South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

This inscription^[1] is engraved in the Telugu-Kannaḍa script. Its language is Kannaḍa except for a verse in Sanskrit towards the end of the regard. In regard to palaeography, it is word nothing that the forms of j and b are of the archaic type. The initial vowels i and ō occur in the names Indireya and Ōgina (line 4). In respect of orthography, the class nasal is sometimes used for the anusvāra as in āliṅgita, rājyaṅ=geye, pasiṇḍi, Tumbevāḍi, etc. (lines 2, 3, 5 and 6) ; but sometimes it has been avoided, cf. saṁghaṭṭana, sur-āṁganā, etc. (lines 1 and 15).

The record commences with the expression, svastg=anēka-samara-saṅghaṭṭan-ōpalabdha, etc., which is the characteristic preamble of all Vaidumba inscriptions. It refers itself to the reign of Gaṇḍa-triṇētra Vaidumba-mahārāja and states that Indireya, the younger brother (tammu) of Rāmeya of Ōgu^[2] and a servant (aḷu) of Palladayya, the dear younger brother (priyānuja) of the King, died on hearing of the death of Ajaḷa in a cattle raid at Tumbevāḍi.^[3] Like the other records of Gaṇḍa-triṇētra,^[4] this too is not dated. Its characters may be compared with those of the Dharmapuri inscription (A) of Noḷamba Mahēṇdra which is dated in Śaka 815.^[5] While the letters j and b retain their closed forms throughout in our record, whether individually or as subscripts, the Dharmapuri epigraph shows the open form of b when it occurs as a subscript. We may therefore assign this record to about the close of the ninth century. The provenance of the record suggests that the raid at Tumbevāḍi referred to in it might have been one among those many skirmishes which culminated in the battle of Sōremaḍi.^[6] Tumbevāḍi, the place of the cattle raid, may be identified with the village of Tuṁbapāleṁ in the Tumbapalem Zamindari in the Chittoor Taluk, situated about 30 miles due south of Kalakaḍa, the findspot of our record.^[7]

The use of the Telugu expressions tammu (line 4), for tamma, and pasiṇḍi (line 5) for gold, shows the influence of this language in the Kannaḍa inscription under study.

TEXT^[8]

1 Svasty=anēka-samara-saṁghaṭṭaṇḍ=ō(n=ō)pa[la]bdha-jayalakshmī-
2 samāliṅgita-vakshasthala Gaṇḍa-triṇētra śrī-Veydu-
3 mba-maha(hā)rājam=pṛithivīrājyaṅ=geye ātana priy=ānuja Pā-
4 lla[da]yyan^[9]=āḷu Ōgina Rāmeyana tammu Indireyar Mareya-
5 Konḍeya Doḍa-Mā[dhi]yya pasiṇḍi-dī-pegaḷ=e[mba] emmegaḷa Tu-

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^[1] A. R. Ep., 1940-41, App. B, No. 445.
^[2] There is a village of this name in the Palmaner Taluk of the Chittoor District. Vide Alphabetical List of Villages in the Madras Presidency, 1924, Palmaner Taluk, p. 123.
^[3] See below, p. 280, note 2.
^[4] Above, Vol. XXIV, pp. 183 ff. and Plates.
^[5] Ibid., Vol. X, Plate opp. p. 66.
^[6] A. R. Ep., Nos. 295 and 296 of 1905, 533 of 1906, 308 and 310 of 1922, all from the Madanapalle Taluk, and No. 543 of 1906 from the Punganur Taluk, refer to Sōremaḍi, as the place battle. Mr. R. S. Panchamukhi has shown on chronological considerations that this battle was fought sometime about 885 A.D. (above, Vol. XXIV, p. 189). Two other dates have been worked out for this very event, one about 825 A.D. by Mr. M. Venkataramayya (Journal of the Madras University, Vol. XII, pp. 193 ff.) and the other about 937-38 A.D by Dr. A. R. Baji (Journal of the Gauhati University, Vol. II, pp. 95 ff.). Palaeographically the last date cannot be upheld.
^[7] The Bēgūr stone inscription mentions a place called Tumbepāḍi and refers to a battle fought there between the forces led by Ayyapadēva and Bīra-Mahēṇdra. This locality has been identified with the village of Tumbaḍi in the Maddagiri Taluk of the Tumkur District, bordering on Noḷambavāḍi (above, Vol. VI, p. 48).
^[8] From impressions.
^[9] The name is probably Pallavayya which has been wrongly engraved as Palladayya.