Saṁvat 1556 (expired). the Bhâva saṁvatsara (A.D. 1634) (verse 38 f.). Veṅkaṭa II. issued the grant in the presence of the god Veṅkaṭêśa (verse 39) who is also invoked at the beginning and end of the inscription (lines 1 and 266). The object of the grant was the
__________________________________________________________________________________________

......¹ Dr. Burnell’s South-Indian Palæography, p. 55, note.
......² Lists of Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 200.
......³ See page 236 above, note 3.
......⁴ Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. p. 308, No. 38, and Vol. XXI. p. 325, Nos. 14 to 16.
......⁵ Mr. Sewell’s Lists of Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 200 f.