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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA year with 699-700 A.C. At this time a Vāṇarāja was governing the Vaṅganūr vishaya. The object of the epigraph is to record a gift of eighty units of cultivable land as pannāsa in the village Peṇukaparuti by Pūllamukki Bōḷakaṇamayāru. It was made with due ceremony after the announcement of the royal order to the effect in the presence of Chappiḷirāja and the residents of two villages. The donee who received the gift was Kumāraśarman of the Bhāradvāja gōtra. The primary interest of the epigraph lies in the fact that it is one of the few records belonging to the early part of Vijayāditya’s reign. Furthermore, it is the earliest dated inscription of the king so far discovered in the Telugu country. Besides, it also affords a glimpse into the political condition of the Āndhra dēśa under the Chālukyas of Bādāmi and their feudatories of the Bāṇa extraction. From the provenance of the inscriptions discovered in parts of the Districts of Cuddapaḥ, Kurnool and Anantapur and further as far as Nellore,[1] it is gathered that the authority of these Chālukya rulers extended over a large portion of the Āndhra country. The major part of this territorial acquisition appears to have been effected by Pulakēśin II in the course of his triumphant expeditions in the eastern and the southern quarters.[2] Highly interesting in this context is the information furnished by an inscription from Peddavaḍugūru[3] in the Gooty taluk of the Anantapur District, which has been assigned to the time of Pulakēśin II. The epigraph seems to indicate that the chiefs of the Bāṇa family were ruling in this area in a semi-independent position before the advent of the Chālukya conqueror who vanquished them and reduced them to subordination. Ever since that time the Bāṇas seem to have accepted the suzerainty of the Chālukyas and served them as their loyal vassals.[4] The name of the Bāṇa chief who is said to be administering the area of the Vaṅganūr vishaya, apparently as a subordinate of Vijayāditya, is not specified in our record. From an inscription at Koṇḍupalli[5] in the Gooty taluk of the Anantapur District, dated the 23rd year of Vijayāditya, we know that Vikramāditya Bali Indra Bāṇarāja was governing the Turumara vishaya. It is probable that Vāṇarāja or Bāṇarāja of our epigraph is identical with the Bāṇa chief of the Koṇḍupalli inscription. But considering the diversity if regions under the authority of these chiefs and also the interval of nearly 20 years between the dates of these records, the possibility that the two might be different, though members of the same family, is not ruled out. Chappiḷirāja, in whose presence the gift was made, appears to have been a local authority of some importance. The record was incised by Kañchagāla.
As for the place-names, the Vaṅganūr vishaya may be identified with the region roundabout the present-day village Vaṅganūru in the Tadpatri taluk.[6] The village Peṇukaparuti or Peṇukaparu containing the gift land might have been situated near the present-day Kottūru. The same village appears to have been referred to as Penukalapāḍu in a late inscription of the place, dated in 1514 A.C.[7] It seems to have been wiped out of existence subsequently.[8] ______________________________________________________
[1] Madras Epigraphical Reports, 1904, para. 16 ; 1906, para. 40 ; 1921, paras. 1-2 ; 1934, para. 2.
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