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No. 34.]
KUNIYUR PLATES OF VENKATA II.
239
year. His second son, Ranga II., is actually called king of Penugonda (verse 19). The same town was the residence of Venkata II., to whose time the subjoined inscription belongs (verse 32)
The description of the reign of Venkata II. and the list of his birudas (verses 33-37) are altogether devoid of historical value, because they have been copied over from the inscriptions of his predecessors. Thus, verse 33 of the Kûniyûr grant (= verse 36 of the Kondy&ta grant), which records that Venkata II. W&s anointed by his family preceptor Tâtayêrya and that he destroyed the Yavanas i.e. the Muhammadans), is already applied to Venkata I. in the ViļApaka grant.
The third part of the inscription (verses 49-54) supplies the following genealogy of Tirumala Nayaka (of Madhura), who is well-known on account of the magnificient buildings with which he adorned his capital.
The Nayakas of Madhura. Någa of the Kaśyapa (gôtra).
Visvanatha.
Krishnapa Nayaka.
Virapa
Visvapa Nayaka.
Mudduksishņa.
Muddụvira.
Tirumala. “This pedigree agrees almost completely with that of the Nayakas of Madhurà given by Mr. Sewell, with the only difference that the present inscription makes Muddukrishna the son of Visvapa, while, according to Mr. Sewell, he was the son of Visvapa's elder brother." 3 A copper coin of Muddukrishna, the father of Tirumala, and three copper coins of Visvanátha, the second in the pedigree, have been published by Dr. Hultzsch. The two first Nayakas of Madhurâ were originally generals of the king of Vijayanagara. Having been despatched by their sovereign against the king of Tañja vůr, they seized Madhurâ and founded an independent dynasty. The present grant shows that they continued, at least nominally, to acknowledge the kings of the third Vijayanagara dynasty as their sovereigns.
The second and fourth parts of the inscription (verses 38-48; and verse 55 to the end) contain the grant itself. The date of the grant was the full-moon tithi of Vaisakha in SakaSamvat 1556 (expired), the Bhåva samvatsara (A.D. 1634) (verse 38 f.). Venkata II. issued the grant in the presence of the god Venkatesa (verse 39), who is also invoked at the beginning and end of the insuription (lines 1 and 266). The object of the grant was the
1 Dr. Barbeil's South Indian Palæography, p. 55, note. ? Lists of Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 200.
See page 236 above, note 3. • Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. p. 808, No. 38, and Vol. XXI. p. 325, Nos. 14 to 16. • Mr. Sewell's Lists of Antiquities, Vol. II. p 200 f.
