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No. 8.]
below it, the legend Śivaska[ndavarmmanah?] in an alphabet which appears to be slightly different from that of the inscription. The bull and the legend are enclosed in a circle which is partially preserved."
MAYIDAVOLU PLATES OF SIVASKANDAVARMAN.
85
After I had despatched the manuscript of this article to the press, Mr. Venkayya sent me the original copper-plates and informed me that, at the instance of Mr. J. Ramayya, they have now been presented to the Madras Museum by their owner, Mayidavolu Jaya Ramayya. The writing on the plates is carefully done, and its preservation is tolerably good; all damaged syllables can be supplied with certainty.
Like the Hirahaḍagalli plates,' the new copper-plate grant was issued from Kanchipura by Sivaskandavarman of the Bharadvaja gôtra and of the Pallava family (11. 1-3). As he is here styled Yuva-Maharaja or heir-apparent, the date of the grant (1. 25 f.) is apparently prior to that of the Hirahaḍagalli plates and has to be referred to the reign of Sivaskandavarman's unknown predecessor. Sivaskandavarman granted to two Brahmanas a village named Viripara (11. 10 and 12), which belonged to Andhrapatha3 (1. 9), i.e. the Telugu country. Viripara, which I am unable to identify, must have been situated near Amarâvatî in the Kistna district; for Sivaskandavarman addressed his order regarding the grant to his (or his father's) representative at Dhaññakaḍa (1. 3), the modern Amarâvati. We thus learn that, during the reigns of Sivaskandavarman and his predecessor, the Pallava kingdom included not only in the south-the Tondai-mandalam, to which their capital, Kanchipura, belongs, and perhaps in the west-the Bellary district, in which the Hirahaḍagalli plates were purchased, but-in the north- the Telugu country as far as the Krishnâ river.
The date of the grant (1. 25 f.) is given in words and numerical symbols. It was the 5th tithi of the 8th fortnight of summer in the 10th year (of the reign of Sivaskandavarman's predecessor). As shown by Professor Kielhorn, neither numerical symbols nor season-dates have been found in records later than the 8th century A.D. But the subjoined grant has to be assigned to a much earlier period because of its archaic alphabet, and because, like the Nâsik inscriptions of the Andhra kings, the Hirahaḍagalli plates, and the plates of Vijayaskandavarman, it is written in Prakrit.
The language of the inscription is a Prâkrit dialect which differs from the literary Pâli in several respects. Thus consonants are softened in kada (1. 3), bhada (1. 15), and khadaka (1. 13), but hardened in papesa (1. 15) for pavesa. The unaspirate takes the place of the aspirate in Amdhapatiya (1. 9). The letter y is sometimes replaced by j, e.g. in jo (1. 21) and majâdá (1. 18) for Sanskrit maryádá (mariyada in Pâli), while y takes the place of j in Bharadaya (1.2) for Sanskrit Bharadvaja and of ch in ya (1.6) for cha (which occurs in lines 17 and 20). Two cases of peculiar samdhi are sayatti (1. 27) for svayam-iti and Gonamdija (1. 9) for Gonandi ajja. Of inflected nouns may be noted the Mâgadhi nominatives vejayike and vadhanike (1. 5 f.), the ablative purato (1. 1), and the neuter adim (1. 10) for adi (against dáni, 1. 5, for idáním). The personal pronoun of the first person is represented by the base amha (11. 5 and 21), the nominative amho (1. 23) and the instrumental amhehi (11. 5 and 10). The inscription contains several verbal forms, viz. the gerund atichhitûna (1. 21 f.) from ati + chhid, the presents anapayati (1. 4) and vitarama (1. 13), the imperatives pariharatha and
1 Edited by the late Professor Bühler, Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 2 ff.
p. 101, 1. 2.
The same title is applied to Vijayabuddhavarman in the plates of Vijayaskandavarman; Ind. Ant. Vol. IX. On the synonymous terms Ândhra-mandala, Andhra-patha, and Vaduga-vali, see South-Ind. Inser. Vol. III. See above, Vol. III. p. 94 and note 5.
p. 90.
See Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 5, and Dyn. Kan. Distrs., 2nd edition, p. 320.
The same two words occur in the Hirahaḍagalli plates, 1. 9. The plates of Vijayaskandavarman have vaddhantyam (1. 8 f.).
Above, Vol. IV. p. 195 and note 4.
