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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA the epigraph since the document may have been written sometime after the grant had been made on the day of the Uttarāyaṇa-saṅkrānti or a few days before to keep the document ready for the occasion of the grant to be made on the day of the saṅkrānti. If therefore Paramēśvaravarman I ascended the throne about 670 A.D., he could not have ended his rule much earlier than 689 A.D. Similarly, the Rēyūru grant was issued on the occasion of a lunar eclipse on the full-moon day of Vaiśākha in the twelfth regnal year of Narasiṁhavarman II and, about the approximate period of this king’s rule, lunar eclipse occurred on the full-moon of Vaiśākha only in the years 701, 702, 711 and 720 A.D. suggesting that his first regnal year roughly corresponded to 690, 691, 700 or 709 A.D.[1] We have seen that the nineteenth regnal year of Paramēśvaravarman I could not have fallen earlier than 687 A.D. and later than April 693 A.D. During this entire period, Pausha-sudi 13 fell on a Sunday only in the year 687 A.D., although the Uttarāyaṇa-saṅkrānti occurred on the previous day. The date corresponds to the 22nd of December 687 A.D., while the sankrānti took place on the 21st of the same month. Thus the 19th regnal year of Paramēśvaravarman I fell between December 686 and December 688 A. D. He therefore ascended the throne between December 668 and December 669 A. D. His fist regnal year should probably be regarded as having corresponded to 669-70 A. D. His son and successor Narasiṁhavarman II seems to have ascended the throne about 690-91 or 700 A. D.
The following geographical names are mentioned in the inscription : Kāñchīpura whence the charter was issued ; Kubuṇūru-grāma which was the subject of the grant ; Pūmi-rāshṭra in which the gift village was situated ; the Muvuvaḍya (?)-mārga and the Musuṇa-nadī near the gift village ; Urpuṭūru-grāma where the donee’s family lived ; and Nandakurra which seems to have been the capital of the chief who executed the grant. Of these, Kāñchīpura, the capital of the Pallavas, is well-known, while Nandakurra has been tentatively identified with modern Nandavaram in the Udayagiri Taluk of the Nellore District. The Musuṇa-nadī seems to be no other than the modern Musi which runs along the boundary line between the Kandukuru Taluk in Nellore and the Ongole Taluk in Guntur and falls in the Bay of Bengal to the north of the mouth of the Pālēru. Since the village of Kubuṇūru stood on its southern bank, it seems to have been situated in the present Podili-Kandukuru region of Nellore. The Pūmi rāshṭra, to which it belonged, appears to have comprised parts of the Nellore District lying to the south of the ancient Muṇḍa-rāshṭra. Urpuṭūru is apparently the present village of Uppuṭūru in the Bapatla Taluk of the Guntur District. TEXT[2] First Plate
1 [Sva]sti [|*] [jita][3]ṁ Bhagavatā [|*] śrïmat-Kāñchīpurāt=Pallavānāṁ Bhāradvāja-
sagōtrāṇām yathāvad-ā-
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[1] Above, Vol. XXIX, p. 92.
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