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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XI.
by scholars, refugoes, elders, relatives, and devotees; (and) who has acquired desirable glory by practising self-restraint in a manner worthy of (his) descent, - commands all residents of Purohitapallika included in the Iksharaki district (ahara) :
(L. 9.) "Be it known to you, that, in order to increase the merit of (Our) mother and fatber and of Ourself, we have granted to the Brahmana Nagasarman of the Bharadvaja gòtra this hamlet (palliki), not to be entered by irregular or regular soldiers, unless in order to arrest) robbers or persons guilty of high-treason, exempt from all taxes and from forced labour, to be enjoyed, under the rules of an agrahara, by (the donee's) descendants, (and) to last as long as the moon, the sun, the ocean, and the earth shall exist.
(L. 12.) “ Therefore kings belonging to Our lineage and others, considering that sovereignty is liable to cessation, that life is followed by separation, and that only) virtues are lasting a long time, admitting the principle that gifts to virtuous men are noble achievements, and desirous of accumulating for a long time brilliant fame, as bright as the rays of the moon, must approve and protect this grant of a hamlet.
(L. 15.) “For the holy Vyasa, the arranger of the Vedas, has spoken :[Here follow two of the castomary verses.]
(L. 17.) Having enquired (regarding the necessary details of the grant ?), (this edict) was written by me, the great minister for peace and war (mahäsändhivigrahika) Karka, Halahala being the messenger (tūtaka), in the year 241, on the 15th (tithi) of the bright (fortnight) of Kārttika.
No. 22.- FIVE BANA INSCRIPTIONS FROM GUDIMALLAM.
BY V. VENRAYYA, M.A., RAI BAHADUR. Gudimallam is a village in the Kalahasti Zamindari of the modern Chittoor District. abont 8 miles from Roniyunta Junction, and 13 miles south-west of Kalahasti town. On a hurried visit to the village which I paid in August 1903, I found important inscriptions; and subseyaintly a member of the Madras epigraphical establishment was deputed to examine the place more leisurely. In all, 26 inscriptions were copied in the Parasuramēśvara temple at the village. They belong to the Pallava king Nandippottaraiyar (No. 229 of 1903); the Ganga-Pallava kings Vijaya-Dantivikramavarman (No. 226 of 1903) and Nripatunga (No. 228 of 1908); the Băņa prince Vijayāditya (Nos. 223 and 224 of 1903); the Choļa kings Parāntaka I. (No: 225 of 1903), Rājakēšarivarman (No. 222 of 1903), Vikram'a-Chola (Nos. 212 and 213 of 1903) and Rajaraja III. (Nos. 204-11, 214, 216-21 and 227 of 1903). The village is called Tiruvirperumbēdu in Silai-nādu, a sub-division of Vengada-kottam in Perumbāņappādi, a district of Jayangonda-Chola-mandalam. In the earlier records (Nos. 226, 223, 225, 229 of 1903) the forbs Tiruvippirambēļu and Tiruvirpirambēdu (Nos. 228 and 224 of 1903) and Tiruvisperumbēdu (No. 222 of 1903) occur. In three of them, the village is mentioned without the district to which it belonged (Nos. 223, 226 and 229 of 1903). In four others Silai-nidu and Vengada-kottam are added. If we accept the form which occurs in the earliest inscription, vis. Tiruvippirambedu, the name may be analysed into Tiruvippiran and päda. Vippiran is apparently a tadbhava of the Sanskrit vipra, 'a brühmaņa. Consequently, the name would signify the sacred tillage of the brahmana.' The temple receives the names- Parafurāmisvarattu-Mahadeva (A. below), Parasuramiśvaragarattu-Perumånadiga! (D. below), Parasiramisvaragarattu-Pirapar (E.
1 My thanks are due to Dr. Pleet who very kindly read two proofs of this article at my request and made a number of valuable suggestions, almost all of which I have adopted.
Nor 204 to 229 of the Government Epigraphist's collection for 1908.
