Epigraphia Indica Vol 15

SR No.: 032569
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sten Konow, F W Thomas
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 478
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 23 MB

Page 192

No. 9.1 THE BEZWADA PILLAR INSCRIPTION OF YUDDHAMALLA.
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is clear that what the author wishes to distingaish in this verse are the Sanskritic metres which are common to all parts of India, and the non-Sanskritic or Dravidian metres, which are not so common. It is true the latter are treated as purely Kanarese metres; but I do not think we wonld be justified in interpreting this as implying that these metres are not found in Telugu also. There is a similar passage in the Telugu book Kavijanāsrayamu, where, after treating of the jati metres borrowed from Sanskrit, the author proposes to deal with the jatis which are peculiar to Telugu (Telusigubāsaku dalamayyedu) and includes the Akkaras among them. This book is posterior to Nannaya-Bhatta's time. In both cases what the author meant is to distinguish between the Sanskrit and the Dravidian metres.
The Rev. Dr. Kittel, in his introduction to the Chhandombudhi, gives 1200 A.D. as its probable date; while the authors of the Karpaţakakavicharitra? put it at 990 A.D. The evidence afforded by the characters in which the inscription is written entirely militates against the theory which I am controverting-especially if we should accept Kittel's chronology. The same objection applies to another theory, which identifies the two Yuddhamallas with two kings of the name of Mallapa (grandfather and grandson) of the Pithapuram branch of the Chalukyas, of whom the second Mallapa was crowned king on the 16th June 1202 A.D.3
The point seems, however, settled beyond dispute by the evidence of the shape of the letters of the inscription. The value to be attached to this evidence is placed on a definite basis by the Nandamapandi grant of Raja-rāja, which is published in Vol. IV of the Epigraphia Indica, but without a facsimile. A facsimile of this inscription is published in Vol. I of the Journal of the Telugu Academy, Madras; and it will be seen from it that from the point of writing the Nandamapūņdi grant consists of two distinct parts--the first part containing a genealogy of the Chalukyan dynasty down to Saktivarman and the second the grant proper. The first part seems to have been engraved in the time of Saktivarman for use as occasion migbt occur, and the second part was evidently engraved in the 32nd year of Raja-raja's reign, which is the year of the grant. Thus the interval between the two parts was about 50 years ; and, although this is not perhaps, under ordinary circumstances, a long enough period to account for the great difference in the shape of the letters, the difference itself is palpable and oannot be ignored. I have not come across any inscriptions of a later date whose writing resembles that of the first part of the Nandamapiņdi grant, while successive inscriptions show an increasing tendency to change in the direction of the modern Telugu characters. The writing of the present inscription is more archaic than that of the first part of the Nandamapundi grant and closely resembles that of the inscriptions of the time of Chālakya-Bhima I, as already stated. This, I think, should be held to fix the age of the inscription.
Another circumstance which bears on this point is that in this inscription the yati, or cæsura, is placed at the beginning of the fifth font of each line. This is also the case in Nannaya-Bhatta's poetry. I have not come across any Madhyakkaras in Tikkana's books, though a closer search may reveal some. But, when we come to the time of Erra-Preggada, we find that the place of the cosura is shifted back to the beginning of the fourth foot, and this has been the law ever since. This shows that the inscription cannot be much later than Nannaya-Bhatta's time, while other considerations show that it is earlier.
Page 63, verse 10 (Telugu Academy Edition).
· Mysore Edition of 1907. Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV, pp. 226 f.
• The unpublished Guntur plates of Badaba and his brother Visliņuvardhana Tala II, poticed on page 109, paragraph 61, of the Epigraphical Report for 1909, also indicate the same age by the close resemblance of their alphabet to that of the Bezwada inscription under reference. The grandfather of these prinoes, uis. Tas I, is stated to have been a younger brother of Chalukya-Bhima I, and their father was Yuddhamalla II.-H. K. S.)
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