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No. 50.)
TIMMAPURAM PLATES OF VISHNUVARDHANA I.
317
No. 50.-TIMMAPURAM PLATES OF VISHNUVARDHANA I. VISHAMASIDDHI.
BY PROFESOR E. HULTZSCH, PA.D.; HALLE (SAALE). This short inscription is on three oopper-plates which were discovered in the ground in October 1907 by one Sukara Ramasvami while digging a hole in his vacant house site in the village of Timmapuram in the Sarvasiddhi tâluka" and were sent by the Collector of the Vizagapatam district to Rai Bahadar Venkayya, who describes them as follows:
"The plates measure 2 by 74 inches and are strong on an oval ring, the diameters of which are 27 and 3 inches. The ends of the ring are seeured in the base of nearly circular seal which measures between 1 and 1 inches in diameter. In the centre of this seal is the legend [favjafefe in the same alphabet in which the plates themselves are engraved. The third plate of the inscription is blank, and the grant itself ends in line 2 of the second side of the second plate."
The alphabet and orthography do not call for any special remarks. The final t occurs in line 1, the upadhmaniya in 1, 5, and the Dravidian letter la in l. 11. The language is Sanskrit prose. The panegyrical portion (11. 1-11) is comparatively correct-probably because it was copied from a form preserved at the royal secretariat. The grant portion, however, must have been drafted by a person who knew very little Sanskrit. It contains a Pråkfit word : chattálisa (1. 12) = Sanskrit chatvarimsat, and several grave grammatical blanders which I have corrected in the footnotes.
The inscription records a grant by Vishņuvardhana-Maharaja surnamed Vishamasiddhi, who was the younger brother of Satyasraya-Vallabha-Mahirkja, the son of Kirtivarman, the grandson of Ranavikrama, and the great-grandson of Banaråga of the Challulkya family. This short pedigree establishes the identity of the donor of this grant with Vishnuvardhana I. Vishamasiddhi, the founder of the eastern branch of the Chalakya dynasty. That he was the younger brother of Satyagraya, i.e. the Western Chalukya king Pulakeáin II., and the son of Kirtivarman (I.), is stated in many Eastern Chalukya inscriptions; and his grandfather Ranayikrama, i.e. Pulakasin I., is mentioned also in his Satara plates. The reference to his great-grandfather Ranariga is of some interest, because this name is known only from a few records of the Western Chalakyas.
Both Vishộuvardhana I. and his elder brother receive the title Mahárdja; but the second is stated to have subdued the circle of the whole earth (1.5 f.), while the former claims only to have humbled the circle of all the vassals' (1. 6.). This distinction implies that, at the time of this grant, Vishộuvardhana I. was still a dependant of his elder brother, the Western Chalukya king Palakësin II. He professed to be a worshipper of Bhagavat (1.. 10), s.e. Vishnu, and resided at Pishţapura (1. 1.), the modern Pithapuram in the Godåvari district. In the Aiholo inscription the capture of this fortress is ascribed to his elder brother and sovereign Palakêgin II.
The grant portion differs from that of other records in two respects. It lacks at the end the usual imprecations and other particulars, and the donees are not mentioned by name, but simply stated to have been forty Brahmaņas of the Chhandoga school. The object of the grant was some land at Kumulúra-a village wbich I am unable to identify-in the Palaki-vishaya.
See note 6 on p. 318.
* This surname occurs both in line 8 and on the seal of the present grant. It forms also the legend of certain copper coins discovered in the Vizagapatam district; see Ind. Ant. Vol. XXV. p. 322 f.
Ind. Ant. Vol. XIX. p. 309. • Above, Vol. VI. p. 11, verse 27.
