South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

year of the reign of increasing victory.” According to Dr. Fleet, Maṅgiyuvarâja reigned from A.D. 672 to 696.^[1] Hence his second year would correspond to A.D. 673, while Mr. Sewell’s Eclipses of the Moon in India do not record any lunar eclipse in Vaiśâkha between A.D. 665 and 683. They do mention a total eclipse of the moon, not in Vaiśâkha, but in Jyêshṭha, on Friday, 6th May 673. Prof. Kielhorn, to whom I submitted this difficulty, has solved it by showing (see his Postscript on p. 240 f. below) that by Brahmagupta’s rule the month would not be called Jyêshṭha, but Vaiśâkha. Accordingly, the European date of the subjoined inscription of Maṅgiyuvarâja’s reign is the 6th May 673─ a result which corroborates the correctness of Dr. Fleet’s chronology of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty.

According to l. 24 ff. “ the very pious one, he who possesses the dignity of Mahârâja, the glorious Sarvalôkâśraya-Mahârâja ” informs “ the villagers in the village of Chendarura in (the district named) Kamma-râshṭra and all officers (naiyôgika) and favourites gone to this (district) ” that he has granted this village to six Brâhmaṇas, who were Chhandôgas (i.e. students of the Sâmavêda), and each of whom received two shares of it. Five of them belonged to the Kauṇḍinya gôtra (l. 27) and one to the Kâḷabava gôtra (l. 29 f.). Curiously enough their proper names are not given, but only their native villages, followed in the case of the first donee by the Sanskṛit word vâstavya, ‘ residing in ’ (l. 28), and in the case of the five other donees by the Telugu word bôya, which seems to be employed in the same sense.^[2] The six villages in question were Kaṭûra, Vaṅgra, Koḷḷipuro (?), Pidena, Kuriyida and Kodiṅki. The phraseology of the grant portion again resembles that of the Pallava copper-plates.

L. 34.─ “ And the Âjñapti for this (grant is) the sun among men (Narabhâskara) who resembles the sun crowning the peak of the eastern mountain (Udayagiri),^[3] the principal mountain of the circle of the earth (which is) the family of Ayyaṇa, he who has been victorious in the crush of many battles, the fervent Mâhêśvara, the glorious A[na]ghavarman.” The edict was written by Pâmbêya Sarvôttama Âtharvaṇa (l. 41).

The village granted, Chendarura, must be the same as the present Chendalûr, at which the copper-plates were discovered. The district Kamma-râshṭra, to which it belonged, is mentioned as Karma-râshṭra in two other grants of Vishṇuvardhana II. and Maṅgiyuvarâja.^[4] In the Chendalûr plates of Kumâravishṇu II. the same village and district are named Chendalûra and Karmâ[ṅ]ka- or Kammâ[ṅ]ka-râshṭra.^[5]

TEXT.^[6]

First Plate.

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^[1] Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. p. 98.
^[2] The same seems to be the case in a grant of Vishṇuvardhana II. ; Ind. Ant. Vol. VII. p. 187 f.
^[3] This epithet may imply that the Âjñapti was the governor of the fort of Udayagiri in the Nellore district.
^[4] Ind. Ant. Vol. VII. p. 187, text l. 12, and Vol. XX. p. 105, text l. 16.
^[5] See p. 234 above.
^[6] From M. Venkayya’s ink-impressions.
^[7] Expressed by a symbol.
^[8] The two words are engraved on the left margin opposite lines 1 and 2.
^[9] Read
^[10] The seems to be corrected from (Sanskrit).