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 430

No. 58-MAYALUR PLATES OF CHALUKYA VIJAYADITYA, SAKA 622
(2 Plates) G. S. GAI, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 13.11.1958) During the year 1941-42, a set of copper-plates was obtained in the Office of the Government Epigraphist for India from one Shri Venkata Reddi who was then a Branch Post Master at Nossam in the Koilkuntla Taluk of the Kurnool District, through Shri M. Somasekhara Sarma. The plates are reported to have been found at Māyalur, & village in the same Taluk. The inscription is edited below with the kind permission of the Government Epigraphist for India from a set of impressions preserved in his office.
This is a set of three rectangular plates with slightly raised rims all round to protect the writing. Each plate measures 9-12" by 4.25" approximately and has a hole (about -6' in diameter) at the left margin, through which passes a ring with a diameter of about 4.5'. The ends of the ring are soldered to the brackets at the base of a circular seal about 1.36' in diameter, which contains on its counter-sunk surface the figure of a standing boar facing the proper right. The plates, with the ring and the seal, weigh 132 tolas.
The plates have suffered some damage, specially the second and the third, and hence the writing is not in a good state of preservation. Moreover, the engraving on the third 'plate is rather careless. The first plate is engraved on one side (inner) only while the remaining two plates bear writing on both the sides, the second side of the third plate having only four lines of writing. There are altogether 43 lines of writing, the first plate and the two sides of the second plate having 10 lines each and first side of the third plate 9 lines and its second side 4 lines.
The characters are early Kannada-Telugu and closely resemble those of the other grants of the same king. The palaeography and orthography do not call for special remarks. The language is Sanskrit and except the invocatory and imprecatory verses, the text of the entire record is in prose.
The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Western Chalukya king Vijayāditya who ruled from 696 to 733 A.D. The introductory portion (lines 1-31) giving the genealogy of the family from Pulakēsin I to the ruling king Vijayāditya is identical with that found in the other known grants of this king.
The record is dated in Saka 622 (expressed in words) and the fourth regnal year, Vaisakha Paurnamāsi. Since Srävana of the Saka year 618 expired was the first month of the first year of this king : Vaisakha of Saka 622 expired would fall in his fourth year as stated in the record. The date is not verifiable in the absence of further details. However, according to S. K. Pillai's Indian Ephemeris, Vaišākha Paurpami of Saka 622 expired corresponded to Thursday, the 8th April 700 A.D.
The inscription records that on the above-mentioned date, when the king was camping at Pottalikinagara in the Bāvihāra district, he made a grant of the village of Yukrðmba to the west of Vifohihichodi in the Pe[de]kal district as an ēka-bhoga gift to a person named Marafarman of the Vatsa götra and to other Brāhmaṇas well-versed in the Vedas.
18. A. R. Bp., 1938-40 to 1942-43, p. 232 (No. A 6 of 1941-42). *Cf. above, Vol. XXXII, pp. 317 ff. C. Bomb. Gas., Vol. I, Part ii, p. 370 and note 5.
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