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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. VIII.
Dêvarâjềndra (v. 10) or Devaraya (II.) (v. 11) and rigirîndra (v. 10), Śrîgirīśvara (v. 12) or Srigiribhûpåla (v. 13). The former, being the elder, succeeded to the throne (v. 11), while the second went over to Maratakapuri and was ruling the country of which it was the capital (v. 12). He made the subjoined grant of land to Sampatkumara-pandital and his relatives and other learned men with him, on a Friday coupled with the Rêvati nakshatra, on the Utthåna-dvadasi lithi, in the cyclic year Krôdhin corresponding to the Saka year 1348. The Saka date is expressed by the chronogram tattvalóka (v. 19), the same as that of the Satyamangalam plates of Dêvarêya II., which were issued in the month of Ashadha. Our record belongs to the month of Kârttika; for the Utthâna-dvadasi is the twelfth tithi in the bright half of the month of Kärttika, when Vishnu is said to rise from his four months' sleep. It is otherwise called Prabodhani. Prof. Kielhorn kindly contributes the following remarks :
"On the utthåna-dvadasi-tithi see Ind. Ant. Vol. XXVI. p. 185. For this tithi of SakaBarvat 1346 expired, which was the year Krôdhin, the date regularly corresponds to Friday, the 3rd November A.D. 1424, when the 12th tithi of the bright half commenced lh. 8 m., and the nakshatra was Rêvati from 0 h. 39 m., after mean sunrise."
The chief donee, Sampatkumara-pandita, is described as a very learned medical man, whose father Govinda-pandita (v. 14) was also well versed in the Ayurveda and in the Vedângas. The village Nipatataka (v. 17), the gift of which is recorded by the present inscription, had been given away to the same donee by (the donor's father) Vijayabhubhuj (v. 16). So we may infer that by some means or other it had lapsed in the interval. It is said to have been watered by the Någa kulya channel (v. 18), a branch of the Kaveripaka channel (v. 17), and was situated in Kalava-nivrit" (Kalavai-parru in Tamil), a division of Paļuvût-kôțţa (Paduvûr-kottam). When the village was granted, its name was altered into Vijayarayapura (v. 24) or Vijayaratpura (v. 21), evidently in honour of its original donor Vijayaraya.
As regards the name Srigiribhûpåla, a word of explanation is necessary. Srigiri is another form of Sriparvata in the Kurnool district. The god of the temple at that place is called Mallikarjuna, and hence it is not impossible that the prince was actually named Mallikarjuna after the god, and that this name was changed by the poet into its equivalent Srigiribh ûpâla. The manner in which the present inscription speaks of him, makes it possible that Srigiribhâpâla was the same person as the Pratâpadêvarêya who is spoken of with respect in the Satyamangalam plates of Dêvarêya II. as the younger brother of the king. For verse 10 states that Vijayabh úpåla had only two sons, lêvarajêndra and Srigirindra. If the latter is not the same person as Pratápadêvaraya, he must be another brother of Devaraya II., not hitherto known. Srigiribh û påla (alias Mallikarjuna ?) is of course distinct from Mallikarjuna alias ImmadiDevaraya, who was the son of Devaraya II.," and whose dates range from Saka 13706 to Saka 1387.7
As regards the places mentioned in this grant, Maratakapuri is already known to us from the expression Maratakanagara-prânta occurring in the Satyamangalam plates of Devaraya II., and Rai Bahadur Venkayya has suggested that it may be identical with Virinchipuram in
See vv. 16, 21 and 1. 135.-(Sampatkumára is a Sanskrit rendering of the Tamil Selvapillai, the name of the god at Melukôte in the Mysore State. It seems therefore possible that the chief donee belonged originally to the Kanarese country, and his father's native place, Rambhâına yüranagari (v. 13), may have to be looked for in the same country. One of the minur donees, Hampaņa-bhatta (1. 93), was evidently called after the Pampapati temple at Vijayanagara.-V. V.)
* Above, Vol. III. p. 35. ** For another date of exactly the same tithi, but with a wrong wook-day, soe Southern List, No. 488." • Compare above, p. 300, note 9.
Compare Appendix II. p. 16, No. 21. • Ep. Carn. Vol. III. Seringapatam taluka, No. 11.
1 Ind. Ant. Vol. XXI. p. 321 f.
