North Indian Inscriptions

YENAMADALA INSCRIPTION OF GANAPAMBA.

servants of the temple of Gaṇapêśvara, and of the extent of the shares of the village which were allotted to each of them. Chintapalli is evidently another form of Chintapâḍu, the village which was granted to the Gaṇapêśvara temple according to verse 24 of the Sanskṛit portion. It may be identified with the modern Chintapalle in the Sattenapalle tâlukâ,¹ which is about 16 miles distant to the W.-N.-W. from Amarâvatî, the residence of Gaṇapâmbâ, and which accordingly may have been included in her dominions.

......The four remaining Telugu inscriptions which the pillar contains, are the following :―

A.― On the fourth face.

......No. 1.―An undated grant of 25 cows by Kôṭad[ê]varâju. The milk of these cows was to be used for the preparation of ghee for a lamp in the temple of Bêtêśvara.

......No. 2.―A grant of a herd of sheep for a lamp in the temple of Bêtêśvara. Date : Śakavarsha 1192 [expired], the Pramôda saṁvatsara, Pushya śuddha 13, Friday, Makara-saṁkrânti.

B.― On the fourth and first faces.

......No. 3―A grant of 2[5] buffalo-cows to the temple of Bêtêśvara. Date : Śakavarsha 11[9]6 [expired], the Bhâva saṁvatsara, Âśvayuja śu[ddha] 1.

C.― On the second face.

........No. 4.―An undated, apparently recent inscription, which records that in Enumandalasthala (i.e. the village of Yenumandala) and in the sixty villages connected with Enumandala, temples and Brâhmaṇas are exempt from taxes (suṅkha).

........The last of these four inscriptions supplies an earlier form of the modern name Yenamadala ; and the three former ones, which record gifts to the local Śaiva temple of Bêtêśvara, suggest that this temple originally contained the pillar on which they and the inscription of Gaṇapâmbâ are engraved. As previously remarked, the Bêtêśvara temple, which was founded by Gaṇapâmbâ, cannot at present be traced in the village of Yenamadala. Another possibility remains, viz. that the words “in this city” in verse 17 refer to the preceding word Śrî-Dhânyâṅkapura. In this case the temple of Bêtêśvara would have to be looked for at Amarâvatî ; and it would have to be assumed that the pillar was removed from Amarâvatî to Yenamadala at any time between the date of the Telugu inscription No. 3, and the date of the modern Telugu inscription No. 4. As, however, it is extremely unlikely that anybody should have conceived the idea of transporting a heavy stone pillar all the way from Amarâvatî to Yenumadala, I prefer to adopt the previous alternative, viz. that the temple of Bêtêśvara, which originally contained the pillar, was located at Yenamadala.

.TEXT.²

A.―First Face.

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......¹ Mr. Sewell’s Lists of Antiquities, Vol. I. p. 64. There is another village of the same name in the Palnâḍ tâlukâ ; ibid. p. 56.
......² From inked estampages.