South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

the village Munsiff of Nelatur, Ongole tâluka, now part of the Guntur district, to the Deputy Tahsildar of Addanki and formed part of the unclaimed property of a dead Bairâgi.”

Mr. Venkayya furnished me with the following description :─ “ There are five copper-plates on a ring, weighing together 70 tolas. The outer sides of the first and the last plates, which bear no letters, as well as the edges of the plates, are smooth. The plates measure almost 7″ in length and 1¾″ in height. Plates ii. to iv. are a little thicker than i. and v. Part of the writing on plate i. shows through on the black side of it. The ring was cut by me and riveted subsequently. The diameter of the ring is 2¾″ and its thickness ⅜″ on the average. The ends of the ring are secured in the base of an almost circular seal, which measures 1¼″ in diameter. The seal is very much worn, but bears, in relief on a countersunk surface, an animal with mouth open and facing the proper left. It is represented sitting on a horizontal line which is in relief, and it resembles very closely the animal represented on the seal of the Uruvupalli grant (Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 50). The tail of the animal is not seen, neither are its forelegs.”

The engraving of the inscription is on the whole carefully done and well preserved. The language is Sanskṛit prose, and three Sanskṛit verses of the Ṛishi (Vyâsa) are quoted at the end of the inscription. The alphabet closely resembles that of the Uruvupalli and Mâṅgaḷûr grants.^[1] But there is one point in which the three grants differ. In the Uruvupalli grant ta has a loop on the left, as in Tamil, and na has none. In the Mâṅgaḷûr grant both the form with the loop and the one without it are used in the case of ta, while na has no loop except in kratûnâṁ (l. 16). In the new inscription the forms with and without loop are used for both ta and na, though in the majority of cases ta has a loop and na has none. A final form of m occurs five times (ll. 13, 18, 23, and twice in l. 24). Plates i., ii. b and vi. b are marked on the left margin with the numerical symbols 1, 2 and 4, while plates iii. b and v. are not numbered.

The inscription opens with the same invocation of Bhagavat (Vishṇu) as the Uruvupalli and Mâṅgaḷûr grants. It records the grant of the village of Pîkira in the district named Muṇḍa-râshṭra (l. 14) in the fifth year of the reign (l. 18) of the Pallava Mahârâja Siṁhavarman (l. 14), who was the son of the Yuvamahârâja Vishṇugôpa (l. 9 f.), the grandson of the Mahârâja Skandavarman (II) (l. 7), and the great-grandson of the Mahârâja Vîravarman (l. 3). To the name of each of these four princes are prefixed a number of laudatory epithets which resemble those used in the Uruvupalli grant, where, however, they are differently arranged and applied to the Pallava Yuvamahârâja Vishṇugôpavarman, his father Mahârâja Skandavarman (II.), his grandfather Mahârâja Vîravarman, and his great-grandfather Mahârâja Skandavarman (I.). In the Mâṅgaḷûr grant the epithets differ, but the kings are, as in the Pîkira grant, the Pallava Mahârâja Siṁhavarman, his father Yuvarâja Vishṇugôpa, his grandfather Mahârâja Skandavarman (II.), and his great-grandfather Mahârâja Vîravarman.

The date of the Pîkira grant is the fifth year, and that of the Mângaḷûr grant the eighth year, of Siṁhavarman’s reign. The Uruvupalli grant was made by the Yuvamahârâja Vishṇugôpavarman, but is dated in the eleventh year of the Mahârâja Siṁhavarman, whose relation to the donor is not stated. Dr. Fleet concluded from this that the Siṁhavarman of the Uruvupalli plates was an otherwise unknown elder brother of Vishṇugôpa. I would propose another solution of the difficulty. The term Yuvarâja or Yuvamahârâja, which is prefixed to Vishṇugôpa not only in his Uruvupalli grant, but in the two grants of his son Siṁhavarman, suggests that he never ascended the throne, but that the succession passed from his father Skandavarman II. to his son Siṁhavarman. The reason of this need not have been premature death. If it is assumed that Vishṇugôpa declined to take up the reins of government or was prevented from doing so by some other reason unknown, he may well have been alive during the reign of his son Siṁha-
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^[1] Edited with photo-lithographs by Dr, Fleet in Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 50 ff. and p. 154 ff.