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

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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXIII
The record is important in that it is one of the few inscriptions belonging to the early part of the king's reign and is the earliest copper plate grant of the king discovered so far in the Telugu country. We have two more records dated in the fourth regnal year of this king. One is the Koţtūru stone inscription' which does not supply any more details of the date except the mention of the regnal year. The other is the Nerur copper-plate inscription dated in Saka 622 (exķired), Ashādha Paurnima. In this year, the month of Ashādha was intercalary so that the date of the inscription under study is two or three months earlier than that of the Nerur plates. The Nerur plates were issued from Rāsēnanagara which is identified with modern Räsin in the Ahmednagar District of the Bombay State. And Pottalikanagara in Bāvibāra-vishaya from where the present plates are issued may be the same as Pottalakere or Pottalakese which was the capital of the Western Chalukya king Jagadēkamalla Jayasimha II (1018-42 A.D.) and is also spelt 28 Hottalakere in the Kannada records, the change of p to h being a regular feature in that language. If this identification is accepted, then our inscription provides the earliest reference to the place known so far. Pottalakere was identified by Fleet with modern Dannāyakankere in the Bellary District on insufficient grounds; but later researches have shown that the place can be identified with modern Patañcheru which is situated at a distance of about 18 miles north-west of Hyderabad. And so Bavihāra-vishaya seems to have comprised the area round about this place. As shown above, the Nerur plates were issued two or three months later than our grant and, during this intervening period, the royal camp was shifted from Patañcheru to Räsin which is about 250 miles north-west of Patañcheru.
The writer of the grant was Mahäsāndhivigrahika (minister for peace and war) Rāma Punyavallabha. He lived almost conterminously with Vinayaditya and wrote almost all his grants while the same position was enjoyed by Niravadya Punyavallabha, who was possibly his son, during the reign of Vijayāditya. Rāma Punyavallabha was last mentioned as the composer of the Harihar plates of Vinayāditya dated Saka 616, and Niravadya Punyavallabha appears for the first time in the Rayagad plates of Vijayaditya dated Saka 625. Therefore, the inscription under study is interesting in that it shows that Rama Punyavallabha lived also for some time during the reign of Vijayāditya and seems to have died sometime between Saka 622 and Saka 625. Punyavallabha was possibly the name of the family.?
Besides Pottalikānagara and Bavihära-vishaya discussed above, other geographical names mentioned in the record are: Pedekal-visbaya, the gift village Yukrombe included in it and Viñchihichēļi to the west of which the gift village was situated. Pedekal-vishaya is mentioned in an earlier copper-plate inscription of the king's father and predecessor Vinayāditya also secured from the same village Mayalur. It also figures as Pedekalli-vishaya in the Togarchēdu plates of the same king Vinayaditya.' This tract is identified with the Pedakanți-simă of the later Vijayanagara records, which comprised a part of the modern Kurnool District. I am not sure about the identification of Yukrõmbe and Viñichihichēdi.
1 Above, Vol. XXX, pp. 69 ff.
Ind. Ant., Vol. IX, pp. 125 ff. * Bomb. Gaz., Vol. I, part ii, p. 437 and note 8. • Sarana Sahitya (Kannada), Vol. IX, pp. 456-57 and 521-25. . Ind. Ant., Vol. VII, pp. 300 ff.
. Abovo, Vol. X, pp. 14 ff. The last two or three lines of the Nerur plates of Vijayadity dated in Saka 622 and referred to above, which are lost, possibly contained the name of the writer of that grant.
*Above, Vol. X, p. 15; Vol. XXVI, p. 323. •JOR, Vol. X, pp. 27 ff.
JBBRAS, Vol. XVI, pp. 231. Cf. 4.B.Ep. for 1939-40 to 1942-43, p. 232.