Epigraphia Indica Vol 33

SR No.: 032587
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1959
Total Pages: 514
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 29 MB

Page 24

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
VOL. XXXIII
1959-1960 =
No. 1-TWO GRANTS OF RAGHUDEVA
(6 Plates) D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 30.8.1957) In the course of my annual tour in search of inscriptions, I visited Rajahmundry in January 1956 in order to examine the copper-plate charters in the collection of the Andhra Historical Research Society. Among the records, kindly shown to me by Mr. R. Subba Rao, the enthusiastic Secretary of the Society, one was a grant of Raghudēva, which Mr. Subba Rao, as I was told, was trying to publish in the Society's journal. On the same occasion, Mr. B. V. Krishna Rao of Rajahmundry was also kind enough to show me a copper plate with inscription on both sides, which was lying in his possession. It was found on examination that this plate contains the central part of another charter of the same Raghudēva. Although Mr. Krishna Rao's plate thus offers us only the fragment of a document, it is interesting because it contains all the details of the grant made by the donor by means of the record in question and also because the introductory stanzas offer an additional information about the genealogy of the Süryavami Gajapatis of Orissa as found for the first time in the other epigraph referred to above. The ancestry of the great Kapilēsvara or Kapilēndra, the founder of the said dynasty, is shrouded in mystery and traditions on the subject found in such works as the Mādalā Panji (i.e. the chronicle of the Jagannatha temple at Puri) have unfortunately made the confusion worse confounded. We have now very welcome light on the subject. Both the charters are edited here as they are of considerable interest to the students of Orissan history.
The donor of the two grants under study is already known to us from two inscriptions. One of these comes from Tirupati in the Peddapuram Taluk of the West Godavari District and shows that Raghudēva-narēndra-mahāpātra was the governor of Rajahmundry during the reign of Gajapati Kapilēsvara in 1458 A.D. The other record was discovered in the fort of Warangal in the District of that namo, formerly in the Hyderabad State but now in Andhra. This epigraph is dated in 1460 A.D.: The inscriptions of Raghudēva published here bear dates in 1455-56 and
1 Cf. JAHRS, Vol. XXIII, pp. 163 ff; also IHQ, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 275 ff.
+ See SII, Vol. V, No. 100 (pp. 36-37). The inscription, engraved on a pillar at the entrance of the Srira. ngar ya temple, records that on Jyêghtha-badi 13, Monday, in the year Bahudhânyn (i.c. Saka 1380 expired), whilo Raghudēva-narendra-mahāpātra was ruling at Rajahmahendravaram during the regin of Kapilēśvara-maharaya, one Trinētradēvaganapilaru, the officer of the temple treasury, restored the lands of the temple of Sringararaya, which were being illegally enjoyed by the Mahajanas of the village of Tirupati during the period of Visvēsvara. purohita's service. Raghudēva is also mentioned in Kapilēgvara's Puri inscription (JASB, 1893, p. 99, No. Il).
Mackenzie Manuscripts; No. 15-4-5. The date of the inscription is quoted as Kali 4561, Prama. thin, Magha-sudi 10, Saturday. Taking the Kali year to be current, the date corr ponds regularly to the 2nd Febru. ary 1460 A.D. The record mentions Virabhadra Raghudēva.narondra as the sun of Parasuramadeva-riya of the solar race. As will be soen below, this information is supported by the inscriptions now published. Raghudēvs sooms to have accompanied Hambira, son of Kapilēsvara, in Hambira's expedition against Warangal which ho conquered about this time. Hambira's own inscription in the Warangal fort, an inacourate transcript of which has been published in SI1, Vol. VII, p. 372, No. 733, bears the date Pramäthin, Māgha-sudi 10, Va (i.e. Vaddarara, Saturday), regularly corresponding to the 2nd February 1460 A.D. The record actually roads Gajapati-Kapileri dra-maharayala. kumarunda[ ] [4]mbirad &ua-kumara-mahapatri(true)adu Vöru[ gamiffs-kota goner For the two inscriptions, seo also A.R.Ep., 1967-68, Nos. B 53 and 88. Raghudova's Warangal inscription has been edited below, pp. 125 ff.