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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA Erikal-Muturāju Puṇyakumāra of the Tippalūru pillar inscription down to that of Pōrmukharāma Puṇyakumāra of the Rāmēśvaram pillar inscription and the copper-plate grants, the Telugu-Chōḷas seem to have been powerful chiefs under the influence of the Pallavas. In the Rāmēśvaram pillar inscription Puṇyakumāra assumes, in addition to the characteristic title ‘ Chōḷa-Mahārāja ’ of his family, the epithet Pṛithvīvallabha, probably in imitation of the Western Chāḷukya kings who bore this as a distinct appellation. To revert to the point under discussion, it would be difficult, under the circumstances, to suggest the identity of Pōrmukharāma of our record with Pōrmukharāma Puṇyakumāra of the Telugu-Chōḷa family notwithstanding the similarities in the palaeographical features of these records and in the epithets Pōrmukharāma and Navarāma of the members of this family with the name Pōrmukharāma of the chief of our record. The identity is rendered all the more difficult as Pōrmukharāma of our record figures as ruling a territory on behalf of a Bāṇa king (Bāṇarājula-pāḷa).[1] For, the Bāṇas who were a comparatively less powerful family than the Telugu-Chōḷas, were themselves subordinate to the Chāḷukyas not only at the period of the record under discussion but also during the reign of Vijayāditya, the predecessor of Vikramāditya II.[2] The Turamara-vishaya where they flourished bordered on Rēnāḍu over which the Telugu-Chōḷas ruled. However, in the absence of further substantial evidence Pōrmukharāma of our record cannot be identified with the Telugu-Chōḷa Pōrmukharāma Puṇyakumāra.
As for the places mentioned in the inscription, Dārumunri or Tārumunri seems to be referred to, judging from the context, as the native village of Īśvara, the Brāhmaṇa of Vēṅgi. The mention of this very village in the Rāmēśvaram pillar inscription seems to point to its location in Rēnāḍu rather than in Vēṅgi. I am, however, unable to identify it. The name Marralūru, the village where the gift (lands) lay and the present Morrāyapalle, an inām village in the Proddatur taluk of the Cuddapah District, sound alike but their identity is doubtful as the latter lies far to the north of the Pennā, beyond the limits of the donor’s territory. The name Muḍibiyam mentioned in the imprecatory portion of the inscription obviously stands for Muḍivēmu-Agrahāra which is referred to in copper-plate grants of the Eastern-Chāḷukyas as the birth-place of Vishṇuvardhana, the son of Vijayāditya of Ayōdhyā, a legendary ancestor of the Chāḷukyas.[3] The mention of it along with Vāraṇāsi shows that it was held as sacred as the other. It has been identified with the modern village Pedda-Muḍiyam in the Jammalamadugu taluk of the Cuddapah District. TEXT First Side
1 Svasti [||*] Śrīma[t*]
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[1] In the term Bāṇarājula-pāḷa, the word pāḷa has been understood in the sense of ‘on behalf of’. In an inscription of the Chāḷukya king Kīrttivarman II (No. 418 of 1940-41) which I am editing in this journal, the suffix pāḷa
occurs in this very sense in the sentence which runs : ‘ Paramē[śvara-Bhaṭäraḷa]vāri pāḷa Bāṇarāju. . . . .lgi paṭṭu-gān=ēḷa vāri pāḷa’, etc.
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