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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 20─ THREE GRANTS OF CHALUKYA JAYASIMHA I (2 Plates) M. Somasekhara Sarma, Madras The three sets of copper-plate grants, edited below, come from Guḍivāḍa, a village in the Sarvasiddhi Taluk of the Visakshapatnam District. When, how and where these plates were discovered originally is not known. For a long time they have been carefully preserved in the house of Mr. Pericherla Peddiraju, a landlord of Guḍivāḍa., My friend, Mr. G. V. Raghavarao Pantulu, a pleader of Yellamanchili, having come to know of the existence of these plates, secured them on loan for a short time from the owner, who happens to be his client, and kindly sent them on to me for decipherment and publication. I cut the rings of the sets for study and for taking impressions of the plates. All the three charters register gifts of localities presumably associated with Guḍivāḍa. A.─Grant No. 1, Year 18 This set[1] consists of three plates, each measuring 6½ʺ long and 2½ʺ broad. The plates are held together by a circular copper ring, 3½ʺ in diameter. The ends of the ring are joined at the bottom of a circular seal, 1½ʺ in diameter. When the plates came to me, the lower part of the seal was found broken away. On the top of the seal there is an arc-like curve in relief with its ends turned upwards, probably representing the moon. In the middle of the seal is found the legend Śrī-Sarvasid[dh]i in relief in Eastern Chālukya characters. The plates are considerably thick. The ends of the plates are not raised into rims ; yet the writing is well preserved, the letters having been engraved deeply. The outer faces of the first and last plates are left blank, and the remaining faces of the plates bear each six lines of writing.
The characters are of the early Telugu-Kannaḍa type, commonly styled the Vēṅgī script. They resemble those of the early Eastern Chālukya grants. Of the individual letters, the forms of final t (line 1) and m (line 13, 18, 21, 23) are noteworthy. Dravidian l occurs in Plakki (line 10) and in Kulivāṭaka (line 16). The numerical symbols for 5, 8 and 10 occur in the date of the grant in the last line. The language of the inscription is Sanskrit. With the exception of two imprecatory verses at the end, the composition is in prose. As usual with the early grants, consonants are mostly doubled after r. The doubling of dh before y in pādānuddhyātaḥ (line 9) is noteworthy. The expression punnāgapadravastādiṁ in line 16 is unintelligible.[2] The object of the inscription is to record the gift of the western portion of the village called Ādivāsa in Plakki-vishaya along with some of the fields of Kulivāṭaka, having converted the whole into an agrahāra by making it immune from taxes.[3] The gift was made on the occasion of a lunar eclipse. The donor was the Eastern Chālukya king, Pṛithivī-Jayasiṁhavallabha I, son of Vishṇuvardhana and grandson of Kīrtivarman. He had the title Sarvasiddhi, as found on the seal. He issued this grant from his residence at Kallūra. The donees were Vinayaśarman and _____________________________________________________________________________________
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