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FIVE BANA INSCRIPTIONS FROM GUDIMALLAM.
No. 22.]
of four mañjādi (for each kalañju). One hundred and eighty nali (may be purchased annually) for (this amount) at the rate of forty-five nali of ghee for (each) kalañju. We shall without obstruction burn a perpetual lamp with one uri of ghee daily. If there be any obstruction, we (the members of) the assembly shall incur the sin committed by sinners between the Ganges and Kumari.
229
Note on the history of the Bana princes.
Of the foregoing records, the inscription A. is dated during the reign of the Pallava king Nandippōttaraiyarl whose feudatory was the Bana chief Vikramaditya-Mavali-Vāṇarāyar. B. belongs to the time of the Ganga-Pallava king Dantivikramavarman, who had Vijayaditya-Mahāvali-Vanaraya for his feudatory, and C. to that of Nripatunga, who probably belonged to the same family, though the characteristic portions of the names of the kings of that line are here missing. The grant recorded in the latter was made while Vapavidyadhara-Mahabali-Vaṇaraya was governing the Vaḍugavali-merku (province). D. and E. are dated in the Saka era and belong to the time of the Bana chief VijayadityaMabali-Vanaraya. The tract of country in which Kalahasti and Guḍimallam are situated belonged to the Pallavas, and it is therefore no matter for surprise that an inscription of that dynasty and two of the Ganga-Pallavas have been found there.
The identity of Nandippottaraiyar of the Guḍimallam inscription A. with Nandivarman Pallavamalla of the Kasākuḍi plates remains doubtful, though not unlikely. As regards Dantivikramavarman, another inscription of his reign dated two years later than his Guḍimallam record has been found at Tiruchchapur near Tirupati ; and we may, for the present, identify him with the first Ganga-Pallava king Dantivarman of the Bahür plates, and Nripatunga with his grandson Nripatunga-Vikramavarman. Earlier inscriptions of the former, ranging from the 10th to the 21st year, have been so far found in the vicinity of Conjeeveram and may be taken to show that his territory was limited. Why the two later inscriptions are found in a different part of the country is a point on which no information is at present forthcoming. His son Nandivikramavarman, too, seems to have been ruling a limited country, to judge from his inscriptions found
1 Mr. Gopinatha Rao identifies Nandippöttaraiyar with Ko-Vijaya-Nandivikramavarman and accordingly concludes that B. is older than A. It will be seen that the photo-lithographs of these two records issued with this paper do not bear out this conclusion. Apart from his wholesale identification of all kings in whose names the word nandi is found as well as of those with danti as part of their names, both of which I consider untenable, even Mr. Gopinatha Rao cannot deny that there were at least two kings with the name Nandivarman, viz. Nandivarman Pallavamalla and Ko-Vijaya-Nandivikramavarman or -Nandivarman. Surely it cannot be contended that Nandivarman Pallavamalla has left no stone inscriptions. And as he is called Nandipõtaraja in the Käsäkuḍi plates, Nandippottaraiyar of A. may for the present be identified with him. This initial mistake of Mr. Gopinatha Rao has led him to other errors in the chronology of the Banas.
The fact that the Saka era is used in them is probably due to the fact that the Ganga-Pallavas had completely collapsed and the overlordship of the Cholas had not yet been recognised in that part of the country. The Banas who had been feudatories of the Ganga-Pallavas had probably not yet made up their minds to transfer their allegiance to the Cholas. Similarly, in a Tiruvallam inscription, we find the Saka date 810 given and no overlord of the Bana chief is mentioned (South-Ind. Insors. Vol. III. p. 95). Other Tamil epigraphs which are dated in the Saka era are Nos. 338 and 356 of 1902 (Ep. Ind. Vol. VII. pp. 136 and 137) and No. 426 of 1903 (Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1903-04, paragraph 20). One of the inscriptions of the Chola king Virarajendra I. is dated in the Baka year coupled with the cyclic year (No. 273 of 1904). A record of Parantaka I. found at Gramam in the South Arcot District is dated in the Kaliyuga era and gives the number of days that had actually elapsed on a certain day during the reign of the Chola king (Ep. Ind. Vol. VIII. p. 261). Another of Parakesarivarman UttamaChola found at Tiruvidaimarudur in the Tanjore District is also dated in the Kaliyuga era (Madras Epigraphical Report for 1907-08, paragraph 53).
See the Madras Epigraphical Report for 1906-07, Part II, paragraph 38.
No. 262 of the Madras Epigraphical collection for 1904.
See the Director-General's Annual for 1906-07, Part II, p. 238, note 7.
