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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA āṅkura, Kāmarāga, Anugraśīla, Kālakāla, Samaradhanañjaya, Atiraṇachaṇḍa, Vidyāvinīta, Lōkāditya and Ugradaṇḍa.[1] It will be seen that, in spite of the bull emblem, the seal described above does not resemble those attached to the Sanskrit charters of the Early Palllava kings as they do not bear any legend.[2] It is interesting to note that the seal of the Rēyūru grant of Narasiṁhavarman II resembles in this respect the seals of the Early Pallavas of the Sanskrit charters, whereas the seal of the Kurram plates[3] of Paramēśvaravarman I, who was the father of the said king and issued the present charter as well, bears a legend. Still more interesting is the fact that the seal of the Kurram plates and that of the present charter, both issued by the same Pallava king, do not exhibit any close resemblance between them. The seal of the former grant has been described by Hultzsch in the following words : “ The seal is about 2½ inches in diameter and bears a bull which is seated on a pedestal, faces the left and is surmounted by the moon and a liṅga. Further up, there are a few much obliterated syllables. A legend of many letters passes round the whole seal. Unfortunately it is so much worn that I have failed to decipher it.”[4] The date of the record is quoted (lines 23-24) as Sunday, Pausha-su. 13 in the nineteenth regnal year of king Paramēśvaravarman I. In line 13, the Ayana or Uttarāyaṇa (i.e. the Makara-saṅkrānti) is mentioned as the occasion of the grant. The importance of the date will be discussed later on.
The characters belong to the Telugu-Kannaḍa alphabet of the seventh century A.D. They generally resemble the characters employed in the Rēyūru grant, although some aksharas, e.g. ñch, y, r, etc., have different forms, and on the whole the present record exhibits an earlier look. Of initial vowels, a occurs in lines 12, 15 and 17 ; ā in lines 13, 22 and 24 ; i in line 19 ; u in line 13 ; and ē in lines 17 and 23. The upadhmānīya has been employed many times in lines 4 (twice), 8 (twice), 9 (twice), 14, 15 and 18, while the jihvāmūlīya only once in line 8. The language of the inscription is Sanskrit. The major part of it is written in prose, although there are three stanzas in the Anushṭubh metre in lines 19-23. Two of these are the usual imprecatory and benedictory verses. The third stanza contains the name of the executor of the document and is also found in a modified from in the Rēyūru grant. Among orthographical peculiarities, mention may be made of the general reduplication of many of the consonants following r. The rule of Sandhi, which are optional in prose composition, have not been observed in some cases. Cases of Sandhi in expressions like pāpaś=śārīraº in line 19 are interesting. The writing exhibits a general tendency to use the class nasal and, excepting a few cases (cf. saṁra[ṁ*]jana in line 8, saṁbhūtō in line 29), the anusvāra has been changed to class nasals in Sandhi. The final m at the end of a stanza has in one case (line 20) been wrongly changed to anusvāra. In another case (line 24,) it has been similarly changed before a vowel. Double nasal has been used in saṁñcharantaḥ in line 18. In style, the record under discussion closely resembles that of the Sanskrit charters of the Early Pallava rulers.[5] Among copper-plate charters of the Later Pallavas of Siṁhavishṇu’s line, _______________________________________________
[1] Cf. above, Vol. X, pp. 8-12 ; SII, Vol. I, pp. 13, 150 ; Sewell’s List, p. 376. Hultzsch (SII, Vol. I, p. 147)
seems to be wrong in taking Vidyāvinīta to be the name of a relative of Paramēśvaravarman I. Some of these
birudas are also known to have been assumed by his grandfather Narasiṁhavarman I and son Narasiṁhavarman II.
See SII, Vol. I, p. 13 ; A.R.Ep., 1913, paragraphs 8-9 ; Sewell, loc. cit.
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