________________
No. 12.]
while ploughing some land known as Talamanchipádu in Talamanchi of Nellore taluk1 where a flourishing village is said to have once stood." They "have been sent to the Madras Museum at the request of the owner." I re-edit the inscription from three sets of ink-impressions, kindly prepared at my request by Rai Bahadur V. Venkayya, M.A., who describes the original as follows:
TALAMANCHI PLATES OF VIKRAMADITYA I.
"Three copper-plates, of which the first and last are engraved on their inner side only. They measure 71" in breadth. The height of the plates is not uniform. Generally they are higher in the margins than in the middle.
1st plate: 2nd plate: 3rd plate:
Height in the margins.
31"
31"
31" & 31"
Height in the middle.
31"
31"
31
99
Through circular holes bored on the left margin of each plate passes an oval ring measuring 24" by 3". It is nearly" thick. The ends of the ring are secured in the base of a seal, which is also oval and measures 1" by ". The emblems on the seal, which appear to have been engraved on a countersunk surface, are much worn, but show a lump in the middle-perhaps meant to represent a boar. The total weight of the plates with ring and seal is 80 tolas."
The writing on the plates is well preserved, excepting a few letters near the margins of plate i. and plate ii. a. The alphabet resembles that of two other grants of Vikramaditya I.3 The upadhmaniya is used once (1. 24), a final form of m twice (11. 24, 27), and one of n once (1. 17). The three Dravidian letters, and r, the second of which has the same shape as the upadhmaniya, occur in the two village names Elasatti (1. 23) and Kolchumko[nra] (1. 22). The language is Sanskrit. There are four well-known Anushṭubh verses: one at the beginning and three near the end; the remainder of the inscription is in prose.
The document was issued in the sixth year of the reign (1. 20) of the (Western) Chalikya (1.5) Vikramaditya (I.), the son of Satyasraya (i.e. Pulakêsin II.), grandson of Kirtivarman (I.) and great-grandson of Polikesin (I.). Each of these four kings receives the same laudatory epithets as in other published grants of the same period. The new inscription records the grant of the village of Elasatti, north of Kolchumko[nra], to Srimêghacharya (11. 22 and 31 f.), the preceptor (guru) of Vikramaditya I., and was written by Vajravarman of the Vaidya family.
The historical importance of the plates lies chiefly in the date of the grant (1. 20 f.), regarding which Prof. Kielhorn kindly contributes the Postscript on p. 102 below. On the strength of the latter I have added the date "A.D. 680" to the title of this article and to the heading of the accompanying Plate.
TEXT.4 First Plate.
1 जयत्या [विष्कृतं विवी] वराहं चोमिता[वं] [1] दधि [ची] तदंद्रा
व्रतदंष्ट्राग्र
formany.
1 On the map prefixed to the Nellore District Inscriptions, Talamanchi is marked by the figure' 32' on the north of Nellore town.
Jours. Bombay Br. R. 4. S. Vol. XVI. pp. 235 and 288.
Mesars Butterworth and Venugopal Chetti are unable to identify this village; see Nellore District Inscriptions, Preface, p. vi.
• From three sets of ink-impressions.
0 2
