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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA below it, the legend Śivaska[ndavarmmaṇaḥ ?] in an alphabet which appears to be slightly different from that of the inscription. The bull and the legend are enclosed in a circle which is partially preserved.â After I had despatched the manuscript of this article to the press, Mr. Venkayya sent me the original copper-plates and informed me that, at the instance of Mr. J. Ramayya, they have now been presented to the Madras Museum by their owner, Mayidavolu Jaya Ramayya. The writing on the plates is carefully done, and its preservation is tolerably good ; all damaged syllables can be supplied with certainty. Like the Hîrahaḍagalli plates,[1] the new copper-plate grant was issued from Kâñchîpura by Śivaskandavarman of the Bhâradvâja gôtra and of the Pallava family (ll. 1─3). As he is here styled Yuva-Mahârâja[2] or heir-apparent, the date of the grant (l. 25 f.) is apparently prior to that of the Hîrahaḍagalli plates and has to be referred to the reign of Śivaskandavarman’s unknown predecessor. Śivaskandavarman granted to two Brâhmaṇas a village named Viripara (ll. 10 and 12), which belonged to Andhrâpatha[3] (l. 9), i.e. the Telugu country. Viripara, which I am unable to identify, must have been situated near Amarâvatî in the Kistna district ; for Śivaskandavarman addressed his order regarding the grant to his (or his father’s) representative at Dhaññakaḍa[4] (l. 3), the modern Amarâvatî. We thus learn that, during the reigns of Śivaskandavarman and his predecessor, the Pallava kingdom included not only─ in the south─ the Toṇḍai-maṇḍalam, to which their capital, Kâñchîpura, belongs, and perhaps─ in the west─ the Bellary district, in which the Hîrahaḍagalli plates were purchased, but─ in the north─ the Telugu country as far as the Kṛishṇâ river.
The date of the grant (l. 25 f.) is given in words and numerical symbols. It was the 5th tithi of the 6th fortnight of summer in the 10th year (of the reign of Śivaskandavarman’s predecessor). As shown by Professor Kielhorn,[5] neither numerical symbols nor season-dates have been found in records later than the 8th century A.D. But the subjoined grant has to be assigned to a much earlier period because of its archaic alphabet, and because, like the Nâsik inscriptions of the Andhra kings, the Hîrahaḍagalli plates, and the plates of Vijayaskandavarman, it is written in Prâkṛit.[6] The language of the inscription is a Prâkṛit dialect which differs from the literary Pâli in several respects. Thus consonants are softened in ºkaḍa (l. 3), bhaḍa (l. 15), and khâdaka (l. 13), but hardened in papesa (l. 15) for pavesa. The unaspirate takes the place of the aspirate in Aṁdhâpatîya (l. 9). The letter y is sometimes replaced by j, e.g. in jo (l. 21) and majâdâ (l. 18) for Sanskṛit maryâdâ (mariyâdâ in Pâli), while y takes the place of j in Bhâradâya (l. 2) for Sanskṛit Bhâradvâja and of ch in ya (l. 6) for cha (which occurs in lines 17 and 20). Two cases of peculiar saṁdhi are sayatti (l. 27) for svayam=iti and Gonaṁdija (l. 9) for Gonandi + ajja. Of inflected nouns may be noted the Mâgadhî nominatives vejayike and Vadhanike[7] (l. 5 f.), the ablative ºpurâto (l. 1), and the neuter âdiṁ (l. 10) for âdi (against dânî, l. 5, for idânîm). The personal pronoun of the first person is represented by the base amha (ll. 5 and 21), the nominative amho (l. 23) and the instrumental amhehi (ll. 5 and 10). The inscription contains several verbal forms, viz. the gerund atichhitûna (l. 21 f.) from ati + chhid, the presents ânapayati (l. 4) and vitarâma (l. 13), the imperatives pariharatha and ________________________________________ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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