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 58

No. 3-DONGALASANI INSCRIPTION OF VANKEYA-CHOLA, YEAR 41
(1 Plate)
K. H. V. Sarma, Ootacamund
(Received on 6.2.1958)
The subjoined inscription, edited with the kind permission of the Government Epigraphist for India, was copied in the year 1939-40 from Dongalasäni, a hamlet of Kuruguntapalle in the Siddhavatam Taluk of the Cuddapah District. It is engraved on two faces of a large slab measuring about 3.25 feet in height and 1.25 feet in width and lying in front of the Añjaneya temple in the village. There are altogether thirty-five lines of writing.
The record is engraved in Telugu-Kannada characters of about the 9th century and its palaeography very closely resembles that of other records of the period and area in question. The letters bh and dh still retain their archaic forms while b cccurs both in its archaic form (cf. varambu in line 12) and its more developed open form (cf. samvatsarambul in lines 8 and 9). The cursive form of the letter y can be seen in the words yokonți (lines 9 and 10) and yella (line 18). The initial vowels a, i and u are used in the inscription. The use of the sign of anusvāra above a letter and the archaic forms of r and I as found in early Telugu records is noteworthy.
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The inscription is in Telugu prose and verse with an imprecatory verse in Sanskrit at the end. The rules of sandhi are observed and the consonants associated with r are doubled. The number forty-one is indicated by nalvädy-adi-yokonți, literally one preceded by forty' The word pempuna (lines 10-11) is used in the sense of atisaya and garusu (line 14) in the sense of boundary'. The expression alisina-vändu (lines 27-28) is similar to that of Tamil alitt-avan and Kannada alisid-aran, for all of which the common root is ali, to destroy'. The royal epithets Temkanaditya, Pusi-illad-ätman and Komarara -Bhima appear to be of Kannada origin.
The inscription is dated in the fortyfirst regnal year of the king, Chiṭṭa (Chaitra) su. 10, Sunday (lines 9-12). But in the absence of the corresponding Saka or cyclic year, it is difficult to fix the exact period of the record. The Madras Museum plates of Balliya-choda, considered to be the earliest charter so far known of this branch, are assigned palaeographically to Saka 850-60 (928-38 A. D.). The later forms of the letters b, j, & and k and the anusvāra in the form of a circle placed almost to the side of a letter in the above charter bear close resemblance to the Madras Museum plate of the Vaidumba king Bhuvana-trinētra, dated in Saka 893. These palaeographical features are also noticed in other Vaidumba records from Upparapalli and Animala in the Cuddapah District, which are dated in Saka 894 and 898 respectively. On palaeographic grounds, the present inscription has to be assigned to a date in the proximity of that of the Madras Museum 'plates of Balliya-choḍa, i.e., c. Saka 850.
1A. R. Ep., 1939-40. App. B, No. 13. Cf. M. Venkataramayya in Trilinga-rajalõtsava-samputamu.
Above, Vol. XI, p. 347; Vol. XXVII, pp. 221 8.
A. R. Ep., 1935-36. App. A, No. 6.
JAHRS, Vol. XXIII, p. 50 ff.
A. R. Ep., 1935-36, Part II, para. 8. Dr. P. Sreenivasachar assigns the record to 1106-07 A. D. and identifies Balliya-choda with Choda Balliya-chöda of Kopidena (JIH, Vol. XV, pp. 48-49). Neither the date nor the identification is acceptable.
Above, Vol. XXVII, pp. 67 ff.
A. R. Ep., 1905 App. B, No. 325. Ibid., 1938. App. B, No. 198.
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