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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. IV.
(V. 7.) Having thus conquered the kings on earth, the prosperous Vanapati, who possessed the valour of (Vishọa) the lord of Sri, in the Saka year formed by the hills (7), the Brahmas (9), and the treasures (9),- (.e. 997),- planted, as an ornament to the temple of Durgå in the town of Dirgharasi, in front of it), the great creeper of his fame which overspread the ten directions, in the guise of a hall for dancing.
(V. 8.) In the same year this provincial chief (mandalika), who possessed very fierce clablike arms, granted a perpetual lamp to the same goddess, who is worthy of being adored by (Indra) the lord of the gods.
B.- Telugu portion. (V. 9.) When the prosperous Saka years reached on earth the number of the hills (7), the Nandas (9), and the Brahmâs (9),-(1.e. 997), the mandalika Baņapati, (toho came) of a Bråhmana family, who resembled Indra in (his) enjoyments, who possessed the virtue of kindness, (and) who was celebrated as Chalamartiganda, defeated in battle the kings of the Véngi country, Kimidi, Kosala, the Gidrisingi country and the odds country, (and) caused a mandapa to be built with great splendour in front of the temple of the goddess Bhagavati (Durga) in Dirghåsi. He, the Bhandanavijaya, the Gandagôpala, gave a perpetual lamp to the same goddess; and his wife, the lotus-eyed Padmavati, joyfully placed a lamp on the other side, to last as long as the earth, the sun and the moon. Let the goddess) Mahishamathani
Durga), who is the embodiment of the sky, the earth, the moon, the sun, the water, the fire and the air, be pleased to grant them for ever the fruits of the performance of charitable deeds (ishtåpúrta)!
No. 46.- TOTTARAMUDI PLATES OF KATAYA-VEMA;
SAKA-SAMVAT 1333.
BY J. RAMATYA, B.A., B.L. These copper-plates are said to have been discovered more than thirty years ago by one Mokkapatla Rajappa of Tottaramudi in the Amalapuram tåluka of the Godavari district, wbile digging for earth on the site of a ruined house. I obtained them in 1892 through the kindness of a friend, and published the inscription in the Telugu paper Chintamani for August 1893 at Rajahmundry. The plates are now deposited in the Madras Museum.
The grant is inscribed on three copper-plates, measuring 9 by 5 inches each, and weighing in all 3B 7oz. The plates are numbered, and were held together by & (now broken) copper ring, passed through circular holes on the left-hand side, and surmounted by the figure of a couchant bull, the vehicle of Siva, which rests on a plain pedestal. The sun and the crescent of the moon are soldered on the ring behind and in front of the pedestal. The diameter of the ring is about 31"; its thickness about t"; the height of the bull 13"; and the length and breadth of the pedestal 1)" by *". The plates are in a fair state of preservation. Each of them bears writing on both sides. There are thirteen lines on each side except the last, which has only six lines. The letters are deeply cut and clear.
The characters used are of the old Telugu type. The following are some of the instances in which they differ from the modern Telugu characters. The talakattu or secondary form
1 Or, on that day.' * If my emendation on p. 317, note 2, is correct, the word 'witnesses should be substituted for earth." *बापीकूपतहागादि देवतायतमानि च । पनप्रदानमारामाः पूर्तमार्याः प्रचचते ।
• This is exclusive of the weight of the ring, and of a piece of the third plate which has unfortunately been mislaid ; see p. 324, note 9.
