South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

interest on a permanent endowment was sometimes calculated at the rate of 1 per cent. or ¾ percent.^[1] It seems therefore that the word pāda has been used in the inscription under review in the sense of a quarter of the standard silver coin or currency prevalent in medieval Orissa or more probably a quarter of the standard measure of oil or clarified butter (required for feeding the perpetual lamp), for the provision of which the endowment was essentially created.

The donor of the grant, viz., Pramāḍi claiming to be a younger brother of the Gaṅga king Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga (1078-1147 A.D.), is also mentioned in the inscription engraved immediately below the one discussed above. The first three lines of this record read as follows :─

1 Siddham^[2] Śākāvdā(bdā)nāṁ pramāṇē muni-rasa-viyach-chandra-saṁkhyā-pra[m]ātō ||^[3]
2 su(sū)nuḥ Pramāḍidēvasy Chōdagaṅga-nāmakō d[ī]paṁ(pam) ||^[4]
3 [vyadh]ād=a[kha]ṇḍaṁ Kēvā(dā)[rē]śvara-[n]ām[n]ē dē[vāy]=ā[ta]ndra[m=a]-

It is clear from the above that Pramāḍi’s son, Chōḍagaṅga, made the gift of another perpetual lamp to the god Kēdārēśvara a few years after the date of Pramāḍi’s own record of Śaka 1064 (1142 A.D.). The date of the son’s grant is given in chronogram as the Śaka year counted by muni (i.e., 7), rasa (i.e., 6), viyat (i.e., 0) and chandra (i.e., 1), which, according to the principle aṅkānāṁ vāmatō gatiḥ, would give Śaka 1067 (1145 A.D.). The intervening period between the two grants of the father and the son is, therefore, only about three years.

It is very interesting to note that both Pramāḍi, who claimed to be an anuja or younger brother of the Gaṅga king Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga, and his son Chōḍagaṅga, apparently named after the Gaṅga monarch, are known from a number of inscriptions found outside Orissa. A Mukhalingam (Srikakulam District, Andhra State) inscription^[5], dated the Kanyā-saṅkrānti in Śaka 1054 (1132 A.D.) and the 58th regnal year of Anantavarmadēva (i.e., Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga) records the gift of 5 Māḍhas made for a perpetual lamp in the temple of Madhukēśvaradēva (Śiva) by Ulagiyavanda-Permaḍidēva, younger brother of Chōḍagaṅgadēva. Another inscription^[6] at the same place is dated Tuesday, the 8th of the bright half of the month of Dhanus in Śaka 1056 (1134 A.D.) and the 60th regnal year (the year opposite the 59th) of Anantavarmadēva, and records a similar grant in favour of the god Madhukēśvara made by Māṅkama-mahādēvī who was the wife of Ulagiyagoṇḍa-Permāḍidēva, younger brother of Chōḍagaṅgadēva. There are several similar inscriptions in the Nīlakaṇṭhēśvara (Śiva) temple at Nārāyaṇapuram in the Bobbili Taluk of the Visakhapatnam District. One^[7] of these is dated in the 37th regnal year of Anantavarmadēva and records the gift, made by Permāḍi, of a piece of land for a perpetual lamp in the temple of Nīlīśvara (modern Nīlakaṇṭhēśvara) at Niḍuñjeruvu (modern Nārāyaṇapuram) for the prosperity of Chōḍagaṅgadēva. Two other inscriptions^[8] at the same place, the first dated Śaka 1053 (1131 A.D) and the 57th regnal year of Anantavarmadēva and the second dated the Uttarāyaṇa-saṅkrānti in Śaka 1054 (1132 A.D.) and the 59th regnal year of Anantavarmadēva, record similar gifts of perpetual lamps in favour of the same god by Chōḍagaṅgadēva’s younger brother named Ulaggayagoṇḍa-Permāḍi or Ulayigaṇḍa-Permāḍi. An inscription^[9] in the Bhīmēśvara temple at Drākshā-

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^[1] Cf. Select Inscriptions, p. 158.
^[2] Expressed by a symbol.
^[3] Read pramātaḥ 1.
^[4] The lines appear to be in verse although the metre is defective.
^[5] SII, Vol. V, No. 1015.
^[6] Ibid., No. 1019.
^[7] Ibid., Vol. X, No. 656.
^[8] Ibid., Nos. 674, 679.
^[9] Ibid, Vol. IV, No. 1186.