South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

24 ta(s=ta)sya tasya tadā phalam [||*] Mā bhūd=aphala-śaṅkā van(vaḥ) para-datt=ēti pārthivaḥ- (vāḥ) [|*] sva-dānāt=phala- 25 m=ānantyam para-dān-ānupālanam ||

C.─ Grant No. 3

This set^[1] consists of three plates without raised rims. Each plate is 6·9″ long and 2·4″ broad. They are strung together on a circular ring 2·5″ in diameter. The ends of the ring are soldered at the bottom of a circular seal 1·5″ in diameter. The seal after cleaning shows only a spiral sign on its face.

The script is the early Southern Class commonly styled Telugu-Kannaḍa. The letters resemble those found in the other grants of Jayasiṁha I. They are very indifferently written and therefore the form of individual letters is not always the same.^[2] Initial ai occurs in line 5 in aidaṁyugīna. The shape of the letter ṇyō in brahmaṇyō in line 10 is interesting. Final t occurs in line 1 and final m in line 20. The medial ē sign in rē in parihārēṇa (line 18) and harēta (line 24) is peculiar. It is not a simple horizontal stroke to the left. The language of the inscription is Sanskrit. It is in prose with the exception of the two imprecatory verses at the end. The terms kandikaṭṭu, kaḍakaṭṭu and āvakaṭṭu occurring in the description of the boundaries are unintelligible.

This inscription also belong to the same king, Jayasiṁha I of the Eastern Chālukya family. The record does not furnish new facts. The royal praśasti and the details of the grant are similar to those of the previous record. The king issued this grant from Asanapura. Addressing the elders and officers of the Plakki vishaya and the ryots of the village of Kundūru, the king granted the village of Kuḍivāḍa to the same donees, Svāmiyaśas and Vishṇuyaśas of the Vatsa gōtra, separating it from the boundary of Kundūru and constituting it into an agrahāra with all the usual immunities. The boundaries of the newly constituted agrahāra are give. They are as follows : on the east the boundary of the village of Kundūru ; on the south the sea ; on the west the tank named Gōlāva as well as the Nāguvula tank, Kandikaṭṭu and Kaḍakaṭṭu and on the north Āvakaṭṭu. The ājñapti is Bhīmaśarman, already known from the previous charter.

These three inscriptions thus register grants referring to one and the same village of Kuḍivāḍa (Guḍivāḍa). In fact, the order of these inscriptions, if I understand them aright, should be thus : Grant No. 2, by which the village of Guḍivāḍa comes into being as an independent agrahāra, should be the first one. Then comes Grant No. 1 which says that the king granted the western portion of the village of Ādivāsa along with some land detached from the extent of the village of Guḍivāḍa, constituting the whole into an agrahāra, to the Brāhmaṇa brothers, Vinayaśarman and Vishṇuśarman of the Maudgalya gōtra. To compensate this loss to the donees the king seems to have granted them again by grant No. 3 thirtytwo nivartanas of land, separating it again from the village of Kundūru, as stated in grant No. 2.^[3]

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^[1] [See A. R. Ep., 1945-46, No. 3 of App. A.─ Ed.]
^[2] [As the forms of many letters like kh in line 1, ai in line 5, b in line 10, show later forms, writing seems to belong to a later period. The seal bears only a spiral symbol and the village granted is the same as in the previous charter. This record appears to be a later modified copy of No. 2, in the text of which the boundaries of the agrahāra are added while a statement regarding the allotment of a share of the agrahāra to the to the donee’s sister’s son, as found in No. 2, is omitted. No. 3 thus appears to have been forged by the heirs of the donees of No. 2 with a view to depriving the successors of the donee’s sister’s son of the share in question.─ Ed.]
^[2] [This argument is unconvincing. As shown above (p. 129, note 3 ; p. 133, notes 2 and 4 ; above, note 2), the agrahra villages granted as well as the donees in the first two grants are different and the third grant appears to be a later modified copy of the second.─ Ed.]